Does this make me a FAILURE ?

[Steamtrains]

I'm still not in the "cell phone" age. If I'm not at work or at home or at the local pub. I don't want to be bothered!

I'm with you there....I was given a cell phone several months back, and have made maybe 5 calls on it. There are only TWO places I can be found at any one time: work, or at home. If I can't be found at one it's cuzz I'm at the other - or somewhere in between, which means a few minutes delay in getting a hold of me...

"iPads", "i" this and that ,are for people that have way too much time on their hands....

[Charlie B]

We got a cell about 7 years ago. It is for our convenience. We take it when we are on the road, and use it for all our log distance calls. We generally use about 120 minutes a month, we are allowed 450 and have never gone over. I got one text before I realized that function was enabled and I had that shut off instantly.
My grandkids are constantly texting, and frankly I think it is stupid. We had a girl killed in an accident on the main road here last week and the driver that went left of center may have been texting. Now there is a child without a mother.
Cell phones are great if you have an emergency, but they are not supposed to be the cause of the emergency. I don't answer the cell until I pull off the road, It is just common sense, like using a seat belt.
Charlie

[teejay]

Argh.....another "delicate subject" with me .

Friends and aquaintances look at me a little strangely ( well some of them ) when they realize I don't have a cell phone .....ALMOST did back when the blueberry or blackberry ( whatever ) came out because it was CANADIAN ! Yippee .
I noticed the guys at work proudly displaying them in those little carrying cases on their belts . They " only used them in emergencies " which tended to be a call from home asking them to pick up a quart of milk .

I dunno , the desk phone did all I wanted it to do for decades . I would cringe when I heard the others tell a customer " you can reach me anytime of day with my cell number !" ....I'm thinkin' , why the hell would I want some guy phoning me " any time of day " ?....I'd rather the customer phone during business hours . To each his own , I guess ......if they like/need/gotta have/can't exist without a cell phone , fine .......I don't .

T

[ezdays]

Had to have a cell phone when we had our business, but that was back in the 90's when it was new. To be sure, I had one in the car that had a box about the size of a VCR and an antenna connected to outside the vehicle. After we retired, we got several cell phones over the years. They became smaller and smaller and did more things, but all I wanted one for was for emergencies, so we bought a pre-paid one for about $20 at Wally World and that was fine. After a year, we still had almost all our minutes left and it cost us about $100 a year just to keep it active. We bought another one for $20 because it could take pictures and had a USB connector. It was great until I found that the only way I could transfer the pictures was to send them to another phone at a much higher rate. Oh, the USB cable was only good for charging the battery and not for downloading. The last one I bought was under $15, it makes calls, and I think it can send/receive text messages because the phone company keeps sending me messages that I need to renew. The only time really that I turned any of them on was to see if the battery was charged. I guess we really don't have anyone to call that can't wait until we get home, so if someone wants us, they can call us on our home phone.

Just one thing, I think that all phones, active or not, can still call 911, and that's enough for us, so again, we may not renew when the time comes, or just go out and buy another one for $15 that's good for a few months and 20 minutes of air time.

[BR60103]

Reinhard:
My math professor was talking about language (I think some non-mathematician had complained about our using imaginary numbers).
He said that in mathematics we took very complicated ideas and gave them simple names while psychologists and such took simple ideas and gave them very complicated names.


I like a cartoon from a few years ago. Man walking down the street talking on his phone: "Damn, I think I've just taken another picture of my ear."

[FCIN]

"iPads", "i" this and that ,are for people that have way too much time on their hands....

Amen Brother!

The wife (SWMBO) and I both have cell phones and I think her's is glued to her ear, but in all fairness she needs it for her business. I've seen the old girl have her cell phone in one hand and the home phone in the other talking on both of them at the same time! That would push me over the edge!

I have one myself, but the only time it's ever on is when I'm on a rail fanning adventure and it is nice to have in case of emergency when you're out in the middle of nowhere. But we still have a good old "regular" telephone and people can reach me on that. Otherwise, I don't want to be bothered.

Believe it or not we don't have texting, internet access or whatever else you can get on our cell phones and people think we're just old fashioned and out of touch. Well at 65 years of age - maybe we are. I spend way too much time on the computer as it is, I sure don't need to be looking at websites while I'm driving or in a store!

It's against the law here now to text while you drive, but that doesn't stop people from doing it anyway. I've nearly been hit three times in the past couple of months, by people texting or talking on a cell phone, just while I was driving around town! If I get a call while I'm driving, then I pull off the road at the first safe place as I refuse to talk on the phone and drive at the same time!

[Brakie]

( sound of "Old Man River " in the background )

......I confess ....I didn't stand in line and get the new iPad today ...sniff, sniff......
....didn't get to have the crowd cheer for me walking out with a new - MUST HAVE - purchase ......sob, sob .......
....come to think of it I didn't get the previous one either ...sniff, ...or the one before that .....or the MePad , YouPad , TheyPad .......

HOW CAN I GO ON ??

iTERRY

In my best Jeff Goldblum voice..Well,ah, I don't have none of that stuff either but, uh,people was uh,so busy buying uh,those things they never ask their selves uh,really need them.

For people that uh,don't buy that kind of stuff uh,life will find a way go on.

Well there it is.

[Mike Kieran]

Technology has a time and a place.

My wife and I have a cell phone each that we use constantly to call each other. When we go shopping and go to 2 different aisles to get something, we're always one call away to meeting back up. It's a tool for convenience. We'll text each other when we need to just leave a message or if we're meeting up somewhere after work, we can just text the address where we are going to meet. I have some games on my phone (I'm addicted to the game Risk) for when I have a spare moment and don't have the time, desire, or ability to read something, but that's the extent that I go toward using my phone.

I phones are also on the way to running our model railroads as dcc controls., maybe soon waybills.

When I see lines of people camped outside a store while waiting for the latest technology, I have to shake my head. I would rather spend the night sleeping in my bed and buy something a month or 2 later after all of the bugs have been worked out. Newest doesn't always mean the best.

To be able to read books and magazines on an iPad that weighs less than the magazine can be beneficial. Technology does have a place in making our lives easier. It's just a matter of sorting out the useful from the frivolous. If the technology is useful to you, by all means, get it. It's when people have a Tim Taylor personality that it can get out of control.

By the way, when people buy the applications to go with their smart phone, the apps don't always transfer to the new phone/computer.

[teejay]

....had to chuckle .... at a college about 100 miles from here , there were about 1000 students partying outside for St Patrick's Day ....lotsa booze and drugs of course , ended up rioting , burning cars , flipping them over etc . Of course there were about 1000 cell phones in the crowd too with most of these idiots proudly taking pictures of their handywork ..........kinda like we do with out model railroads

Some of these geniuses decided to brag about it by sending the pictures viral ( Facebook etc ) thereby giving the cops a lot of much needed evidence . Now some of them , apparently , are trying to erase the evidence now that they have sobered up . Priceless ! They will , no doubt , be leaders of our country pretty soon . In this case , cell phones are good !

T

[ezdays]

...They will , no doubt , be leaders of our country pretty soon . In this case , cell phones are good !

T

That is frightening, I can see it now, the president calls a meeting of his cabinet and they all show up with cell phones in their ears, chatting as the meeting goes on, maybe even to each other. :o The only saving grace is that they won't be talking/texting on their phones while driving since they'll all have chauffeured limousines to take them around.

They say that what goes around, comes around. Some of the first cell phones were bigger than a brick, then they became so small, you could almost swallow one. Now they're adding features that you can take pictures, view movies, surf the Internet and read books...And guess what, they're getting bigger and bigger again. I can see it coming, a cell phone with a 17" screen, just don't hold it to your ear and try to talk on it.

[Steamtrains]

The long-term impact of this "revolution" may not be so attractive. I've seen groups of people at reunions and such, where instead of dealing /interactiong, with each other, they're all screwed into their i-whatevers and totally ignoring the other people. They might as well have been in a closet...

[shortliner]

I have a very basic one, about the size of a credit card - it is pay-as-you-go and I haven't topped it up (credit wise) for over a year. It only gets turned on when I need to contact somebody - I don't need to be available at all hours of the day and night because somebody else feels the need to talk to someone! -Sorry i've managed without texts (YUUCK!)and instant contact quite happily throughout my life and I don't intend to change now

[eightyeightfan1]

Back in the early 2000's(2001 or 2002), my car broke down on the highway. I had to do it "old School" and walk to the nearest exit to use a pay-phone(remember those?..Put change in the slots to make a call). The next day, Better-Half and I went and got cell phones. One day, on the way to work, my cell rings. Its a kid wanting to talk"to his Aunt Carol". "Sure" I said,,"Tell me what kinda car she's driving and maybe I can flag her down". Guess he didn't realize it was a cell phone he called. Now a days...We just take it for granted the number we are given is a cell phone.

[nachoman]

The long-term impact of this "revolution" may not be so attractive. I've seen groups of people at reunions and such, where instead of dealing /interactiong, with each other, they're all screwed into their i-whatevers and totally ignoring the other people. They might as well have been in a closet...

I see couples on dates - where each spends half the evening texting. I see this regularly.

[tomustang]

Only if you think it makes you a failure. I'm not a fan of tablet devices since they can not replace a laptop worth a damn.