I’m having one of those days when I feel just great about technology, so I thought I’d share before my phone or computer goes on the glitch and my goodwill evaporates!

The first reason it’s “Technology Appreciation Day” for me has to do with my recently ended vacation, which I spent sailing my creaky thirty-year-old sailboat around Long Island Sound. I typically sail alone, and am not a particularly experienced or talented sailor, but the trip was lovely, largely due to several extremely useful technology devices that made things safer, more fun, and less stressful.

I use a cheap Garmin GPS for navigation, depth readings, tides and currents, and even as a fish-finder that tells me when to drop a hook in the water for dinner. I get weather and news on my iPhone, including real-time radar maps that show the movement of thunderstorms in my area. I have a VHF radio for emergencies, and of course use the cell phone as a back-up. When my wife and kids came to spend a few days on the boat, we watched movies on my laptop before bedtime.

All of these devices have limitations and occasional glitches, but together they enable me to spend weeks at a time out on the water, with a much higher level of safety and comfort than would have been possible even ten years ago. They’re not luxury items (my boat is a lot closer to a vintage floating RV than a racing yacht), and for less than the cost of a plane ticket to Florida I can feel reasonable well equipped for cruising around Long Island waters.

Incidentally, I’m meeting quite a lot of older sailors out on the water, and it occurs to me that emerging technologies are making sailing much more accessible for older individuals than it used to be. With all the mechanical winches, electronics, and automated furling systems that come on most boats today, it’s a hobby that is increasingly an option for people with limited strength and agility. And if you use the Internet to search for used boats, you can get some pretty good deals out there!

Secondly, I just found this excellent video of Brooklyn-based author Clay Shirky explaining how many people who used to be couch-potato television addicts are now putting their time into more cognitively stimulating Web-based activities, like editing Wikipedia pages.

I’m already reading Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody, and I haven’t had a TV in my house for many years, so maybe he’s preaching to the converted in my case. But I suspect he’s right that the Web is more engaging and interactive than traditional TV, and I have read some research that suggests cognitive stimulation can help older individuals keep their minds sharp and reduce late-life memory loss.

If Shirky is right, then the Web might be a tremendous boon to older computer users, especially if it leads to less TV watching and more engagement with online collaborations like Wikipedia and blogs.