Chronicling Tech Changes
The author penned these two cover stories. Alison Young photo
Happy 30th, MidWeek!
In honor of MidWeek’s 30th anniversary, I wanted to share my experience with MidWeek over the last several years.
My journey with MidWeek began way back in 2000 when I started there as sales secretary. Wow. That was a long time ago!
Within a few months, MidWeek publisher Ron Nagasawa saw my techie streak and potential, and offered me a position in the company’s Systems Department. That was literally the opportunity of a lifetime and opened so many doors for me. Mahalo, Ron!
My tenure with the systems team lasted about four years, as I left the company to focus on my military career and spent some time in Texas.
Following my return to Hawaii in early 2005, I was offered an opportunity to write Hawaii’s first technology column in MidWeek, and here I am today, 14 years with the MidWeek ohana, and nearly 10 years as the technology columnist.
So for giggles, I went back to my very first column published on March 4, 2005. I had a few items in there, but the one that cracked me up the most was the Motorola Razr V3 flip phone that retailed for $289-$729.
It’s hard to believe that a phone that archaic with so little capability would cost so much, but then again, we’ll probably be thinking the same thing about the smart-phones we have today.
The very next column was about Gmail. At the time, not everyone could obtain an account, much less know what Gmail was, but I offered readers an invite to receive their own Gmail account. Nowadays, everyone and their brother has a Gmail account, and you can just sign up without an invite. I’m proud to say that some of you have your Gmail accounts today because of that column. I remember being email blasted with a ton of invite requests, but glad I could help. Look how big Gmail is today; it has come a long way.
Throughout these years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many interesting people in the tech industry. Two of the most memorable ones are Kazuo Hirai, president/CEO of Sony Corporation, and Guy Kawasaki, former Chief of Evangelist of Apple (and mostly responsible for bringing Apple back to life).
I consider them my heroes, and both of those interviews turned out to be MidWeek cover stories. When I met Mr. Hirai, it was for the launch of the PlayStation 3, and I was able to get my hands on literally the first PS3 in the state! I felt like I was driving home with a pot of gold.
Then, with Mr. Kawasaki, I was able to hear his story and help him push his new project at the time, Alltop.com.
It was nice to be able to bring these huge stories and others to “little ol’ MidWeek” and the local community.
I look forward to continuing to share my world of technology with you, and thank you for reading!
clickchick@outlook.com
