I'll be the first to admit that through this blog, I probably tend to be a little critical of technology. However, there are so many ways that it has enhanced our lives.
As much as I disdain it sometimes as it keeps us virtually tethered to it, I cannot imagine a world without the Internet. This would be unfathomable for me.
During the past few months, I have been going through some processes in my life which have required me to understand our family law system. Honestly, the amount of resources out there is just amazing. I don't know how much hundreds of hours were spent researching the law, the process and existing cases online. I can't imagine how this could have been done before. I guess "back in the day", one really did have to depend on a lawyer to do all of this footwork. Either that or I guess that one had to make specific trips to a legal or reference library. Still - just manually finding the information without a search engine - can you imagine?
One side note though and this dovetails into one of my thoughts from a previous blog. That being that one has to be very careful about what information is found on the Internet. Question EVERYTHING that you see and get confirmation. I actually ran into a situation just a couple of days before my filing date where my whole case just about came crumbling down around my knees for just this reason. As part of my research, I had determined which forms to fill out and I found one of the forms through a search engine, downloaded it and filled it out. I actually called the courthouse later to confirm as I had a sneaking suspicion and I was right - that form was no longer valid - and if I had proceeded to the courthouse with that form - well - it probably would have been disasterous.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
David-On-Demand...Just When You Thought We Had Reached the Ultimate Lunacy
Alright, I don't even know where to begin with this one. My mind just swims with ideas on "what is wrong with this picture". A tech-enabled tech-geekster wants to go to Cannes. His boss says that the only way that he'll send him there is if he somehow sets up technology so that they can stream live everything that he is doing (within modest limits of course!), but the kicker here....is that his Twitter followers must be allowed to tell David what to do and David has to do it.
Umm - okay....there's some pretty obvious big gaps on how practical this is. I'm not even going to insult anyone's intelligence by trying to rationalize this - I'm sure that it must be pretty self-evident.
That having been said, I will try to follow-up on this during and after this week long Twitter-fest to see if I'm right that this just isn't such a good idea on so many different levels.
Umm - okay....there's some pretty obvious big gaps on how practical this is. I'm not even going to insult anyone's intelligence by trying to rationalize this - I'm sure that it must be pretty self-evident.
That having been said, I will try to follow-up on this during and after this week long Twitter-fest to see if I'm right that this just isn't such a good idea on so many different levels.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
eReaders and the Information Age
eReaders /drool
In one of my earlier blogs, I pooh-poohed the eReader technology. There are a few things about them that I don’t like, but as I see more and more people using them, the more intrigued I am. As someone that reads a lot – and from a portability point of view – there are some real advantages to having content on an electronic device.
As I read the latest Stephen King 1000+ book in bed last night, I thought to myself that the physical size and weight of a book does impact on its readability. Quite often, I will tuck a book into my notebook bag and this is my casual reading at lunch or on the. However, I just can’t justify lugging around a 1,000 page book back and forth every day. This is one of those cases where having a small and light eReader would definitely be a good thing.
The other thing too is the “shiny factor”. I know that quite often, my posts focus on how one shouldn’t make technology purchasing decisions based on what is new. But gosh, the geeky part of me thinks that it is just almost too cool to resist. I love the thought at being able to click on hyperlinks in a book, or perhaps to highlight a word and have a dictionary pop up.
However, I think that there is one advantage that I had never considered. Publishing books has traditionally been in the realm of the rich and famous in the past, at least in terms of mass distribution. Although there are many vanity publishers, and the price has come down, it still requires a financial commitment to get a book published. The thing that people don’t consider is that writing a book is usually just part of the equation. To a certain extent, a writer should write for himself, but the harsh reality for most authors is that maybe there isn’t an expectation, but certainly a faint hope, of sales. Using a vanity publisher only addresses one issue – the creation of the book. The problem then is what to do with the boxes of books?
Where the advent of eReaders may have a significant advantage is that this opens up a whole new world for these self-publishers. Not only can they be in complete control of the production of their material with minimal costs, but there are also a myriad of opportunities available for them to market their material online. As the use of eReaders becomes more prevalent, I expect that the material for eBooks will as well.
Some make ask why I consider this to be an advantage and to answer this, let’s take go to the past.
It is true that the invention of the printing press opened up new doors. However, as this was an extremely expensive proposition, what this meant is that literally only the truly rich – the elite of society – were able to publish books. What does this mean to society? Quite simply, it means that the vast majority of the reading material available to the general public was published and controlled by society’s elite. Not only was their no room for conflicting opinions or alternative views, but there was no opportunity for those to present diverse opinions.
This glass ceiling of publishing has absolutely been shattered and this gives everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions.
However, like anything else, everything has its costs and benefits. The disadvantage of this ability to self-publish is that it not only floods society with exponentially more material to sift through, but it also contributes to what I call the “Wikipedia effect”. This being that just because an article is published on Wikipedia, does not make this a fact and the net result of this is that we all have more due diligence to determine what is valid and what is not.
In this digital age, we are all “experts”. We need to take everything we read with a grain of salt and challenge everything. That having been said, I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing. I think that technology as a whole has made us too lazy to think sometimes. Think back to the store clerk that needed a calculator to figure out the change due from a $10 bill on a $9.28 payment. Thinking is never a bad thing.
/end drool
In one of my earlier blogs, I pooh-poohed the eReader technology. There are a few things about them that I don’t like, but as I see more and more people using them, the more intrigued I am. As someone that reads a lot – and from a portability point of view – there are some real advantages to having content on an electronic device.
As I read the latest Stephen King 1000+ book in bed last night, I thought to myself that the physical size and weight of a book does impact on its readability. Quite often, I will tuck a book into my notebook bag and this is my casual reading at lunch or on the. However, I just can’t justify lugging around a 1,000 page book back and forth every day. This is one of those cases where having a small and light eReader would definitely be a good thing.
The other thing too is the “shiny factor”. I know that quite often, my posts focus on how one shouldn’t make technology purchasing decisions based on what is new. But gosh, the geeky part of me thinks that it is just almost too cool to resist. I love the thought at being able to click on hyperlinks in a book, or perhaps to highlight a word and have a dictionary pop up.
However, I think that there is one advantage that I had never considered. Publishing books has traditionally been in the realm of the rich and famous in the past, at least in terms of mass distribution. Although there are many vanity publishers, and the price has come down, it still requires a financial commitment to get a book published. The thing that people don’t consider is that writing a book is usually just part of the equation. To a certain extent, a writer should write for himself, but the harsh reality for most authors is that maybe there isn’t an expectation, but certainly a faint hope, of sales. Using a vanity publisher only addresses one issue – the creation of the book. The problem then is what to do with the boxes of books?
Where the advent of eReaders may have a significant advantage is that this opens up a whole new world for these self-publishers. Not only can they be in complete control of the production of their material with minimal costs, but there are also a myriad of opportunities available for them to market their material online. As the use of eReaders becomes more prevalent, I expect that the material for eBooks will as well.
Some make ask why I consider this to be an advantage and to answer this, let’s take go to the past.
It is true that the invention of the printing press opened up new doors. However, as this was an extremely expensive proposition, what this meant is that literally only the truly rich – the elite of society – were able to publish books. What does this mean to society? Quite simply, it means that the vast majority of the reading material available to the general public was published and controlled by society’s elite. Not only was their no room for conflicting opinions or alternative views, but there was no opportunity for those to present diverse opinions.
This glass ceiling of publishing has absolutely been shattered and this gives everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions.
However, like anything else, everything has its costs and benefits. The disadvantage of this ability to self-publish is that it not only floods society with exponentially more material to sift through, but it also contributes to what I call the “Wikipedia effect”. This being that just because an article is published on Wikipedia, does not make this a fact and the net result of this is that we all have more due diligence to determine what is valid and what is not.
In this digital age, we are all “experts”. We need to take everything we read with a grain of salt and challenge everything. That having been said, I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing. I think that technology as a whole has made us too lazy to think sometimes. Think back to the store clerk that needed a calculator to figure out the change due from a $10 bill on a $9.28 payment. Thinking is never a bad thing.
/end drool
Unlimited WiFi Access at Starbucks?
Starbucks has announced is now they're offering unlimited WiFi. But...but...but...now, you get free WiFi for 2 hours. Is that not sufficient? Are there people who go to Starbucks and hang there all day. To answer my own question - yeah - I'm sure there are, but this cowboy ain't one of them. Probably the most that I've ever used up of my 2h allotment is perhaps 30min or so.Friday, June 4, 2010
Pier Pressure
Remember the "good old days" when we were kids. We did something because someone told us too. Our parents responded with "if they told you to jump off a pier - would you"?
Lady down in the US is suing Google Maps. Apparently she has a smart phone and used it to access Google Maps to get walking instructions from Point A to Point B. The map told her to...walk right across a busy multi lane road without proper sidewalks or pedestrian controls. The lemming that she is, she blithely and obliviously crosses the road and...yes...gets hit by a car. Somehow, this is Google's fault? Goodness gracious, how did she ever make it to adulthood if she was not capable of formulating a logical thought such as "it is REALLY a good idea to cross the street"?
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The Hidden Cost of Technology
For the past week or so, I’ve been struggling with a topic for this month. This morning, I was talking to someone on the phone and the topic got around to a cordless phone set that I was looking at using at home. The only problem with it is that the battery doesn’t hold a charge. My first thought was that I could just buy a new rechargeable battery. However, seeing that it’s a two handset combo and that both batteries were in question, I thought to myself that it would probably be cheaper to toss both of the handsets and the base – that the cost of a new phone would probably be not much more than buying 2 new batteries.
As soon as these words came out of my mouth, I realized the whole fundamental problem with technology; it is based to be thrown out. It is clearly designed to be obsolete, leading us to buy the newest and greatest every few years.
For those of us that have purchased computers, stop and think about how many “old and slow” computers you have at home – that are collecting dust because they don’t meet the needs of technology anymore. I know that for myself (in a three person household!), I have 1 notebook and 2 desktops that are currently being used. However, I also have 1 other “older” notebook and two other desktops that no longer meet my needs.
This follows in quite closely to my previous article on chasing the carrot of technology and that’s what we do.
The advances in technology encourage us to dispose of our hardware and software.
The true hidden cost of technology that is not considered nearly enough is what do we do with all of this hardware that we no longer use?
Here at work, our property managers had a “used electronics drive” to encourage their tenants to dispose of old hardware in special containers so that they could be recycled properly during the month of April.
I noticed a memo up in the kitchen the other day from the property managers saying that they had acquired 13,000 pounds of hardware in one month! That is 6.5 tons of hardware that thankfully is being diverted from landfill areas and being recycled.
The real question that begs to be answered is if there are 13,000 pounds in the GTA that is being recycled, then how much hardware is NOT being recycled – and that’s a scary answer.
What components are sitting in landfills and as they rust and corrode? What is being released into our environment?
I recall back in the…mid 90’s…I think. America Online was famous for sending out unsolicited CDs to encourage people to sign up with AOL. Without any exaggeration, I’d say that I had received at least a couple of dozen CDs in the mail or in magazines. Did they all get recycled? Based on this being in the 90’s – probably not, I’m afraid. I would think that it is probably a very conservative estimate to suggest that there are perhaps 1,000,000 AOL CDs in landfills. According to many ecological assessments, it will take approximately 500 years for a CD to fully decompose!
Another case in point is ink-jet printers. I am of the opinion that ink-jet printers are a prime contributor to this problem. They are so cheap and the ink itself is so expensive that should one have any difficulties at all with the hardware, the sad thing is that it’s probably economically better to just throw out said inkjet printer and purchase a new one instead of getting it fixed.
Same problem with cell-phones. My concern with cell-phones is that marketing plans actively encourage us to buy new cell phones when we “fall out of love with our old phone”. How do companies justify encouraging us to throw out something just because it isn’t new and shiny anymore?
The “theory” is that this is something that our government is concerned with, but the reality is that I’m just not sure. The Ontario government does charge an environmental disposal fee when new hardware is purchased. However, according to their legislations, they charge a grand total of $7.80 when a new computer is purchased. Is this really sufficient when it comes to the point in time when the hardware is recycled? Perhaps it is, maybe I just haven’t done enough research (I haven’t) to be able to offer an opinion on the efficacy of the program, but something just smells to me.
Let’s not even talk about the impact on the environment to physically do this recycling. How much gas is used to transport 11,000 pounds of hardware to a recycling depot? How much smoke is generated in the recycling plant? What chemicals do they use? How much of the hardware is actually recycled?
This whole issue of recycling our hardware and software, very clearly a significant hidden cost of the technology.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)