The Electronic Tether

I’ve been ruminating lately on my dependence upon my Blackberry. Slowly, with a near sinister creep, this dependence has grown. In 1998 I sprang for my first electronic calendar, a Palm III. Essentially, it was an electronic address book. The other item I’d considered was a device by Franklin, which was only an address book. Soon, I saw the ability to calendar more effectively. Then I figured out Tasks, and the ability to set reminders, and I was hooked. Syncing with Outlook sealed the deal.

I went through several iterations of the Palm, culminating in a Treo 650, which was great at its inception, but proceeded to whither in my esteem. Particularly, the device was buggy to start, and seemed to get buggier the more I did with it. It also didn’t seem to like Cingular’s network. And, finally, the sound quality was terrible. When I’d had enough, I explored other options. I was unwilling to risk another several hundred bucks on a new Palm device, and the lower end ones seemed like cheap crap. Thus, I started exploring Blackberrys.

My friends with the devices always raved about them. It also helped to ease my mind that they tended to have them for years. Now, if I were a chap of unlimited funds, I would’ve sprung for an iPhone, but I am not such. It’s been nice that the Curve has excellent phone quality and I’ve not any network issues (actually getting stronger coverage than my wife’s cell phone). However, there are a few cripes I must air. First, I miss SharkMsg. Also, I miss the sheer volume of aps. I did enjoy running myriad goofy aps, which I’m sure affected those bugs mentioned above – mea culpa. Anyway, I also miss the ability to set short cut keys for pretty much everything. On my Treo, I’d set one of the keys to open up a text to my wife. Handy for those folks that I text often. I had those short cuts set up for all my key aps.

Anyway, regardless of the “wants” listed above, I’m not about the move back. Stability and voice quality trump these. Perhaps this is an area that I can be a solution rather than griping about the problem.

Driving along in Kirkland , home of the modern yuppie, I’m passed by a new Mercedes. Lovely, silver, shiny, new, bling-bling; a part of me loaded with insecurity twinges while I purr along in my Toyota. Why? How come this is a metric of my self-esteem? Am I being unfair to myself, being upset by this train of thought and it’s influence? Consider, please, how much this viewpoint is drilled into us. Look at how often this imagery gets pushed into our faces, and how long that’s been going on. It shouldn’t surprise me, really, that I sometimes feel this way. Though my conscious values oppose this, the lingering thread of this programming has threads into the depths psyche.

Link of the Day

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Perhaps somewhat sacrilegious (ok, ok...nuke the "somewhat"), but I found this hysterical. I wonder, though, if they've made any money.

iPad and other glories

Perhaps I’m the only Macfan that’s not gaga over the iPad. It’s an interesting idea, but I’m just not sold on the concept. For what it offers, I think it would be valuable (to me) at a much lower price-point. Say, < $100. Then I could conceive. Heck, if it were $200 I would be sorely, SORELY tempted. But not $500. It doesn’t offer me much more than my iPhone. And I almost never use my Sony eReader (if the Mac version of the desktop software actually worked with it, then I might use it more). Anyway, if the iPad had handwriting recognition, or could do more with photo editing...I don’t know.

Carl Setzer

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