Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The age of paper is dead

     How do I know this to be true, the calendar. Every year I get bombarded with free calendars from suppliers and clients. It then becomes a process of deciding which one I like best. Last year I picked a car themed one because well...I like cars. Anyway, this year I received zero calendars. I happen to know most of those suppliers are still in business so that's not the case. I'm sure it came down to budget cuts. However, it has been habit that when I sit at my desk, I glance at the calendar whenever I need to see an upcoming date. Problem is my calendar is stuck on December. Obviously I'm not going to base that paper is dead on this one incident, but I'm sticking with the calendar theme.
     I happened to be at Barnes and Noble right after the New Year and I was thinking about my lack of Calendars, so I decided to see if they had any left. Usually the racks are empty around this time, but not today. They still had a rather large selection. The same thing happened when I was at the mall passing by the kiosk that sells calendars and games. Plenty of Calendars to be had.
     My solution to the problem has been to keep a tab open with my Google Calendar or keep iCal open. Fortunately they're synced so I can get the information I need on demand, but it's still a little different for me to get used to.
     Some may argue that paper died off long ago, but I think only recently with eBooks becoming more prevalent and being able to sign contracts digitally, and using tablets on computers to draw that you can really start getting close to declaring the final nail in the coffin. 
     Currently I use a standard old fax machine as well and have been contemplating eFax solutions to replace the tired old machine. And with the age of digital signatures, text messages, Google Wave, eBooks, etc. do you consider the age where we rely on paper to be dead?

-Trent

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