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It’s once again time to say good bye to one of the pioneers in the technology industry.  While there are some goodbyes that need to happen, there are others that don’t.  Polaroid has just announced that after nearly 60 years of instant photography, it will be closing its factories around the world and hanging up the hat of instant photography.  

Apparently the company thought it was time for Polaroid to close, because Lord knows that nobody wants it too.  Even people who don’t normally use Polaroids enjoy seeing them used when they happen to see them.  But the people that this decision is really are obviously the people who still use them on a regular basis.  

Polaroid cameras have, over the years, come to be used in many different fields of work.  While some of these professions have discontinued use of the cameras, replacing them with digital, there are others that still very much rely on the swift return of the Polaroid camera.  Medicine is once such profession that is still able to find a use for the cameras, stating that there are no alternatives.  Doctors often use the film with a grid on it to measure scars and track the shrinkage over time.  

Despite the fact that Polaroid is closing down, there are many customers that don’t intend to stop shooting with their cameras.  Stock piles of film have been bought around the country with one man spending as much as $800, leaving him enough film for 800 pictures.  While not an endless supply, he won’t be running out any time soon.

While the age of the Polaroid is over, many of us will never forget the impact that those cameras had on our lives.  Most of us have memories of taking pictures and then the minute of shaking afterwards.  The excitement of seeing your picture immediately after taking it was overwhelming.   Polaroid, your instant photograph cameras will be missed.

Today, the UK discussed enforcing a ban on illegal music and video downloading from the internet.  As it stands right now, there is no real law in place to prevent such actions; this allows some 6 million people to continue downloading from sites that end in “.uk” without fear of prosecution.  

One of the many issues that has come about because of the internet is the illegal downloading of both music and then later movies.  People don’t seem to think that when they download from the internet, they are stealing.  When in actuality, taking a movie from a store without paying for it is really no different.  It is all stealing.  

And while I said originally that it was movies and music, I really actually mean anything that can be put on the internet for other people to download.  Computer programs are becoming a major download on the internet, and most of them are illegal.  In some cases, this is worse.  While movies and music usually don’t cost more than $10-20, some computer programs cost upwards of $1,000. 

I know that if the UK passes the anti-illegal downloading laws, there will be a massive sigh of disappointment,  heard probably around the world.  But I really don’t understand why.  Why do people feel they have the right to steal from other people?  That logic just doesn’t make sense to me.

Can we, for a moment, just take a step back in time…back to a time before the ps2 and before the xbox, gamecube, and the wii.  As I sit here at my desk in my dorm room I notice something in the corner.  It is neither big nor flashy, hi definition or hi speed, but rather, it is a Gameboy.  Now the one sitting in my room is a Gameboy Advance, but it sparks the memories of a time before the games of today.  There was once a time when it was cool to have the limited edition Ice Blue Gameboy Pocket.  But there mere lack of advanced graphics and sound did not cause a lack of excellent gaming.  

Don’t misinterpret what my point is here, I am not at all against the new games that have hit the market.  In fact, I love most of them.  I am merely having a nostalgic moment in which I remember how even the simplest of games which, when compared to games of today were just moving pixels, could entertain for hours, making even the longest of trips seem like mere seconds.  

Gaming really has taken giant leaps in just about every aspect of the industry, and I applaud them for that.  It’s just fun to compare what once was to what currently is every once in a while.