For close to twenty years, starting in April 1983, I subleased a small corner office in a CPA firm. Then, a little more than ten years ago, the firm moved to a new location which ended up being about the same mile and a half distance as before from my condo but heading west instead of north. One morning last week I went to the office to check the mail earlier than usual. But that’s basically all I do there now. I gave up the desk space when they made the move.
Continue reading “The Life of Riley”
Category: Talking on the Phone
A Jobs Half Done
Steven Jobs was an Albert Einstein type guy that shows up every fifty years or so relative to where the rest of us stand on the ladder of brilliance. There are social commentators who state that he changed our culture three times. Once for the computer, another for listening to music and the third for how we talk on the phone.
Having probably lived longer as an adult than the people who made these profound judgments, I’d have to disagree with this trifecta assessment. For one, his contribution to how we use a computer is not so singular. Jobs is the guy who taught us to look at things spatially rather than linearly by adapting the mouse and iconic graphical screen for the computer. The jury is still out on how pragmatic that is in a work environment where the majority of the application interaction is for accounting and database retrieval. If the purpose of a computer is for playing games and looking at pictures and videos on the Internet, you could make a case.
The true innovator will be the one who makes an all-in-one I-pad type device that integrates business apps, voice and video, chatting, television and radio into a seamless and less obtrusive communicator. The I-pad is clumsy to work with unless you are adept at and satisfied with dragging your finger all over the screen. Okay, maybe it is a generational thing. I concede.
What about listening to music? Again, maybe this old fogey is the not the guy to ask but I haven’t had a transistor radio in years. The clock radio in my bedroom is used only for a few minutes in the morning as I get dressed while I listen to the news. At night, it lulls me to sleep listening to old-time radio shows. In the car, I listen to political talk shows, news and sports conversations. Once in a while if the news is bad along with the local sports teams, I flip to FM and dial in on the fine arts station. No, I’m not the guy who cares what can be downloaded from a podcast. I got other ways to waste my time.
As for talking on the phone- I’ve had a cell phone since they first came out 20 years ago or so. It was a Motorola flip phone that was big and bulky I still have a flip phone- obviously more trim and better featured- and do not pay for a data service option to receive and send text messages. It’s a phone for holding conversations, dammit and not to write notes. I have an email program on my computer, duh!
In baseball, they say that even if you go one for three, that it’s a pretty good batting average. For my team, I see Mr. Jobs with a .333 batting average at best. Okay, I’m not with it and out of touch. I was waiting for Steven to finally come out with something that others of my ilk and vintage and I can relate to. Sadly, we’ll not be able to witness this but hope that one day someone else will pick up and carry on his mantle.
Hear, Hear!
In high school while taking a music appreciation class the teacher told us that the acuity of our hearing would peak in the not too distant future and that it would all be downhill from then on. A teenager doesn’t believe anything an adult tells him so I shrugged it off.
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s I used to go to social outings where very loud music was played while people jerked their bodies around on a dance floor. At the time, the music was much too loud and I knew it was damaging my hearing but I thought it was wise to hang out and catch some action, if you know what I mean.
Continue reading “Hear, Hear!”