What's something modern you won't miss when it becomes obsolete?

[LizzieMaine]

Gawd save us from the militarization of suburbia.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

IThe only thing more obnoxious is the ubiquity of the word "tactical," as in that dopey commercial where they show Mr. J. Random Bonedumb scouting his dooryard with his advanced tactical flashlight. That'll show those woodchucks.

I'm tempted, but I'm waiting for the "strategic" versions.

 

[Turnip]

You seriously want to miss out this great opportunity?

 

[Edward]

Two factor 'security', which means you can't use your work wmail to let collleagues know there is a peoblem with your phone... and work's increasing colonisation of my private phone via such 'security'. Bah.

 

[Bushman]

Two factor 'security', which means you can't use your work wmail to let collleagues know there is a peoblem with your phone... and work's increasing colonisation of my private phone via such 'security'. Bah.

I refuse to allow my work life and private life to mingle. They don't pay me to answer emails at home, so I refuse to have the work email server on it. Same with the work IM chat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of the many positive side effects of my non-negotiable refusal to own any kind of mobile device is that it automatically throws a wrench into any suggested implementation that kind of system here. The fact that my computer at home is twenty years old and I refuse to "upgrade" it offers additional insulation. Especially since they don't pay me enough to "upgrade" anything even if I wanted to.

 

[belfastboy]

You seriously want to miss out this great opportunity?

A new pair every month I would never have to wash underwear ever again.

 

[Zombie_61]

...Bell & Howell used to be a respected brand, widely known for the quality of its products, as was Sharper Image. Now both may as well be Ron “But Wait! There’s More!” Popeil.

Years ago I worked with a guy who claimed he was Ron Popeil's nephew. I shrugged it off until Mr. Popeil showed up to take him to lunch one day. Anyway, all of that "Ronco" rubbish they used to sell was indeed pretty much garbage, but it did work if you knew "the secret". For example, the now infamous "Veg-O-Matic" did slice and dice as advertised, but for the commercials they used a 240 lb. bodybuilder who had practiced with the Veg-O-Matic because you had to push down hard and fast, and make sure the "blades" were absolutely straight up and down when you did.

 

[tonyb]

One of the many positive side effects of my non-negotiable refusal to own any kind of mobile device is that it automatically throws a wrench into any suggested implementation that kind of system here. The fact that my computer at home is twenty years old and I refuse to "upgrade" it offers additional insulation. Especially since they don't pay me enough to "upgrade" anything even if I wanted to.

Look on the bright side! Today’s gee-whiz latest stuff will go for a dime on the dollar in three or four years.

 

[belfastboy]

Look on the bright side! Today’s gee-whiz latest stuff will go for a dime on the dollar in three or four years.

One feature of Covid is that our restaurants, when open, do not give out menus. Instead they give you a bar code thing to scan on your cel phone so the menu appears on your screen. Except I have to ask for the old fashioned cardboard menu as I don't have a data plan on my phone.....it just makes phone calls. Invariably the young server just does not comprehend.

 

[Zombie_61]

One feature of Covid is that our restaurants, when open, do not give out menus. Instead they give you a bar code thing to scan on your cel phone so the menu appears on your screen. Except I have to ask for the old fashioned cardboard menu as I don't have a data plan on my phone.....it just makes phone calls. Invariably the young server just does not comprehend.

I do have a data plan on my phone, but I'd still have to ask for an actual menu 'cause I have no idea how to do all of that scanning stuff with my cell phone. The young server would have to walk me through the whole thing, by which time he/she could easily have grabbed a menu, taken my order, and damn near had the food on the table.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yet another advantage in being cell-free is the money it saves me not patronizing any kind of business that requires a cellphone for payment, admission, or any other kind of interaction. The easier the Boys make it for you to spend money, the easier it is to spend money on things you really don't need.

EBay's latest "updates" crash the browser on my computer at home to the point where it's now unusable. Suits me fine.

 

[Harp]

After all the old Ma Bell pay phones were ripped off and out of La Salle Street Station
I reluctantly, dragged kicking and screaming, bought a cell phone. My current hardware
is a Samsung flip, no outgo text (can receive though) camera, or anything other than basic commo.
But I once called a bookie outfit for an advertized free tip on an Oklahoma University football game.
Sooner-said-than done every bookie outfit in the country was texting offers, game odds.
With pandemonium and all else dried up, bookies were messaging the horses.
When this started I called one place back, told them I was a hoss player and offered to sell
some commentary and tips to them.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The easier the Boys make it for you to spend money, the easier it is to spend money on things you really don't need.

This is one more reason why my wife handles the bills and the finances. I'd likely give anyone who'd ask the shirt off my back: I dare anyone to try to squeeze a nickel out of her. The Boys are pitifully outgunned in that OK Corral showdown.

 

[tonyb]

I occasionally throw a few bucks at the local “paper” (a weekly in print, updated a couple times daily online). They’re on the wire, so there’s national and international news, which I can find in countless other places, and considerable local coverage, which I can’t. All kinds of crap would go unreported around here if not for them. Local “papers” like this are known for their cheerleading, and they do some of that. But they don’t shy away from covering the bad and the ugly. And we definitely got some bad and ugly.

Giving ’em a little scratch takes maybe a minute online.

 

[Edward]

I refuse to allow my work life and private life to mingle. They don't pay me to answer emails at home, so I refuse to have the work email server on it. Same with the work IM chat.

I am of the same mindset. Unfortunately, unless I pay all my work expenses myself and never access email, they have me over a barrel on this one. I would have the phone anyhow (it was the landline I resented, but with fibreoptic now I was able to get rid of that), but there is a principle at stake even though it costs me nothing. Sadly, my sector is now run exclusively by moneymen who can only think in the benefit of costs and profits.

 

[Harp]

I've never used an Uber in my life. Aside from the philosophical objections I have to the whole idea of the way the company does business, they don't exist here. So it's kinda moot...

Understood. Where Kant's insistence on the primacy of the practical, Fichte's free and morally active self
adheres to idealism, all the while Fichte peers past practicality and sees the lurking spectre of Spinozism.
I once hopped inside an Uber at the Holiday Inn City Mart Plaza and asked to be dropped at the Board of Trade. However, the car had already been hired, an issue of practical truth of which existence I was totally unaware.
At 05.00 AM no less.

 

[Turnip]

I refuse to allow my work life and private life to mingle. They don't pay me to answer emails at home, so I refuse to have the work email server on it. Same with the work IM chat.

Same here, I wouldn’t even hang out with folks from work when not payed for.
At this end of the pond an employer couldn’t force staff to use private gear for work and for sure not outside regular working time.
If an employer would want / need you to check work mail outside regular working time for example, they’d have to pay you respectively and of course to supply you with the necessary gear and infrastructure such as a mobile phone or a notebook, pad…respective fast web access…

 

[tonyb]

Years ago I worked with a guy who claimed he was Ron Popeil's nephew. I shrugged it off until Mr. Popeil showed up to take him to lunch one day. Anyway, all of that "Ronco" rubbish they used to sell was indeed pretty much garbage, but it did work if you knew "the secret". For example, the now infamous "Veg-O-Matic" did slice and dice as advertised, but for the commercials they used a 240 lb. bodybuilder who had practiced with the Veg-O-Matic because you had to push down hard and fast, and make sure the "blades" were absolutely straight up and down when you did.

This morning’s news carries a remembrance of Ron Popeil, who died yesterday at age 86.

 

[belfastboy]

Same here, I wouldn’t even hang out with folks from work when not payed for.
At this end of the pond an employer couldn’t force staff to use private gear for work and for sure not outside regular working time.
If an employer would want / need you to check work mail outside regular working time for example, they’d have to pay you respectively and of course to supply you with the necessary gear and infrastructure such as a mobile phone or a notebook, pad…respective fast web access…

In the late 1980's when I received my first work issued Cel phone it was heaven.....at first......no more searching for a working pay phone or a phone booth without excrement within. Until we soon discovered it also meant we were always within reach of the office......until we counter discovered there were big voids in cel phone coverage so we just had to deny receiving the call as we must have been in a 'dead zone'. Glad I am out of the fray.