Cell phones - the past and potential future

I like cell phones. They are convent, easy to use and basically cheap to operate. I have owned many of them since their “roll out" back in the 80’s with Cellular One Company. My first was a cell phone attached by a curlicue pigtail cord to the battery system that weighed over fifteen pounds and looked like a giant black lunchbox with a shoulder strap. The reception was lousy and the cost was a dollar a minute.

I love the innovations that drives more innovations. Cell phones have become tiny, stylish and functional. It’s all about marketplace pressure that pushes the design innovations. It’s all about the competition for companies to produce and market successfully a novel cell phone to the consumer results in the consumers getting a great product and the winning company getting our money. That is commerce at its most basic level. And in this case the general public (the consumer) has reaped the benefits of the industry competition.

Consider what the future will bring if we now have cell phones that have common features like: taking digital pictures, connecting to the web, the ability to check your bank account balance, send an e-mail, play games or music and keep a record of our friends and business acquaintances.

Just imagine what the next decade will bring us.

Basic Math Skills

8/16/2008


I noticed the other day that I couldn’t add and subtract a few numbers together without some difficulty. Thought it might have been a result of my being in a real hurry that day. I promised myself to look into that when I had some time.

Thought about it for a bit. Seems that over the years and with the general disuse of my skill to add, subtract and divide numbers; I became one of people that really needed a calculator to do simple math.

I looked into it this morning doing what most of us do and running a search on the Google search engine.

After doing the Google search I discovered that most of the adult population in the US seems to have gone the same way. The “experts” state that it is due to a general disuse of this skill in our everyday life. Seems we don’t exercise it enough. The “experts” say it’s not the level of education we have received but at that our “basic skills” erode without continual usage. (Great, another thing we need to exercise or “it” falls apart.)

OK - basic math; I’m agree I need it and I'm ready to do it. Now lets do 10 minutes of math problems every day and get back to the shape I was in when I was younger. (Now if I can just find some paper and a pencil so I can start my exercise routine.)

Automatic Spell Check software is needed

8/16/2008

I have noticed that some of the e-mails I have received lately have had misspellings because the senders are too lazy or too rushed to hit the “spell check” button and review individual words. Carelessness is becoming rampant. I have noticed that it seems to be equally simple words and complex words spelled wrong in the e-mails I have received.

Generally our skill in “spelling” as individuals is gone. Seems we need spell check or most of us could not write something that anyone could translate. Is their anything more ridiculous that allowing our talents to wan because we are personally lazy? We blame the pace of our lives for the reduction in this skill but in reality it’s because we feel it’s not worth much as a skill since most all of us depend on some form of a “spell check” any time we write something.

Then maybe all my e-mails would be spelled correctly. (And the pathetic, fraudulent e-mail scams would at least be understandable and amusing.)

Maybe the companies that produce the attached “spell check” software should make its use mandatory not optional. Or produce software that automatically offers the correct wording as we type it.

This would allow all of us a few more free seconds to do “really important” things.