Holy Leaping Technology !!

The five speed cluster, the standard for many a year, is now up to eleven speeds. Why? Because it can be done. Steel, aluminum, titanium, now carbon, or a mix, for frames. I suppose I should mention bamboo. Gilligan should have patented some of his bamboo technology. He'd be rich, if only he could get off the island.

Why bring this up? Well, it's really hit me lately, how things get better in such a short period of time. Product developers seem to have it in over drive to improve everything we use. Take home electronics for example. You barely get the new flat screen TV out of the box, and it's replacement on the shelf at the store is better. 480, 720, 1080 in all it's different formats, all snuffed out the previous incarnation.

I just got a new, latest and greatest (for it's price) laptop, and I'm sure in a couple of months one will be able to get more bang for the buck for it's replacement. 320 gig hard drive, 3 gigs of ram will be 500/6 for the same money. One draw back was I had to buy a new printer. I had a barely 3 year old HP all in one photo series printer. We paid nearly $300.00 for it. It was the best consumer model at the time. But, just my luck, it wouldn't work with Windows Vista. Today, I picked up another HP with similar specs for $64.00 including tax. It runs better software, is more ink efficient, and the print quality is the same at the same speed. Three years, a fifth of the price. Wow.

So why can't our major drug companies come up with improved diabetes drugs at an advanced rate? Insulin has improved very slowly since it's introduction as a diabetes treatment for dogs. Sure, delivery systems and dosage unit understandings are much better. Pens and pumps make it much easier and more accurate to dose, but how about a breakthrough that would make all of that obsolete? I know that researchers feel the big new thing is just around the corner, but at this stage of the game, it seems like time is moving backward. If this was the bicycle, we would still be getting off the change move the chain to another sprocket by hand !!

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of improvement, will AT&T please turn on the 3G network for these parts. This dial up speed wireless I'm paying a premium price for is killin' me, for crying out loud. Thank you.