Posts tagged ‘technology’
Heartbleed Brainbleed
Call me old. Call me a curmudgeon. Call me old-fashioned. But I don’t believe technology can replace human assistance. I also don’t believe we will ever be a paperless society. Here’s one reason why.
1. Heard about heartbleed virus.
If you haven’t, check out this link. You can type in a website address to see if it’s at risk. If there’s a risk, change your password for that site — and for any site where you have used the same password. And, yes, Last Pass is trying to sell you their service, but the website checker is free and easy to use.
2. Used the site mentioned above to start checking the websites that I use.
3. Discovered that lifelock.com was a “possibly” infected site. Yikes!
4. Went to lifelock.com to change my password.
5. Could not remember the password (because I made it a really complex one, of course).
6. Used the site’s “forgot your password” feature. Got a pop-up saying an email had been sent and that I should contact customer service if I did not receive the email.
7. Checked email, including spam folder, etc.
8. Waited. Checked email again.
9. Waited. Checked email again.
10. Called customer service. Explained. She gave me a temporary password.
11. Tried to log in with the temporary password. It didn’t work.
12. Called customer service again. Different rep gave me a temporary username — which was the exact same series of letters and numbers as the temporary password the other rep had given me (so, yeah, perhaps technology could replace a few people, but . . .) — and a new, different temporary password. The second rep also emailed the information to me.
13. I got logged in and changed my password to something that included lower case letters, capital letters, and numbers. It didn’t work — because I didn’t include a symbol. (The symbol I want to use does not exist on a keyboard.)
Whew. That was for ONE website. I’ve spent most of the morning navigating websites in search of the “change password” button. My brain is spinning like a Mac rainbow dot trying to recall every site I’ve ever used. And I’ve grown a tumor or two on the right side of my cerebral cortex trying to come up with complex passwords. If I now need a unique password for every site I use, you know and I know, I won’t be able to remember half of them by this evening.
So, I need to write them all down on a piece of paper.
hpy bday 2 u
I promise you, you don’t really need 152,000 megapixels to take a high-quality digital photo. A movie is way more enjoyable (at least for the people around you) if you turn off your phone. I also suspect that none of us actually needs to be able to view two different DVDs while driving.
I’m not saying technological advancements are bad. Some of them are downright miraculous. But I propose to you that the frenzy over the latest and greatest blurs judgment and we’re all so busy trying to read new manuals and load updates that we don’t actually notice the fix we’re in.
A very tiny case in point. My ISP recently “upgraded” its email interface. Next week my friend (Lee Ann W.) turns a year older, and I needed her contact info to address the envelope of her Birthday card. I conducted the following experiment using a stopwatch.
Scenario 1
1. Open browser.
2. Log in to email.
3. Click on “Address book.”
4. Click on the W.
5. Scroll to Lee Ann’s listing.
6. Click on “View.”
Time: 32 sec.
Scenario 2
1. Pick up address book.
2. Flip to W tab.
Time: 4 sec.
The book won’t disappear if I change ISPs. And upkeep and accuracy on either list is going to come out the same. Unscientifically quantifying how many times I need an address, I calculated that I would save 2 hours (minimum) a year doing this task the old-fashioned way.
Not a great deal of time in a big scheme, I admit. But time enough to plant and smell some roses, bake Tollhouse cookies and pour a glass of ice-cold milk, get 100 miles closer to the nearest beach, watch Meet The Robinson’s and spend the additional 25 minutes laughing hysterically at my nephew saying, “I’ve got a big head . . . and little arms,” ride Kennywood’s Thunderbolt 33 times, read a few chapters of Jane Eyre or one paragraph of Moby Dick, do happy hour (twice), or write a post that mentions an old friend while pondering that, when I met her, there were no portable phones, personal computers, portable GPS, CDs, DVDs, DVR, iThises, iThats, Droids, IMs, emails, facebook, websites, or, for that matter, blogs.
Dang. I should have gotten a card that makes fun of her age.
Ah Technology
Inventions and the human imagination have enabled us to do many new and amazing things, but I think perhaps technology has jumped the shark.
I made it through college (as a writing major mind you) with a manual typewriter. Went from that, giddily, to one that typed like a player piano, to a desktop computer, to a laptop, to (if I could figure it out) a way to create and send documents on my cell phone.
My brother and sister and I grew up watching a black-and-white Zenith with about 4 channels and a National Anthem end to the programming day. Tonight I can watch a gazillion programs on a big ol’ color TV, a VCR, a DVR, a DVD, or (if I could figure it out) my cell phone.
I once had thee coolest electric-blue AM radio shaped like a donut. Later I had a gargantuan glass-fronted cabinet that stored a turntable, receiver, and my albums. Then cassette player, double cassette player, CD player, 5-disk CD player. Now it’s a recordable CD drive and itunes, plus (if I could figure it out) a way to listen to my tunes on my cell phone.
Yes, a cell phone is a huge improvement over the wall-bound rotary dial, and it has been a godsend during a couple of emergency situations—like being stranded at night with a flat tire or getting separated from my friends at a Jimmy Buffett concert. But there was a time when you never heard a phone ring in a theater, in the grocery store, or (not making this up) at a funeral. There was a time, not so very long ago, when you could actually get away from it all because the hotel didn’t have cell service or internet. There was a time when you never had to listen carefully to the options for pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, star, or pound.
Yesterday I pushed a bunch of those buttons to activate my new ATM card, and the recording told me I had to hold the line to confirm something (sounded official). And . . . ah, ohhhh . . . I had to dodge the advances of a zealous, rude, pitbull of a telemarketer—without the hang-up option—before being “approved” to have access to my own money.
I will concede that, despite a real nostalgia for gas station attendants who would saunter up to the driver’s side window and chat pleasantly, wash the windshield, put air in the tires, and check the oil, there are times when being able to pump the gas myself when rolling home on fumes at midnight has had its advantages. Today at lunchtime, before they would actually allow gasoline to flow, I had to answer 2,735 questions to (apparently) explain why I was standing in a gas station freezing my ass off while parked next to a gas pump with my gas cap off.
Technology has not made our lives easier. It has given new ideas to the Evil Bastards. And they learn faster than my middle-age brain.
In high school, I learned to type in a class that lasted an entire semester. When desktop computers were new, I attended a two-day training seminar to learn WordPerfect. These days, with absolutely no formal training, I can’t get through my day without Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Diskus, InDesign, iCalendar, iMovie, three different voicemail systems, three different email programs, two different IM programs, a bit of Illustrator, a CRM system, and two different web/CMS systems. And, oh yeah, the programs to manage my blog, my facebook page, and my Twitter tweets.
As technology has made it possible to accomplish more and more tasks more and more quickly, we have, quite simply, become accustomed to having more tasks on the to-do list, doing more things ourselves, providing more information, reading more manuals . . . and expanding our vocabulary to include phrases like stress headache, hyper-tension, and Why does it say paper jam when there is no paper jam?
Pick a technological advancement in your lifetime. Tell me why you love it and/or hate it.
Never Tailgate is a gift book with car photos and tips for new drivers. Dare to be Happy is a gift book with advice about life (and doodles). Both are available on amazon.
Life Preservers 
Have a Nice Day
Used to be, you needed something, you went to a human being. Bank teller, gas station attendant, store clerk. The list of jobs that have dwindled or disappeared because of technological improvements is long and getting longer.
Let me say it up front: I’m not against technology. I love some bits of it. For one example, I think the option to renew vehicle registration online is a modern-day miracle. (I have this friend; she’s a bit of a procrastinator.)
I really do appreciate many aspects of speed, convenience, and independence that have come into being because of technology. But it has begun: Companies are no longer offering convenience as a competitive differentiator; they are selling it. The easy-breezy options we have grown accustomed to are now a potential trap.
Gas pumps are up-selling — Would you like a car wash? — and researching — What is your ZIP code? Some pumps are now programmed to ask so many dang questions, it’s easier to get away from a Jehovah’s Witness.
Banking machine charges keep going up, and they too are being programmed for sales — Are you interested in a loan? (How long did you stand there waiting, and how many people were behind you in line, the first time a bank inserted an advertisement on its ATM?)
What do we actually gain by ringing up our own groceries? Especially when, nine times out of ten, the person who used to do that job is forced to stand there and watch you fumble about while politely asking if you’d like any help doing his/her job.
Today, I was trying to order some concert tickets on a website. There was a problem, so I ended up calling and getting the tickets by phone. Nice surprise: It was cheaper by $6/ticket because there was no processing fee.
So . . . getting rid of human beings doesn’t increase profits enough? Now, you want to charge a fee for an interaction with something incapable of problem-solving? And, so . . . if not for there being a processing glitch, I would never have known I could avoid the processing fee?
Boing!
Let me say it again near the end: I’m not against technology. I could hardly write a blog without it. And I’m not suggesting it would be better to be some sort of crazy hermit (even if there are days when I think I’d be really good at that). But perhaps we should do a little something to stem the tide?
How about this: How about, once a week, skip the touch pad and do something the human-being way. See what happens. Maybe you’ll save some money. Maybe you’ll save some time. Maybe you’ll hear a joke or meet someone interesting. Maybe you’ll get a free mint.
Give it a try. Maybe you’ll have a nice day.
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August 19, 2014 at 2:41 pm Leave a comment