How to incorporate high-tech items into your vintage lifestyle?

[eldonkr]

This on call 24-7 thing...is a myth.

The person holding the phone can indeed still chose to operate the -off- switch...or decline to answer the phone.

So just like answering one's home phone, it's the -picking up- of the call that makes it on your terms, and not the caller's terms.

Mistaking lack of willpower to -not answer- with being forced to answer......


(exceptions include jobs where you are -paid- to answer...then you are working, and working has -never included- a guarantee of personal will)

I agree with that. I choose to -not answer- my cell whenever my ex calls for example. lol


And while we're at it. Anyone know how I can get the old fashioned bell tone for my cell?

For all you Metal Gear Solid fans out there, my ringtone is set to snakes codec.


Also, it would be rather nifty to hear that telegraph sound or whatnot when I got a text message.

 

[Caity Lynn]

I agree with that. I choose to -not answer- my cell whenever my ex calls for example. lol


And while we're at it. Anyone know how I can get the old fashioned bell tone for my cell?

For all you Metal Gear Solid fans out there, my ringtone is set to snakes codec.


Also, it would be rather nifty to hear that telegraph sound or whatnot when I got a text message.

What cell phone do you have? most of the ones I've seen (and had) have had the old phone as a preset ringtone. If you don't' have one, perhaps a friend could bluetooth it to you? (if your phone has that option?)

 

[B. F. Socaspi]

I'm still waiting for a rotary dialed cel phone......

(I have a Blackberry myself)

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2005/06/portable_rotary.html

I take your rhetorical statement, and raise you one literal answer.

 

[B. F. Socaspi]

Oops! Missed Josephine's post. (I've been drooling over it, so when I saw it mentioned, I jumped!)

 

[Josephine]

Oops! Missed Josephine's post. (I've been drooling over it, so when I saw it mentioned, I jumped!)

Sigh. Young people today... lol

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

As a non iphone owner, how exactly could it change your life. Its a cell phone and you can surf the internet. Big deal.

 

[David Conwill]

I'm far from opposed to non-vintage technology, though I do prefer it to have a vintage aesthetic whenever possible.

My friends and wife think I'm a Luddite, but I think that sums up my feelings on the matter a bit better. I don't mind modern conveniences, I just wish they made ones with some visual appeal (to me, that is. I'm sure the smudgy mirror finish on my cellphone is very appealing to your average teenager).

I can't quite wrap my mind around pulling out a giant handset or a complete rotary phone in public, however. I'd love my current cellphone if I could just get it in black bakelite with some speedlining. Where are the Henry Dreyfusses, Raymond Loewys, and Walter Dorwin Teagues of today?

Still, I really want something with a conventional handset like either the ThinkGeek bluetooth thing, or that SparkFun complete phone to use at home on my desk. Not just for looks, but because most modern cellphones are designed to be comfortable in your pocket and not against your head and I find agonizing with which to make long calls.

I tried converting an old Automatic Electric Model 80 to serve as my handset, but couldn't get the old carbon microphone to work without a power source, and haven't figured out how to get power to it.

-Dave

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I think what matters to me, ultimately, is that old-fashioned courtesies, considerations and common sense are brought to new technologies like a smartphone, such as don't text and drive and turn your phone to quiet when dining out.

 

[MEDIUMMYND]

In days of old, there was a concept of being "not in." It didn't mean you literally weren't in the house, it just meant you weren't receiving visitors. It's time to revive that idea with regard to the phone.

To true, cell phones are great but turn them off when your not at work,to my mind going out to pubs bars etc has been spoiled by folks permanently glued to their phones

 

[Miss Neecerie]

My friends and wife think I'm a Luddite, but I think that sums up my feelings on the matter a bit better. I don't mind modern conveniences, I just wish they made ones with some visual appeal (to me, that is. I'm sure the smudgy mirror finish on my cellphone is very appealing to your average teenager).

Heh...And this would be why my phone has a cover....sadly plastic.....but wood grained plastic....so that its vaguely like a car dashboard.

 

[scotrace]

Info to pass along

Here's a tip we can all benefit from, unless all your friends have iPhones*:

Voicemail technology goes backward, for the most part.* Wireless companies assume everyone is an illiterate nincompoop who just emerged from a time machine and ten minutes ago were standing in a cornfield in 1720. You call a friend, and their greeting picks up and says "Hi, it's Joe, leave me a messsage and I'll call you back."
and then...

a very long pause, followed by a robot, providing detailed instructions on leaving a voicemail for Joe. "Joe Smith".... is not available. long pause. To leave a callback number, press 5, to page this person, you may... blah blah blah. Incredibly annoying, and completely unnecessary. People have been leaving voice messages for TWENTY YEARS and know the drill. They do it to stretch out the call so that they can pretty much always ding someone for at least 2 minutes (with rounding up practices) for any voice mail call. The rat finks.*

The solution, if you haven't yet found it, is to know the code for bailing on the robot. Of COURSE, those codes aren't universal. Some carriers are 1. Some are *. Some are #. The thing to do seems to just try them all, pressing them in that order until the beep appears.
If you remember 1-*-#, you're covered. Press them in order until you get the beep.*
(If you press # first, for example, with a Verizon line, it'll ask for the password for voicemail access. So 1 then * then #.)

*iPhone-AT&T folks have Visual Voicemail, and the robot is gone. Just the person's recorded greeting and straight to Mr. Beep. Sweet.

 

[Josephine]

As a non iphone owner, how exactly could it change your life. Its a cell phone and you can surf the internet. Big deal.

We got iPhones about a month ago. They really saved us over Tgiving when we ended up in a bad snow storm at 9 at night in the Appalachians.

We make it to a McD's, The Husband is using the Weather Channel app to look up the weather on his iPhone, I'm using Mapquest to look up the closest m/hotels and the directions on how to get to them, and the phone to call them and make sure they had a room. Charlie's Motel and Restaurant in Frostburg had rooms (just come on in the bar for the key when you get here!). We get there fine, me reading the directions as we go.

If we didn't have the phones we'd (with 3 kids) be stuck sleeping in a 24 hour truck stop, or driving up and down the uncleared mountain roads in the dark hoping to find a motel with a room and not drive into a ditch on the way.

I've asked for the retro handset for Christmas.

 

[scotrace]

Incorporate it like this

Pretty cool.
Make an old phone into an iPod Dock.

 

[H.Johnson]

We got iPhones about a month ago. They really saved us over Tgiving when we ended up in a bad snow storm at 9 at night in the Appalachians.
<Snip>
If we didn't have the phones we'd (with 3 kids) be stuck sleeping in a 24 hour truck stop, or driving up and down the uncleared mountain roads in the dark hoping to find a motel with a room and not drive into a ditch on the way.

Yes, but wouldn't that have been a character-building adventure that your children would remember for the rest of their lives?

I remember things like that happening to my folks when I was a kid and it just made us tougher and stronger as a family unit. We used to cope with such situations, take them in our stride and reminisce about them at the fireside in later years.

Just my opinion.

 

[H.Johnson]

As a non iphone owner, how exactly could it change your life. Its a cell phone and you can surf the internet. Big deal.

That's only two disadvantages - there must be more?

 

[Josephine]

Yes, but wouldn't that have been a character-building adventure that your children would remember for the rest of their lives?

No. I would not have liked to have risked our lives trying to find a hotel, nor endured trying to sleep in a 24 Truck stop with our 5, 8, and 12 yr old girls. We had enough adventure getting to the motel we did find, and sleeping there.

 

[ortega76]

Like most of you-

I'm a big fan of technology and think it can integrate well with a retro-lifestyle as long as you let common-sense and courtesy dictate your use of technology. If cell phones were available in 1942, I guarantee you that they would explode as big as they are now because they are useful as all get-out. After all, technology lets everyone here share their thoughts and ideas. For many of us, this is the only place to gather with like minded souls without a lengthy and costly journey.

What most of us dislike isn't the technology, it's people's inconsiderate use of technology. We don't want to be identified with those folks. As in someone hating cellphones because they don't want to be like the soccer mom swerving in traffic while chatting on the phone. Responsible use of a cellphone is a true life saver. The answer isn't boycotting technology- it's making responsible choices about the technology we use and how we use it.

For a great little read on technology interfacing with the daily lives of people concerned with a retro aesthetic, I love The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. I find that retro style goes a long way to keeping track of technology. I've taken to keeping my cellphone and I-Pod Nano in a vest pocket.

 

[H.Johnson]

I teach in one of the biggest schools of technology in a UK university (to PhD level) and, in my opinion we have gone sadly wrong, in that we assume that technological developments can replace human qualities - such as resourcefulness, resilience, personal organisation, patience, even interpersonal communication. In fact, it is my informed observation (I have published research in this area) that what technology is doing, steadily and insidiously, is weakening and undermining these very qualities.

I grew up in the aftermath of world war two in a village that had a 'Displaced Persons Camp' (now we would call them 'refugees') at its edge, which was occupied during the war by families who had fled the Nazi invasion of their countries. Most of them had trecked across Europe with few personal possessions, living rough and sometimes evading capture (and internment in a worse kind of camp) by the 'skin of their teeth'. Many of the women were by then widows and more than a few had lost children in the process.

After the war, many of these families opted to stay and I grew up with their stories of bravery and heroism that continue to inspire me, boy and man. They had no technology whatsoever to help them in their plight, but the strength of their resolve to simply survive, to build new lives, their quiet dignity at their fall from prosperity and their strong family bond will be an inspiration to me for ever.

I sincerely hope that my family will never have to repeat those experiences, but I strongly believe that the only way to develop the human qualities I admire is to exercise them on a smaller scale. To me at least, 'being a vintage person' is about exploiting opportunities to develop just those personal and physical qualities that modern 'easy living' is undermining. Sure, 'vintage living' without technology is more difficult can be tough, but that's what it makes you in return. There's nothing wrong with a little danger and discomfort.

The effect of modern 'convenient' transport technology (and the resulting lack of exercise) on peoples' physical shape is all too apparent. I believe that a similar diminishing effect is happening to peoples' character through other forms of technology. What makes this so dangerous is that it is invisible.

Just my opinion.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I sincerely hope that my family will never have to repeat those experiences, but I strongly believe that the only way to develop the human qualities I admire is to exercise them on a smaller scale. To me at least, 'being a vintage person' is about exploiting opportunities to develop just those personal and physical qualities that modern 'easy living' is undermining. Sure, 'vintage living' without technology is more difficult can be tough, but that's what it makes you in return. There's nothing wrong with a little danger and discomfort.

The effect of modern 'convenient' transport technology (and the resulting lack of exercise) on peoples' physical shape is all too apparent. I believe that a similar diminishing effect is happening to peoples' character through other forms of technology. What makes this so dangerous is that it is invisible.

Just my opinion.

Yes! :eusa_clap

 

[scotrace]

Last Saturday I found myself stuck at an iHop 30 miles from home with a dead battery.* I used my phone to GPS my current location, searched for "Tow," picked the nearest, which dialed their number automatically. A tow truck was there in about 15 minutes with a jump. I had my two kids with me in the car and it was snowing heavily and about 18 degrees F outside. An example of new technology saving the day.
But I used our time in the car productively, and we all three laughed about the experience and trading stories, calling friends to share our sorry tale, until the truck came, until we had tears in our eyes. We had fun with it because the stress of the situation was entirely removed by the ability to fix it quickly and easily. Otherwise it would have been a Big Fat Hairy Deal and upsetting for everyone, making for a grumpy dad and bad experience.


*I left the ratsin' fratsin' lights on!