New tech plays same ol' thing

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One of the benefits of a well-functioning marketplace is that new technology, although often initially expensive, becomes cheaper over time, as innovations are absorbed and new competitors crop up.

That's well and good if you're satisfied with a VHS movie collection and that hulking wooden-cabinet television set that could double as a station wagon.

The reality is that, as prices for some commodities drop like water in search of level ground, we're also buffeted by new technologies and the allure of progress and convenience they bring with them.

No sooner do you chuckle in self-satisfaction at the cineaste suckers who bought those bike tires known as laser-discs in the mid-1990s than you're overwhelmed by the dominance of DVDs.

This endless churn of new formats is relentless. It picks your pocket and addles your head.

If you're anything like me, your passion for free Napster downloads in 2000 was later matched only by the acute frustration at having to convert your existing CD collection into a digital library that could interface with a portable MP3 player.

I don't know whether to invest precious thousands in a sleek plasma TV, or wait until some genius figures out how to project high-resolution images onto plaster walls using rays of sunlight.

And I thank heaven I quit playing video games in the halcyon days of Sega Genesis.

The fiercest grudge match now appears to be in the digital-video market, between HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Like a Marxist, I'm content to let history (also known as Netflix) sort this out before I fork over any cash.

Of course, I'm not a really a Marxist. Nor am I a Luddite. I like technology. These days, I'm especially pleased by the various video-capture devices that can digitize VHS tape. I don't own it; don't know how it works; don't care. All I know is that someone out there does and that I benefit freely from it via the wondrous archival paradise that is YouTube.com.