Are electronic devices destroying our society?

[gyre]

Some sources doing in depth are charging, though far too much.

A friend of mine recommends news groups for pay, very reasonable.
I haven't tried it.

[Elderberry]

Yeah, but if you had shown up with some markers, paper and pipecleaners, you'd've been a hero. Sometimes it's all in the presentation.

And some thing that uses the google platform. Is that "droid." Maybe that's not what I'm looking for.

I have the original Motorola Droid on Verizon and I like it a lot. I used to love it, but so much has changed since it came out that I can't wait for my new in two upgrade offer comes up in November.

Is a smart phone right for you? I don't really know you well enough to say, but I can relate my evolution to a smart phone and maybe you can see some uses that you might find useful or just entertaining to have.

First, you should know that I work in the tech field and because of this had some specific criteria I needed. First, I wanted to be able to log into the company servers remotely from my phone. So I needed technology that was compatible with Microsoft software. That ruled out the iPhone (this is not e case any longer, as iPhone has since incorporated all of the business functions.)

Second, I wanted to be able to tether my phone to my laptop when I travelled to use the phone Internet connection.

And third, I wanted to get rid of my Garmin and use my phone for navigation. The only phone that met all three criteria at the time was the one I got.

However since owning the phone, it has been integrated into my life in ways I never considered before I owned it. I was able to lose 30 lbs. With the help of a fitness app. I started reading again because Kindle became available on my phone. I can login to eplaya from my phone to see what everyone is up to here. I can check my email and respond in a more timely manner. My appointment calendar is always with me and automatically syncs to my desk top computer. I have a camera and video camera with me at all times now so I take more pictures, the phone has a flashlight app so now I can always read menus in dark restaurants. I have an app that allows me to check my financial accounts at any time and automatically reminds me when bills are due. My travel expenses are now logged on my phone and then exported into my accounting software come tax time. I have an app to track my car maintenance records. I have an application that does conversions from anything from cooking to computer so I can easily look up how many cups are in a quart or how many bytes in a gigabyte and more.
I have an app that tracks every member of congress and their voting records. Bills they have sponsored, email addresses and phone numbers, etc, I have a copy of the constitution loaded on my phone to quickly reference in political debates with know it all right wingers, I have an app that will find my car when I park it. I also have an app put out by the city that lists all open parking spaces. My phone has a special stand that is on my night table and when the phone is in that stand becomes my alarm clock. I have a weather app. I access most of my news via my twitter app. I have a grocery list application that is synced with my partners phone. We put all the hints we need into that app as we think of them and whoever is at the store can reference the list. I track tram my blood pressure with an app. I have an app that uses gps to track my walks--speed, elevation, time, which I can then add into my weight loss app mentioned earlier. I could go on, but as you can see, my phone has become pretty much integrated into my life.

Might some or all of these things be useful or appeal to you? Only you can make that decision. I'd say take e plunge and buy one, I think you'll be surprised how it can simplify and consolidate your life,

JK

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

Same here, except I only have one app

"Where's All The Free Porn"


the rebbi

[Ugly Dougly]

I don't see too many wrist watches anymore, everyone just checks their phone.

Wireless phones and cable TV,
Cold fish and hot wine.
What's this world coming to?

[Elderberry]

I don't see too many wrist watches anymore, everyone just checks their phone.

Wireless phones and cable TV,
Cold fish and hot wine.
What's this world coming to?

Yup, and the watch manufacturer's are feeling it in too. Except for high end watches that people buy for the brag factor.

JK

[Sham]

Is there anything that these smart phones can't do. I know we'll look back in a few year and wonder how we did without all the latest aps. My smart phone has a flashlight built in. There is that feedback buzz on the phone that gives a vibration, and I'm sure that someone will make an ap that will simulate sex with your phone. Just bring up your porn of choice and let the phone lull you into ecstasy. (extended life batteries are suggested)

[theCryptofishist]

See, I don't need to be in touch, and I wonder if it's not just to have another gadget. I barely use the phone I have. Besides, maybe I'd prefer a notepad...

[Trishntek]

And to think the SR-71 was created by slide rule.

[Elderberry]

And to think the SR-71 was created by slide rule.

Yup, hard to believe. I used a slide rule all through college. Calculators didn't come out until well after I graduated, and their use in school was quite controversial, as I recall.

JK

[Rabbi Dali Rick]

remember Clarke's 3rd law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.


the rebbi

[Sham]

And to think the SR-71 was created by slide rule.

Yup, hard to believe. I used a slide rule all through college. Calculators didn't come out until well after I graduated, and their use in school was quite controversial, as I recall.

JK

What's a slide rule?

In recent memory, we were able to calculate numbers without the use of electricity. What was sold back in the 70's as the TI-31, Texas Instruments scientific notation calculators for $500, made the slide rule obsolete. Calculators with that same power are sold at the check-out impulse area at Walmart for $3.00. If you absolutely had to, is there anyone who could do this math without the use of a computer? Is the concept of math calculations being lost.

I don't think that there's a person working at a check-out cash register who could make change without the computer telling them. Before computers, change could be made by the clerk, faster and with more comprehension than is done now.*


* if you want to make a few extra bucks, give the cashier the odd pennies after they enter the cash received. In most cases, they will keep giving you money until you tell them to stop!

[Elderberry]

And to think the SR-71 was created by slide rule.

Yup, hard to believe. I used a slide rule all through college. Calculators didn't come out until well after I graduated, and their use in school was quite controversial, as I recall.

JK

What's a slide rule?

In recent memory, we were able to calculate numbers without the use of electricity. What was sold back in the 70's as the TI-31, Texas Instruments scientific notation calculators for $500, made the slide rule obsolete. Calculators with that same power are sold at the check-out impulse area at Walmart for $3.00. If you absolutely had to, is there anyone who could do this math without the use of a computer? Is the concept of math calculations being lost.

I don't think that there's a person working at a check-out cash register who could make change without the computer telling them. Before computers, change could be made by the clerk, faster and with more comprehension than is done now.*


* if you want to make a few extra bucks, give the cashier the odd pennies after they enter the cash received. In most cases, they will keep giving you money until you tell them to stop!

Do kids even have to memorize their multiplication tables any more? (serious question)

I usually volunteer a couple of shifts at ice camp. They use those self calculating cash registers. They are harder for me to use than just counting out the change the old fashioned way.

JK

[theCryptofishist]

Yup, hard to believe. I used a slide rule all through college. Calculators didn't come out until well after I graduated, and their use in school was quite controversial, as I recall.

JK

What's a slide rule?

In recent memory, we were able to calculate numbers without the use of electricity. What was sold back in the 70's as the TI-31, Texas Instruments scientific notation calculators for $500, made the slide rule obsolete. Calculators with that same power are sold at the check-out impulse area at Walmart for $3.00. If you absolutely had to, is there anyone who could do this math without the use of a computer? Is the concept of math calculations being lost.

I don't think that there's a person working at a check-out cash register who could make change without the computer telling them. Before computers, change could be made by the clerk, faster and with more comprehension than is done now.*


* if you want to make a few extra bucks, give the cashier the odd pennies after they enter the cash received. In most cases, they will keep giving you money until you tell them to stop! :shock:

Do kids even have to memorize their multiplication tables any more? (serious question)

I usually volunteer a couple of shifts at ice camp. They use those self calculating cash registers. They are harder for me to use than just counting out the change the old fashioned way.

JK

I still occasionally do paper and pencil calculations. I like it. Never thought I would when I was a kid. The sad thing about the calculators isn't times tables or counting change, it's that math is now divorced from the horrible chores part that I and so many others struggled with, but that after the divorce, math is no better taught than it was before. Of course, I come from a family of mathematicians, so my perceptions of what math is go beyond arithmatic.

[Ugly Dougly]

Went on a date to a nice restaurant.

Looked over to a neighboring table, where another couple sat, BOTH OF THEM, texting away, while their meal and relationship got colder.

[Sail Man]

And to think the SR-71 was created by slide rule.

Ahhhhh, I sure do miss the smell of those when they'd taxi by, and the warm breeze from their engines as they'd rev up....

truly blissful

[Eric]

I don't think that there's a person working at a check-out cash register who could make change without the computer telling them. Before computers, change could be made by the clerk, faster and with more comprehension than is done now.*

* if you want to make a few extra bucks, give the cashier the odd pennies after they enter the cash received. In most cases, they will keep giving you money until you tell them to stop!

You wouldn't believe how many times I was called to the registers as a manager because the clerk had entered, say, $50 instead of $5 and couldn't figure out the change. One actually started to give back change for a $50 even though he had only been given a five, and I had to have him step away from the register so I could close out the sale correctly and then spend 10 minutes explaining to him why it was wrong. *head slap*

Glad I grew up in the pre-"computers think for you" era.

[Bounce530]

Just to see if I could pull it off, I went into a couple of mini markets and asked if I could get change for a $20, when the clerks said "yes" I said, "great, make it two tens and a five" It only took two times before somebody did it. Of course, I gave them the 5 back, I just wanted to see how long it would take.

Back to the real topic, I wonder how much this discussion merges into Rebbi's topic about the "free internet" With the gov stopping the free flow of the web, may print see come back? I don't think it will, maybe a few free press pub's popping up here and there...

[Sham]

A few years back when I was in Sedona, I went to a pastry shop with a 10% off coupon. After paying for my $12 purchase with a $100 bill, I noticed that the clerk only took 10 cents off, not 10%.
The Manager came over and started the transaction again by handing me back my $100 from the register and proceded to show the inexperienced person how to take the 10% off. I was dumbfounded when she handed me another $90 in change. All I was really looking for was $1.20!

Thank goodness I'm honest!


.

[knowmad]

all I know is those stupid Trojan vibrator cock ring things make 3 inch chumps into studs. fucked up my action.

[Elderberry]

What's a slide rule?

In recent memory, we were able to calculate numbers without the use of electricity. What was sold back in the 70's as the TI-31, Texas Instruments scientific notation calculators for $500, made the slide rule obsolete. Calculators with that same power are sold at the check-out impulse area at Walmart for $3.00. If you absolutely had to, is there anyone who could do this math without the use of a computer? Is the concept of math calculations being lost.

I don't think that there's a person working at a check-out cash register who could make change without the computer telling them. Before computers, change could be made by the clerk, faster and with more comprehension than is done now.*


* if you want to make a few extra bucks, give the cashier the odd pennies after they enter the cash received. In most cases, they will keep giving you money until you tell them to stop!

Do kids even have to memorize their multiplication tables any more? (serious question)

I usually volunteer a couple of shifts at ice camp. They use those self calculating cash registers. They are harder for me to use than just counting out the change the old fashioned way.

JK

I still occasionally do paper and pencil calculations. I like it. Never thought I would when I was a kid. The sad thing about the calculators isn't times tables or counting change, it's that math is now divorced from the horrible chores part that I and so many others struggled with, but that after the divorce, math is no better taught than it was before. Of course, I come from a family of mathematicians, so my perceptions of what math is go beyond arithmatic.

This just brought back a long forgotten memory from some math class. We all had to buy these dark green books that had lookup tables for tangents and signs and who knows what else. Don't even know what class that might have been, trigonometry?

JK

[Elderberry]

This seems to belong in this thread http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technol ... s-say.html

JK

[ygmir]

Do kids even have to memorize their multiplication tables any more? (serious question)

I usually volunteer a couple of shifts at ice camp. They use those self calculating cash registers. They are harder for me to use than just counting out the change the old fashioned way.

JK

I still occasionally do paper and pencil calculations. I like it. Never thought I would when I was a kid. The sad thing about the calculators isn't times tables or counting change, it's that math is now divorced from the horrible chores part that I and so many others struggled with, but that after the divorce, math is no better taught than it was before. Of course, I come from a family of mathematicians, so my perceptions of what math is go beyond arithmatic.

This just brought back a long forgotten memory from some math class. We all had to buy these dark green books that had lookup tables for tangents and signs and who knows what else. Don't even know what class that might have been, trigonometry?

JK

sounds like a relationship communications class.

[Sham]

Went on a date to a nice restaurant.

Looked over to a neighboring table, where another couple sat, BOTH OF THEM, texting away, while their meal and relationship got colder.

Dougly, you are so out of touch. They were on a date, and they were texting each other!

[Elderberry]

I still occasionally do paper and pencil calculations. I like it. Never thought I would when I was a kid. The sad thing about the calculators isn't times tables or counting change, it's that math is now divorced from the horrible chores part that I and so many others struggled with, but that after the divorce, math is no better taught than it was before. Of course, I come from a family of mathematicians, so my perceptions of what math is go beyond arithmatic.

This just brought back a long forgotten memory from some math class. We all had to buy these dark green books that had lookup tables for tangents and signs and who knows what else. Don't even know what class that might have been, trigonometry?

JK

sounds like a relationship communications class.

LOL I think I must have failed that class.

JK

[knowmad]

This one here is a pretty good use of technology.

[skibear]

I'm happy with my old dumb cell phone!

Black display, no camera, no apps, no internet.

All it does is dial phone calls (maybe texting but I
. haven't figured out texting)

Prepaid plan on Verizon for $5 a month.
(this plan no longer offered)

When it dies (about every 4 years) I have to buy a used
phone on eBay since Verizon won't sell a phone without
a new plan.
hth

.

.

[AntiM]

I could use a slide rule, but I've forgotten now.

My phone can text, but I don't use it. Don't need it. Larry has texting blocked, because a trucker who texts while driving is a fool.

[gyre]

I keep meeting people that can't talk on the phone and want to text.
I have to tell them I can't text, because I'm not a thirteen year old girl, so I don't have texting.
There is occasionally someone with hearing issues, but mostly it's someone young that can't talk on the phone.

Seems to be opening up jobs for those who can use a phone.
The last one I met was quite talkative in person.
Very odd.
I've met non-verbal teenagers, but what's up with the phone only problem?
They used to say that people felt more open on the telephone.

[Sham]

I had the most amazing experience today, when I was rung out at a register for a sale of $1.90. I gave the cashier $2.00. By mistake, this person punched in $20.00. They were quite bewildered and I offered to help with the math to make the change.
After bringing the manager over, they told me that they had to enter the right amount of cash tendered. I didn't really care about the dime, but I had to see how these bobbleheads handled this. They voided the first transaction and re-entered the $2.00 cash tendered. Un-fucking believable!

[gyre]

Many places use the records for accounting and taxes.