Tag: San Francisco Bay Area

The analog attachment

Years ago, I was fascinated with the California flea market.

Back East, we got garage sales or moving sales. But the Bay Area markets sold vinyl albums, “flower” clothing, books and even gourmet meals on wheels. A Vietnamese family even offered sugar cane juice next to a hot-dog stand.

Fast forward 20 years. A random walk down a flea market today found all things analog, for a dollar:  books, cell phone accessories and cleaning products.

People even tried to sell Sunday papers there (while the NY Times now offers membership package for its online version).

First we downloaded some music for free. Then we paid 99 cents.

Then comes the free online news. Now we have to pay a subscription fee for more exclusive content.

It’s fair, especially for mobile download apps etc…

Many will disagree with me.

But how would journalists feed their children, especially when they have to travel overseas on assignment (and got injured, tortured and kidnapped).

We evolve once again into a two-tier society online, just as we have off-line.

Financial Times, Rupert Murdoch’s News for I-pads, WSJ and now, NY Times

all go for paid content.

The developing poor got an analog version (the other side of the digital track), http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/fashion/20Cultural.html?src=me&ref=homepage

the middle class  enjoy free “coach” content, and the high-class, paid content.

We seem to have reached a compromise in this Pro-Am emergence. The digital divide is coming to clearer focus.

When I was in school, all I knew was that we lived in a world of 4 Billion people.

Now, it’s a 7-Billion digital play ground.

And many of us will watch movies on Facebook, in-mail each other on Facebook, and recommend news on Facebook.

Netflix, last year’s number one company, will have a run for the money.

Meanwhile, Rackspace and Amazon lead the way to the cloud.

We finally move up the value chain, where software apps rule.

IT admin guys will be the new Maytag men.

I remember clearly voice analog people spread the word that VoIp was quite choppy, hackable etc.. until people can dial 911 from their mobile phones,

which put the nail on the analog voice coffin.

Now, a walk down the flea market will find many CPU’s, servers  for sale because companies will have made a leap to the cloud. Moore’s Law wasn’t about the time it takes to double the speed of chips.

It’s more about how quickly we need to let go of our attachment to all things analog.

No wonder agriculture farms in Idaho and Dakota (cold weather) now give ways for server farms (cut down on the electricity needed to cool the cage).

Heartland America once again thrives after losing a horde of people during the Post Dust Bowl era. There is no turning back to One-hour photo or even Red Box.

That’s how fast change has arrived. Wake up to the new digital reality. If you don’t believe me, then visit your nearest flea market to see what ‘s on sale. Gadgets you now embrace at home.

If so, then it’s time to go shopping. And by that, I mean online shopping, not to Circuit City. It has been out of business.

cyclo in the time of google

By now, you can still see a few weather-beaten cyclos around albeit restricted to tourist quarters.

I still remember the sound of horse carriage in the streets of  old Saigon.

My kid will be lucky if she knows what a cyclo is.

She knows Google though.

Paperless and painless search. Now with semantic search.

My profile, age in particular, triggers online ads on retirement funds.

Each day, we clear out trash in our home office and online.

Meanwhile, cyclo guys paddle along, knowing that their trade is joining the ranks of old scribes, horse shoe makers and Kodak shops. And the cinema is about to close its curtain. My uncle’s cinema is now a storage.

I came back fully related to the character in Cinema Paradiso,  with nostalgia.

The underlining theme is still there: where is that old blind film projectionist/mentor ? Mine is a guitarist who has recently been out of work.

We both need a gig. Maybe it will work out for him since he has upgraded his play list on an Ipad. But not for the cyclo guy.

Perhaps the best they can hope for are a few passengers per day, hauling bulky merchandise. Cyclo and modern supermarkets don’t go well together. Instead, it is now relegated to being a ride to a colonial past: white folks and colored coolies, on a leisurely ride along smoke-filled streets packed with motorcycles made in China. Future shock has moved on to its Third Stage (Muscle, machine and Mind), from cyclo to moto-cycle and onto Google. People are making money by a click of the mouse, and not by paddling those three-wheelers, using 21st-century skill set and not primitive strands of muscle.

No turning back, or you will turn into salt. Gosh, I miss the sound of horse carriage at Ben Thanh market. I miss being skinny , vulnerable and trusting. Faith that can move mountain. That some day, I will see face to face, although meantime, only through a mirror darkly.

Wisdom comes from mistakes, not missed opportunities.

I’d rather tried and failed than failed to try.

Tell that to the cyclo guy, who ordered two glasses of sugar-cane juice, while I could barely gulp down one. All I did was googling, while he was cycling. Muscle man in the age of Machine.