If you can believe it, it's been 10 years since the first commercial MP3 player hit the market. I can't decide whether this makes me feel older or younger. On the one hand, I've been around for enough iterations of the MP3 player to feel like I've been covering this segment of the market for most of my adult life. On the other hand, it seems like just yesterday I was rocking Rush's Caress of Steel on the 8-track player in my 1976 Camaro.

We start this week with a follow-up to last week's post on digital TV. Having since finished my research and made a purchase, I thought it would be nice to provide some resolution (sorry…) to the issue. Or at least a clearer picture on the state of consumer HDTV. (It's not my fault. These terrible word choices just keep happening….)

The History Channel recently sponsored a design competition for architects and engineers in Atlanta, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Competing teams were asked to envision a model for their city as it might exist 100 years from now. The catch? Designers had one week to plan, three hours to construct their models, and 15 minutes to make their case to a panel of judges. So, you know… no pressure.

I'm very attached to my USB flash drive. In terms of portable storage, it's the only way to go -- small, simple, durable, largely standardized across various platforms; what's not to like? Of course, security is always a concern. I used to keep my pet AI, "Ian," on my key ring flash drive. But then my nephew unknowingly plugged the drive into a public terminal at Kinko's, and Ian escaped to the Internets. Remember that Florida blackout earlier this week? That was Ian. He's kind of mischievous.

Starting this week, the FCC is officially allowing U.S. service providers to shut down their analog AMPS cell phone networks. As with the impending television brouhaha, it's all about the switch to digital, baby. I'm pouring out a splash of my 40-ouncer over here. (Forty ounces of linear polymer polyoxymethylene from a lab beaker, but the sentiment is the same.)