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March
Podcasting
April:
TBD

Happy New Tech Year

President's Corner

By Greg Skalka, President, Under the Computer Hood UG, CA
January 2019 issue, Drive Light

www.uchug.org
president (at) uchug.org
Another New Year is upon us. As we start 2019,
I wonder what new technology we will see this
year, and how it will affect our lives. It seems we
can’t swing a corded mouse (better for our times
than a dead cat) without hitting some piece of
technology in our lives. So many things we take
for granted today were not around 20 years
ago, or even 10. Smart phones, smart homes,
smart cars, smart TVs - everything is becoming
smart through technology. How did we ever sur-
vive with only dumb stuff around us?

We have just concluded another busy holiday shopping season. Remember when that meant
spending the month of December in the shopping malls, standing in long lines? Now with
online shopping (especially Amazon.com) and all the tech that enables it, we can do all our
shopping from home. With our smart phones, we can even shop while on the go. This trend
has resulted in big changes in our behaviors, as well as in our local and global economics.
Brick and mortar chains that were once the powerhouses of commerce, like Sears, are shrink-
ing or going out of business. Almost all businesses fear Amazon, as it has transformed the
shopping experience in many categories. How will Amazon next change our lives?
The concept of two-day delivery of products used to be exceptional and/or expensive, but now
it is commonplace (and the default for all those Amazon Prime subscribers). Will 2019 finally
be the year that Amazon makes good on their plans to deliver products the same day using

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