I don’t normally do the meta-filter, hyperlink thing, but this is a scathing, wonderful article that rips the duodenum out of the tech industry.
It resonates with me, because I use a lot of tech in my daily life, and I follow what’s happening, particularly in mobile computing. I’m thrilled because a year later I don’t want to replace my Pocket PC. But a year is pathetic. The next OS is already out, and I know darn well there will be no upgrade path. I don’t care: this thing appeals to me more than the new models, which all have phones integrated into them, so they have teeny-tiny screens, because everyone’s thinking “phone-toy” rather than “computer you can do work on.”
Still, I was up late last night fixing the notification queue in the registry on my device because alarms weren’t going off. That’s pathetic in a machine whose first purpose is being an organiser.
I feel bad even criticising this thing, first because it’s generally so useful (I’m able to write this blog entry in bed), but also because I’ve been duped into this stupid machismo about having the best system, where any flaw in our gear is parlayed out into a failing of our identity, and conversations about the machines we own become indecipherable from ad hominem attacks.
I find myself drifting back to pen and paper lately, like the book I made for planning the novel. But sometimes the gadgets are indispensible tools, like when I woke up just now with four Very Big Ideas about the book, and could just record them into this in the darkm or last night, when I was able to produce a copy of my novel at home in my bedroom. I’ll also be listening to music on this later while I do my morning focusing (’cause the Shuffle is full of random loud “walkin’ choons”, so I keep my trippy pre-sleep/morning music on a separate device).
I’m going to go finish reading that article now. The writer’s tone strikes me as a bit ungratefully vicious, but I get that he feels burned by how much of his time and attention these things have consumed. And there’s something refreshing about someone telling his truth, consequences be damned.
