Category Archives: Computers
Forgetting How to Use a Book
A very interesting post from journalist David Bauer. He has been reading books all his life, but after only two years of reading on an ipad, he is no longer comfortable reading a book the old-fashioned way.
I find it increasingly uncomfortable to move my eyes from the top of a page to the bottom as I read along. I prefer to keep my focus at roughly the same spot and to move the text rather my eyes.
Read his entire blog here: The Day I Forgot How to Use a Book
Twas the Night We Were Blogging
‘Twas the night we were blogging, when all through the house
Not an idea was stirring that would inspire a mouse;
Our manuscripts were flung by the chimney without care,
In hopes that inspiration soon would be there;
We wished we were nestled all snug in our beds,
While visions of blog stats danced in our heads;
And my wife in frustration and I in despair,
Were beginning to think we had nothing to share.
When out of the blue I got a great notion,
I sprang from my chair in a whirl of commotion.
Away to the computer I flew like a flash,
And opened the program but the thing promptly crashed.
I pounded the keyboard, right-clicked the mouse
Then uttered a yell that was heard through the house.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Microsoft message that wasn’t too clear.
It’s an outdated driver, so slow and so sick,
I knew in a moment this wouldn’t be quick.
More rapid than eagles our curses they came,
We stamped, and we shouted, and called it some names;
“Now, Damn it! now, Darn it! now, How do we fix this!
Oh, Blast it! How stupid! oh, How do we nix this?
This is taking too long! We’re climbing the wall!
Just go away! go away! go away all!”
As frustration did grow and our tempers did fly,
We met with the obstacle, and said “Do or die!”
So back to the keyboard my fingers they flew,
With determination, and disk repair, too.
And then, in a twinkling, I saw on the screen
Another message from the hateful machine.
As I threw up my hands and was starting to frown
Error messages appeared with a bound.
They made no sense to me and no sense to my wife,
And had but one purpose; to cause us much strife;
A bundle of codes, which took us aback,
And made us believe we were on the wrong track.
Our eyes — how they twitched! our faces weren’t merry!
Our cheeks were like roses, our noses like cherries!
My wife’s little mouth was drawn tight as a bow,
And the look on her face as cold as the snow;
I turned to the screen and gritted my teeth,
The steam from my ears circled my head like a wreath;
I felt a sharp pain deep in my belly,
And was beginning to shake like a bowl full of jelly.
I grabbed a manual from off of the shelf,
And mumbled and murmured and read to myself;
My wife caught my eye and then shook her head,
Which let me know I had plenty to dread;
I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work,
And fixed all the problems; then turned with a jerk,
And giving the finger to the stupid machine,
I started it up and it worked like a dream!
My wife sprang to the keyboard and began typing away,
Creating a blog to post the next day.
But I heard her exclaim, as we finished that night,
“Blogging can be quite fun, but sometimes it bites.”
(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)
The Paradox of Time-Saving Devices
Cell phones. Tablets. Laptops. The list is ever-growing and ever-changing. All these devices are designed to makes our lives easier. To streamline our work. To give us more time. The trouble is they don’t.
Remember the books and articles that predicted computers that would be so efficient, they would liberate us from the shackles of an eight-hour work day? Give us a completely paperless society? They would enable us to accomplish more in less time, leaving us free to pursue leisure activities like never before. Computers were going to set us free.
So what happened? The computers materialized as predicted. They enabled us to accomplish our tasks faster. They streamlined our work. So where is the abundant free time?
- Instead of using our “extra’ time to pursue enjoyable activities and hobbies, we use it to get even more work done. The theory is if we can do a job in half the time, then we can accomplish twice as much as before.
- Doing our work more efficiently means, to most corporations, that fewer employees are required to do the same amount of work. So we all now do our own jobs and the jobs of the employees who have been downsized/rightsized/out-the-door-sized.
- The devices themselves are an insidious time drain, alluring in their designs, attractive in their promises of time-saving and entertainment. We are enchanted and then mesmerized. They hold a thrall over us that we cannot break. We compulsively check them. We pour more information into them. We get caught up in the web (slight pun intended) of communication and information. We don’t own them. They own us.
- The upkeep and maintenance of the devices is no small chore, either. Add it to the list of another damn thing to do.
The plus side is that we do communicate like never before. News spreads quickly. Response time is lightning fast. Organization and mobilization can happen like never before. (Remember SOPA?)
Unfortunately, we have to communicate quickly. No more complete sentences. No more fully spelled words. Who has the time to either write them or read them?
A Day in the Life…
I logged onto the computer to check the weather…
then I thought that I should check my email.
So I signed into my personal account…
and then decided I’d better check my business email, too.
While reading my business emails, I clicked on a link to a blog I follow…
and while reading the blog, I clicked another link…
which led to another…
and then another…
Which made me think of my Facebook page…
So I logged in.
And read my news feed…
And a few friends’ pages…
and a few business pages…
and caught up with my groups…
and my family…
and my friend requests…
and my messages…
(The messages that I don’t receive via email)
Which made me think of Twitter…
So I logged in.
And scrolled through the tweets…
and scrolled…
and scrolled…
and scrolled…
and then checked my mentions…
and interactions…
and messages…
(The messages I don’t receive via email or Facebook)
Which made me think of my blog…
So I logged in.
And read the comments…
and checked the stats…
and tried out a few more widgets…
Which made me think of RebelMouse…
So I logged in.
And admired my front page…
and checked my drafts…
and played with the design…
and looked at the Goodies page…
Which made me think of Pinterest…
So I logged in.
And scrolled through the pins of people I follow…
and scrolled…
and scrolled…
and scrolled..
And I liked a few things…
and repinned a few things…
and oohed and aah-ed over a few things…
including a photo of the sun setting over the ocean.
Which reminded me that I needed to check the weather…
The Lost Art of Thinking
We’ve been noticing a scary trend in the world. Our devices – phones, tablets, ereaders, computers – are trying to do all our thinking for us.
They remember phone numbers, names, addresses. They guide us through our travels, telling us when to turn and the most direct route to take. They decide what words we are trying to type and helpfully (and sometimes humorously) insert them into our texts.
Did you ever try to format a novel? The word processing program makes all sorts of assumptions about what you are trying to do. It adds blank pages where you do not want them. It tries to indent lines. It adds bullets where none are desired. It does all this because it has been programmed to make assumptions about what you are trying to do and then rush in oh-so-helpfully to make your life easier.
The trouble is computers are not good at thinking. They are not capable of nuance, they don’t understand exceptions. They are rigid, by-the-book, follow-the-rules kind of thinkers. And yet with every new device, every updated program, we are allowing them to do more and more of our thinking for us.
Why? It saves times. It’s convenient. It’s just so damn easy.
No one remembers phone numbers anymore. No one needs to learn or even remember how to get to a new location. We don’t have to memorize addresses. We don’t even have to remember what books we have read. Somewhere, in the gigantic world we call the Internet, a database exists that tracks every book purchase and every other purchase for that matter. Our computers remember our logins and passwords so that we don’t have to. They remind us of birthdays. They make recommendations on everything from what we should read next to whom our perfect lover might be.
Don’t believe computers are thinking for you? Take this simple test. Can you dial the phone numbers of your family and closest friends without looking the numbers up? Can you drive to a place you have never been before without a GPS? Do you remember all your logins and passwords? Can you recall birthdays in a timely-enough fashion to send a card?
Many folks will claim life is so hectic, so stressful, so gosh-darned busy, that having computers remember things for us is a wonderful idea. And, yes, as tools go, computers are pretty amazing, and they make life easier in many ways. However, our brains, like our bodies, become out-of-shape from lack of use. Computers take from us a vital function. They are directing our decisions. They are becoming our memories.
Computers Who Think Too Much
We have a new computer. And it’s great. Except for one thing. It keeps trying to think for us.
Now this might be okay if the computer was good at thinking. But it’s not. It’s good at following commands. It’s exceptional at graphic displays. And it sure is the fastest thing on silicon chips. But thinking is something it can’t quite do. That doesn’t stop it from trying.
Open a window and drag the box over to the edge of the screen to get it out of the way? The computer decides that we want the window to fill the screen and eagerly resizes it for us, deaf to our annoyed remarks. Begin to type a web address, email address, or search term? The computer leaps to our assistance and begins a guessing game about what we are trying to do. And computers are bad at guessing games. They take everything much too literally.
And don’t even get us started about how the computer liked to decide which programs should be updated and how often. Every time we started the computer it would oh-so-helpfully rush out into the Internet and begin scanning for any and all updates to EVERY program we had. That was its default setting, for heaven’s sake! Most programs are invasive enough. We didn’t need the machine itself encouraging them! (THAT setting was changed pronto!)
The most annoying form of computer-think occurs when we are writing. Writing fiction involves creative expression, and creative expression does not follow strict grammar rules. Dialogue uses sentence fragments and slang. Ever try to explain slang to a computer? Oh, you can tell it to add the word it is objecting to to the dictionary but it never learns how to correctly use the word. And scifi-fantasy terms? Forget it! The computer will happily add the invented vocabulary necessary to describe make-believe realms but it stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the new words as nouns, verbs, or any other part of speech. But that doesn’t stop it from trying to decide how you should use the word:
Us: Jinn is the name of a character in our book.
Computer: Jinn are supernatural creatures from Arabic folklore.
Us: Yes, but we are using the term as a proper noun. A name.
Computer: The word jinn is a common noun. Jinn are supernatural creatures from Arabic folklore.
Us. Yes, but in this case Jinn is a woman’s name. Please stop trying to correct the verb usage from singular to pluaral.
Computer. Jinn are supernatural creatures from Arabic folklore. Plural. (We’re pretty sure we heard it give us that raspberry at this point.)
Yes, yes we have turned off the grammar-check function. It was wrong as often as it was correct anyway, which leads us to our final point. Computers are great tools, but we find it annoying that they are trying to second-guess what we want, make decisions for us, and generally give us assistance that is incorrect often enough to make us mistrust any input from the machine. And it is more than a little scary when we observe how many people are letting their computers do their thinking for them.
Twas the Night We Were Blogging
‘Twas the night we were blogging, when all through the house
Not an idea was stirring that would inspire a mouse;
Our manuscripts were flung by the chimney without care,
In hopes that inspiration soon would be there;
We wished we were nestled all snug in our beds,
While visions of blog stats danced in our heads;
And my wife in frustration and I in despair,
Were beginning to think we had nothing to share.
When out of the blue I got a great notion,
I sprang from my chair in a whirl of commotion.
Away to the computer I flew like a flash,
And opened the program but the thing promptly crashed.
I pounded the keyboard, right-clicked the mouse
Then uttered a yell that was heard through the house.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Microsoft message that wasn’t too clear.
It’s an outdated driver, so slow and so sick,
I knew in a moment this wouldn’t be quick.
More rapid than eagles our curses they came,
We stamped, and we shouted, and called it some names;
“Now, Damn it! now, Darn it! now, How do we fix this!
Oh, Blast it! How stupid! oh, How do we nix this?
This is taking too long! We’re climbing the wall!
Just go away! go away! go away all!”
As frustration did grow and our tempers did fly,
We met with the obstacle, and said “Do or die!”
So back to the keyboard my fingers they flew,
With determination, and disk repair, too.
And then, in a twinkling, I saw on the screen
Another message from the hateful machine.
As I threw up my hands and was starting to frown
Error messages appeared with a bound.
They made no sense to me and no sense to my wife,
And had but one purpose; to cause us much strife;
A bundle of codes, which took us aback,
And made us believe we were on the wrong track.
Our eyes — how they twitched! our faces weren’t merry!
Our cheeks were like roses, our noses like cherries!
My wife’s little mouth was drawn tight as a bow,
And the look on her face as cold as the snow;
I turned to the screen and gritted my teeth,
The steam from my ears circled my head like a wreath;
I felt a sharp pain deep in my belly,
And was beginning to shake like a bowl full of jelly.
I grabbed a manual from off of the shelf,
And mumbled and murmured and read to myself;
My wife caught my eye and then shook her head,
Which let me know I had plenty to dread;
I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work,
And fixed all the problems; then turned with a jerk,
And giving the finger to the stupid machine,
I started it up and it worked like a dream!
My wife sprang to the keyboard and began typing away,
Creating a blog to post the next day.
But I heard her exclaim, as we finished that night,
“Blogging can be quite fun, but sometimes it bites.”
(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)
J.M. Dattilo 