Wasabi Roll: TECH-WRECK - Just Because We Can, Doesn't Mean We Should...

TECH-WRECK /tek rek/

Noun

A scenario or condition that when technology has been applied to enhance the situation, has actually made things worse, i.e., too complex or inefficient to claim an improvement.

Many countries are following the US’s lead in the techno-culture, where technology floods our lives in a way that enamors us to the point where we are forgetting what we are trying to accomplish.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: …your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should…

Well said Dr. Malcom. Manufacturers seldom ask themselves the simple question, “Should we make this?” We should place the criteria for all innovation..

1. Does it improve the user’s experience?

2. Does it improve efficiency?

3. Does it make sense?

If It Isn’t Bloat don’t fix it

In today's computer environment it's virtually impossible to find fast, trim, and efficient software.

Rather, most of what's available might be characterized as "bloat-ware." Years of "feature creep" have resulted in applications that have rich functionality but lack elegance and efficiency. To find examples of this, you don’t have to look far. Windows 1.0 required a minimum of 256 kilobytes (KB), two double-sided floppy disk drives, and a graphics adapter card. Today, Windows 8 requires 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit). Fortunately, each generation of computer hardware blazes past its predecessor in speed and power, but the practical work accomplished seems to be relatively flat. Arguably speaking Windows 1.0 and Windows 8 helped us do pretty much the same things, so what’s with the 20 GB?

Glass Hole

Google has come up with the idea yet, having a box at the top right corner of your right lens of your glasses where you can face chat, get GPS instructions, weather and street information, internet access, and texting will be a great enhancement to life. kinda like having the ESPN baseball scores all the time!

The commands are voice-activated, which in our opinion needs another ten years in the oven if we've learned anything from the muted "Siri" experience.

Ok, so verbal texting not so much, but you’ll be able to take instant videos. In the promo video they have people video taping their skydiving and going down roller coasters which all are very exciting, but those are video taped or photo'd already. We don't even buy the keychain at the end of the ride, so why are we video'ing the experience?

Now the real issue... Currently several states have enacted a no electronic devices while operating a vehicle, because the distraction, whether intended or not, is a threat to your safety. So, obscuring 30% your vision with text updates that may be a life threatening distraction... well, you do the math.

Ok then, we resolve to not wear them while driving, great. So, If you’re not working for National
Geographic, or skiing down Everest or surfing a 50 foot wave, what are you going to record? Do you really need video of yourself walking through the mall? “Ohmygod! Here I am looking in the window at Build-a-Bear!” Quick! All your Facebook friends need to see this!

In short, TV embedded in you eye 24 x 7, not only commercials but frivolous info. We are really looking forward to providing Google with my retinal activity when viewing products so my periphery can enjoy unsolicited videos or text about what I just looked at.

You remember how well we received those nerds that walk around with a bluetooth ear set on... same thing, guaranteed after the novelty wears off, you are just advertising that you are un-datable.

Birdband Connection

In some cases, practicality may be the deciding factor on whether technology should prevail. In September 2009, broadband connections were being touted as the second coming. With a click of a button your data shall be whisked away as soon as you can say “Bob’s your uncle”. Well that’s fine for some, but what if "Bob" isn’t your uncle.

A South African IT company, based in Durban, pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a data packed 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest internet service provider, Telkom. The pigeon named Winston took an hour and eight minutes to carry the data 80 km (50 mi). Including transferring, it took two hours, six minutes, and 57 seconds for the data to arrive, the same amount of time it took to transfer 4% of the data over the ADSL. The lesson here? A bird in the hand is worth 4GB in the bush (this is actually funny if you think about it...)

Not Remotely Amused

Remember the days when turning on the television was just one button? Now you have to find the cable remote, turn it on, then find the TV remote and turn on the set, but make sure you have the right channel and input, etc. In fact, I challenge any household to show us that they have only one single remote on their coffee table. Even the universal remotes can’t handle all the devices.

The question is, “Is there situations that technology actually hinders us, rather than help?” For some companies in the 90’s, this was the general result when they tried, and we say, “Tried” to implement and MRP system. Some companies actually folded before they could get it installed.

Think Different?

The year 2001, Maine initiated the MLTI program to deploy Apple laptops to all 7th and 8th graders and their teachers. By January 2010, 100 percent of Maine's middle schools were 1:1 laptop schools and about 55 percent of Maine's public high schools were also participating.

Results to date: high school educators are seeing an erosion of student readiness, motivated learners are far and few between. Year after year, more pronounced in the past three to four years, the "in coming" freshmen are not prepared to function at the high school level. Basic math skills, the times tables, counting change without a computer's assistance, these have not been conquered. English grammar and writing skills are not even close to reaching functional levels for many. You can hear students utter frequently as they review their assessed assignment..."it's good enough, I earned a 70." That's passing!

DumbTV

Ok, despite the myriad of “Smart Televisions” out there, people aren’t using them the way they were designed for. In short, they just use them to, well.. watch TV. No surprise to anyone except the marketers that conceived the idea, that no one wants to tweet, post, read, or even browse on their television. Now barring the fact that this is intuitive, there was a study, and there always is, done by The NPD Group, a retail and consumer tracking research group that validate methods and marketing solutions. The latest NPD Connected Intelligence Application & Convergence report highlights that nearly six out of ten consumers who own a connected HDTV are accessing Over-the-Top (OTT) video services through the device, i.e., Rokus and Apple TVs and Xboxes and TiVos — that offer the same services..

The bottom line is smart TVs are dumb. They give us too many options for apps most people will never use, and they do so at the expense of making it simple to find the shows and movies we want to watch, no matter where they are, be it online or on the air. This is exactly what Roku, Tivo, Xbox, and Apple TV did. So TV manufacturers are failing to make the TV more than, well, a TV. Further, we are seeing attached devices also focus heavily on TV and video-centric apps, Microsoft’s upcoming launch of more than 40 additional television apps for the Xbox Live subscription service is one example.

Email – A Tool, or For Tools

Every day everyone at a desk, sits down with their cup of inspiration and reads their email, 85% of which have absolutely nothing to do with their specific jobs. So we pose the question, does spending three hours a day reading messages from the internet save time? Really? Remember back in the day when you could do your job and not sit at your desk typing all day. What on earth did we do when we weren't typing reports that no one reads, memos that are never opened, and messages that are summarily routed to the junk folder? The answer, we did our jobs, we got up out of our seats and went over to who we needed to talk to and got them to focus on our agenda and got the job done.

Energy Saving Lights?

Now everyone is for saving energy and recycling and holding hands and singing Al Gore songs. However, the “Energy saving” lights of today are Compact Fluorescent lights (CFL)

The main issue with fluorescent lights is that they flicker. Fluorescent light bulbs contain a gas that gets excited and glows when electricity is passed through this. The electricity is not constant. It is controlled by electric ballast that pulses on and off really fast. To most people it is so fast that it looks like it is on constantly. However, the eye is fast enough to detect it, you your eye is doing double time reacting to the pulse. This can cause:

Migraines
Headaches
Eye strain
Stress/Anxiety

Additionally fluorescent bulbs, especially cheaper bulbs, may have a green cast to them making all the colors in your environment drabber and sickly looking. Why? Bulbs have a rating called Color Rendering Index, or CRI. Sunlight and normal tungsten and halogen bulbs have a CRI of a perfect 100%; everything looks as it should. CFLs have horrible CRIs, typically about only 40%. That's why you rarely see the CRI rated on retail CFL bulbs; it's too bad to want to list. Even professional CFLs used in TV lighting only have CRIs of about 80%, meaning they are missing about 20% of the color spectrum. We artists see these things.

Bad for our Environment?!!!!

Yup, who would have thought. Energy saving lights destroy our environment. They are loaded with lead in their connectors and circuit boards, and have mercury inside their tubes! That's why you'll see the recycling logos all over them; they are so poisonous that they are prohibited from being thrown away in the trash!

Regular light bulbs have no lead and have no mercury; just glass and inert metal wires.

Burn out too fast

Adding to the drain on our environment, CFLs are always dying and burning out.
The long life ratings on the box are for leaving the light on continuously. The catch is that unlike real light bulbs, CFLs are deeply stressed when turned on, so in actual use where they're turned on and off all the time, they die young.

Don't save electricity

Since they use so little power, people often leave them running since it's too much bother to turn them off and then on again, and wind up using just as much power, even in summer.

At least big business wins

The reason for the push for CFLs is the golden rule: those with the gold make the rules. The huge light bulb makers like GE lobbied to get these pushed, because GE sells a CFL for $4.75 while it costs them 29.7 ¢ to make in China, while real light bulbs only cost them 15¢ to make, but sell for only 35¢ each.

Bulb makers had to do something to scare people away from buying real light bulbs; their profit was all gone.

Bulb makers make a lot more money on CFLs, and worse, the bulb makers have gotten governments to use our tax dollars to subsidize them at retail!

Source(s):

So “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;”

____________________________________________________________

About Rick Ricker

An IT professional with over 21 years experience in Information Security, wireless broadband, network and Infrastructure design, development, and support.

For more information, contact Rick at (800) 399-6085

Wasabi Roll

Friday, May 10, 2013

TECH-WRECK - Just Because We Can, Doesn't Mean We Should...