What I've really enjoyed about getting this website up and running is the opportunity to learn about a whole new world.  I've always been interested in technology - I'm very attracted to anything that can make life more efficient.

At risk of aging myself, I was the first post-grad student in my department at University to buy and use a PC (this was the mid-80s).  That was simply because the prospect of re-typing every draft of a 300 page thesis made me very interested in technology.  Of course we can reflect on how much things have changed and how pervasive technology is, but my observation is slightly different.

When I bought the Sanyo MBC-550 it had a single 128k floppy disk drive.  It cost close to $4000 back then.  Now the PC on my desktop has thousands of times the power (though some days you wouldn't think so) for not much more than a tenth of the cost.

I used to look longingly at Fender Stratocaster guitars, which back then cost around $2500.  Today they cost around... $2500.

My wife Franceska made this point to me.  We live in a time of enormous abundance and incredibly low costs.  This will not last:

• China's cost structure will increase as labour costs increase 
• Costs imposed by regulatory regimes like the Kyoto protocols and other "climate change aversion" strategies start to flow through
• The true cost of natural resources (especially water but also oil) start to soar

We will look back on this time as a golden era of growth and abundance.  Enjoy it while it lasts!