“Mom, I want this, I think it will help my study”
I used to say that to my mom when I saw the electronic gadget I wanted, and tried to convince her that it would help my study.
Apple computer was the first one she bought for me. My desire did not stop there and kept growing. I was looking for more. Study was merely an excuse, I just wanted it because I thought it was a cool thing.
CASIO SF-4000
If I recall correctly, I spent almost 3 months trying to convince my mom that it would be very effective for me to memorize English vocabulary. I was a high school boy at the time.
I kept my daily vocabulary in the schedule, and some English phrases in the memo of my Casio. But it was just for fun. When I think of it now, I have no idea why I needed it.
NCR system 3125
It was a cold winter in Urbana, Illinois 1992. I was waiting for the laptop I placed an order for. NCR system 3125 was my dream computer. A futuristic minimal design with the state of the art pen technology.
Dang! I quickly fell in love with this when I saw it from ‘PC Magazine’. Since I was a foreign student from S. Korea, a device that would help me to study better was one of my best interests.
But the reality was far from my expectation. Note-taking was not convenient enough. It was too slow and the software was crappy. The battery was not long enough to cover my lectures.
SHARP MD 602
It was the beginning of fall at College Station, Texas 1997. I came back from my summer holiday and brought “The Fancy futuristic device” which will guarantee my GPA from S. Korea.
It was Sharp MD-702 Recorder/Player from Japan. It could digitally record the audio into Mini Disk(MD). This time, I made my own study system.
Once I got into the classroom, I checked the time when it started and wrote the time on the first page and started recording with my MD-702. I regularly checked the time and wrote on the left side of the pages which were the time reference of my recorder.
After the classroom, I listened to the entire lecture without looking at the notes, imagining the lecture in my brain while listening, then revisited the pages. This time I cross check with the recorded audio. Since the time stamps were written on each pages, it had the obvious benefit of helping me pinpoint the place I wanted to listen in long and meandering lectures.
Neo Smartpen RECO
My team brought an idea of synchronizing the notes written by Smartpen and the voice recorded by recorder. It reminded me of my study method during my graduate school in 23 years ago.
This time, the time stamp is automatically linked with my writings and replays whenever I want to listen. It is just like if you point a part of your notebook by finger, the teacher starts lecturing from that particular point. If your teacher is next to you and teaches you. You can save your time big.
I did it manually in 23 years ago, now it is done automatically so you can focus on your work. I think it is absolutely awesome.
We are recently at Kickstarter campaign with this device: https://bit.ly/3ep0873
“Dad, can I have XBOX? Dad, why can I have Nintendo Switch, dad? daddy!, daaad?????”
Now, I am a father of two kids. Just like I did to my mom, they kept asking me and justifying themselves why they need those. In the end, I sat down in from of my laptop scrolling down the web sites to fill the shopping cart. all of sudden, I just asked to my self, “did my mom ever ask me to buy something?” I should buy my mom a gift not something I like such as CASIC SF-4000 but something I can express my gratitude.