One Man's Technology is another Man's Antique

My Papa has always loved telling stories. The other day he was recalling his experience as a young professional. He started working for IBM and for the first three years of his career, he went door to door selling type writers and dictating equipment. It was such a joy to hear him reminisce about the cutting edge type writer technology back then. He recalled how the Selectric typewriter was all the rage when it entered the market. This typewriter included interchangeable typeballs that could be changed depending on the desired font. Imagine that, one machine that can type multiple fonts!

Just from the way my Papa lit up, I coud tell this was pretty exciting technology for the time. It is astounding how far the world of dictating equipment has come. Last time I conducted an interview, I used an app on my phone to record the entire conversation. I could have typed that conversation out on the sticky note app also included on my phone. Granted, typing an interview on my phone would have been a lot slower, but probably still faster than a typewriter. Even having grown up in the age of technology, I am still amazed that a single piece of technology possesses all of the capabilities that only a few decades ago, only one gadget managed to do.

The IBM Selectric was produced in array of
groovy colors way before the Apple iMac
[http://reliablyuncomfortable.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ibm-selectric.jpg]

Which font would you like?
[http://www.officemuseum.com/IBM_Selectric_Type_Balls.jpg]