88 Times a Day....Smartphones

[Harry P.]

Well, I guess somebody has to do it. Just glad it's not me! 

[SfanGoch]

"I you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b*****t."

   

Every profession follows that precept to a degree, some more than others.

[Rob Hall]

Well, I guess somebody has to do it. Just glad it's not me! 

The modern world runs on internet-enabled software...without software engineers, there would be no internet...no MCM forum...no online banking, no Revell website..no eBay...no phone apps..no Amazon.com.   I couldn't imagine what it would be like going to back to how it was around 1992 before the WWW and cell phones hit it big...( though I was on the internet back then in college, but was text-based and connections were much slower). 

 

[SfanGoch]

The modern world runs on software...without software engineers, there would be no internet...no MCM forum...no online banking, no Revell website..no eBay...no phone apps...would be a pretty dull place.   

Software engineers also made electronic fraud, identity theft, and oodles of other fun activities possible. Life is dull only if you allow yourself to be addicted to and controlled by the technology and, for one reason or another, you lose access or the ability to use it. Like I stated before, technology is great. BUT, there is no physical permanence to software and what it creates. It exists only in the abstract in the form of lines of code. You can't touch it. If your hard drive fizzes out, all that neat collection of electrons which constitute your life in the modern world is gone. Just playing devil's advocate, don't take it personally. 

[Crazy Ed]

The modern world runs on internet-enabled software...without software engineers, there would be no internet...no MCM forum...no online banking, no Revell website..no eBay...no phone apps..no Amazon.com.   I couldn't imagine what it would be like going to back to how it was around 1992 before the WWW and cell phones hit it big...( though I was on the internet back then in college, but was text-based and connections were much slower). 

 

       I've had the same e-mail address since '92 and yep most of us ran Pine under "Shell" accounts that were limited to Text. On Usenet Forums you'd get banned for any Personal promotion of a Commercial Business. The trick was to have a Friend ask a question that you as the business owner could answer . I had friends in the '70's that used 300 baud modems connected to Computers they build themselves on their home phones prior to the Internet. There's no doubt, the World had changed. As to your earlier statement that the world would be pretty dull without all the Online stuff I don't think so. Seems to me now with all the electronic distractions people are getting dull. Maybe it's selective memory but I sure don't recall being bored prior to the Internet and all the handheld devices. Heck you could have 8 people in a room talking to each other. Today put 8 people in a room and most aren't even looking at each other. So sure there's things today that have improved, but I don't know it they're all that much better.

[Rob Hall]

       I've had the same e-mail address since '92 and yep most of us ran Pine under "Shell" accounts that were limited to Text. On Usenet Forums you'd get banned for any Personal promotion of a Commercial Business. The trick was to have a Friend ask a question that you as the business owner could answer 

I remember using Pine for email and TRN for usenet news groups... I remember how slow dialup with CompuServe was in the 80s.    And those monster CRT monitors.   Definitely wouldn't want to go back to the olden days.    

Edited August 23, 2016 by Rob Hall

[Rob Hall]

Software engineers also made electronic fraud, identity theft, and oodles of other fun activities possible. Life is dull only if you allow yourself to be addicted to and controlled by the technology and, for one reason or another, you lose access or the ability to use it. Like I stated before, technology is great. BUT, there is no physical permanence to software and what it creates. It exists only in the abstract in the form of lines of code. You can't touch it. If your hard drive fizzes out, all that neat collection of electrons which constitute your life in the modern world is gone. 

That's why you have to back your stuff up to the cloud and external drives.     Been there, done that. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Rob Hall

[10thumbs]

My 1st PC for work, back in '91, had the big floppy drives for backups.  The next one a year later had the 3.5 types.  MS DOS though,  no way was I able to get at the info stored.

Finally, about '94, I changed over to Win 3.11 or something.  All the backups I religiously saved were even more useless.  What a pest.  Win 98 was a real breakthrough.  XP even better.  I had that one for the whole run, storage, backups and recovery went mostly fairly well.  Just the HDD's were wacky.  Lots of failures with those, lots of lost data, regardless of the name brand.  What a pita.

I'm hoping Win 7 and SSD's will have a longer life.  This notebook I use here has Win 10, and something is always delaying, maybe constant updating?  I've had it with Win 10, I want my Win7 notebook back.  This weekend I'm making the backwards move.

Edited August 24, 2016 by 10thumbs

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

I'm hoping Win 7 and SSD's will have a longer life.  This notebook I use here has Win 10, and something is always delaying, maybe constant updating?  I've had it with Win 10, I want my Win7 notebook back.  This weekend I'm making the backwards move.

I've been very happy with Win7, have an internal one terabyte backup drive (which is more than sufficient for what I use this old built-from-junk system for), but I understand 7 has an apparent limitation as to accessing all of a backup drive over 2TB or so, though it's fixable.

[peteski]

My 1st PC for work, back in '91, had the big floppy drives for backups.  The next one a year later had the 3.5 types.  MS DOS though,  no way was I able to get at the info stored.

My first computer used a standard portable cassette player to store programs.   It also came with 1k of memory, and an 8-bit 4MHz processor!  Memory was expandable to 64k!  Screen resolution was 256x192 pixels (monochrome) using regular TV set for a monitor.  That was Sinclair ZX81 (which I bought as a kit and put it together myself).   I added a dedicated thermal paper printer and a 300 baud modem. I used to call BBSs and I could read the words faster than the modem received them. Later I added on an aftermarket dual 5.25" floppy drive. Single-Sided/Single-Density.  Then I built a full-size keyboard and light pen for it which actually worked!  Those were fun times where you could fully understand the inner-workings of your computer.  I learned BASIC and Z80 machine languages on it.

Here is a British ad for it (I got mine in US).

 

Edited August 25, 2016 by peteski

[crazyrichard]

i have tattoos !! and i have a smartphone !!....i think i look at my smartphone 3 times max per day ..i scrapped the internet subscribsion .. and never use my phone for internet ..

my phone is to be in reach for my loved ones , to shoot pictures ...at home i use my pc a lot and go on the net a lot ..when not @ home i dont !

its like internet etc etc all the modern stuff is great ...but ....its getting out of control , like said people burry themself in their phone , where are the good old converations ...like at work taking a break , i see people share stupid movies , picture of strange stuff or jut dont talk and jut go into the virtual world ..

imo there hould be a healthy balance between a virtual life and your real life , use your hands , create something , leave a real footprint on this earth ...not jut in bits and bytes ...

and yes people use their phone in traffic , texting and what not , swerving in and out lanes ...and now we have the pokemon hype ...where does it stop lol

 

and this is maybe the best example > i'm a truckdriver , work at the company for 22 years now ...these days everything is computerized , if there is a problem like no internet or  system bug ..we all come to a stop , we cant help customers , there i no back up at all in the sence that they cant give out new orders to the trucks .

yes our trucks are online we have toutch screen diplays with gps , orders , navigation and phone all into one ..big brother is watching .. when i'm on the road and have no signal or the system is down i cant call , cant use navigation ..

its just all becoming so that if internet would die (lol hahaha) 90% of the world would collaps , we have no oldfashion backup to go back to..

 

ye i love tech and internet but up to a certain point , in a way i could easely go back to the old days and live happely ever after ...

 

Edited August 27, 2016 by crazyrichard

[10thumbs]

Hi Richard, yes high tech is good.  As a trucker, I'm sure you have daily incidents with dumb folks with the silly phone at their ear, instead of concentrating on the road and others too.

Greetings to Holland.

 

[Mike C]

My first computer used a standard portable cassette player to store programs.   It also came with 1k of memory, and an 8-bit 4MHz processor!  Memory was expandable to 64k!  Screen resolution was 256x192 pixels (monochrome) using regular TV set for a monitor.  That was Sinclair ZX81 (which I bought as a kit and put it together myself).   I added a dedicated thermal paper printer and a 300 baud modem. I used to call BBSs and I could read the words faster than the modem received them. Later I added on an aftermarket dual 5.25" floppy drive. Single-Sided/Single-Density.  Then I built a full-size keyboard and light pen for it which actually worked!  Those were fun times where you could fully understand the inner-workings of your computer.  I learned BASIC and Z80 machine languages on it.

Here is a British ad for it (I got mine in US).

 

I remember those although I never had one.

[Mike_G]

My first tech job was doing nightly backups on HP 2116B mainframes

[misterNNL]

I don't have a Smartphone,  no tattoos either, but that's another story.

Anyway, I heard on the news today, statistically, in Germany every citizen looks at the smartphone display 88 times a day!

Hardly anyone just walks downtown anymore without the silly thing in their hands, eyes glued to the display.  Worse, while driving cars too.

Anyone here that does not have one? 

88 times a day,  how many times do you think you'll have a peek?

 

I do not have a cell phone and Don't want one.Imho they are invasive and in many instances addictive to some who seem to look at them constantly.Does everyone have to be in touch constantly?There are of course those who really need them like those involved in public service(God bless them for all they do)such as police,fire and rescue,medical professionals,etc.But give it rest people,unplug for a change and do something radical like actually write someone a letter.

Edited September 1, 2016 by misterNNL
Repeated a phrase

[10thumbs]

I do not have a cell phone and Don't want one.Imho they are invasive and in many instances addictive to some who seem to look at them constantly.Does everyone have to be in touch constantly?There are of course those who really need them like those involved in public service(God bless them for all they do)such as police,fire and rescue,medical professionals,etc.But give it rest people,unplug for a change and do something radical like actually write someone a letter.

Great!

My wife has a half sister, she still writes letters and post cards.  The wife will send an appropriate card on due occasion, with actual real written words.  Also, we both like writing something on a postcard while on vacation.....nothing about the weather though.

Hallmark cards really suck, my opinion.  I think they're the ones that started making America lazy and illiterate.  Even way back in the 70's, I'd get a Hallmark card on my Birthday or whatever, and nothing else but a lousy signature and a check.  I remember too, telling those folks to rather leave me alone than to further insult me. 

@Tom above, I understand you loud and clear.

[Ace-Garageguy]

...I'd get a Hallmark card on my Birthday or whatever, and nothing else but a lousy signature and a check....

As long as there's a check...and it clears...no problem.  

Edited September 2, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[misterNNL]

My number of my gearhead model building friends some of which are co-founders of the NNL,have been on the receiving end of my hand written letters many with encased in hand decorated envelopes that I might spend 2 days making the artwork for.Anything hand written is almost a lost art form.Back in the MPC contest days Tim Boyd and I would exchange letters with sketches and ideas on legal size paper some if which were over 10 pages long.Those were special times!

I don't have a Smartphone,  no tattoos either, but that's another story.

Anyway, I heard on the news today, statistically, in Germany every citizen looks at the smartphone display 88 times a day!

Hardly anyone just walks downtown anymore without the silly thing in their hands, eyes glued to the display.  Worse, while driving cars too.

Anyone here that does not have one? 

88 times a day,  how many times do you think you'll have a peek?

 

I do not have a cell phone and Don't want one.Imho they are invasive and in many instances addictive to some who seem to look at them constantly.Does everyone have to be in touch constantly?There are of course those who really need them like those involved in public service(God bless them for all they do)such as police,fire and rescue,medical professionals,etc.But give it rest people,unplug for a change and do something radical like actually write someone a letter for a change.

[Ace-Garageguy]

But give it rest people,unplug for a change and do something radical like actually write someone a letter for a change.

Knowing how to "write" has been universally declared to be obsolete.  

[misterNNL]

Knowing how to "write" has been universally declared to be obsolete.  

We are on vacation right now with friends one of whom is an elementary school teacher.She confirms that cursive writing is nearly dead in public schools with a hand full of her fellow teachers still encouraging it for their students.I am of the personal opinion that we may be raising generations of children whose socially interactive skills stops at their thumbs.

[signguy2108]

Knowing how to "write" has been universally declared to be obsolete.  

And add! I went in a store the other day and spent $4.88, handed the young checker a 5 dollar bill, she had to count my 12 cents on her fingers...twice!,  then apologized because her electronic cash register was offline.

[TFchronos]

I believe it, everywhere you turn folks are looking a smart phone.

Don't have one myself and I'm 26 haha. I prefer to stay focused on the task at hand and paying attention to what's around me when I'm out and about.

 

Edited September 4, 2016 by TFchronos

[cowboy rich]

And add! I went in a store the other day and spent $4.88, handed the young checker a 5 dollar bill, she had to count my 12 cents on her fingers...twice!,  then apologized because her electronic cash register was offline.

I can believe it, just imagine what would have happened if you gave her $5.08.

[signguy2108]

I can believe it, just imagine what would have happened if you gave her $5.08.

Yea Richard, how things have changed. Back in '71 I got expelled from school for 3 days because someone told on me for having a small calculator in my locker! Now you better have one with you!

[10thumbs]

.... personal opinion that we may be raising generations of children whose socially interactive skills stops at their thumbs.

Tom, that's an interesting point of view.  My opinion, we're confronted daily with, in my opinion, seemingly unintelligent young people quite often.  I'm speaking here in Germany, not in US.

Probably similar though. 

The parents that have well paid jobs can afford to send their kids to very expensive and elite schools, this starts at elementary level.  These are the future elite of Europe.  Middle class, take your pick....insurance agent, carpenter or mechanic, bank or legal secretary, small self employed shop owners, regular working class folks....no way can they afford to have their kids attend a decent school anymore.

Instead, my opinion, the lesser affluent kids have their heads down while walking a straight line through paradise, and prefer playing social games.

Kids from families better off , better education, better view of life and it's dangers....better education....don't do it like this.  Plus, they are actually able to communicate!  My German is quite fluent, also in dialects, yet these kids talk to me in excellent English.  They can communicate eye to eye!  Love it.