The Tech 9 was released in issue #21, August 2009.
This is part of our Memory Lane Tour Sessions.
Article by Alex Duran.
I’ve been uplinked and downloaded.I’ve been inputted and outsourced.I know the upside of downsizing; I know the downside of upgrading.I’m a high-tech lowlife.A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, bicoastal multitasker, and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.”
-George Carlin
When I compare the technology of the 90’s to the one I live in today I find it fascinating at how far it has evolved in such a short amount of time. Wow, what a difference a decade can make. I still recall the times when beepers were cool to have and cell phones the size of a brick were the wave of the future. Have you ever seen one of those brick phones? I bet they weighed that much too. Yes indeed we’ve gone from brick phones to i-phones, blackberries, razr’s and I think beepers along with dinosaurs and dodo birds are pretty much extinct. Everywhere I turn I see someone on a cell phone either texting, talking, listening to music or even surfing the web. They are the primary form of communication. I think it is safe to say that cell phones are your new BFF.
Back in 1991 was the first time I put my hands on a computer. Yes sir I was a computer virgin before then. It was the 8th grade and I took a Computer Literacy class to learn its most basic functions. The computer was a slow Apple Macintosh with a black screen and when you typed green letters would appear. If you wanted to save information you had to use a thin floppy disk the size of a cd case. Today we use flash drives and thank god for that. A couple of years later my brother brought home a computer and I thought it was the most awesome thing ever. I believe it had 32mb of ram and about 7 gigs of hard drive space and this bad boy had a smaller floppy disk drive about half the size of the previously mentioned one and just a bit thicker. Damn my i-pod has more memory than that piece of shit. Hey but I spent countless hours on that thing trying to conquer DOOM. Unfortunately for me I never did beat that game. That’s all that computer was good for video games until world wide web began its reign. Microsoft at that time was in its infant stage.
In the mid 90’s this beast called the World Wide Web was unleashed upon us. Who would have known then what a monster the Internet would become. Not really knowing what to use the Internet for I would log on just to find out information over my favorite rock n’ roll group at the time: The Doors. Yup, I read poems, song lyrics, and even read about how bad Morrison smelled because he wouldn’t shower for days. If I remember correctly I set up my first yahoo mail account and wrote my first e-mail in 1997 to Alicia Fernandez, a girl I had met at Vertigo in Juarez, Mexico. We would often exchange e-mails and she would eventually become my new pen pal. At the time I had no idea that e-mailing would immediately eliminate actual hand-letter writing and mailing. When was the last time you hand wrote a letter to a friend and mailed it out? Nowadays the only thing I ever receive in the mail are bills, credit card offers, jury duty notices and warrants. Now, we use the Internet as our primary source of information and second to the cell phone in communication. We either Google it or hit up wikipedia, goodbye encyclopedia Britannica.
Information was not the only fast and convenient thing the Internet could have given us. During our current decade the Internet almost single handedly brought down the record industry and forced it to evolve. I don’t need to remind you about how Lars Ulrich became an instant antagonist. Napster, Limewire, torrent files, i-tunes, mp3’s, mp4’s, shn, flac files instantly replaced your cd library. In the 1990’s the era of the cd and cd player had officially taken over. The cd player was it! No more tapes no more 8 tracks! (Vinyl records will ALWAYS be cool!). Although, I loved dubbing and creating mix tapes for friends; at the time cd burners were just a myth. The first cd I ever bought was Nirvana’s Nevermind and I played that album over and over and over until I scratched it and couldn’t play it anymore. Now if I want that album all I have to do is downloaded it, burn it and even share it. Easy as a, b, c and 1, 2, 3. I love it! It beats waiting in that long ass line at Best Buy. Although the serious music buff will whine and argue about the whole process of purchasing an album because of the cool art work by Storm Thorgerson and the sleeve and helping their favorite band make millions of dollars. Whatever, I prefer to download it along with the artwork; that saves time and space. And don’t even get me started on the YouTube effect. Yes indeed, the computer and the Internet entirely changed the way we acquire and listen to music. 
Video games have changed substantially since the 1990’s. Before I was given my first Nintendo I used to go to 7-11 to play arcade games. I was a master when it came to Street Fighter and Mortal Combat (and I can prove it if anyone is up to the challenge!). I would spend hours after hours competing against all the kids in the neighborhood as well as any adult that wanted to get their ass kicked by a punk kid. My mother, worried that I was spending to much time in the street, proceeded to buy me a Nintendo. It was an instant hit and indeed it kept my ass planted at home. I mastered Super Mario Bros., Contra, Double Dragon, and of course the Legend of Zelda but my favorite games were Tecmo Bowl, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out and Double Dribble. At the time the graphics were state of the art. Wow, video game technology was at its finest far beyond the Atari. Then the great Japanese makers of Nintendo brought us the Super NES. Just like every other kid I had to have it! Obsessed with trying to be the first kid amongst my group of friends to get it I begged and pleaded with my mom to buy it for me. She did! I love you mom! Then my new favorite game became John Madden football. I was so addicted to that game that I would set up tournaments at my house. To me John Madden football was like a game of chess where I had to use strategy and precision decision making in order to beat fellow competitors. Then came the Sega Genesis which gave the Nintendo a run for its money. I also had a Genesis and I kinda liked it but never mastered Sonic the Hedgehog. It was not as fun as the Super NES. When video game consoles where at their peak and Sega as well as Nintendo were trying to out do one another Sony released the Playstation and that blew away Nintendo, Sega as well as everyone else. Playstation was my new “precious”. It also had John Madden football except it was ten times better than Nintendo’s version. Nintendo would then release Nintendo 64 and on and on and on. The video game industry has become a world of its own now. Nintendo as well as Playstation are still very much relevant today and have taken video game graphics to an unimaginable place. The games that are coming out today are so in tune with reality that it almost feels like you’re in the game. Virtual insanity.
It is amazing how far technology has advanced since the 1990’s. The 90’s did bring us a lot of fine artifacts that we still use today such as cd’s, cd players, Internet, as well as many other gizmo’s and gadgets. It was an era that far exceeded the 1980’s fo’ shizzle. It paved the way for the technological advances that we are seeing today and it will continue to grow and evolve. Today we live in an era where we want things bigger, better, faster. As new products and services are produced, we as consumers will continue to purchase and use these items. As one of my favorite rock bands best put it, “Something has to change. Undeniable dilemma. Boredom’s not a burden anyone should bear. Constant over stimulation numbs me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s not enough. I need more. Nothing seems to satisfy. I don’t want it. I just need it. To feel, to breath, to know I’m alive.” -MJK