GearWERKZ TechBlog

By the way, this is my first blog post from my new Toshiba NB305-410BL netbook. It is my second netbook, my  3rd Toshiba laptop, my 5th instance of a PC running Windows 7, but my first instance of a PC running Windows 7 Starter. This is the 7th blog post I have drafted in Evernote. None of these stats are amazing. More importantly, they are stats that have been matched by others, and not all of them power-users. Maybe us early adopters are not so far ahead of the rat-race as we sometimes like to think.

Follow up:

I spent some time tonight going through some old Forum posts. Over at the ArsTechnica Open Forums, where I post as South Dakota, I came across a post from 2003 (yeesh; yes; old). It was a one-line response to a fellow Forum-goer who was trying to figure out how to rip and back-up his DVDs. I just gave him the name of an app that I used. That's it. Just the name.

I used to be an ardent forum-goer, and frequently found myself spending hours trying to help people out with computer tasks that to me seemed simple. In fact, I started GearWERKZ.net (gearwerkz.com back then) specifically to provide journeyman assistance to people who needed to know how to do stuff, but did not necessarily need to understand all of the techno-babble behind it.

Admittedly, I have been struggling to stay current due to lack of time, and struggling to have the latest gadgets due to lack of money. Regardless, the truth is that the rest of society, the non-technorati, or muggles, are becoming more and more tech-savvy. And less reliant on guys and girls like us to provide them help.

There are a lot of people out there getting paid to provide the type of assistance that a relatively small percentage of us used to provide out of our own free time, the goodness of our hearts, and for free. A few years ago I wrote an iTunes + iPod guide for people buying their first iPod to read BEFORE they plugged their iPod in for the first time and screwed something up they would have to re-do. I can hardly think of many people today who would need that kind of assistance. A lot of us civilian technorati are becoming less useful.

Without an inside track that allows you to get ahold of the latest hardware, and sources that can provide you with industry insider leaks, a lot of us are simply spewing out info that is readily available to others. I used to think that there was some value in my reports on experience with hardware that the average consumer had not purchased yet, but I am finding that I am not as frequently the first person out of the gate in putting any device to use.

My most recent purchases, an AppleTV, a netbook, and a tablet, are things that a lot of people have. There are a lot of regular joes walking around with Blackberry's and other smartphones these days. A lot of regular consumers have iPads and I have yet to rock a tablet of any kind (my Archos 7 Home Tablet has yet to ship from Amazon). I'm not in any elite group as a user of both Macs and PCs.

But I am not giving up, yet. I still think the way we here at the 'WERKz present initial impressions, mid-term, and then long-term perspectives of devices is something that not all sites do. Most sites are too focused on reporting on the new hotness to really have a good revisit metric for daily routine use of specific technologies. Being an actual owner of some of these pieces of tech is a different perspective than the one of a person who uses a device for a couple of weeks and then moves on to the next one.

So maybe it is not about being the first nerd, but just enjoying being a nerd. Sounds like something my sensei used to say. I reckon I ought to reflect on that, rather than being so focused on being first. At the end of the day, maybe that is why something on here might be of value; because I am just a regular joe, using tech and trying to get by just like the rest of us.

So, with the saying that the old site used to greet you with, I'll bid you all good night. My AppleTV is finishing up synchronizing and tomorrow morning is the day to pay my bills from my TabletPC. Oh, and I see there is an email on my Windows Mobile Phone.

"Welcome. Take a look around the site. If you happen to find something of value, even if it is just another opinion, then my effort has been made worthwhile."

G'night folks; stay well.
- Vr/Zeux..>>