I’m currently experiencing a surge of synchronicity (i.e., the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear related but have no discernible causal connection). I really am too young for all this excitement.
First, I received an email from my chum Martin Rowe, who is the Editor at 5G Technology World. In his message, Martin said: “Here’s everything you wanted to know about 5G in our new 5G Handbook.”
Well, obviously I bounced over to take a look at the book. All I can say is that, in addition to great content, this online handbook is very tastefully implemented and very nicely presented. Although I’ve experienced this online publishing technology on many occasions, I still love the page-turning effect. I wish I could have seen this sort of thing when I commenced my career in the days of Teletype terminals and command-line interfaces.
Almost immediately after I’d perused this online resource, whilst posting on Twitter regarding my column on Magnetic Connectors, Printable Transistors, and Bacon-Wrapped Appetizers, I saw a Tweet from Alex Cohen.
In his Tweet, Alex said: “I guess I was living under a rocker but I just learned that you can sign up for a library card online, borrow thousands of books for free, and sync them to your Kindle with 1-click…”
Now, I’m certainly not casting aspersions (my throwing arm isn’t what it used to be) because there’s so much stuff I don’t know that you could fill a library (did you see what I just did there?). This is one of those things that, once you are in the know, you think “well, that’s obvious,” while happily forgetting that it was a surprise to you when you first discovered it deep in the mists of time.
What’s really fun, in addition to seeing how happy Alex’s discovery has made him, is reading some of the comments from others who had also missed out on hearing this news. One commenter said, “There’s no way this is a) easy b) real?” Another noted, “This is dope. Just got setup through Alameda.” And someone else commented, “There are digital libraries?!” (and he wasn’t joking).
When you are steeped in it, it’s easy to become a little jaded and blasé with regard to the awesome technologies we’ve created and the applications that derive therefrom. So, when you are exposed to someone’s obvious surprise and delight, it cannot but help to bring a smile to your lips and raise your spirits. Indeed, I’m grinning to myself as I pen these words.
How about you? Is there any technology you took for granted until you discovered that others had no idea of its existence?
I guess I fall into the jaded category because I have been reading digital books from my library for many years now. First there was Overdrive, but that morphed into Libby. My library supports both. I do find that there is still a better selection in print than digital, but it is way more convenient to travel and access books electronically especially in the pandemic. Both run on both my iPad and iPhone and you can sync between them, so I can whip out my phone while waiting at the doctor and carrying on reading.
The library access is exactly like paper. The library has a finite number of electronic copies and cannot lend out more than that. Like paper books, the licence only allows for a certain number of accesses of the book as well.
And now for something else- with a library card you can access Kanopy.com (for free) which has a whole library of movies. Most are older, but there is a great selection of documentaries as well as movies.
And since library membership is covered by our city taxes, access to the books and movies is worth every penny. If you haven’t got a library card, you should acquire one now.
You? Jaded? Tell me it is not so LOL The thing is that there’s an amazing bunch of resources out there and — unfortunately — a lot of folks remain unaware of all the goodies that are awaiting the taking, as it were.
Max needs the 5G handbook. After all, the man doesn’t even own a cell phone.
Alas, I fear this is no longer the case — I loved my life cell-phone-free — but eventually I could fight the good fight no more — having one makes life so much easier with regard to things like multi-level security — and it’s also quite handy for making calls 🙂
Hey — did you ever see my column “5G Meets 50,000 Fans at Super Bowl 2025” on EEjournal.com? (https://www.eejournal.com/article/5g-meets-50000-fans-at-superbowl-2025/)