Technology, as in computers and assorted other electronic gadgets, has slowly but surely crept into just about every facet of our modern lives. From The obvious things like personal computers to the more bizzare things like automatic toilet seat sanitary covers and battery operated nose hair trimmers. It's pretty hard to get away from it these days.
At one time I was an anomaly among truckers. The "strange" trucker-geek with a laptop computer. "Why do you need a computer?" "What the hell does a trucker need with a laptop?". Those were once common questions I'd hear as I took apart a table phone in some truckstop so I could rig my makeshift modem connection.
But something happened along the way. At this very truckstop this evening I counted no less than a dozen laptops either in use or being carried in a case inside the building. As I sit here in my truck I can see a guy in a rig across from me using his laptop, and another driver using her laptop in the rig parked to my left. I'm no longer an anomaly among my peers. Now it's "What do you mean you don't have a laptop?" "How can you get by these days without a computer?"
Now, instead of having to take apart a phone to "rig" a modem connection the phones have data ports in them and in many truckstops an ethernet port as well. And of course now more than not have WiFi. These same truckstops also have things like copy/fax kiosks, automatic sink faucets, automatic paper towel dispensers, and some even have the automatic sanitary toilet seat covers. (Those still seem pretty weird to me)
Once upon a time you shopped in a truckstop for cowboy hats, belt buckles, boots, tools, and assorted chrome truck accessories. Today you see displays of laptop computers, optical mice, pcmcia wireless cards, CDROMs, and MP3 players. Yes, some even sell iPods. The times they are a-changin. And so are truckers.
I can still claim the title of trucker-geek though. All I need to do is start talking to some driver about Linux and watch their eyes glaze over and they start looking like they might if they suddenly found themselves conversing with a Martian. Or really get into computer security, tweaks, debugging and/or compiling software, and the relative merits of various processors. "Hey, ummm, I just surf the net and read emails. I don't know about all that stuff."