thE HumBLe peDOmETeR

I jogged 6,314 steps, a distance of 4.419 km, and burnt 173.1 calories today. That’s according to my new toy, the pedometer. I was never a health freak. But I must admit the pedometer is really neat. I clip it onto my shorts, press a button and off I go. It’ll be way cool if they could build a pedometer that has stopwatch and radio/ mp3 functions. Then I wouldn’t need to go around with 3 separate pieces of equipment.

Technology has evolved so fast I feel old suddenly. When I first started working 8 years ago, one of my first projects was to ask people what functions or features they want to see on their mobile phones. Remember, that was an age where mobile phones were just chunky pieces of bricks. I scoffed at how ridiculous some of their ideas were: camera phones, phones with games, phones that allow video-conferencing, phones that are miniature PCs, and all of these to be packed into something light, neat, and portable.

And today, I am entirely dependent on my mobile phone with its 2 GB memory stick, 3.2 megapixel camera, mp3 and radio, and a whole host of games and calendar/ reminder functions. We have the clamshell phone, the swivel phone, the sliding phone. We have phones that are so slim I’m afraid my fingers might break them while sending an SMS.

All these within a decade.

It’s scary how fast time flies. It’s comforting how fast time flies.