Really hating this new age...

[AndyCalling]

Wow. I feel like an "Ancient" in a movie telling the main characters about the wars from long long ago.

"Yes young one. Long long ago, times were different. We were happy without worrying about technology. Then came... the Clock Speed Wars. During that time everything was full of chaos. PCs were outdated every few months, with the newest iteration of software needing the newest processors in order to run smoothly. Thousands and thousands of dollars perished during these dark times."

Ah yes, the clock speed wars. I remember when digital watches came in, and jogging then became a craze because everyone had to explain to their spouses exactly why they had bought expensive new digital watches. Tense times.

 

[hopmedic]

Digital watches with LED displays that only lit up for a couple seconds after you push the button.......

 

[aximtreo]

Guytronic, I've got you a few years. 68 years young. I see 536 direct causes for our government being in the state it is. Raised in NC when enter meant coming in from playing till the street lights came on. Tweet was something I laid on my back in the spring and listened to the birds do. The closest thing to Facebook I remember was the picture on the front of the book the publisher and writer tempted you in hopes you bought it.

Now at 68, insulin dependent, one heart attack and a 4 bypass. Yet, still I sit on my ARSE plucking the keys on this laptop instead of going for a walk. If anyone finds a way to ctrl-alt=del our brains to start over, would you please post many times here.

 

[Reflexx]

In the height of the Clock Speed Wars...

A song that documented some of what was going on.

"My computer gots the clocks it rocks,
but it was obsolete before I opened the box.

You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away man, it's an antique!

Your laptop's a month old? Well that's great
if you could use a nice heavy paperweight"

 

[hopmedic]

I remember going outside when the sun came up and not returning until the streetlight came on, as well... And drinking from the garden hose, neighbors who would whip your behind in the absence of your parents..... Hand sanitizer was the running water in the creek.

Now I struggle to get my grandson to put down the PSP, telling him that there's a 3D, HD, Surround sound game called OUTSIDE!

 

[Guytronic]

Guytronic, I've got you a few years. 68 years young. I see 536 direct causes for our government being in the state it is. Raised in NC when enter meant coming in from playing till the street lights came on. Tweet was something I laid on my back in the spring and listened to the birds do. The closest thing to Facebook I remember was the picture on the front of the book the publisher and writer tempted you in hopes you bought it.

Now at 68, insulin dependent, one heart attack and a 4 bypass. Yet, still I sit on my ARSE plucking the keys on this laptop instead of going for a walk. If anyone finds a way to ctrl-alt=del our brains to start over, would you please post many times here.

Hey ax!
Let's git on that rickety old bicycle and take a slow cruise kiddo

"Always remember life itself was the best app ever written!"
(Stolen from a good friend on the XDA forums)

**
I agree completely about the 536 reasons also my friend ...
Most definitely time for a change out there.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

We've lost a sense of moral responsibility in the pursuits of commercially manufactured happiness and instant gratification.

 

[snowmutt]

My wife had a conversation once about the Wal-Mart's and big chains taking over the world of retail. She was really missing choice- all the big stores had the same things. I told not to worry- at some point, those who buy things would get tired of it too, and demand for choices- even if it cost a little more- would bring back specialty shops and "mom & pop" style stores. I think the slow economy has kept that down a little, but I stand by it: When people get sick of something, that is when change is forced on the consumer world.

I feel the same about tech. There is a point where NSA leaks, IRS scandals, Facebook releasing all your information, Google selling all your habits to advetisers, and just general crap like that will fuel a desire to return to privacy. That is when you will see a closed system that secures your information become the rage. It will swing back to people caring about their privacy.

Also feel that way about the rapid fire mobile landscape. At some point, the "casual" user will have a device that just fits their needs and a decent size consumer group of them will stop buying. Then, the year-over-year spech war will have a natural slowdown. Not ever stop- even the PCs gave way to laptops over time due to laptops improving. But, it wasn't the constant 4-6 month cycle we saw during the apex of the PC wars. We are at that 4-6 month period now in mobile. The tech savy buyer is petrified to pull the trigger on a top end phone right now- something better is coming in March. Why buy in January???

How many threads have been started about buyers being afraid to buy the L1520 not because of the size or any shortcomings of the device, but by golly- WP 8.1 phones are coming "soon".... wouldn't I be just better off waiting for them?? Then it will be: Why should I buy the first ones? The WP 8.1 second generation will be even BETTER!!!

When consumers start demanding a bigger return on their phone purchases, it will slow down.

Until then: The market is supporting it, so it will be full speed ahead.

 

[Reflexx]

I remember going outside when the sun came up and not returning until the streetlight came on, as well... And drinking from the garden hose, neighbors who would whip your behind in the absence of your parents..... Hand sanitizer was the running water in the creek.

Now I struggle to get my grandson to put down the PSP, telling him that there's a 3D, HD, Surround sound game called OUTSIDE!

Yeah.. my son is still really young (kindergarten), and I try to put him into as many physical activities as possible. I don't want him to miss out on the real 3D world.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Digital watches with LED displays that only lit up for a couple seconds after you push the button.......

I had the original LED Star Wars watch.

 

[Paul May]

I had the original LED Star Wars watch.

Speaking of watches and technology, I have a funny story when you could buy those tv remote control watches. When they were first released I jumped on board and decided to go to a pub with my brother and dad to watch a football (soccer) match. There were probably 150 people all watching this giant tv screen and I programmed to watch for that tv. I kept switching the channel and changing the inputs, the bar staff were taking a lot of grief from the customers until the owner finally comes over and starts hitting the side of this tv yelling "I just got this fixed last week" after that I let him thinking hitting it fixed the problem.

 

[Reflexx]

I had the original LED Star Wars watch.

The original Casio calculator watch was THE thing in the early 80's. Amazing computational power... in the size of a watch? Amazing!

 

[CyclingGuyNola]

The original Casio calculator watch was THE thing in the early 80's. Amazing computational power... in the size of a watch? Amazing!

I had a Casio on one wrist and a Swatch on the other. Man, I'm getting old.

 

[squire777]

The calculator watch was great for math tests at school.

The tv remote watch also gave teachers grief in school.

When Timex came out with their Indiglo watches everyone wanted to have one of those

 

[nishant786]

Loving this thread so much!

 

[squire777]

You can really see the grasp that gadgets have on people if you take public transit. When I take the bus or subway in the morning and in the evening I see the majority of people under 40 staring at their phone, tablet or e-reader. Those who don't have one of those are usually listening to music. They don't care that they are bumping into others, or falling around whenever the train stops because they are too focused on their device. It's safe to say that they look like some kind of zombies.

I personally have been trying to ween myself off my devices. I realized my daily routine was something like - check phone first thing in the morning, check PC after breakfast, watch a little tv, listen to music on the way to work, sit in front of a computer at work all day, use phone on the way home, watch tv after dinner, then back on the computer or play games if there was nothing on tv. I can't really describe it but when i would put my head down on my pillow my brain felt fried or over-stimulated. It felt so good to have some peace.

So now I'm trying to cut down on the time i spend with electronics. I feel like my mind isn't racing as much and I get other things done now.

 

[Muessig]

As far as technology goes, the next step will be grapheme instead of silicon-based. We're looking at 400Ghz+ clock speeds on multiple cores in stupidly thin, flexible devices that you can most likely wear. It's going to come sooner or later.

This thread reminds me of the way that R&D goes into the bleeding edge of technology that develops new tech a good 5 years ahead of the consumer market. We don't get that bleeding edge tech because the manufacturers obviously want to get the most profit they can out of their current and 'next gen' technology.

I don't think privacy is such an issue, but who knows I could be wrong. When the internet first became mainstream and Yahoo was king of the search engines everyone was hyper-paranoid about using false names and never purchasing anything online or mentioning real details about yourself so that your own security was kept in tact. Today through social networks like Facebook we've gotten used to broadcasting everyday moments of our private lives we would never have even considered putting online and sure as a result some people are getting fired because of those comments through Twitter or Facebook for misrepresenting their company in their private lives. We're a lot more open with our information and as a result anyone can find out information about anything... it's kind of the blessing and the curse of the internet.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Social media responsibility is paramount. I had an interesting discussion that led to a stalemate with some of the teens I supervised during their internship at my work site last summer. They were upset about their school's faculty creating FB profiles and friend requesting them so that of the student accepted, they could spy on their wall. Now I agree with the students because what they write should be their business, but when you're posting about cutting class, bringing stuff you shouldn't into school, bullying other students, "Facebook beef", posting pictures of you getting high and in some "risqu?" situations, then that is worrisome to me.

I told them that while they have the right to post anything on their walls, some thing should be left offline. And once something gets posted, you cannot take it back - even if you delete the post later. We had a politician in the area Anthony Weiner ruin his career because of a sexting addiction that surfaced via FB and Twitter. Many companies create fake profiles to dig through employees FB and may fire or not hire people based on stuff they see.

Of course the teens didn't see it that way, but it is one example of the lost moral responsibility we're experiencing in this age of instant gratification, especially attention wise.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

As far as the tech goes, I always tell people to really sit down and figure out what you want your gear to do. One of the t-mobile assistant managers at the store by my job said "ask yourself, is what you're buying a real difference maker for you"? Some folks don't do that, as a a result, the rapid changes in technology always make them feel behind the curve.

The GF is a great example of maximizing her tech needs. She and I were talking about her upgrading from a Droid Bionic. She was dead set on a Galaxy phone. I told her when the S4 was coming out and to wait until then and not buy the S3 because she had an early upgrade. She uses her phones for the full 2 years with each contract, maybe a little more if she doesn't like what's available. She waited, did her own research, walked into the store, and bought her S4 without hearing any of the sales pitches for other stuff - iPhone.

Always be smart with what you buy, and learning to unplug from it is a good thing too...

 

[hopmedic]

My wife and I have been cutting back. We used to sit down at a table in a restaurant, pull out our phones, check in on foursquare, and surf. One day a lady from church commented about how we eat out every day (which was a HUGE exaggeration), and we stopped checking in at restaurants. Now we actually make it through whole meals without pulling out our phones! Imagine that!