How to stop being a dinosaur?

[cjolley]

Oh, and I run Plex on my PC for the house, and all our TVs have Rokus attached.
Now that I think about it, it seems to be sneaking up even us Dinos.
And Steam (for Portals)
AHAHHHHHH.........

[VJ]

So basically... it seems most people are in a similar situation... It seems to me that in a way the big changes in technology in the last 15 years have a limited impact on daily routines...
It mainly seems to be

• cloud storage & some synchronization (files, contacts, ..)
• different channels for getting media (movies/series/music)
• smartphone (mobile internet)
• limited novelties (that may be somewhat useful, but are not integrated much)

Well, I guess that makes me feel less than a dinosaur than I thought.

Still not easy to decide what will be useful next... Recently I've been eying a smartwatch, and its been itching more and more... weird, as I'm not such a mobile phone addict and do not feel the need to be always connected. But they just fascinate me (and I could see some uses for that old Sony Liveview I have)...
I'm also looking at something better for notetaking, but have not found it yet... I know tablets have the option (I used one in the past, my trusty P1510 that recently broke down), but then it was too early (too bulky). However, I also noticed that writing on a tablet is not so easy and slower than writing on paper, so now I'm looking at the IrisPen3, but of course I know nobody who has something like that...

[cjolley]

"But they just fascinate me..."

Reason enough right there.

[KRSESQ]

It mainly seems to be
cloud storage & some synchronization (files, contacts, ..)
different channels for getting media (movies/series/music)
smartphone (mobile internet)
limited novelties (that may be somewhat useful, but are not integrated much)

I would move smartphones to the top of your list as no one saw them coming. Before the iPhone and even after, no one expected how pervasive they would become, or how revolutionary they would be.

[VJ]

"But they just fascinate me..."

Reason enough right there.

I think I may have missed a window of opportunity: 2 year old smartwatches are still getting updates to the latest Android Wear. I'm not so sure if that will be the case still. Also, they tend to be quite bulky and have short battery life, so I'm still holding off. So it seems this type of thing that is: go expensive, or wait. So I'm in the latter camp.

I would move smartphones to the top of your list as no one saw them coming. Before the iPhone and even after, no one expected how pervasive they would become, or how revolutionary they would be.

Yeah... it was not an ranked list.

I still remain disappointed that basic daily stuff is not that impacted (e.g. taking notes at meetings, etc.), despite so many things that came and went.

[UtwigMU]

I think it's a bit different. In 2005 I bought my first laptop and then in 2006 the 2nd and stopped using a desktop. All the cool s**t that kids are doing now with smart phones I was already doing with a laptop 2-3 years before them. Surfing internet on bus, visiting a computer shop or a bank and putting laptop on the table to look up notes and analyse purchase, using it on a train, computerized notes, chatting with a long distance friend in a cafe, had file sync and important files and pictures always with me.

The problem with most people's laptops was that they were huge 15" lapzillas with small batteries and half an hour autonomy. Even now in 2017 when tech is better i took a bring your own laptop computer course and I was one of 2 out of 12 people who was able to survive without being plugged in for 2h. Since I always had a powerful mobile workstation class laptop with high resolution (UXGA in 2005) and I multitask I'm way more productive on a laptop than could ever be on a smart phone. When I observe normal users, they never multitask even if they have hi res widescreen monitor, 4-8GB of RAM, fast CPU and SSD. They always close the app before opening another one. So using a smart phone to me feels like commuting by bicycle would feel to an American used to V8 hemi and doing work on smart phone is like transporting furniture on a motor bike. It can be done. And smart phone is slooow. I have Galaxy S5 and while snappy at first after several updates it takes 10s of seconds before page loads in browser on 4G or wifi.

I think smart phone enabled people to do very simple work on the go with a device costing a few 100€ but it's still inferior to what I was able to do 10 years ago on a 1500-2000€ device. The main revolutionary part of smart phone is that it made computing on the go cheap accessible and with a day of authonomy. Also I don't think people use smart phones to their potential either. Most people just use them as phones, texting in 2-4 apps, taking pictures, facebook, youtube and web browsers. At work no one is using custom keyboard (swiping beats typing) just like before almost no one used T9 on feature phones or learned CTRL-C CTRL-V keyboard shortcut on Windows, and maybe 3% have bought an application. For example 9folders is the most awesome Exchange client, better than MS Outlook. Whenever someone comes to me to configure email on the phone, I explain: Mail app development is halted because Google wants you to use gmail, Outlook is kinda OK, 9folders is awesome but it's 8 Euros. No one has gone for 9folders.

Also I think the baby boomers who were sent to Windows, Word and Excel courses in 1990s when transitioning from type writers at least had some semblance of how computer works, what file is and where files reside. Today's kids don't have that semblance and expect things to work just magically. They hardly ever ask what doing something means security wise, privacy wise and backup-wise

[VJ]

You've hit the nail on the head...

I'll first comment on your kids example. I see people swiping a lot here, so maybe it is region dependent. But I agree that today's kids are not grasping the lower level of the technology. In my database course, I had the hell of time explaining to students that if you execute a "create table" statement, it effectively changes the database structure. They are so used to programming in java, which for them is more "write - try - fix something - repeat" that many of them were surprised that a second execution of the same "create table" statement fails with an error that the table already exists. "It gives an error" "Yes, because your table exists" "Ah... so how do I fix this?" And that deleting the statement does not delete the table, or that it is something that may not need fixing (you want the table? you have it!)... In their minds, a query with an empty result is wrong, one with that returns results is correct. Well... no... I spent quite some time teaching the that they have to verify the outcome of the query: is it what they want...

Anyway, back to the dinosaurs...

Back in those days, I was ahead of the curve: pda in 2001, smartphone (Symbian at the time was the smartest OS) in 2004, windows mobile in 2006; digital slr in 2002; dual-cpu computer in 2003, navigation in car in 2003, mp3 playback in car in 2004 (expansion module to built in radio), first wearable in 2005 (Nokia HS-12w: bluetooth headset with display that shows caller), bluetooth/navigation in car in 2007, convertible tablet portable in 2006, ...
But those are the things that stuck in one form or another, I also was ahead of the curve with things such as scsi, pci-x, firewire, windows mobile, ... and slightly too fast to adopt to e.g. android (I have 3 phones that all three have a different layout of the front 3 buttons, as the positioning of them was modified... to this day I confuse 2 of them ).

But now I just don't care anymore. The reason I was so fast with the modern stuff was because I felt I need it as it would improve my quality of life. Now any smartphone can fulfill my needs: a smartphone for me is a means of communication (in the broad sense), not a work tool as it is just not efficient enough to work on it. I got a tablet, but the uses of that are similar to the uses of a smartphone (to me), just on a bigger screen - nice thing too look up something or read new when sitting in the couch, but not a productivity tool. Any laptop suffices for my needs, as my on-the-go-work is not cpu intensive, so the form factor is the most important. And even for other stuff, any desktop or powerful laptop will do.

So it feels like technology caught up with my needs and I don't care much about the new things that come out as I don't see an immediate benefit. I know which aspects of my daily life I would like to still improve (e.g. the note taking example), or which things could be fun to play with (e.g. smartwatch, drones). And with this process I am beginning to recognize aspects of my parents: my father used to be quite fast with technology (record player, 8mm camera, Video 2000, advanced compact 35 mm camera, ...). I see that he still tries to catch on (e.g. a digital camera, more recently he wanted a tablet, even not sure what he would use it for but because he felt he should go with the times - and he really uses it), but he needs my help to choose things.

Perhaps I am more surprised that technology caught up with my needs about 8 years ago, when before that there were constant innovations that directly affected me. Now, of course things are evolvoing, but not having seen an innovation that really affects me in the last 8 years, I started wondering if I am the dinosaur and blind to the innovations, too rigid to adapt to them, or if there is a bit of a break in the evolution.

edit: I feel for example that I could do note-taking more efficiently, but have not found a way... My old convertible tablet was not the as comfortable, and I don't see an easy workflow with an iPad. I was looking at something like a digital pen, but most use expensive special paper. And the others are so uncommon that it feels like even if it would be useful for me, once the device gets obsolete I would have to find another alternative. So I haven't adopted something new yet...

[Umfriend]

Not that I travel much but Airbnb, Booking.com and some airliner apps together mith Google Maps on the mobile have made life a lot easier.

But productivity on mobiles or tablets even? Not for me. I use my laptop grudginly unless it is connected to 2 x 25" screens, then I love it. It will be a while before a design comes up for smaller form factors that would compete. It woudl have to have a vastly superior user inteface, fingers, ears and eyes just do not do well on those but something that actually reads and plots into my mind directly could very well beat the shit out of everything. For that I would be a very early adapter. Just think you could think of a table and voila, there it is defined including foreign keys etc.

[KRSESQ]

It's difficult to draw a proper comparison between smartphones/tablet devices and desktops/laptops because they were designed for quite different purposes. Smartphones and tablets are social media devices, and desktops/laptops are productivity devices. That's not to say you cannot be productive on a smartphone or a tablet. But you don't have full access to everything you could need to run a proper business on a smartphone or a tablet. Unless it's a Microsoft device running full-blown Windows. But good luck working with the onscreen keyboard. And by the time you've added the peripheral devices to make it fully productive, you've basically got a laptop, at about the same price you'd pay for a good laptop. :P

Conversely, it is possible to play Pokemon Go on the PC. But it may defeat the purpose of playing Pokemon Go at all.

[VJ]

I think the whole smartphone/tablet for productivity goes with the possible input and display means. There is no theoretical reason why a 10" tablet with a keyboard and mouse could not provide the same productivity as a 10" laptop. Well, provided the OS adds the necessary functionality. For me, this, combined with my current tablet experiences imply that my next tablet will be a Windows tablet, as it doubles as laptop (provided you have a keyboard), and for the basic tablet functionality I use (browsing, email), it will suffice. Our press-contact uses an external bluetooth keyboard with his mobile phone to monitor and work with social media related to the institute/research, but of course that is a very specific task. The problem with input on a smartphone or tablet is the lack of feedback, and the loss of screen-area - the latter particularly problematic in smartphones. I never got the hang of swiping, but that may also be because I'm not typing long texts and am using many languages (switching the keyboard between them is not worth it for a short text).

On the topic of the younger generation using computers...

A 12-year old looked a bit puzzled when I entered a URL in a browser: he was so used to the fact that you can enter search terms in the address bar, that he basically never enters urls. And it made me realize that my students are already acting in a similar way, and even I'm beginning to adopt it: why bother to enter a URL exactly when you can type it more-or-less correct and just click the first search result (provided this first search result is returned fast enough). But I wonder when technology will become too much abstracted that even expert users loose track of the basics...