The Logic Off Topic list

Thoughts from the mind of Wilson Zorn, 26-02-2002:

>  > >Well, if cryogenics were as reliable as cell phones, "everybody" probably
>>  >would run to it.
>>
>>  I'm afraid you're right...  The (un)usefulness (for 90+% of the
>>  population) of these things has little to do with their popularity.
>  > Might as well hold for cryogenics...
>
>To be fair I was making the point that cell phones are quite useful and IMHO
>quite reliable.

I realise that that's the point you tried to make.  I just misused 
you to make the point *I* tried to make :-).

>They can be annoying but they have frequently saved lives
>and connected people so I'm quite a proponent actually.

Oh sure, I don't want to question their potential usefulness.  I just 
get a bit tired at times of the advertising hype of "being reachable 
always & everywhere", as if that's something anyone rally _wants_.  I 
love to be away from the phone at times, and I know many people share 
the same feeling.  However, somehow the majority seems to buy these 
kind of stupid sales arguments, and so every idiot buys a cellphone, 
pays premium rates (much more expensive than land lines, at least 
over here), etc.  And it all starts from the age of 10 or so -- every 
teenager has a cellphone.  And why?  I remember being 11, and I sure 
wasn't in need of a phone every day...  (and my parents wouldn't have 
been stupid enough to be willing to pay my cellphone bills)  But 
maybe I'm just getting old...

And then... great that we manage to increase the number of 
"communication moments" by being reachable 24 hours a day, but 
wouldn't it be far greater if we invented an appliance that didn't 
increase the communication rate, but the _level_ of communication 
:-).  I mean, seriously, 90% of all cellphone talks *is* completely 
moronic, isn't it?  And I don't mind people having moronic 
conversations, but why do I have to be witness to so many of them, 
especially at the volume they're ususally conducted at?

A few weeks ago, in the train, after a hard days work.  A 4-person 
seat (2 next to each other, 2 opposite).  I tried to read a book. 
The guy next to me had a walkman go 'tsk tsk tsk'.  The guy opposite 
me had a cellphone (digital 'Fur Elise' tune, and then the ususal 
"I'm in the train... yeah... train!" conversation), and the 4th guy 
had a laptop on which he was working, producing the occasional 
'bleep' whenever he mis-clicked a dialog or button or so.  Once more: 
I TRIED to read a book...
Now I don't mind walkmans in principle (own one myself), I wish I had 
a laptop, and I sure see the good sides of cellphones.  But at 
times...

Oh well, apart from the laptop, this discussion is way OT, even for 
the OT list, so let's drop it :-).

-- 
Hendrik Jan Veenstra  <h@...>
Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html