[dba-Tech] Why I just destroyed my cell phone

[Jim Lawrence]

Hi Rocky:

It appears that China has now classified continuous internet use as an addiction. Their government has, as it traditionally does, gone over the top by incarcerating the repeat offenders and are using a regiment of exercise and discipline to break that cycle. 

Would that work here? ;-)

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "rockysmolin" <rockysmolin at bchacc.com>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 6:01:59 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Why I just destroyed my cell phone

I hate my cell phone. Hacking doesn't worry me.  It's the intrusive nature
of the thing. And the compulsive way people regard them.  Many, even when
they're not using them, just have them in their hand.

Used to be when you sat down in a bar you laid a package of cigarettes in
the table.  Now people lay out their cell phone.

I hate it.  I don't use it.  But I work at home and have my land line all
the time.  When I'm out, I don't want to talk to people. I certainly don't
want to chat while I'm in the grocery store, or riding my bike.  And I
certainly can't do anything business related when I'm in a restaurant or
driving.

I use the GPS to get places but try not to if I've been there before.
Recent study showed that people who use GPS a lot have atrophy of the
hippocampus.  From disuse.  

But as a telephone it has got to be the world's WORST technology.  When I do
take or make a cell call I know that 50/50 it will be dropped within 3
minutes. Or one of our voices will break up requiring a repeat.  And the
sound quality is often poor. 

Of course the social rules around them are evolving and things will get
better.  But when we go see a play, why at halftime are 2/3rds of the
audience immediately on their cell phones? Why do they check them the second
the place stops at the gate?  

Here's part of the answer:  Look at the Wiki entry for FOMO.  

R



-----Original Message-----
From: dba-Tech [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Arthur Fuller
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 3:32 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: [dba-Tech] Why I just destroyed my cell phone

They are way too easily hacked, and even though you would have to know a lot
about mathematics to guess mine, there are bots that can be purchased for an
insignificant sum and then employed on an army of easily-compromised phones,
and also tablets. Desktops are better protected, but even these are at
serious risk.

I could be wrong, but I think that my land-line is safe. Even there, if I
don't recognize the incoming number, then I don't answer. I don't even
answer when someone is buzzing my apartment number -- not without a prior
phone call that he or she will be arriving momentarily.

There is also the cost of a cell phone. Given that I receive a couple of
calls a week. typically from bots trying to sell me subscriptions to
magazines I never read, or alternatively whose content I can obtain on the
net, I simply don't answer, and pretty soon they stroke me off their list of
potential victims.

These companies have cubicles filled with underpaid employees who push a
button and dial the next number in a sequence. If I had any say in the
matter, I would outlaw them all, and send the employers (not the employees)
to prison. This is not a "freedom of speech" issue: this is harassment,
plain and simple. I'm tired of it and I want it to end.

Fortunately, my contract with Bell.ca enables callerr-ID, and I have only a
small number of friends that know my number, so it's relatively easy to
delete the bad guys and girls.

--
Arthur
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