Technology gets cheaper and cheaper and it amazes me
 

I was in a 99 cent store today to pick up something for an office lunch and at the check out stand they were selling a small laser pointer for, you guessed it 99 cents. It's made in china and really cheaply constructed, but for 99 cents I couldn't buy the batteries for the one I have that died. 99 cents!!! It's a Class IIIA laser and I can put a spot on the hill which is about 500 feet across my yard. I bought my first laser pointer about 25 years ago and paid something like $100 for it. A close friend of my Dad's was Dr. Charles Townes, the inventor of the laser/maser, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for it. I'm guessing that the one that I bought for 99 cents today is more powerful than the one he got for the Nobel Prize.

Just a ramble, I bought a 1 Gb flash drive about 4 years ago for something like $25; a month ago, I bought a 4 Gb flash for about $6. SmileWavy

When I saw the thread title I was thinking of the 4g flash drive I bought a few days ago for $8...astounding.

Remember $400 digital watches when they came out a few decades ago? In no time they were $10 and now 99cents...

I used to use a laser pointer giving presentations years ago. Gave it up when someone advised I could be liable if anyone suffered eye damage from my use of it or someone else picking it up & inadvertently shining it in someone else's eye. Mine was cool. It has several types of images from arrows, circles, stars, & some others. The pace of innovation is downright scarry now days. And the cheap price of technology is amazing.

That red laser in the eye thing is BS.... I'm sure with prolonged exposure it would do damage... but I've seen it happen plenty of time with no damage....

Now the modern green and blue ones.... Well don't point them at paper for too long....

OTOH relatively primitive items seem to go up in price...to wit, .22 LR...I remember as a kid in the 60's 50 costing me $.50...now they're $2.00 or so (although I usually buy the 500 rd bricks for $15.00. Guess that's because China doesn't export them:cool: