Smart Phones

[Smitty37]

Man has been around for thousands of years and about 135 years ago we invented telephones. About 65 years ago the first commercial mobile (if you could call them mobile) telephones were invented and about 39 years ago hand held cell phones were invented.

Today many of us act like that plastic electronic device is a permanent appendage attached to our person that we could not possibly get along without.

I have known people to start off on a trip only to come back because they "forgot" their cell phone.

One of my neighbors sits in his living room and talks to his friend across the street for an hour or two at a time rather than walk over and talk face-to-face.

People in checkout lines at Wally world share their dirty laundry with anyone who happens to be in hearing distance.

And now there is texting....I see kids walking side by side and texting rather than talking.

The other night 3 teenagers were killed because the driver was driving and texting at the same time - worse than driving and talking on a cell phone.

I don't text - don't have a device capable of it. I use my cell phone only when I want to make a long distance call because I don't have long distance on my house phone.

Now I am not a Neanderthal - I probably was "on-line" at work before most of you knew that personal computers or such things as internet existed. I tried AOL when 2400 baud was the fastest modem available. I went on-line as soon as local dial-up service became available (it was way too costly before that when I needed to make a long distance call at 10 cents a minute to dial in and you couldn't do much of anything in less than an hour). I had a cell phone in my car as soon as the service was available in our area. I had an 800 number all the while my kids were in college so they could call home free. All of those were useful tools - but I never felt the need to spend hours talking on the telephone....I had to do it at work sometimes but I didn't like it at all.

Going with that has been the greatest loss of privacy in the history of the world. Every call I make for whatever reason can become public knowledge. Every call I receive whether it's from someone I know or not can become public knowledge. My calls can be listened to by the government (or anyone else who wants to invest in the equipment) for any or no reason. Strangers can take pictures of me at any time with or without my knowledge and post them on the internet for all the world to see.... my where abouts can be tracked by following where my phone is...

And It is very difficult for me to find anyplace in the world where that can't happen.

Man is a social animal....but I wonder if we are that social. I understand that there is a lot of good associated with this technology but I wonder if we aren't going to discover one of these days that the "bad really outweighed the good in all of this".

Change has always been a part of human history and always will be, but I wonder if in the past 50 years we are not reaching a rate of change that is too fast for us to adjust and we're in a constant state of flux, which I personally think is not very good.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

I don't have a cell phone, cordless phone, ipod, ipad, facebook etc - and I'm just in my 30s. . I've seen how addicted people get to A. remaining constantly in contact with everyone they've ever said 'Hi' to, and B. rigourously updating their online facebook presence.

I don't need it!

Andrew

 

[PTsideshow]

Yesterday as the west bound mixed freight came thru town. 5 crossings north to south the engine had just signaled for the last south crossing. When it slowed and came to a stop, blocking the crossing on my street. Had to go 3/4 of a mile north to get across the tracks, to go to my parents. Coming back almost 2 hours later it still was blocking all the crossings.

So that told me that it had been a fatal encounter of car to train! Seems somebody was texting while driving. Went under the moving train, a newer tank car. The person died, there is some difference of opinion on the age and sex of the person. But they all agreed they when dead!

My silly neighbors son was just DWS as I cleaning up dishes window faces the side street I live on the corner DWS is (driving while stupid) He almost took out the fire plug on the corner as he rolled thru the stop sign and trying to turn the corner while looking and answering his smart phone! To bad the phone is smarter than he is. And he is mid 30's

I think that they should put this kind of thing on the news, with photo's rather than all the crap about the silly celebrities.
So remind your families of the danger!

 

[Smitty37]

I don't have a cell phone, cordless phone, ipod, ipad, facebook etc - and I'm just in my 30s. . I've seen how addicted people get to A. remaining constantly in contact with everyone they've ever said 'Hi' to, and B. rigourously updating their online facebook presence.

I don't need it!

Andrew

I knew there was something good about you....:biggrin:

 

[Smitty37]

I don't have a cell phone, cordless phone, ipod, ipad, facebook etc - and I'm just in my 30s. . I've seen how addicted people get to A. remaining constantly in contact with everyone they've ever said 'Hi' to, and B. rigourously updating their online facebook presence.

I don't need it!

Andrew

I have a cell phone --- have had one for about 10 years but until I discontinued long distance service on my house phone recently, it stayed in my truck and was used only for calling home when I traveled (we had a cabin with no phone service and my wife didn't always go with me - because of a heart condition she worrys a little about me being alone) It would have been used for emergency service also but I never needed that.

I would guess it hasn't had more than 30 or 40 calls made on it .... one of those every year is made to order service for another year.

 

[terryf]

Yip, but for all the bad and silly things people do with their mobiles there is also a lot of good. The mobile has saved countless lives and averted many more tragedies not to mention caught many criminals through the very tracking we despise.

In the old days, if you were alone and broke down, some kind fella would stop and help you - get some gas, have a tire fixed etc - I personally would be very sceptical of a samaritans assitance these days and would rather have the ability to call someone I know to come and asisst me. Opportunistic crime is on the rise, certainly where I live anyways.

You can't win em all. I'll take the good and blame the bad on humanity (or lack thereof)


On a side note Smitty, you have reminded me of my first experiences with computers and of course the internet. My first computer was a ZX 81 (I think) followed by a ZX Spectrum. Had to link to a small portable black and white TV. 1200 baud was all we had back then - think it was early 80's - 82 or 83 if memory serves! Thanks for the trip

 

[Smitty37]

Yip, but for all the bad and silly things people do with their mobiles there is also a lot of good. The mobile has saved countless lives and averted many more tragedies not to mention caught many criminals through the very tracking we despise.

In the old days, if you were alone and broke down, some kind fella would stop and help you - get some gas, have a tire fixed etc - I personally would be very sceptical of a samaritans assitance these days and would rather have the ability to call someone I know to come and asisst me. Opportunistic crime is on the rise, certainly where I live anyways.

You can't win em all. I'll take the good and blame the bad on humanity (or lack thereof)


On a side note Smitty, you have reminded me of my first experiences with computers and of course the internet. My first computer was a ZX 81 (I think) followed by a ZX Spectrum. Had to link to a small portable black and white TV. 1200 baud was all we had back then - think it was early 80's - 82 or 83 if memory serves! Thanks for the trip

Oh I'm not saying there is no good in all this stuff. I got my first personal computer in February 1981. I did have a disk drive but I got that one with no modem at all, 64K of RAM memory and "mass" storage was on a cassette.

 

[PenMan1]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

 

[Smitty37]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

 

[Monty]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

I remember when Tandy came out with the first personal computer in the early 70's. I believe it was 256K memory and had a cassette tape drive/storage.

 

[ctubbs]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

I bought that little punch to punch the notch in the other side of the 5 1/4 floppy so it could be turned over and doubled the capacity of the disk. My first machine was a Timex/Sinclair (SP) and I had to build the cotton picking keyboard. My first real one was the TI that loaded from casset tape. Dial up was way after BBS. My first IBM clone had one 5 1/4 floppy drive and 640K ram. Mr Gates told us all we would never need more ram than 640K and we all knew he would never lia about something like that.

Thank you Smitty, for this trip.
Charles

 

[Smitty37]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

I remember when Tandy came out with the first personal computer in the early 70's. I believe it was 256K memory and had a cassette tape drive/storage.

I seriously doubt 256K memory -- In 1981 when IBM started shipping PC's our minimum memory was 8 or 16 K (don't remember for sure) and MAX was 128K. The original early versions were usually more on the order of 2K some were less. On the other hand though there isn't solid agreement on what should be considered personal computers and what should be considered small business computers.....so it is hard to tell what it was.

 

[GoatRider]

I remember when Tandy came out with the first personal computer in the early 70's. I believe it was 256K memory and had a cassette tape drive/storage.

Early 70's would have been a lot less than 256K. It was in the late 70s when the commodore 64 came out with a whopping 64K! It was the 80s when Bill Gates said "nobody will ever need more than 640K".

 

[warthog]

I remember when all of that happened. When we went from a house phone with a party line on it to what we have now. Kids today would more than likely die if they knew they had to talk on a phone line with a party line attached to it. All of this technology is great if a person doesn't abuse it. But there in lies the problem. So is it such a great thing to have. In most cases I think not. One wonders if those who are responsible for designing these things...if they knew what would happen. The internet was and is still a thing of wonderment for me...even at my age...but I can also see where it would be a tool used for dastardly evils. Dang Smitty...you just reminded me how old an ole fart I am.

 

[Smitty37]

We didn't get a telephone until 1946 because where we lived before that the closest phone line was 1/4 mile away and before ww ii we didn't have the money to run the wire (customer would have to pay at that time it would have been 4 poles plus the wire) and during the war they just wouldn't do it for the "duration". In 1946 we moved to a different house and there was phone service 8 party line - we were lucky we only heard 4 of the rings, our was 3 shorts but we could pick up the phone and hear other folks talking from all of the other seven phones. While I was in the service the folks managed to get a private line but I think they had about a 1 year wait to get it and it almost doubled their phone bill.

Myself, my first phone we got a private line --- couldn't get anything else. But when we moved to out 3rd home we got the last private line available (almost had to go to a 2 party). But about a year and a half later they got everyone switched to private lines.

Little side note. From 1960 to 1962 I lived in a furnished room and my land lady had a desk phone that she had gotten in the early 1930s and it still worked perfectly.

 

[watch_art]

a bunch of old guys laughed at me today b/c I can't text. I'm 31 - they're all old enough to be my dad - and they laughed at me b/c I can't text. :biggrin:

so in return I'm calling them a bunch of old guys (yes they are members here).

but I agree - the whole cell phone growing out of your head thing is pretty sad.

I only carry mine on the road when I'm leaving town for a while. If I break down I need to call MY tow truck guy - not just whoever is close. I've been towed home from 40 miles away and was only charged $40. off topic I know - but others would have charged me $2-300 for the same tow.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I don't have a cell phone, cordless phone, ipod, ipad, facebook etc - and I'm just in my 30s. . I've seen how addicted people get to A. remaining constantly in contact with everyone they've ever said 'Hi' to, and B. rigourously updating their online facebook presence.

I don't need it!

Andrew

I have a cell phone --- have had one for about 10 years but until I discontinued long distance service on my house phone recently, it stayed in my truck and was used only for calling home when I traveled (we had a cabin with no phone service and my wife didn't always go with me - because of a heart condition she worrys a little about me being alone) It would have been used for emergency service also but I never needed that.

I would guess it hasn't had more than 30 or 40 calls made on it .... one of those every year is made to order service for another year.

I also have a cell phone now, but resisted for a long time... I had one in Houston only because my wife and I worked on opposite sides of the city and when we got to work we were 60 miles apart... for a couple of years I even resisted one there, but when she came home one day and told me that she was almost killed on the Sam Houston Turnpike when some A** in a pickup truck clipped her rear bumper as she was entering the toll gate, sent her spinning across the toll road until she stopped spinning then shot back across to her original lane ending up facing the opposite of traffic flow I decided I needed to have on for emergencies... when we retired, we were always together and she carried hers, so I discontinued mine... then in Feb I started a permanent booth at a local market in Knoxville, 50 miles away, and decided I needed another to keep in contact with her... in the 4 1/2 months I've carried it since, I've made maybe 5 calls that weren't checking with the wife, otherwise I rarely use it.... and now that I've backed out the the booth, probably will just leave it on my desk unless I'm away from the house and she's not with me.

I've worked on a computer since 1974 when TWA bought a computer system to track cargo and have enjoyed what they can do... they are a great tool... but I also remember what Art Bucholtz once said....quote: A computer makes it easier to do a lot of things... but a lot of things a computer makes it easier to do - don't need to be done. end quote

I like a couple of forums, keep several spread sheets for various projects and do some shopping on line... but my otherwise the computer is just a tool.... I really don't like being connected to the world all that closely.

 

[TellicoTurning]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

You guys must be nearly as old as me...(actually I know Smitty is a few years older)... I was in California in the late '70's when the desk top was being developed... at the time IBM said no to developing the desk top... they said people won't want to have a computer at their desk.... I got to meet Steve Jobs and Wozniak when they were still working out their garage... and in Houston when my partner and I were looking for a system in 1983 or 84, we had a fellow doing some programing for us and he brought in a portable with a removeable keyboard and printer built in... it was from some company called Compac and suggested we should invest... we were a start up company ourselves and didn't have much money to invest even in ourselves.... a few years later before HP bought them, Compac has plants in half a dozen countries around the world....

When I was exporting desktop computers, they were required to have a special export license... I had to fill out a 5 or 6 page application for a license and usually took from 30-45 days to get the license... then we had to file a copy of the license with the shipper's export declaration with customs and get a customs officer to sign off on the declaration before they could be exported.... over a certain baud rate, the exports were not allowed.... then the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans got into the trade and it (the licensing) all went away.

 

[TellicoTurning]

We didn't get a telephone until 1946 because where we lived before that the closest phone line was 1/4 mile away and before ww ii we didn't have the money to run the wire (customer would have to pay at that time it would have been 4 poles plus the wire) and during the war they just wouldn't do it for the "duration". In 1946 we moved to a different house and there was phone service 8 party line - we were lucky we only heard 4 of the rings, our was 3 shorts but we could pick up the phone and hear other folks talking from all of the other seven phones. While I was in the service the folks managed to get a private line but I think they had about a 1 year wait to get it and it almost doubled their phone bill.

Myself, my first phone we got a private line --- couldn't get anything else. But when we moved to out 3rd home we got the last private line available (almost had to go to a 2 party). But about a year and a half later they got everyone switched to private lines.

Little side note. From 1960 to 1962 I lived in a furnished room and my land lady had a desk phone that she had gotten in the early 1930s and it still worked perfectly.

I don't remember when we got our first telephone, but think it was in the late '50's after my parents separated and Dad stayed on the farm and Mom and the kids moved to town... I do remember that in 1960 when I graduated from high school, I had already left home and was living with a lady friend of my mom's... she still had a 2 digit phone number in our home town... she had a rotary dial phone that you had to pick up, dial "O" and ask the operator for the number. She ran a beauty shop out of her house and used the same phone for her business as well as personal.

 

[Smitty37]

We didn't get a telephone until 1946 because where we lived before that the closest phone line was 1/4 mile away and before ww ii we didn't have the money to run the wire (customer would have to pay at that time it would have been 4 poles plus the wire) and during the war they just wouldn't do it for the "duration". In 1946 we moved to a different house and there was phone service 8 party line - we were lucky we only heard 4 of the rings, our was 3 shorts but we could pick up the phone and hear other folks talking from all of the other seven phones. While I was in the service the folks managed to get a private line but I think they had about a 1 year wait to get it and it almost doubled their phone bill.

Myself, my first phone we got a private line --- couldn't get anything else. But when we moved to out 3rd home we got the last private line available (almost had to go to a 2 party). But about a year and a half later they got everyone switched to private lines.

Little side note. From 1960 to 1962 I lived in a furnished room and my land lady had a desk phone that she had gotten in the early 1930s and it still worked perfectly.

I don't remember when we got our first telephone, but think it was in the late '50's after my parents separated and Dad stayed on the farm and Mom and the kids moved to town... I do remember that in 1960 when I graduated from high school, I had already left home and was living with a lady friend of my mom's... she still had a 2 digit phone number in our home town... she had a rotary dial phone that you had to pick up, dial "O" and ask the operator for the number. She ran a beauty shop out of her house and used the same phone for her business as well as personal.

I wouldn't have believed it but there was still at least one phone company like that left in the 1980s - it was featured in a tv show. I think it was somewhere in Louisiana and they still had to go through the local switchboard to make a call. They had just gotten the ability to call long distance but had to go through the local operator for that too.

My home town didn't get telephone service until after dialing was available from Ma Bell so I only remember one place...they had a crank telephone in their barn and another in the house and used it like an intercom. A friend of mine got the phone when they tore the barn down and last I knew still had it. He was using it as an extension - they couldn't call from it because it didn't have a dial, but they could talk on it once the call was made.

 

[PenMan1]

Back in the 70s and early 80s, IBM did quite a lot of good things in the computer field. BUT TO THIS DAY, that damned mime they used in those PC computer TV ads STILL creeps me out! Gosh, I hate mimes

 

[PenMan1]

Back in THOSE days, while I was in Graduate School, it was required to master BOTH operating systems, DOS (2.1 I think) and Apple Soft. DOS was the preferred OS of Business. Apple Soft, the preferred OS of education and "the arts". I DID manage to do a few primitive "graphics" with Apple. A program I wrote in school, "Hangman" was a big deal in the Public Domain arena, because it had graphics, music and interacted with the user. BIG WHOOP!

 

[avbill]

jujst remember, the smart phones today have more computer memory than the computers used to land man on the moon!

 

[PenMan1]

jujst remember, the smart phones today have more computer memory than the computers used to land man on the moon!

Hey, Bill! It's easy to romanticize the part computers played in travel to the moon. Computers DID play a vital role in lunar travel, BUT without DUCT TAPE, the crew of Apolllo 13 would have perished.

Today, NASCAR has given us 200 MPH tape, Mars should be easy peazy.:biggrin:

 

[Smitty37]

Back in the 70s and early 80s, IBM did quite a lot of good things in the computer field. BUT TO THIS DAY, that damned mime they used in those PC computer TV ads STILL creeps me out! Gosh, I hate mimes

You are in the minority there Andy, that little guy was a huge success in advertising. He was probably the most successful of the IBM PC in those days. IBM made a huge mistake when they released the interface spec for the pc at the same time they released the machine....it worked and got a lot of folks building a lot of products that were compatible with the PC but it also gave up control and when IBM came out with a better system the industry wouldn't let them change.

 

[titan2]

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

I remember when Tandy came out with the first personal computer in the early 70's. I believe it was 256K memory and had a cassette tape
drive/storage.

Yeah, I had that.....a Color Computer w/cassette recorder & a 300 baud modem. As soon as I got it home I opened it up and doubled the memory from 16kb to 32kb by piggy-backing the memory chips. I remember the first floppy drive I got for it.....$600. Those were the days!!!

Barney

 

[ctubbs]

Does anyone remember the 8" floppy? Never had one at home, but we used bunches at work. Is that just too old for you 'kids'?
Charles

 

[Smitty37]

Does anyone remember the 8" floppy? Never had one at home, but we used bunches at work. Is that just too old for you 'kids'?
Charles

That puppy was invented by IBM Charlie and I worked on some of the first machines that were shipped with them aboard. At the time we called it a Minnow File (or mini-file depending on who we were talking to)

 

[Leatherman1998]

People think I am weird because I don't do texting or facebook. The phone that I have is a track-phone that doesn't do texting. I do have my dad's old smartphone that can only connect to wifi, and all I use that for is listening to music when I am turning or on the road. The only thing I have for home use that is really good is a computer. No TV no texting and no working smartphone. I feel quite normal.

 

[dplloyd]

people at the gym on their phones

What burns my butt other than a 3 foot flame are people at the gym who have the weights you need or the machine you want to use gabbing on their phone, checking facebook or texting some inane person on the other end......just sayin...oh AND they aren't even working up a sweat cuz they are to busy on their phone:at-wits-end:

 

[sbell111]

Today many of us act like that plastic electronic device is a permanent appendage attached to our person that we could not possibly get along without.

I don't see how my family could get along without our phones. For instance, just having my cel with me saves me countless of hours that would otherwise be spent in my office because I can deal with issues regardless of where I am. I can also easily be reached by my family, if necessary. This allows me to know about emergencies, but also allows me to weigh in on non-emergent issues which allows them to be handled by others rather than delayed for future discussion.

Finally, my iphone allows me to do everything that I used to do with a dayrunner/palm pilot and easily perform tasks that in years past would require an actual computer (or library). As a bonus, I can play the occasional game, watch a video, or a TV show, or the news which makes for more family time later in the day. Heck, right now I am in my office replying to this thread, working on two projects, preparing for a meeting, and half paying attention to CNN which is streaming on my phone.

I have known people to start off on a trip only to come back because they "forgot" their cell phone.

I would definitely do that and have. The utility of having my phone is far greater than the inconvenience of having to return to my home to get it.

One of my neighbors sits in his living room and talks to his friend across the street for an hour or two at a time rather than walk over and talk face-to-face.

One assumes that the benefit to this is that he doesn't have to leave the comfort of his home and/or he can do other things while talking.

People in checkout lines at Wally world share their dirty laundry with anyone who happens to be in hearing distance.

If they don't mind the world knowing their personal business, why should I?

And now there is texting....I see kids walking side by side and texting rather than talking.

They probably aren't actually texting to one another, at least exclusively.

The other night 3 teenagers were killed because the driver was driving and texting at the same time - worse than driving and talking on a cell phone.

Teen drivers have been getting killed ever since driving has been invented.

I don't text - don't have a device capable of it. I use my cell phone only when I want to make a long distance call because I don't have long distance on my house phone.

I do text. It saves a ton of time and allows me to focus the conversation.

Now I am not a Neanderthal - I probably was "on-line" at work before most of you knew that personal computers or such things as internet existed. I tried AOL when 2400 baud was the fastest modem available. I went on-line as soon as local dial-up service became available (it was way too costly before that when I needed to make a long distance call at 10 cents a minute to dial in and you couldn't do much of anything in less than an hour). I had a cell phone in my car as soon as the service was available in our area. I had an 800 number all the while my kids were in college so they could call home free. All of those were useful tools - but I never felt the need to spend hours talking on the telephone....I had to do it at work sometimes but I didn't like it at all.

I spend a very limited time actually talking on my phone. However, this doesn't mean that my iphone isn't a crucial tool in my daily life.

Going with that has been the greatest loss of privacy in the history of the world. Every call I make for whatever reason can become public knowledge. Every call I receive whether it's from someone I know or not can become public knowledge. My calls can be listened to by the government (or anyone else who wants to invest in the equipment) for any or no reason.

This issue doesn't concern me, at all. My calls don't tend to be super confidential so why should I care that some technically inclined person could rather randomly pick them up.

Strangers can take pictures of me at any time with or without my knowledge and post them on the internet for all the world to see....

This is certainly nothing new. Strangers could take pictures of you in public before digital cameras or cel phones were ever imagined. They could post them on the internet since the beginning of teh internet. The mere fact that phones tend to now have built-in cameras and internet access does not substantively change this.

my where abouts can be tracked by following where my phone is...And It is very difficult for me to find anyplace in the world where that can't happen.

While this is true, it is certainly not true that anyone could track you this way. The police can obtain this information with a warrant and, if you use certain smart phones, someone could track you in this manner if you shared your password with them and set the settings on the phone to allow the feature to work. I don't see these two scenarios as something to be concerned about.

Man is a social animal....but I wonder if we are that social. I understand that there is a lot of good associated with this technology but I wonder if we aren't going to discover one of these days that the "bad really outweighed the good in all of this".

Change has always been a part of human history and always will be, but I wonder if in the past 50 years we are not reaching a rate of change that is too fast for us to adjust and we're in a constant state of flux, which I personally think is not very good.

That must be an individual decision, I suppose, as I am failing to find a single negative to having my phone with me.

 

[penhead]

My first computer was the Tandy 1000...it had 128K of memory on the motherboard, but i expanded it with add-on cards to 640k...wow, had could we use all that memory

It was given to me because it was broken, had a bad memory chip(s)...but Tandy did one thing smart back then, they displayed the memory map on the screen...so all you had to do was figure out the map and replace the chip..!!!...piece of cake..!

...and I still have an old full size RLL HDD on my desk as a paperweight

ahhh, the memories...

LOL! Smitty I was right there with you when communications MIGHT HAPPEN (if you had a dedicated POTS line) at 1200 or 2400 baud. Those of us lucky enough to have a desktop computer loaded programs from a 340 or 720 K 5 1/4 Floppy. The executives may or may NOT HAVE has a 10 Meg hard drive. Only a company president would have the "wasteful spending and totally unnecessary 20 mb drive.

We were lucky, because before that we "programmed" on cardboard "punch cards". The computer I learned on in college was one of 5 super computers in the country, took up and entire building. It had ALL MOST AS MUCH POWER as the smart phone that I'm typing this response on.

Times they are a changing.

My first personal computer came with a 5 !/4 160K floppy and we thought we were in 7th heaven when we could get 320K...My first hard drive was 10 meg and we wondered how we'd ever fill it. I did some work on one of the first "Super" computers - the IBM Stretch computer (circa 1959/60) which decidedly did NOT have anything like to power of my current pc (which is not overly powerful as pc's go.),

I did a lot of work on punched card machines....the cards came in big boxes of 2500 cards with "Working Paper not Paper Work" printed on them along with the IBM logo.

I remember when Tandy came out with the first personal computer in the early 70's. I believe it was 256K memory and had a cassette tape drive/storage.

 

[Smitty37]

Today many of us act like that plastic electronic device is a permanent appendage attached to our person that we could not possibly get along without.

I don't see how my family could get along without our phones. For instance, just having my cel with me saves me countless of hours that would otherwise be spent in my office because I can deal with issues regardless of where I am. I can also easily be reached by my family, if necessary. This allows me to know about emergencies, but also allows me to weigh in on non-emergent issues which allows them to be handled by others rather than delayed for future discussion.

Finally, my iphone allows me to do everything that I used to do with a dayrunner/palm pilot and easily perform tasks that in years past would require an actual computer (or library). As a bonus, I can play the occasional game, watch a video, or a TV show, or the news which makes for more family time later in the day. Heck, right now I am in my office replying to this thread, working on two projects, preparing for a meeting, and half paying attention to CNN which is streaming on my phone.

I have known people to start off on a trip only to come back because they "forgot" their cell phone.

I would definitely do that and have. The utility of having my phone is far greater than the inconvenience of having to return to my home to get it.

One of my neighbors sits in his living room and talks to his friend across the street for an hour or two at a time rather than walk over and talk face-to-face.

One assumes that the benefit to this is that he doesn't have to leave the comfort of his home and/or he can do other things while talking.

People in checkout lines at Wally world share their dirty laundry with anyone who happens to be in hearing distance.

If they don't mind the world knowing their personal business, why should I? I have problems of my own, I'm not interested in theirs and while my hearing isn't great I can't just turn off my hearing aid and shut them out.

And now there is texting....I see kids walking side by side and texting rather than talking.

They probably aren't actually texting to one another, at least exclusively.

The other night 3 teenagers were killed because the driver was driving and texting at the same time - worse than driving and talking on a cell phone.

Teen drivers have been getting killed ever since driving has been invented. Of course they have, that doesn't change the fact that those 3 and many others who probably would not have been killed otherwise were killed because the driver was texting.

I don't text - don't have a device capable of it. I use my cell phone only when I want to make a long distance call because I don't have long distance on my house phone.

I do text. It saves a ton of time and allows me to focus the conversation.

Now I am not a Neanderthal - I probably was "on-line" at work before most of you knew that personal computers or such things as internet existed. I tried AOL when 2400 baud was the fastest modem available. I went on-line as soon as local dial-up service became available (it was way too costly before that when I needed to make a long distance call at 10 cents a minute to dial in and you couldn't do much of anything in less than an hour). I had a cell phone in my car as soon as the service was available in our area. I had an 800 number all the while my kids were in college so they could call home free. All of those were useful tools - but I never felt the need to spend hours talking on the telephone....I had to do it at work sometimes but I didn't like it at all.

I spend a very limited time actually talking on my phone. However, this doesn't mean that my iphone isn't a crucial tool in my daily life.

Going with that has been the greatest loss of privacy in the history of the world. Every call I make for whatever reason can become public knowledge. Every call I receive whether it's from someone I know or not can become public knowledge. My calls can be listened to by the government (or anyone else who wants to invest in the equipment) for any or no reason.

This issue doesn't concern me, at all. My calls don't tend to be super confidential so why should I care that some technically inclined person could rather randomly pick them up.

Strangers can take pictures of me at any time with or without my knowledge and post them on the internet for all the world to see....

This is certainly nothing new. Strangers could take pictures of you in public before digital cameras or cel phones were ever imagined. They could post them on the internet since the beginning of teh internet. The mere fact that phones tend to now have built-in cameras and internet access does not substantively change this. In my opinion it sure does.

my where abouts can be tracked by following where my phone is...And It is very difficult for me to find anyplace in the world where that can't happen.

While this is true, it is certainly not true that anyone could track you this way. The police can obtain this information with a warrant and, if you use certain smart phones, someone could track you in this manner if you shared your password with them and set the settings on the phone to allow the feature to work. I don't see these two scenarios as something to be concerned about. I do.

Man is a social animal....but I wonder if we are that social. I understand that there is a lot of good associated with this technology but I wonder if we aren't going to discover one of these days that the "bad really outweighed the good in all of this".

Change has always been a part of human history and always will be, but I wonder if in the past 50 years we are not reaching a rate of change that is too fast for us to adjust and we're in a constant state of flux, which I personally think is not very good.

That must be an individual decision, I suppose, as I am failing to find a single negative to having my phone with me.

Most of my kids and grandkids don't either.

Personally I don't like the loss of privacy which, in my opinion, is just going to get worse.

I sometimes almost think that the Terminator movies might be on to something.