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We need great stories about what you remember about modern technology.

Here are the details about contributing to our remember series:

What do you remember about the first time you used a new gadget? Over the years, inventors have given us dozens of doodads, including the color TV, microwave, cell phone and computer.

To share your stories, call 771-2008 and follow the instructions.

We had one reader call in and share a great story about the first Walkman he had and how fascinated the stewardess and pilot where with the item when he was on a flight in the 1980s.

Would this stop a drunken e-mailer?

Prevent yourself from sending embarrassing e-mails while you're inebriated. Yes, those swell guys over at Google have developed e-mail goggles. Users can set it up so that at certain hours, math problems pop up before you log onto an e-mail account.

Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, just might be too loud -- even for metalheads. Fans have been petitioning to get the album re-mixed, claiming it is overly distorted.

According to this sound engineer, they're right. The album was heavily compressed, or clipped, to make it sound louder. This reduces the dynamic range of the album (the difference between the loudest and softest sounds), and really diminishes the sound quality. It's the same technique that makes some TV commercials really loud so they stand out. Sad but true.

Wednesday, I discovered Google.

Well, not really. I mean, I use it every day at work. But we had a presentation here in the office about RSS feeds and learned how you can get them on your Yahoo or Google home page or Web browser (and other ways that I now forget).

My Web broswer is too out-of-date for RSS, so I created a Google account.

And so the door opened into a wonderful world of organizational paradise at my fingertips...

So I'm flipping through one of the random bits of mail totally unrelated to my job that somehow find their way to my work mailbox, and I see an article talking about the Web 2.0 explosion.

Web 2.0?

Did I miss something? Is there another World Wide Web? An updated version of the regular-old Web that I use almost daily? Do I need to plug in new addresses (now called URLs) when I search for information? Do I need some kind of expensive new software to access this?

Dec. 25 was nice to me this year, but it wasn't anything compared to Jan. 9. Tuesday was the day that Steve Jobs (i.e. Santa Claus) took the stage for his annual keynote speech at Macworld (i.e. the North Pole) and introduced the world to the iPhone (i.e. one of the coolest consumer electronics ever).

The rumors circulating this device had been ongoing for a couple years and, in true Apple fashion, almost all the "leaked" details were wrong - in the best kind of way. Leading up to its introduction, there were rumors of Apple releasing a widescreen iPod, a tablet version of the Mac and a phone of some sort. Turns out, all those were true - except they were really all one device all along.

The day after Christmas is when you delve into your new presents -- figure out how that thing really works, see if your new clothing actually fits and count up all of your gift cards. One of my favorite presents that Santa left under the Christmas tree was a new silver iPod Nano, complete with earbuds and an armband so I can run with it.

Although now I have to tackle the task of downloading iTunes, choosing the songs and somehow getting them on my iPod. That's all reserved for after my shift today, but it's definitely my silver lining after being one of only a handful of people working at the paper the day after the holiday.

Andybody have any hints to smoothly entering the iPod world?

So, I got an MP3 player as part of my 2006 "technology resolution."

The resolution was three-pronged: to upgrade my computer, learn to use a scanner, and to enter the world of digital music. I took care of the first two by the end of April, but then the year got away from me and I found myself heading into December with the last part incomplete. I hate not finishing something I start.

So after hours of research and consultations with my tech-savvy friends and co-workers, I decided on a Creative Labs Zen Vision. I ordered it online and it showed up at the office a record two days later!

That was two weeks ago today.

It's still in the box.

As a kid, I grew up in a house of Macs (as in the computer). In high school, I saw that Windows-based PCs were obviously taking over as the majority OS of choice and so I made the switch. When I headed off to college at Penn State as a film major, I made the leap back to the world of Macs and have never looked back. That's the short version, at least.