[elky] Re: Got a smart phone

  • From: Ray Buck <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:20:04 -0600

On 3/28/2010 6:03 PM, Dann Keller wrote:
I couldn't agree more with what Mary said. Just because someone thinks up a new app doesn't mean we all need it. The hype on TV especially for some of these things is to sell product. Selling unneeded things to people has been part of the sales game since the age of the travelling peddler.
I couldn't agree more. I hate being "marketed to" which (along with the pap and drivel of 99.9 percent of tv content) is why I don't watch the toob.
Fad products (think: hula hoop, ChiaPet, pet rock, workout machines, treadmills, etc.) are among those things that are most heavily pushed on tv...oh, I forgot the ads for get rich quick scams, slicing and dicing machines, ad nauseum. Since they have no intrinsic value, the audience of sheeple have to be "sold" on the idea that they "must have" this product, just as you point out, in the manner of the traveling peddler or "medicine show."
I bought a low-end laptop and still don't need 95% of what it can do or its capacity. So what? I use what I need and don't worry about the rest. Same for the cell phone; I make calls (and text only because our granddaughter texts us when we're traveling.)
Well, I'd like to think that the things (well, with some exceptions) I buy are useful and convenient. I have text messaging disabled on my phone cuz the price of each text message has quadrupled over the last 5 years, from $.05 to $0.20 each...unless I buy "the package deal."
I know that some people use texting like email, and that's fine, although I don't use it. With the "Droid", I can access email just as if I was at my desk or using my laptop. Time will tell if this is a good thing or not.
None of us can keep up with the pace of technology; so be it. I heard recently that most general practioner doctors were at least five years behind the curve on new knowledge in medicine, but at least my doctor doesn't use blood draining to "release the bad humors that afflict my soul".
That 5 year figure for doctors' technology lag is kinda scary, but even worse is the role of the pharmaceutical sales industry. When considered together, it puts the "drug pusher" into the position of teaching medicine to the physician. And since there's a huge profit motive, the whole system gets twisted out of shape. How many drug addicts have oxycodone (and its time-release form, Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortab) created? How many deaths? Treatment by bleeding or leeching seems benign and possibly beneficial in comparison.
Other areas of technology are as scary. Consider Toyota's mess. From what I gather, the problem could very well be in a poorly-written chunk of code in the ECU that controls the throttle-by-wire system. Rick could probably write an epistle on aviation mishaps due to software/high-tech hardware. Since I've been on a Jefferson Airplane kick (the remastered albums are orders of magnitude better than the original recordings, especially when it comes to Jack Casady's bass...absolutely ossum) I'm reminded of the sarcastic lyric, "science is mankind's brother" in "Plastic Fantastic Lover" and the song, "Woman with a Greasy Heart."
I'm thinking that Ray does more in a day than I do in a week; I can live with that and I wish he'd cut back a little for his sake. I'm thinking maybe I ought to join Frank back in the hills (or at least venture up in the hills behind Mary or Rick; really nice country back there.)
I dunno about that level of productivity, but I've had to admit to myself that I'm a workaholic and that I have a terrible habit of starting projects and then letting them sit half-finished when I go running off in all directions to start more projects. I've found that it's hard for me to "relax" by doing things other than sitting at the computer. I otta get a life.
>From my standpoint personal computers and wireless phones are still conveniences to make live easier, not to complicate it. 

Dan
This was the reason behind the purchase of the Android phone. Unfortunately, so far it's been a case of having to get a pilot's license to fly a paper airplane. When this need for a huge dose of learning is coupled with the problem my friend mentioned about being unable to read and comprehend stuff...well, it's like Tommy, "that deaf, dumb and blind kid" trying to learn how to play pinball by sense of smell.
Well, if ya detect a mushroom cloud from the Taylorsville, Ut area, you'll prolly have a good idea that I either pushed the wrong sequence of buttons on the phone or I decided to nuke it in the microwave oven. 

r



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:10:24 -0700
From: printces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [elky] Re: Got a smart phone

    I wouldn't give up. I think it's kinda like kids in school - they
    see that this kid has this and that kid has that, so your kids
    think they should have both.  Most of us don't need every gadget,
but it increases sales a lot when one gadget does for everyone. No phone should have a 160 page manual in multiple languages. I 
    have a cell phone.  I use to to make phone calls.  that's it.  I
    find having the numbers programmed in is very helpful, but it
    means I don't know anyone's phone number anymore.  I don't think
    anyone is expected to know how to use every feature on every gadget.
I'm finding this new computer immensely frustrating. fiddled most of yesterday with photos. Dan disabled the mouse pad at the bottom because I kept hitting it as I typed. wheeeee
I think we all need to accept that we don't need to use or understand every feature. That its there for someone who does have that unique need.
keep taking those vitamins, but I think alzheimers is either environmental or hereditary. My mother was dingy, but she always was, it just got more extreme as she aged. what would have been considered a psych disorder when she was 30 was suddenly Alzheimers because she was older. She also gobbled calcium tablets like candy back in the 60's. Turns out they had lead in them. And cooked in aluminum pans scraping off the aluminum into the food every time she stirred it. Then along came non-stick coatings and she scraped those down to bare metal, too.
I also think if you keep your brain busy it won't wear out. the old "use it or lose it." I'm more worried about keeping up with you, than you losing it. Everyone forgets things (too much crap in the storage facility and you can't find anything). I'm amazed you do as much as you do and have come so far in the few years since you picked up your old camera and headed out to the track.
and even our son who grew up on the net has to go searching for answers to my computer problems sometimes, so don't think you are supposed to know everything. That's why we have gadgets - it's a vicious circle. 

I think if you can use a gadget to do what you need done, that's enough.

take a break.

Mary



    As I wrote a while back, I decided to get a "smart phone."  I
    dunno...maybe it wasn't such a smart idea.  The learning curve is
    approximately vertical.  It's a Motorola Cliq.  It's an "Android"
    phone which means that it 1) isn't a Mac (good thing,) 2) runs an
    OS based on a Linux kernel and for numbers three thru
    forty-eleven, has a bunch of applications available for it, many
    of which are open-source (this makes a big difference to me over
    an iPhone) and this one has a discrete keyboard, but much of the
    control is done with touchpad control on the LCD screen and
    there's a lot more.

    The main reason I decided to buy it is to have a way of showing my
    photography to prospective customers and to use as a tether, in
    essence a cellular or 3G modem for my laptop instead of that awful
    thing I used last year on the salt that required a reboot every 2
hours, generally when a real fast car or bike was making a run. I've been working on slide shows and screen savers and I'd like to 
    be able to show those as well.

    I don't need the GPS (I just bought a Garmin for the Burb) or the
    camera (who needs a 5 megapixel camera when ya got one camera with
    10 and another with 18?)

    After messing with it most of the evening, I was able to make an
    update to my FaceBook account from the phone, through the laptop,
    via my local wifi net, through the linux server, and over the DSL
    line.  I think I forgot "over the river and through the woods."

    And, strangely enough, I can make phone calls with it.

    But the rest of the stuff...holy shit.  I've been able to connect
    it as a USB device and copy files to it, but once they're
    "there"...well, I have yet to figure out how to access 'em from
    the phone's touch screen controls.

    Here's where I find myself in a quandary.  For most of my adult
    life, I've been relatively close to the bleeding edge of
    technology...not exactly out in front, but well-acquainted enough
    to help other folks who seem to have trouble with technology...one
    of my friends refers to himself as a "technotard."  I've always
    told myself that I'd never allow said self to get to that
    "technologically-disadvantaged" state.  But this frikkin phone
    makes me wonder.

    I didn't grow up playing Nintendo games.  Hell, I was writing
    simple games on a TI-99 when they first came out, then on a
    Commodore-64 and had one of the first 286 chip/hard drive-based
    PCs available.  But my "learning experience" came from the top
    down rather than the bottom up like the kids who can handle a
    remote controller before they can walk.  Well, maybe not that
much, but you get the point. It's like the "dub wheels" thing. It's my opinion that they became popular because they looked (in 
    the beginning) like Hot Wheels cars, which became popular shortly
    befor my children were born.  I guess you could say that I wasn't
    "socialized with  advanced technology" at the root level.

    So here I sit with a whole buncha highly technical stuff (an old
    acquaintance once called me a "technophile" and I countered by
    calling him a Luddite), but still I feel like I'm just on the
    event horizon of losing touch with current stuff.  I have this
    fear that once I lose touch, I'll be sucked into the black hole of
    old-fogey-itis.  Then I'll never get back.  But is is worth it?  I
    think it is to me at this time, because I need to use technology
    to further the photography and web development stuff, since I have
    no idea if I'll have an income when I hit the age of 65, 2.5 years
    from now.  I guess this old dog's gotta learn new tricks.

    However, this whole concept was shaken when a friend of mine
    (nearing the age of 80) said that he could no longer read
    instruction manuals; he couldn't even enjoy reading a novel
    because by the time he got to chapter 3, he couldn't remember what
    had happened in chapter 1.  Now this guy has a very good
    education, worked in a field that required him to stay current
with advances in many fields and in general is a very sharp dude. But this statement was like a kick to the gut. Is this what lies 
    ahead for me?  A complete loss of something that's been an
    underlying theme for virtually my entire life?  That scares me
    much more than death.  Hell, I've been terrified of Alzheimer's
    Disease for a long time (as has my sister, who just turned 60) and
    I'm even trying some new "supplements" in hopes of either staving
    off or reversing the memory problems I already have as the result
    of heart disease.  So not only do I have the fear of AD, but now
    the statement that my friend made has added another brick in the
    wall, so to speak.
I guess the only thing that can be done is to keep on keepin on. Maybe I'll wander away from my house one day and never come 
    back...except for the fact that I now have 2 GPS devices.  :)  I
    may not know where I am, but I'll never be lost...or vice-versa.

    Ok.  I need something to soothe me into blissful slumber.  I think
    a NASCAR race on my DVR will act very nicely as a soporific.  But
    even that's high tech: satellite HDTV, digital video recorder on a
    48" screen with stereo sound routed through an amp to external
    speakers.  Maybe I otta pick up those drum sticks Rick D mentioned
    the other day and go find an animal skin to stretch over a wooden
    frame and return to the stone age through percussion.

    I give up.

    r
-- Sent from my Dreadnought using that barely tolerable Thunderbird email program 



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