NANO NANO

Sometimes you have to take a step back and let technology amaze you. We seem to have taken it for granted.

One of the more popular items for the holidays this year will be Apple's IPod Nano: four gigabytes of memory that's only a little bigger than a stick of gum. The Nano will hold upwards of 1000 songs in the MP3 format. We've left the vinyl era far behind. I don't think I ever owned a thousand albums, but the couple of hundred I did own were spread out over three or four plastic crates. It seemed like they weighed a ton!

Early in my career, while packing to move, I realized that while I didn't have a lot of stuff, the stuff I had was heavy stuff. Now, especially if you use any mass transit, you see folks of all ages with earbuds snaking out from a pocket somewhere, and they are able to carry around their "soundtrack" with no effort at all.

It's funny now to look back at having played records, then cartridges, and even CDs are starting to look cumbersome. OK, I'll admit it - I broke down a few weeks ago and bought an MP3 player.

When I'm not using it, I keep it on the shelf next to a vintage 1912 Edison cylinder Phonograph. It helps me keep things in perspective.

--Thanks for reading.