Tech

Forty years

Forty years ago today my Dad took this photograph.

The space travel thing doesn't interest me so much. What's more interesting is that back then, to document the moment and to feel part of it, Dad took a photograph of the television. A few days later he popped the film out of the camera and sent it off to be developed. Within a week or so the film returned as developed slides and he was able to show other people.

Technology's come so far since then!

For starters, colour television! TVs that warm up instantly, whose image doesn't collapse into a tiny white dot when you turn them off. Flat screens, wide screens, LCDs. Stereo sound, Ni-cam, multi-channel broadcast, satellites.

And what of the camera, the medium of capture? It's been a long time since most 35mm films were colour and produced negatives/prints rather than slides. We also now take for granted built-in automatic light meters, autofocus, zoom and macro lenses. And most High Streets can turn a film round in an hour, rather than a few days by post.

Finally there's the digital revolution: DVB (Freeview); home computers; home computers with colour displays; portable home computers; fifteen inch laptops millions of colours, gigahertz processors; terabyte disks; gigabyte memory chips; gigabit networking; a photo library in my pocket; a universal, world-wide inter-network; technologies that let me share my experiences with everyone I know in seconds.

All unbelievable things - they almost make putting a man on the moon seem quite trivial. It's wonderful to be alive amidst all these revolutions. I just wish I could chat with Dad about them.