Daily Cup of Geek

Just got back from Thanksgiving at a friend’s house, and even though it’s midnight, only a few hours from now shoppers will be flooding stores for the post Thanksgiving sales. Ah, Black Friday. Even better… Black Friday with a 4am start for many stores. (Two words… Completely. Insane.)

Which brings up an interesting point. With everyone buying the latest gadgets on sale — because hey, that new 7 mega-pixel camera is only $100! — what happens to our old ones? Do you keep your old gadgets? Recycle or donate? Or do they end up in the trash with last week’s leftovers? E-waste, as many are calling it, is a big problem. Tony Long, over at Wired, posted an article on the issue this week.

No, “e-waste” isn’t anything new… it’s been an issue for a very long time. Just something interesting to consider as we roll into another Black Friday buying binge. Do we really need those shiny new toys when our old ones still work? And if the answer is yes (because trust me, I’ve said “yes” to that question many times), what can we do to be more responsible with discarding our old gadgets when we get the new ones?

That said, Ars Technica has a cool article on Six Things to Be Thankful For In Technology (2007), which includes the “Death of DRM”, gaming going mainstream thanks to the Wii and games like Guitar Hero, and volunteering being at an all time high right now (and yes, that’s half of the article — but check it out).

As for my “thankful for” technology list this year… I’ll have to think about that. But I’d definitely include the iPhone, Wii, “death of DRM”, MS Surface and Perceptive Pixel (does Perceptive Pixel even count for ‘07?), and probably Facebook. Um, is there a limit on what I can be thankful for? =)

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

This entry was posted by Bronwyn Lewis, on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 12:53 am and is filed under 2007, consumerism, green, technology. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.