Computer miniaturization, etc.
A couple months ago my niece’s daughter Christina, about 18, who enthusiastically drives a Samsung Galaxy and an iPad, noticed me fingering a text into my iPhone.
“Why doncha speak it?” she said. “Use your voice-recognition.”
I said what I always say to such naysayers.
“Because you can be damn sure any sentence I generate is gonna have a period at the end of it.
And not only that, the words ‘to’ and ‘for’ are gonna be spelled out. They ain’t gonna be the numbers ‘2’ and ‘4.’”
My hairdresser, even more a techie than me, who got me into Smartphones in the first place, which I don’t regret, protests.
“Punctuation and grammar are Old School. Ya don’t need ‘em to communicate. People understand a text.”
“Sure,” I said; “if all you’re doing is Facebook ruminatin‘ — like ‘I just got up,’ or ‘I’m sitting on the toilet.’”
I doubt Kierkegaard could philosophize via text.
Which gets into the miniaturization problem.
Folded closed this Apple MacBook Pro laptop is about five-eighths of an inch thick.
My first Apple computer was a beige G-3 desktop. It was about nine inches high, and that’s without its screen.
It occupied a space about 14 by 18 inches on my desk, and the keyboard was in front of it.
Apple number-two was a G-4 tower about 20 inches tall.
My screen and keyboard were front-and-center; the tower was off to the side. —People were putting their towers on the floor, but not me; too dusty.
This laptop is Apple number-three. It has a 17-inch folding flat-screen display. It also has an integral keyboard and swipe-pad that serves as a mouse.
But I don’t use them, except out-of-town.
I USB-ed the keyboard from my tower into this laptop as a peripheral. Included is a real computer-mouse.
My laptop’s keyboard and swipe-pad are inefficient.
They can be used, and are outta-town when I don’t drag along my peripherals.
But using them takes time; longer than my peripherals.
Which gets into the major iPhone problem.
How can I use its virtual-keyboard when the keys are so small?
I certainly couldn’t Photoshop or do a blog on my iPhone.
My iPhone gets e-mail, and I can respond.
But often I don’t.
If it’s more than 10 words it ain’t worth the bother.
I wait until I get home to this laptop.
And often the fonts are so tiny I can’t read the e-mails on my Smartphone. War and Peace compressed on the head of a pin.
“So expand the e-mail,” I’m told. “Ya can, ya know......”
In which case I hafta scroll back-and-forth across the e-mail. What a pain! Read the e-mail on your laptop.
Responding on my iPhone takes three times as long as this laptop. I hafta edit all my mistypes caused by that virtual-keyboard, plus change its word-suggestions to what I intended.
A friend I graduated college with — his wife just got an iPad.
My friend is even more of a techno-geek than me, and is trying to figure out how to drive that iPad.
“No iPads for this kid,” I told him. “I’m drivin’ Photoshop, and for that I need a real computer.”
“You are so right!” he responded.
“There is NO WAY you could do complex computer-functions on an iPad. Well, probably you could, but it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.”
Nor can I do complex ‘pyooter-functions without my real computer-mouse.
Well, I can; but it’s irksome.
What an engineering triumph it is that all this technology was compressed into my tiny iPhone. That my iPhone has more computer-power than what got us to the Moon.
But the miniaturizers forgot we users are still big. We don’t have fingers the size of matchsticks.
You can be damn sure this blog wasn’t entered on my iPhone.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
“Why doncha speak it?” she said. “Use your voice-recognition.”
I said what I always say to such naysayers.
“Because you can be damn sure any sentence I generate is gonna have a period at the end of it.
And not only that, the words ‘to’ and ‘for’ are gonna be spelled out. They ain’t gonna be the numbers ‘2’ and ‘4.’”
My hairdresser, even more a techie than me, who got me into Smartphones in the first place, which I don’t regret, protests.
“Punctuation and grammar are Old School. Ya don’t need ‘em to communicate. People understand a text.”
“Sure,” I said; “if all you’re doing is Facebook ruminatin‘ — like ‘I just got up,’ or ‘I’m sitting on the toilet.’”
I doubt Kierkegaard could philosophize via text.
Which gets into the miniaturization problem.
Folded closed this Apple MacBook Pro laptop is about five-eighths of an inch thick.
My first Apple computer was a beige G-3 desktop. It was about nine inches high, and that’s without its screen.
It occupied a space about 14 by 18 inches on my desk, and the keyboard was in front of it.
Apple number-two was a G-4 tower about 20 inches tall.
My screen and keyboard were front-and-center; the tower was off to the side. —People were putting their towers on the floor, but not me; too dusty.
This laptop is Apple number-three. It has a 17-inch folding flat-screen display. It also has an integral keyboard and swipe-pad that serves as a mouse.
But I don’t use them, except out-of-town.
I USB-ed the keyboard from my tower into this laptop as a peripheral. Included is a real computer-mouse.
My laptop’s keyboard and swipe-pad are inefficient.
They can be used, and are outta-town when I don’t drag along my peripherals.
But using them takes time; longer than my peripherals.
Which gets into the major iPhone problem.
How can I use its virtual-keyboard when the keys are so small?
I certainly couldn’t Photoshop or do a blog on my iPhone.
My iPhone gets e-mail, and I can respond.
But often I don’t.
If it’s more than 10 words it ain’t worth the bother.
I wait until I get home to this laptop.
And often the fonts are so tiny I can’t read the e-mails on my Smartphone. War and Peace compressed on the head of a pin.
“So expand the e-mail,” I’m told. “Ya can, ya know......”
In which case I hafta scroll back-and-forth across the e-mail. What a pain! Read the e-mail on your laptop.
Responding on my iPhone takes three times as long as this laptop. I hafta edit all my mistypes caused by that virtual-keyboard, plus change its word-suggestions to what I intended.
A friend I graduated college with — his wife just got an iPad.
My friend is even more of a techno-geek than me, and is trying to figure out how to drive that iPad.
“No iPads for this kid,” I told him. “I’m drivin’ Photoshop, and for that I need a real computer.”
“You are so right!” he responded.
“There is NO WAY you could do complex computer-functions on an iPad. Well, probably you could, but it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.”
Nor can I do complex ‘pyooter-functions without my real computer-mouse.
Well, I can; but it’s irksome.
What an engineering triumph it is that all this technology was compressed into my tiny iPhone. That my iPhone has more computer-power than what got us to the Moon.
But the miniaturizers forgot we users are still big. We don’t have fingers the size of matchsticks.
You can be damn sure this blog wasn’t entered on my iPhone.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
posted by BobbaLew at 6:07 PM
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