September 11, 2001 - 10:25 a.m. I had been up late the night
before working on a project involving old Macs.
I was awoken to
the sound of my father pounding on my front door in a panic, claiming
that two airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York
and that America was under attack. I turned on the TV and watched in
disbelief just as the second tower collapsed. At first I thought
this can't be, it must be a movie. After a few seconds, I knew
that this was no Hollywood fiction - this was real; America was under
attack.
News anchors couldn't compose themselves, they had a look of terror
in their eyes that that I had never seen. People in New York City were
running for their lives. An extremely brave group of people sacrificed
themselves to bring down Flight 93 before it could reach the hijackers'
destination. People in Washington, DC were trying to figure out what
was going on and who was doing this to us.
Later that day, it was discovered that America was at war with an
enemy who had spent years planning this attack on innocent people, on
people who were just trying to go to work and make a living to support
their families.
It was very strange. Everywhere you looked, everything seemed to be
running in slow motion. The look in people's eyes was of shock, horror
and disbelief. How could this happen? How could anyone want to kill so
many innocent people - and, for that matter, why?
The why turned out to be pretty simple. The terrorist
organization known as al-Qaeda decided that they wanted to attack the
US. They wanted to attack us because they simply don't like us: They
don't like America, they don't like the freedom it represents, and they
don't like the way we live our lives.
Apple on 9/11
The first iPod.
It has been ten years since those events took place. It is hard to
imagine that when all of this happened, Apple was still more than a
month away from introducing the first
iPod.
Just what kind of technology was Apple producing at the time, and
how does it compare to what exists today? The answers may surprise
you.
Titanium PowerBook G4.
In 2001, the Titanium
PowerBook G4 was the thinnest, lightest notebook around. It was 5.3
lb., had a 15.2" 1152 x 768 display, and optional 802.11b WiFi. The
base model had a 400 MHz PowerPC G4 processor, 128 MB of RAM, a 10 GB
4200 RPM hard drive, and cost $2,600. Today the 11.6" MacBook Air is the
thinnest, lightest notebook around. It weighs just 2.38 lb., has a 1600
MHz dual core Intel Core i5 Processor (which is about 10x - 12x faster
than the G4), 2048 MB RAM, 64 GB Solid State Flash Hard Drive, 11.6"
1366 x 768 display, built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, it costs just $999.
In 2001, if you wanted to capture history and share it, you'd have
to grab your clunky video camcorder, record the video on tape, and then
send the rough cut of your video to the TV studio. Apple hadn't entered
that market yet. Today, on the other hand, you'd only have to pick up
your iPhone, press a button, and the footage would be on YouTube for
the world to see in a matter of seconds.
In 2001, if you wanted to listen to music in your car, you'd
probably had a few choice CDs or cassette tapes that you'd take along
with you. Today you can take your entire library of music with you -
just connect your iPod or iPhone to your car stereo, and you're set to
rock and roll.
Perspective
It is hard to believe that it has been ten years since all of this
took place. It is even harder to believe just how much has changed in
the last ten years. We have a tendency believe that ten years isn't
that much time in the grand scheme of things, and that is true.
That said, it goes to show just how fast the world can be turned
upside-down. If any of us were to be thrown back in time ten years, we
might not even know how to function without our smartphone to remember
our phone numbers and our GPS to help us find our way across town.
Technology has both good and bad aspects. It's good when it makes
your life a little easier. It can become a bad thing when you become
dependent on it - and a terrible thing when it's misused, as those jets
were on 9/11.
What is the right mix? That is up to you to decide.
Chris Carson is a longtime Mac user and a more recent convert to iPhone and iPad.
