I'm looking to replace my current laptop which still works okay but looks to be an outdated dinosaur (Windows 98, Office 2000, 2 GB hard drive, 48 MB RAM, Intel-MMX, floppy disk and CD-ROM - which I used primarily for MS Encarta and MS Flight when I bought the laptop, has USB ports – but can’t read flash disks)
Now 6 years later, I am looking at much improved specs machine (40 GB 512MB DVDrw, 1.7GHz, no software). It's not state of the art, but that would be too expensive and computers have a short technological half-life.
I was thinking of all the gadgets I have used and discarded in my lifetime - communications (answering machines, pagers, cordless phones, car phones, modems), music (LP's, real player, cassettes, mini discs), entertainment (VHS, gold disks, camcorders, hand-held video games, still camera) etc.
Who knows which of the items we use today - laptops, DVD's, satellite dishes,- will be around in 6 years time. E.g. is dvb-h the future for TV's? - only time will tell.
