UPDATING MY TECHNOLOGY

My wife bought me a HP Desk Jet printer as one of my solstice gifts.   The on/off switch on the old printer didn’t work and I had to plug-it-in/unplug-it when I wanted to turn it off and on.  

Also, one of the keys on my keyboard was sticking which made it tricky trying to sign-in to Windows 10.   Today I went to Walmart and bought a wireless keyboard and mouse.   It works great.  

Does this make me a nerd?

the Ol’Buzzard

THE WORLD IS FUCKED UP: BUT, WHEN HASN'T IT BEEN?

 I'M JUST ASKING?  

When is the last time you flipped on the news and the reporter said,

 “It is a beautiful day today and there are no crisis: no killings, no riots, no terrorism, no bigotry – and the Republicans and Democrats just worked together to do something really wonderful.    So everybody have a good day.”

How about never?

There is always the crisis of the moment that just replaced the last crisis - that is such a crisis – that ever was a crisis - so we should all be concerned – so have a good day.

Don’t you wish you could unplug?      You know you could if you would. 

For one week: turn off your cell phone; unplug your TV; don’t listen to the radio or read a newspaper; don’t turn on your computer and stay away from people that want to complain. 

Yeah, that’s going to happen.

Have a good day

the Ol’Buzzard

the Ol’Buzzard

TECHNOLOGY AND STUFF

I have lived through remarkable changes during my seventy plus years.  I have probably seen more change in my lifetime than any single person from any prior generation. 

The greatest changes have happen over the past thirty years due to the advent of micro-miniature computer advancements.   These advancements have increased life expectancy, aided in every form of endeavor and made mankind more in control of his or her environment.     Life without electronics would be unimaginable to most people.

However, for every advancement we lose something of our humanity. 

Life was not ideal in the forties and fifties when I was a child.    There were many groups of people disenfranchised because of race or social status. But, there was a peace and a pace of life that was far more comforting than today.   There were no cell phones and people did not stay connected 24/7; if you were traveling you waited until your destination to communicate with friends or family: you actually talked to people face to face – people relished conversation.   There was no TV or texting so people ate meals together and conversed.   You communicated with distant friends and family with hand written letters – a personal touch that is lacking in e-mail.   Everything was slower: more personal.  

Today on technology news new products for 2015 were listed.

1.    A wearable camera that live streams to the internet.

2.    Electronic house plant waterer.

3.    Levitating speakers.

4.    A tooth brush that connects to your smartphone and keeps track of each time you brush and allows interactive games.

5.    A wrist watch that connects to your smart phone or computer and notes all your activity, physical condition and keeps time.

6.    Electronic roller skates.

7.    Coffee pot that is activated by your smart phone.

8.    Electronic baby bottle that tracks an infant’s intake and tells you the correct angle for efficient feeding.

9.    A wearable thermometer connected to your blue tooth that monitors your or your children’s temperature 24/7.

10.                    GPS tracking devices for young children.

11.                    GPS tracking wrist watches for your older children.

12.                    GPS tracking devices for your pets.

13.                    House locks that lock or unlock with a touch of your finger.

14.                    Travel bags and suit cases that lock and unlock via smartphone.

15.                    Gas cooking ranges that have digital video displays and can be operated with your smartphone.

16.                    Numerous home security cameras: one with an orb recording capability (spherical recording.)

17.                    An electronic belt that warns you if you gain weight and automatically loosens when you sit down.

18.                    And of course, numerous personal drones with various capabilities.

  

It is a new world.   Many things are better, but at a cost.

the Ol'Buzzard

LOST IN THE JUNGLE

At the insistence of my wife, who must have been tired of hearing me moan and grown about the glitches and crashes occurring whenever I am on line,  I have bought a new HP Pavilion desk top to replace my ten year old slide rule equivalent of a laptop computer (if you are old enough you will know what a slide rule is.)  

Long story short: I will probably be off line while I wander helplessly through the jungle of Windows 8.1.      I feel comfortable with manuals, but electronics no longer comes with manuals...
So I will be navigating off the southern cross while electronic piranhas wait for me to ford the streams I am sure I must cross.  

If I am lost to wander forever in the morass of aps and windows, or fall victim to a techo-tiger - think of me fondly.

the Ol'Buzzard

EYE SCANS AND 1984

A recent post in Squatlo Rant got me thinking

http://squatlo-rant.blogspot.com/2013/06/so-theyre-using-eye-scanning-technology.html

The act of thinking doesn’t set single me apart as any kind of intellect; after all, even Louie Gohmert occasionally has some disjointed piece of shit run through his grey matter.

But, in the Squatlo Rant post we find that a number of schools have been using eye scanning technology on the students.   Squatlo makes the point that this is just a more sophisticated form of bar coding people – a way to create a data base to identify and track people all the way from school age to the end of their life.

For people my age and over fifty this raises our hackles and seems a definite step toward Big Brother control.    My contention, however, is that this will not be a problem for younger generations.

When I was young telephones were hard wired into houses.   There were no computers and no internet. Records, if there were any, were kept locally, on paper and in file cabinets.   Many people did not have Social Security numbers and many, born at home, had no birth certificates.   News coverage was not 24-7 but came on at six-o-clock, for an hour, on the radio; or in a newspaper.

Gradually, over a period of time, our information became coveted by businesses and the government.  We learned to register for the draft; we applied for credit cards; we became comfortable furnishing our Social Security numbers for identification.  The reason we adjusted to these intrusions were because they came in small increments and over a period of time.

Then in the nineties we moved from a paper world into digital.   We saw the advent of computers storing our information when we applied for college, purchased insurance or applied for jobs. In the late nineties the World Wide Web exploded and our information could then be shared.   People forty and older, for a while, resisted the new technology; but the young people moved seamlessly into the new age.   This was immediately followed by the total acceptance of cell phones – and again the young generation led the way.

Today our information is ‘out there’ on Twitter, Face Book and blogs.     We do not hesitate accessing our bank accounts on the web, or sending our credit card information on line to L.L. Beans. Credit companies like Equifax maintain a running update of our financial dealings and furnish our credit score to anyone requesting it. Most people even have their income tax information filed on-line.   For us older people this has come fast, but for the young this is as normal as microwave Hot Pockets.

We are now required to get a Social Security number for an infant; but I can see, that as the technology improve, one day, perhaps soon, we will eye scan every new born.   The records of people’s lives can then be compiled, not by a Social Security number, but by the much more secure eye scan.  The way information is shared, we may someday pay for our purchases at Wal-Mart with an eye scan; and purchase on-line with an eye scan from our cell phones.   Once upon a time there was talk of implanting chips in people for total identification purposes; but eye scans are less invasive and make more sense.   I believe the younger generation could move seamlessly into accepting this as another technological convenience.


We seem to have a fear of moving into the Big Brother world of 1984; but I might contend we are already there.


If you have not read 1984 by George Orwell (Eric Blair) you should.


See if you can find a correlation to today:



The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil.


If all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became true. Who controls the past, ran the party slogan, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.


Imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.


In the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.


Double think: (reversed reality – ie: Though shall not kill; but the glorification of war.)


The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that has become inconvenient…


The proles (people) are only intermittently conscious of the war. When it is necessary they can be prodded into frenzies of fear and hatred, but left to themselves they are capable of forgetting for long periods, that the war is happening. It is in the ranks of the Party, and above all of the Inner Party, that the true war enthusiasm is found.


The Patriot Act, wire tapping, the prison at Guantanamo Bay and drone assassinations, among other legacies of the George W Bush administration, have carried up past the point of personal privacy and personal freedom; and we can see from the speed of apprehending the Boston Marathon bombers that our whereabouts can be tracked efficiently. To us, who remember a time before, this is alarming; but a generation from now, as we slide into the comfortable seat offered by Big Brother, it may well be the norm.



the Ol’Buzzard