The Drug with a Plug

My usual disclaimer before I start this month’s article. First of all, I am just as guilty as anyone else on this one….

The other day, I was watching “A Christmas Story” with my daughter (yes – I know, it’s a wee bit early for Christmas movies but we are Christmas junkies - we can’t help it). The scene near the beginning shows Ralphie with his nose pressed against the department store window, marveling at the Red Rider rifle on display. “Kids”, I snorted to myself with no small amount of disdain.

The next morning, I’m going to work and walk past the local electronics store and my pace slows, and then stops. Here I am, Rick/Ralphie admiring the bevy of shiny electronics/the Red Rider Rifle.

The more things change – the more they stay the same.

It then dawned on me that I’m not the only one; this love of the shiny new electronic devices isn’t isolated to me, my gender or even my generation. My daughter constantly complains about how “uncool” her cell phone is now; to the extent that she was considering asking for that to be her main Christmas present, although there’s nothing wrong with her existing one.

This article could have easily been entitled “The Modern Age Lure of the Sirens”. In Greek mythology, the sirens were the prophets that lured mariners with their looks and their sounds of music. They would entice and enthrall the sailors, beckoning them to the sharp and deadly rocks to which the sailors were oblivious and totally doomed to smash upon.

The more things change – the more they stay the same.

As evidenced by my fascination with the latest and greatest, I know that I’m as much to blame as everyone else, but sometimes I think that we need to take a step back and think to ourselves, “This new electronic device that I’m considering, is it a NEED or a WANT?” I think that a good portion of the time, it ends up being a want.

I’m scared to think of how many people have bought a Blackberry just because of the cool factor when perhaps it wasn’t necessary. Not that I’m picking on Blackberry, I think that cell phones in general are quite prone to this phenomenon. There was actually a marketing campaign a little while ago where the vendor’s sale pitch was “when you fall out of love with your old phone”.

From strictly a business perspective, this marketing of new and shiny makes a whole lot of sense. Much as the case with planned obsolescence, if we as consumers hold on to our electronics for years upon years, then as the market becomes more mature and increasingly saturated, then sales will plummet. Unless the corporate world can innovate to the extent that we are forced to upgrade and/or replace, then they will do whatever they can to convince us that the new shiny is better than the old scuffed.

Honestly, I’m just as prone to this as anyone else. When I discovered that my (old) cell phone didn’t take too kindly to be being left in a puddle of water overnight, I was faced with the decision of “what do I replace it with”. Sniffing around Bell Mobility, I could have gone cheaper, gone simpler, but the lure of the sirens was just way too much for me. Besides, I’m quite enjoying my new smart phone. However, I’ll be the first to admit that it has a ton of apps and features on it that I probably will never use.

Maybe I’ll eventually learn how to load MP3s on it so that it can act as a replacement for my crappy old iPod that I’m resorting to using as I’ve misplaced my iPod touch. I know that I’ve accidently taken many pictures of myself with my phone’s front-facing camera. I am currently resisting the thought of a NEW iPod touch (4th gen)…for now…but I can’t promise that I won’t be blogging about how cool my new iPod Touch is in the near future.

WikiLeaks: The Good, The Bad, or the Ugly?

Me being the kind of guy I am, I generally like to have an opinion on any specific issue.  I'm not fool-hardy to think that I'm always right, nor even mostly right for that matter.  I've always kind of accepted the fact that sometimes my opinions might be wishy-washy, that I'm not quite convinced one way or the other, but at least I take a general sense of comfort that I am drawing a (tentative) line in the sounds - somewhere, somehow.

However, now and then, there are issues that pop up, and I can honestly see how it's a either a very good thing or just generally a bane to society.  It frustrates the hell out of me in that that toe is never at any point, it always vacillates - ne'er a stand to make!

WikiLeaks, this whole CONCEPT of WikiLeaks is frustrating the hell out of me in that it is one of these issues.

Quite often in the past, I've been highly critical of WikiLeaks as they disclose information under the thin veil of "freedom of information" that quite literally puts peoples, families and clans lives at risk.  Specifically, there have been documented cases where WikiLeaks has intentionally released the names of informers in the "War Against Terror".  The publication of the names of these people that are proponents for democracy and freedom of speech quite literally puts their lives at risk.  Dissidents aren't generally thought well of in those areas.

There is that, and there is the good that WikiLeaks provides, the objective release of information for the sake of making it public.  Without this approach to the ultimate form of journalism, mounds of documents that were once classified are now available for public consumption.  Even to the extent where the "heroes of democracy" (the western military that is "keeping peace" overseas) are having some pretty despicable acts disclosed.

One of the very basic tenets of democracy is that there is some form or level of free speech.  However, like many other topics, it's not necessarily an absolute.

Now, if I could figure out which side of line to put my tootsie on, I'd be all set!

Stupid SPAM 101

Same SPAM message as of my previous post. Now, if you're going to pretend that you know who I am, to personalize the email so that it doesn't appear as SPAM, there here's a HINT.

Before you send SPAM out, how about giving things a quick test, boys?!? This SPAM was personalized to "me" as follows:

Dear NOFIRSTNAME NOLASTNAME. Did someone not actually clue in that their mailing list didn't contain the full name, or were they just too stupid/incompetent to check the SPAM before it went out.

Hold the phone. There's no chance that I don't exist - is there? Is this society's subtle way of telling me to take a long walk off a short pier? I DO have a first name and a last name - I'm sure of it. I was even blessed with TWO middle names, so they can stick THAT in their pipe and smoke it.

Foot Rub, Mammogram?

Yes - that is EXACTLY what I thought when I saw my SPAM this morning with that subject line. I'll have to admit though, their little plan worked as I just couldn't help myself to see what an earth the SPAM could be about. Turns out that it's for one of those "we'll send you whatever meds you want" sort of thing. Foot Rubs. Mammogram. Is this the "new" one stop shopping? What's next? I'm almost scared to find out. Now...if only I can get some mind scrub happening so that I can erase this visual of a woman getting both of these things done at the same time, that would be great!

Facebook - The New Math?

In an article today that was talking about some changes to how Facebook uploads and displays photos, it makes mention that there are 100,000,000 photographs uploaded every day.  Every FREAKING day?!  I'm sure that they didn't just pull that number out of their ummm, collective wazzoo's to be somewhat polite? 

Now - according to Facebook, there are 500 million users.  First of all, I think it's actually much less.  My reason?  Because when you delete your Facebook, unless you know how to actually delete it, they just deactive it.  I would imagine in this case, they still count you as a user, even if you've been deactivated.  So - let's say that for the sake of argument, that there are 400 million active users, that 20% of them are deactivated accounts.  That sounds borderline reasonable to me.

What this would mean is that in one year, there would be 30 billion photographs uploaded.  That's a whack of photographs, isn't it?  What would work out to....let's see 30 billion divided by 400 million, carry they two, myltiply by 6.2...well - math was never my strong suit and I'm tired, so on average a whole heap of photographs uploaded each year.

Makes me wonder if Facebook is the Antichrist.  Did the bible actually SAY it was a person...???

The Invisible Tether

In some of my past articles and blog entries, I’ve talked about how one of my dislikes of technology is that there is a certain obsession to “keep in touch”; to remain tethered to technology. To a very large extent, I think that this is a big problem. This problem isn’t really so much an issue of technology, but rather it’s more about how we choose to use it.

For my readers that don’t know me, my friends and loved ones will tell you that I am just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to this obsession to stay connected. I’ll be the first to admit that there have been times in the past, where I’m lying in bed trying to go to sleep and then I think to myself that I should give my email a quick check – for no particular reason. It’s not like I was expecting an email, but it almost becomes a habit

What triggered this article was something that happened at work a little while back. I was in the men’s room and a gentleman walks in – talking away on his cell phone. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he proceeded to the stall and assumedly attended to his business. I was just totally flabbergasted as to what was so important that he couldn’t wait for until the phone call was over, or if the call to nature was particularly urgent, to say that he’d call back in a bit.

As I mentioned, I’ve written similar articles in the past. One of my biggest concerns with technology is that it’s a given that most of us are expected to be accessible. I read an article recently that from a business and legal perspective, that there’s an entire grey zone as it relates to “Blackberry Overtime”. As evidenced when you ride the subway, or attend a baseball game or even while at a theatre, people are instantly accessible via their Blackberry – connected to work – and always available. There are legal cases pending where employees are putting in for overtime where the premise of this overtime was that they were expected to be on call. The concept of 9-5 is something that is eroding.

However, this whole issue of staying connected with the workplace is more than just an issue of having our pager or cell phones turned on – just in case there is an emergency. This scenario is a passive one – one where the user of the communications device simply has it on, just in case there’s an important call or a support issue. For certain job functions, that’s a very reasonable requirement.

The real problem is that this concept of being accessible to the workplace after hours has mutated to also being an active problem. People aren’t just leaving their communications device turned on, they’re actively checking their emails – and you can bet that not only are they checking their email, but that will remind them of an (unrelated) email that they didn’t respond to. Oh yes, and then there’s that meeting that needed to be rescheduled. Oh – while I’m connected, I better write that email to Marketing about the new promotional materials. And so on, ad infinitum.

My dislike of the social implications or this 24/7 interaction is probably well documented for anyone that has read my articles. I guess that it’s different strokes for different folks, but I don’t understand the compulsion and need to tweet about the minutia of one’s life – about what kind of bagel I ate or to update my Facebook status to say how I’m feeling blah today.

On to the good.

There is no question that this invisible tether can be tremendously useful. It allows me to stay connected to my kids when I’m not there and it gives me a sense of comfort and security that I am accessible to them, should the need arise.

Although I have listed the disadvantages to this constantly wired world, it is a necessary evil (for lack of a better word). Without this accessibility, the information superhighway would be far less accessible and there have been numerous occasions where being able to browse the web from my smartphone or my iPod have benefitted me. From staying in touch with others when I was hospitalized, to being able to look up medical or legal information whenever I needed it, even for things as mundane as checking the address of a restaurant, or perhaps to see the next show time of a movie that I want to see.

To paraphrase Charlton Heston, you can only pry this technology from my cold, dead hands. But please, let’s start having some sanity and put some context back into when it is and when it isn’t appropriate to be accessing this tether.

Welcome to the WWW and P-mail

Interesting article today on a study in the UK that demonstrated how 'slow' rural broadband can be there. They attached a USB drive with a 300mb video file to a carrier pigeon and timed how long it took the pigeon to transport it 75 miles. It took the pigeon 1.25 hours. At the same time, the broadband transfer was ony 25% done, 'proof' that rural broadband was just too slow.

Yeah, perhaps 100-200kbps is a wee bit on the slow side, but this is probably a perfect example of how a study can be manipulated to prove a point. I'm quite sure before they setup the study, they did some estimates as to how big the file needed to be and how close the two points would be to achieve the desired results.

Afterwards, I had this vision of the 'new technology' where carrier pigeons (or owls ala Harry Potter) are used to transfer p-mail (pigeon-mail) through the WWW (World Wide Wing).

All that I will say that if this ever comes to fuition, then I will be making some serious investments in umbrella companies!