Chamber005
Carbonite Member
Some of this seems sad to me...
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-hom...-2011-will-never-know?mod=family-kids_parents
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-hom...-2011-will-never-know?mod=family-kids_parents
Dumb Babies
- Thread starter Chamber005
- Start date
Nektonic
Veteran
Yeah, I like and appreciate most of the technology we have at our fingertips these days. Video DSLR's, iPhones, Wikipedia, non-linear editing software, Xbox Live, Netflix streaming service, etc. I also feel that all this tech can be a bit of an annoyance too.
The point they make about loss of privacy and the blurring line between work and home is spot on. Already if you have a cell phone, your boss, friends, and clients can always get ahold of you. Besides a major holiday like Christmas, I've seen my free time nearly always being invaded in some way or another because these days people expect to be able to have me available when they want. I get bad vibes from people if they can't get ahold of me and I later tell them I was relaxing, it was my day off, etc... People these days are losing their patience in general. Unless it is a major holiday, a death in the family has occurred, I am seriously injured, or am fighting well dressed European terrorists in a high rise, then I don't seem to have a good excuse to not answer my phone these days.
Books too, those are gonna all be on Kindles, phones, and other devices in the coming years. I see Borders and B&N done for by the end of the decade. Maybe then, some small mom and pop bookstores will be able to come back after the two giants go away? I just get depressed thinking about finding all of my books on a browser. Same with libraries. Will those all be shut down if they can just put it all online? With the government looking to cut the budget, I wouldn't be surprised to see libraries closed down.
The point they make about loss of privacy and the blurring line between work and home is spot on. Already if you have a cell phone, your boss, friends, and clients can always get ahold of you. Besides a major holiday like Christmas, I've seen my free time nearly always being invaded in some way or another because these days people expect to be able to have me available when they want. I get bad vibes from people if they can't get ahold of me and I later tell them I was relaxing, it was my day off, etc... People these days are losing their patience in general. Unless it is a major holiday, a death in the family has occurred, I am seriously injured, or am fighting well dressed European terrorists in a high rise, then I don't seem to have a good excuse to not answer my phone these days.
Books too, those are gonna all be on Kindles, phones, and other devices in the coming years. I see Borders and B&N done for by the end of the decade. Maybe then, some small mom and pop bookstores will be able to come back after the two giants go away? I just get depressed thinking about finding all of my books on a browser. Same with libraries. Will those all be shut down if they can just put it all online? With the government looking to cut the budget, I wouldn't be surprised to see libraries closed down.
Let's not go political here.
Nektonic
Veteran
I apologize, as I didn't mean to go political. Just that in talking about the topic/theory of e-readers eventually taking over the way we read books in the not-too-distant future, the thought of libraries came up as a slight tangent.
Jon Starr
Veteran
I'm a bit skeptical about books leaving us. I have yet to try the kindle, or anything along those lines, but nothing beats the ease of picking up a book and opening it up. No worry about battery life, light sources, or updating via computer. If they can streamline those things, make it easy, then maybe.
But the privacy issue is the big one. I'm reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" written in the 70's. It takes place in the "future." They have flying cars, they have automatic cooking devices, but no portable phones. The main lead is currently struggling to get a hold of someone, calling his assistant and home, unable to reach him. The whole time I kept thinking "why doesn't she call his cell phone!?" It's something we have to get used to with technology heading that way.
I study communications at school, and it seems to me that the 'future' has always been about communication. The internet, cell phones, now the internet ON cell phones, it's always been about connecting people over vast distances anywhere and everywhere at anytime. I find it funny how "predictions" of the future normally talked about flying this, and fast that, but never thought about communication, which IMO has been the big progress over the past 10-20 years.
But the privacy issue is the big one. I'm reading "Stranger in a Strange Land" written in the 70's. It takes place in the "future." They have flying cars, they have automatic cooking devices, but no portable phones. The main lead is currently struggling to get a hold of someone, calling his assistant and home, unable to reach him. The whole time I kept thinking "why doesn't she call his cell phone!?" It's something we have to get used to with technology heading that way.
I study communications at school, and it seems to me that the 'future' has always been about communication. The internet, cell phones, now the internet ON cell phones, it's always been about connecting people over vast distances anywhere and everywhere at anytime. I find it funny how "predictions" of the future normally talked about flying this, and fast that, but never thought about communication, which IMO has been the big progress over the past 10-20 years.
Nektonic
Veteran
That is exactly the way I feel. I love grabbing a book, new or used. I love browsing at the book store or library. Even if I don't find something great to read, it at least gets me out of the house. It is relaxing.
Also, the Kindle tracks and monitors what the device's owner is reading so they can gather data on the person for future marketing purposes. I don't really like that. A book is the last medium that is not technologicized to the extreme. I like that it is sort of old fashioned. Maybe it comes from that same place that people have when they get excited about putting vintage lenses on their GH-1 or DSLR?
Not to say Amazon is all bad with the Kindle and their wacky Amazon Studios thing. I love the fact that I can find all kinds of used or out of print books for super cheap and order them from Amazon. There is a lot of stuff that, with the decline of used books stores, would get lost without Amazon's used book sections.
Don't forget they still had books in Battlestar Galactica. Of course, they cut all the corners off.
Yeah. The old view of the future was all about vacation homes on Mars, family trips to the rings of Saturn, low earth orbit space battles between the US and the Soviet Union, living forever, post scarcity utopian Gardens of Eden, and on the flip side; cyberpunk chic virtual cowboys hacking the system, robots rising up to kill all the pesky survivors after nuclear armageddon, Russians invading the US, etc...
The truth is that the progression of technology after the space race ended has primarily been communication and media oriented: the internet, cell phones, digital effects for movies, video games, social media, flat screen high-def televisions, Skype, iPods/iPads, DVD/Blu-ray, Xbox Live, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and all kinds of other social and entertainment media hardware and software.
Scott F
Pug Life
They may be going out on a limb with some of these, but the gist of the list is a pretty good read.
^ This one I agree with and it's kind of frightening. All bar bets can be settled instantly if one has general knowledge of how to use the internet. But wait a minute….I should hope kids don't know what it's like to stand in a bar, they're too young to be drinking.
On the subject of smartphones, and there is another related thread floating around, it is getting pretty ridiculous. At least on a personal level.
Remember when email was something you checked like once or twice a day? Now with a phone in my pocket, it's about the same as getting a text. It's a blessing and a curse. Great for dealing with clients and booking gigs, but the speed of life is starting to move a bit too fast for me. :grin::grin: Maybe things are getting too instantaneous.
^ This one I agree with and it's kind of frightening. All bar bets can be settled instantly if one has general knowledge of how to use the internet. But wait a minute….I should hope kids don't know what it's like to stand in a bar, they're too young to be drinking.
On the subject of smartphones, and there is another related thread floating around, it is getting pretty ridiculous. At least on a personal level.
Remember when email was something you checked like once or twice a day? Now with a phone in my pocket, it's about the same as getting a text. It's a blessing and a curse. Great for dealing with clients and booking gigs, but the speed of life is starting to move a bit too fast for me. :grin::grin: Maybe things are getting too instantaneous.
Actually, our news station just did a story about how the local library put one video store out of business. Free movie rentals. (not like any video store has much of a fighting chance in the big picture)
People get annoyed if you don't return an email within 5 minutes.
Ted Ramasola
Veteran
I remember talking with my son and telling him how
"lucky they are to have mp3 players and ipods, cuz in our time we only had records with only one song on each side of a 45."
and he replied,
"Oh i've seen those dad, you mean those big BLACK CDs?" LOL!
I sad ; "No, theyre called, vinyl records."
he replied."uh ok, but how do you burn your songs in them?"
...i sighed.
"lucky they are to have mp3 players and ipods, cuz in our time we only had records with only one song on each side of a 45."
and he replied,
"Oh i've seen those dad, you mean those big BLACK CDs?" LOL!
I sad ; "No, theyre called, vinyl records."
he replied."uh ok, but how do you burn your songs in them?"
...i sighed.