Where Is All This Technology Taking Us?

Occasionally, once in a great while, I get out of "my bubble", or am forced to, and look around at the technology and apps that are available, some for home computing but most, more and more, for our cell phones.

I tell you, it's overwhelming.

It's been fun for a while. If you realize you don't just have a TV in your pocket but a full-blown computer that can do who-knows-what-all, it's been fun. It is fun. It can be fun, anyway.

But every once in a while, I realize, how much there is out there, how much computer power is in our pockets and how dizzying it all is. It seems there are apps for so much more of the minutiae of our lives than I would think anyone could or would ever imagine.

I understand why these apps have been created, too, sure. Everyone has to "make their mark" and no less so than in computing but wow. Clearly we humans are taking all these apps and our phones way too far. In my eyes, anyway.

I think it's scary and getting scarier.

Americans Spend An Alarming 4.7 Hours 

On Their Phones

And the trend of time spent on cell phones is still increasing and the younger we are, the more it's increasing.

Yeah.  This is not your grandfather's world, that's for sure. Between these developments and humankind's rush into AI, artificial intelligence, I don't like the looks of where we're heading, as a species, as a people. I think we are, it seems, all running headlong, forward and we don't have any idea where we're going, where this is all leading us.

Y'all be nice out there.

Links:

Stephen Hawking warns of an 'intelligence explosion'

Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind

Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates Warn

6 Best Google Apps for Chromebook

Google Apps for Education

Google Apps for Work – Email, Collaboration Tools And More

Google Apps | Google Developers

Google Apps Marketplace

The 100 Best iPhone Apps for 2016 | Digital Trends

Hometown Sprint Gets Trashed

And they get trashed nationally and internationally, it seems. This from the New York Times today:

No Takeover, but Plenty of Taunts

Since becoming the chief executive of T-Mobile US, John J. Legere has been known for being outspoken. Still, as his company held merger talks with Sprint for much of this year, he was noticeably restrained in criticizing his rival.

But when Sprint officially announced on Wednesday that it had abandoned its plans to buy T-Mobile, Mr. Legere took the gloves off on Twitter.

“Is Sprint a melting ice cube? Looks like it to me. Join the cool brand now!” he taunted in one post.

“Join T-Mobile now and jump off the Sprint bus before it crashes,” he wrote in another.

Pretty fascinating stuff, really, since Sprint also just announced it's finally getting rid of what will likely, fortunately be the last Hesse family member to run the company.

Can you imagine talking to people and a company FOR A YEAR, just to have it all thrown away by that other side?

Anyway, the article goes on to explain how there aren't any other possible partner/suitors for Sprint and how they have  "had to grapple with steady customer losses as it spends billions of dollars to upgrade its network."  

Ouch.

All the while, the article goes on, it seems T-Mobile may still have suitors.

The article finishes describing Sprint's current situation (it's a good, comprehensive article and worth reading to know about Sprint and the larger markets, nationally. It finishes describing Sprint's current situation, with a new leader:

“The incoming C.E.O. is really going to have to resurrect the brand and come up with some new ideas.”

It could happen.

Links:  Sprint Goes Off Beaten Track for CEO

Sprint names Brightstar CEO as new chief

Observations, August, 2013

Observation No. 1

People punish honesty.

Observation No. 2:

Our machines, our computers, our pocket phones, more than anything, are turning us into a nation of cowards.

We don't face situations we've created or people that we ought to otherwise face. Instead, we ignore them if they call or we text back, if/when forced into a "conversation."

Where we came from, where we're going

I remember when it used to be important, really, to sit down in the evening, at the end of each work day, and watch the evening, national news.

It wasn't that long ago.

But over time, the news has gotten far more "entertaining" and so, far less and less important.

Now, the evening news is very likely to have YouTube videos, showing about what some crazy cat--literally, a feline--did in their owner's back yard recently.

And then Fox "News" came along, shortly after the Republicans did away with the "Fairness Doctrine" so we could and would hear both sides of a story and one side wouldn't do all day, inflammatory commentary as the Fox stations do now.

And the local news?

Why, it got fluffier and fluffier until now, today, it's like cotton candy--mostly air.  Air and sugar.

And where are we going now? Is there any hope of it getting and better in the future?

I think we all know the answer to that one.

The biggest trend in outgoing news and incoming "staying informed" on our part--that of the citizen in the US and world--is that we've gone from desktop computers to laptops and there was a great deal of information out there and sure, there still is.

But now, now we're going on to our little cell phones, with all that same capability of the bigger computers but most people just use them to entertain themselves even further. The younger the person, the more attached they are to their mobile device--mostly phones--with videos and Tweets and that's about it.

I don't hold out hope for the coming generations.

I think they look to be very well-intended, well-meaning, empathetic, open-minded people with very little awareness of what's going on in their government and so, where their country and world is headed.

I hope they can and do prove me very, very wrong.

Our future?

One of the best things about the next, upcoming generations is that they're so open-minded and inclusive and can't even imagine, for the most part, discriminating against a person for their race or sexual preference or whatever.

If there's a bad thing it's that, if we're ever invaded by a foreign nation, I expect and fear they'll be so distracted by the latest technology and also highly likely, chewing on Cheetohs and/or KFC and too preoccupied in too many ways to notice.

To borrow a quote from another local blogger:  "YOU KIDS GET OF MY LAWN!!"

And then I want an LED bicycle like this

And how much more safe on a night bike ride could you be, right? Yep. I want one of these, too. (Have a great weekend, y'all).

I'm so old

 

T-Mobile gets it

Here's an example of, first, a "flash-mob" that works, sure, but it's much more than that. Flash mobs should never, never be by, for or about corporations, no, never. That said, this one works. T-Mobile got in on this early, first of all, having done some of these in the past but, secondly, no other corporation--thankfully--has picked up on this. All that and the fact that it's a holiday or Christmas flash mob, too, makes it work. Now, I just never want to see another, by anyone else, even if it is T-Mobile. Happy holidays, everyone.

They're just telephones, for pity's sake

I mean sure, they're small computer telephones but they're phones. That's it. Since when does a telephone, however powerful, turn you into Superboy or Superman, as the ads would tell you? Could we get over this?

Sprint joins in the AT & T/T-Mobile merger

From The Huffington Post today: Sprint Sues To Stop AT&T, T-Mobile Deal To which I say, good on you, Sprint. It may be self-serving, of course, as all things corporate are but this deal just shouldn't go through. It's patently against competition and cell phone customers will suffer if it goes through, without doubt. Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/sprint-suit-att-tmobile_n_950688.html

What I've said all along

Honestly, I knew they'd come to this conclusion, eventually:

Cancer experts say cell phones are possibly carcinogenic

The scientists, anyway, not the companies involved with making them or making them available.

Some of the article:

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer

LONDON – An international panel of experts says cellphones are possibly carcinogenic to humans after reviewing details from dozens of published studies.

The statement was issued in Lyon, France, on Tuesday by the International Agency for Research on Cancer after a weeklong meeting of experts. They reviewed possible links between cancer and the type of electromagnetic radiation found in cellphones, microwaves and radar.

The agency is the cancer arm of the World Health Organization and the assessment now goes to WHO and national health agencies for possible guidance on cellphone use.

And here's the good part.  Just how cancerous is it, you ask?  Check this out:

The group classified cellphones in category 2B, meaning they are possibly carcinogenic to humans. Other substances in that category include the pesticide DDT and gasoline engine exhaust.

DDT.  And gasoline exhaust.

Nice.

More:  Since many cancerous tumors take decades to develop, experts say it's impossible to conclude cellphones have no long-term health risks.

The cell phone industry telling us that they don't cause any cancer problems seemed far too quick and predictable.

It reminds me of the old Joe Jackson song:

Except in this case, I think it really does.

Thoughts on TV last evening

---Why are so many (all?) of the shows for the Fox Channel "Viewer Discretion Advised"?  House?  Really?

---Why would ANYONE want a "Windows phone"?  Aren't there enough problems with the software in the form of viruses and bugs that you'd be thrilled to NOT have an electronic gadget that was based on Microsoft's Windows program?

Really.  I don't get it.  Either one.

To be sure you know: How you can help Haiti and Haitians

From the US State Department: you can text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

And this from UPS: UPS is shipping anything under 50lbs for free to Haiti. You can send food clothes or shoes...

and American Airlines is taking doctors and nurses to Haiti for free.

Please call 212-697-9767. Spread the word...Red Cross needs Creole speaking volunteers for a 24hr phone bank. Call Mr. Wilfrid @ 305-776-6900.

Spread the word.