Real dimension is better

As a 10-year-old kid, I was on the cutting edge of technology. I just didn’t know it.

Scrunched down in row #10 of the Pace Theater in Chadron – bedecked with nifty paper and plastic glasses made for the occasion – I ducked and yowled as a “House of Wax” barker slammed a rubber-ball from the movie screen straight for me and my friends.

The plot of that 1953 Vincent Price movie was a bit thin, but it was enough to satisfy me and my buddies. The highly-touted three-dimensional (3-D) technology was what really grabbed us and left indelible memories imprinted on our youthful minds. But 3-D movies didn’t succeed very well in the marketplace and were gone within a few years.

Fast-forward nearly 70 years and 3-D seems to be making a come-back.

Spurred by the notion of selling lots more new-fangled television sets, giant TV set manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and Panasonic say they’re going to really push 3-D television sales during the coming year. They enjoyed a big surge in the sales of high definition receivers over the past couple of years. They fear sales will soon slump and are looking for something to excite consumers.

Given the enormous strides made in television production technology in recent years, it’ll be fun to see what the set manufacturers can do.

Despite the fact that I worked around television most of my professional live – including the days before even rudimentary “chroma-key” or “green screen” techniques were used – I remain amazed at just how good these new technologies are. I’m still trying to figure out how those innovative rascals manage to show me the “1st and 10” line down on the football field, just like it’s really there….players running over it, obscuring it from sight, as if it were really a part of the field. Wow.

But I’m an early skeptic that 3-D will go far in the television world – at least so long as special eyeglasses are required. Some 3-D units will required battery-powered glasses.

I already have difficulty keeping track of where the various television remote controls are – the TV, the cable box, and the DVD player – so adding another device to the shelf might be a bit tricky. And batteries? Well, Triple-A would be good, since I keep them in stock, but I fear they’ll be using something smaller. Something lighter. Something that’s proprietary. Something costly! Pre-holiday reports indicate that the special glasses will likely cost at least $50.

Of course, making the TV receiver is only one part of the tricky 3-D equation. Local television stations are only now completing their conversion from analog to high definition local programming. Unless there is ample 3-D content available for broadcast, efforts to lure consumers to buy new sets – again -- will be doomed. After all, content is king.

But looking at most television programs these days, I’m not sure the television industry has quite figured that out.

Perhaps we’ll just take a simple stroll outside to enjoy a beautiful sunset – without 3-D glasses.

E & P shutters the windows

A bit of surprise – but not shock – as we learned today about the closing down of Editor & Publisher magazine, the 125-year-old house organ for the newspaper business.

Considering the plight of newspapers all across the country, I suppose it shouldn’t have come even as a surprise. Ad revenues down. Subscriptions down. And morale down.

My familiarity with Editor & Publisher first came in graduate school at Iowa State University about 40 years ago. I’d already been in the broadcasting business for a dozen years or so and was very familiar with Broadcasting magazine, the institutional publication that kept tabs on the radio and television business.

As Broadcasting leaned more heavily toward the financial and entertainment side of electronic media, Editor & Publisher, it seemed to me, had a flair for keeping tabs on the journalistic soul of the media. I never saw much of that in Broadcasting magazine.

Perhaps it was an ironic omen of things to come, as Editor & Publisher fades into oblivion – or at least struggles to survive in another form.

Broadcasting & Cable, meanwhile, continues to dance with the business of broadcasting, though many of us old timers would hardly recognize it today.

Love, hate, and technology

Our neighbor Lorraine Collins always has an interesting perspective on a wide range of topics. Here's another that should catch your interest -- and perhaps spur a comment or two. Her commentaries appear regularly in the Black Hills Pioneer, and she graciously allows us to share them with on-line readers here.

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About 25 years ago when I bought my first computer, a Commodore 64, I knew I needed to learn about this new technology, so I innocently signed up for an adult evening class on computer programming. Needless to say, I didn't last long there. But I have always remembered a sign on the chalk-board. It said, "I hate my computer and think I will sell it. It won't do what I want it to, but only what I tell it."

This was an attempt to introduce me to the exacting world of communicating with computers. I'm still trying to learn how to do that. Nothing makes me madder than the computer that I love when it suddenly doesn't do what I think it should. It's sort of like the words of that old song, "You only hurt the one you love." Of course you only hurt the one you love, because the one you love is the only one who will be really hurt by whatever dumb thing you do.

As we know, many of us now have a whole lot more technology than any reasonable person needs. People drive down highways with cell phones stuck to their ears or, worse, concentrating on having their thumbs punch buttons to send a text message. What, we ask, are they thinking of? Why is it that we feel so compelled to be so constantly in communication that we have no surcease from the constant babble that goes on?

We should take lessons in meditation and yoga, in peaceful prayer, in silence and contemplation. We really need to take a break from this constant onslaught of instant and imperative communication. So I say, even as I invest in more technology to increase and enhance even more communication.

I have recently discovered and invested in something called a Webcam that can be attached to one's computer, enabling visual as well as sound communication with people far away. I realize that "telecommunication" is pretty old hat to those in business who apparently use it as a means of communicating with far flung offices, and telemedicine has been around for a long time, enabling doctors in a city to talk to patients and physician assistants or nurse practitioners in remote locations. But to have this means of communication in my house is really something.

In case your loved ones live as far away from you as mine do from me, let me tell you the benefits of the Webcam. After we sent the Webcam device to our daughter and son-in-law in Virginia and they hooked it up and we all subscribed to a free service, we could see and hear each other through the computer. We saw our 7-year-old grandson play the guitar and read us a book. We saw our 5-year-old granddaughter's costume for her ballet program. We saw the dog we've never met. All of this will be much improved once we get the new computer we've ordered, with a lot more speed and power and a new flat screen monitor.

Since we cannot see the people we love every day, month, or maybe even in a year, it's wonderful that this technology lets us share some few minutes with them now and then, by appointment. We hear the children giggle, hear the dog bark, see the lively goings on with that family. It's not the same as being there, of course, but it's a really good substitute.

Of course I've resisted every new technology that's come since 1984. so much to learn! So much to deal with! But I tell you, I've learned, and when I don't hate it, I love it.

Lorraine Collins is a writer who lives in Spearfish. She can be contacted at collins1@rushmore.com.