[elky] Re: Got a smart phone
- From: Mary McCarthy <printces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:10:24 -0700
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
Other related posts:
