When old is new

Have you ever run to your friends and associates to proclaim your discovery of something new, only to discover that your friends and associates have already known about this "new" thing for a long time?

On March 23, Valley Record published an article with the title "So long, ink: North Bend police use fingerprinting of the future." The article discussed live-scan technology - a technology that has been around for two decades now.

So why is live scan a new thing in North Bend? Because of cost. While national governments and state agencies have ready access to funds to pay for live scan devices, it's much more difficult for small local agencies to raise the funds to pay for a machine.

But the fact that North Bend is seemingly joining the live scan world at a relatively late time does not detract from the importance of their joining in the first place.

This is something that we need to remember, especially if we tend toward the early adopter mentality. There is sometimes a tendency to pooh-pooh the late adopters, or even to complain that the late adopters have effectively ruined Twitter/FriendFeed/Facebook/Friendster/CompuServe/whatever. But no matter how soon or how late you join a service, the important thing is that you joined the service, and can now enjoy the benefits of it.

Which is why I regard Shawn Zehnder Lea's tweet about me in a positive light.

@empoprises: "Love the chorus" (Awww. His first blip!) ;) ♫ http://blip.fm/~nqotb