Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

Hang around long enough in this business and you’ll see a lot of changes, and a lot of technologies come and go.

Mostly, you’ll see them go.

Nothing lasts forever, but some technologies die off faster than others.

The one common thread in all the jobs I’ve held is that, to one degree or another, I’ve had to be a cheerleader for new technologies.

As a result, when I think back to the old technologies I sold people on, I sometimes feel some guilt and regret.

I think I’ve talked in the past about my love affair with MiniDisc (it didn’t work out). And I when I think about the old Sony Mavica digital cameras that used 3.5-inch floppy discs as recordable media I feel no small amount of guilt at the 5-year extended warranties I sold people.

Really, who was still using one of those cameras even three years later?

Recently, what has been on my mind has been iPod docks.

All those portable boom boxes with 30-pin plugins were bad enough, but what about the whole-home AV projects with Crestron CEN-IDOC modules specified in locations around the house?

It seemed like a great idea at the time. But now when I look back I cringe.

I’m reminded of them every time I’m in a hotel fitness center and I’m using a treadmill that has a lonely 30-pin pigtail for you to plug your iPod in and play your music over the treadmill’s built-in speakers.

Being of a reflective disposition, it makes me wonder what technologies that I’m cheerleading today that I’ll end up cringing at a few years from now.