As I hope you noticed, the Delta Optimist introduced exciting new technology with last Friday's edition. The introduction of Layar technology allows us to remove the line between print and digital. Using your smart phone after an easy downloading of the Layar program, you can go directly to more digital content.
With the Layar technology this past Friday, you could sample the entertainment at the Tsawwassen Legion Variety Club fundraiser.
You could go directly to a video of Ian Paton discussing the ALR and also see a video on Myles McKie, one of the speakers at the REACH gala on Feb. 23.
The introduction of Layar required that I finally get a smart phone. I had been making do with a "dumb" Blackberry and a "dumb" Samsung. It was time to get back on the digital bandwagon.
I was an early adopter of cell phone technology. Back in the day, I managed community newspaper offices from Burnaby out to Chilliwack. I spent a lot of time on the road. When I got my first car phone, it was marvelous. Suddenly I could be in touch with any office while on the road and they could be in touch with me. All the phone could do was make phone calls - no camera, no texting and certainly no apps.
In the same era, Apple was just getting rolling. I had a bright young computer graduate working with me who said we could do away with our expensive typesetting equipment and time-consuming procedures by doing production work on a Mac. The rest of the staff thought that was crazy talk. It couldn't be done. The quality would be awful.
I kind of liked the reduced costs of the Apple technology and wanted it to work, but was there a quality issue I was blind to? One day when the paper was complete and set to go to the printer, Dirk and I stripped out a story and replaced it with a duplicate done on the Mac.
The next day, I took the printed paper around to the naysayers and asked them to point out the replacement story. No one got it right. In short order, the production department was converted at substantially less cost than what we were previously looking at.
I've been an Apple fan ever since - but not a shareholder.
I did own shares at one point years ago, but the share price languished. I sold just before Apple introduced the iPod and the share price doubled and doubled again, and then came the iPhone and the iPad - and more doubling.
I bought none of these ancillary devices, probably as a result of a hidden bitterness on missing the price explosion. I stuck with my dumb phones. I finally had to upgrade to use Layar. It was going to be tough conversion, but fortunately I had great assistance from my two Valentines - my wife Kathleen and daughter Heather.
Happy Valentine's Day!
