I finally managed to catch the space shuttle launch a few nights ago. It had been called off a few times for weather related and technical issues. What a spectacular show it was to finally see a nighttime launch and live over the internet. The things we have available to us over the internet now is almost unbelievable.

All this technology is really nice, but I wonder how many jobs are lost or eliminated because of it. Even some simple things one doesn't often think about.

There used to be an employee from our local power company that would come and read our meter every month. Recently the power company replaced our meter with a new digital meter that has some kind of wireless transmitter built into it. Basically what this means is there's no need for that employee to come and read it anymore. The reading is taken automatically and sent over a wireless network now. Can you believe that. Another case of new technology that eliminates jobs in the process.

I do believe that new technology is generally beneficial, it makes things simpler, faster, and sometimes cheaper for the end user or customer. The drawbacks is it sometimes results in loss of jobs, which I guess we just have to live with sometimes.