iPad Meets the Supremes

I read with interest a recent piece about the Supreme Court in The Washington Post.  Liberal justice Stephen Breyer was quoted as saying,


"If I'm applying the First Amendment, I have to apply it to a world where there's an Internet, and there's Facebook, and there are movies like ... 'The Social Network,' which I couldn't even understand. . .  ."


The same article described conservative justice Antonin Scalia'suse of technology:


Antonin Scalia told an adoring audience at the Federalist Society convention Thursday night that he not only had an iPod, but does his own downloading. . . . Not only that, but he has an iPad that his staff loads with court work. "I don't have to schlep the briefs around," Scalia said, adding with a laugh, "Oh, it's a brave new world." 


I read this with amusement, because I have observed that some of my most politically liberal friends and colleagues are the most conservative about adopting technology for personal or professional use.  Other than age, have you noticed any other personal attributes that might be associated with willingness or unwilingness to adopt consumer technology?

I Love My Digital Music

The Collection

Not long after I got my first iPod, I made the rash decision to start digitizing my rather large CD music collection. This corresponded with another hobby of mine-- buying and selling for my collection on Ebay. I sold off a large portion of my CDs but continued to buy CDs in bulk on Ebay, digitizing the rock, jazz, and classical music that I purchased. This was a very economical way to build a rather enormous digital collection of music. (I no longer am a free wheeling trader on Ebay, but I still digitize most CDs that come my way).

I bought a Bose iPod player and added an iPod player to our stereo system. Suddenly, I was listening to much more of my own music, creating interesting playlists and listening to the catalogs of artists like Stan Getz, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. Or placing all of Mozart's piano sonatas on a playlist and listening straight through over several day's time. I was willing to trade off some fidelity in the sound for the convenience of playing the music and plumbing the collection.

Genius

As soon as Apple introduced its Genius playlist feature, I became addicted. I let Genius search through the collection to mix playlists. What I enjoy most is when music surfaces that I forgot was even part of my own collection. Many people love Pandora. Genius serves as a Pandora which uses my own collection as a database. I even burn Genius playlists to CDs to play in my car. I wake up to genius playlists, drive with them, exercise with them, and listen to them through the evening as I do school work.

School

On the first day of school this year, we had a get re-acquainted ice breaker. Each of us had to divulge a "secret" about ourselves. I told about my music collection and remarked that when others are not around, I like my music LOUD. I've now taken this a step further. A good chunk of my music collection accompanies to school in my Macbook Pro. I arrive pretty early this year, and I play my music...loud. I usually dial it down a tad as the students start arriving. But I usually play it right up until first hour starts. I try to squeeze in a song between first and second hour too. If I have a free period, I sometimes play some piano jazz or something else that is soft. But I enjoy the relaxation, ambience, and self-expression that comes from this new wrinkle. It helps to keep me going!

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"iPod" Flickr CC photo by Toni V