No cellphone? No BlackBerry? No e-mail? No way? (It's true.)

It's like Pinto Girl...
http://priuschat.com/index.php?s=&show...st&p=373343

Working in the tech industry, i don't think i know anyone who shies away from technology that much - heck, half the people i know have crackberries... i mean Blackberries. But i do understand the desire not to be constantly connected - I try to spend as much time as possible away from my connective devices - hiking, camping, kayaking are all way to get away from it for a short while, while still being available when i need to be.

 

I know several of these folks who just say no......part of the issues are they are cheap, partly they just don't care.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ Jan 11 2007, 09:18 PM) [snapback]374507[/snapback]</div>

Well, I don't own a cell phone. I have a home phone. I don't feel the necessity of paying $15 a month or more to duplicate a service I already have just so someone can call me whenever *they* feel like it, no matter where *I* am or what I'm doing. If I have to call someone, I'll call from home, from work or from somewhere where there is a real phone. Call it part of protecting my privacy and my personal time/space. I have an answering machine. Leave a message. I'll call you back. I promise.

I also don't own a Blackberry. I do own a PDA. A Palm T1 I got as part of an inservice I attended at a professional conference. I've used it a few times but I don't carry it around with me. I use it mostly to take notes somewhere when I don't want to lug my laptop. If it died tomorrow I wouldn't miss it and wouldn't replace it.

e-Mail? For sure. Several accounts.

You forgot bank by mail. Big time. I have everything on autopay. I don't write checks any more. I use my check card or credit card if I don't have enough cash with me.

On-line purchases? Me too. I'm one of those statistics you heard about on the news around Christmas when they talked about the huge increase in online purchases. I'm a regular at amazon.com. Big on e-bay too. I have a lot of the catalogue companies bookmarked. I have one if I'm looking for something particular about travel, one for stuff for the house, the dog. I just don't have time to shop. I work, I come home, I'm tired. I am not getting in a car to drive around and around probably not finding exactly what I'm looking for. If it exists I can find it faster online and shop around to find the best price.

BTW I've had dial-up all this time. I just recently switched to a cable modem on Dec. 28. Not for choice. My dial-up through the County Office of Education is ending their service so I had to find another ISP. I have Cox Cable for the TV so decided to get broadband through them. Now...if I could only get my airport base station to work I'd be fine. Isn't that the point of wireless? (Right now I've got an ethernet cable stretching across the room from the TV to the laptop. Stupid.)

My life is on my laptop. (And backed up.) It's in iCal, MacMail and documents saved here and there. It's bookmarked in Mozilla and Safari.

But I do not feel isolated at all. I go to work. I talk. I laugh. I interact. In fact, I interact with more people this way than ever before. Before it was only people I met face to face. Now I meet a whole lot more people, and from all over the world. Sometimes I meet them face to face, some I never will.

But I also have my privacy. I have my quiet time. I do not feel I must have music wherever I go (I don't own an iPod) nor do I feel the need to talk incessantly from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep (no cellphone.)

And I'm fine with that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jan 11 2007, 08:41 PM) [snapback]374542[/snapback]</div>

Some ISP’s tend to “lock†the identity (MAC address) of the computer connected to their cable modem
and when one disconnects the computer and in its place connects an other routing device
(airport in this case) the ISP server refuses to connect since it detects a different identity. See this article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106836

A possible recovery scenario:

Power down the modem
Disconnect the coax cable from the wall to the modem.
Connect the modem’s network output to the airport’s WAN input.
Connect the lap top network input to the airport’s LAN output
(It is always better to setup the airport using a wired network; the wireless can be set up later)
Re-connect the coax cable to the modem
Power up the modem
Power up the airport
The laptop should connect to the airport and allow you to configure it.
If not, try the AirPort Admin Utility that should be installed on the laptop

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nicos @ Jan 12 2007, 12:25 AM) [snapback]374548[/snapback]</div>

This is almost what I've already done. Difference is that I haven't connected modem to airport's wan and computer to airport's lan at the same time. I don't have two ethernet cables at home. But...I've got one at school I can bring home. I'll try this over the weekend. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jan 11 2007, 11:41 PM) [snapback]374542[/snapback]</div>

The other day I was driving down a rural stretch of the toll road and noticed an elderly couple with a broken down car on the side of the road. I stopped my patrol unit & got out and asked the famous question.
Did you break down? (obvoiusly the hood was up/ here's my sign) He said yes , I asked if he had help coming? he said he didn't have a cellphone and no one else would stop.....

I used my cellphone and called AAA for him. I then explained the nesessity of owning a cellphone for just such an emergency, or worse if he had a heart attack.. He agreed, I told him there where companies that have inexpencive plans for emergency use only & to check around.

I have a personal cellphone, a work issued cellphone & a digital/alpha-numeric pager. LOL I can't get away!

If you have a cell phone that is not connected to a service, and you keep it charged and availible in case you need to call 911 it will work.....

 

yeah we've got the cell phones... we use em more like walkie talkies since we're only together a couple hours a night, and most of our longer phone calls are long distance so that financially made sense.

we had home internet for ages, and when we cut it off i did go through a withdrawal of types. i hopped online at work more than i did before, which was bad bad bad. i think i've got that habit kicked.

then without cable too it's like we're not connected to the world while we're at home. in one way it's liberating, that we are kind of free from all that stuff, but on the other hand if the weather gets nasty we can't hop online and see what's coming our way, we can't go to the tv to see, we just have to wait it out. stuff like that.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Jan 12 2007, 11:47 AM) [snapback]374698[/snapback]</div>

I got my wife Tracfone just for this sort of thing. It is only $96 a year, and hardly anyone knows her number. The ones that do have it know that its only for emergencies, even though she gets like 300 rollover minutes per year. She got a cellphone for HER convenience, not for everyone else's.
My company bought me a Cingular 8125, basically so they can work me 24 hours a day now. I'm taking calls from Israel early in the morning, and emailing back and forth with China late in the evening. Its an EVIL tool, and I'd throw it away in a heartbeat if I could.
I'm pretty much a Luddite, even though my work is with cutting edge technology, and electronics has always been my life. I feel that most people have become slaves to the technology, not the other way around. Yeah, I'd give it all up tomorrow, if only I could.

 

I agree; I think that as an emergency device (for example) mobile phones make sense...on the other hand, a recent study linked increases in telephone usage with failing self esteem in teenagers.

It's when the technology drives the need for...itself...that I begin to have issues with it.

From a cost standpoint, I think it's really easy to sign up for one or two things, and before you know it, you're paying a couple of hundred dollars a month for connectivity that you never really needed in the first place.

From a philosophical standpoint, I've been overbilled 'accidentally' one too many times by Cingular (for example) and the need to be constantly vigilant about this stuff seems like lots more effort than it's worth.

Whatever happened to the network computer? Now, if I could timeshare (remember the company Tymshare, from the late 70's?) and use a mainframe remotely...this, I would pay for (by the hour, or amount of data processed....not by the month, however).

 

I have a cel phone. at first it was a safety issue since i was out by myself 99% of the time. after that , i work on call so it was a work issue added.
i don't have cable- i do have dsl. i guess we each can pick our devils......

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nicos @ Jan 12 2007, 12:25 AM) [snapback]374548[/snapback]</div>

Bingo!. That finally did it.

Now, as long as I can continue to connect to it after I shut down my computer and then power it back up. And as long as I don't mess it up when I turn on my desktop and connect to download my e-mail. I've been putting it off until I got the Airport working.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jan 12 2007, 10:34 PM) [snapback]375085[/snapback]</div>

Great!!!
Make sure that everything works using the wired connection between laptop & airport.
Next configure the wireless portion of the airport and, at least, set a password and WPA security (I do not remember what is called in Apple-speak).
Then its time to disconnect the laptop and have it discover the wireless connection,
Cheers

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nicos @ Jan 13 2007, 03:11 AM) [snapback]375095[/snapback]</div>

Did that already last night when I said "Bingo".

The only piece I have left now is to get the desktop in the other room up and running and download my mail to that computer. Once that's done, I'm good to go.

Man, I wish the entire country was WiFi.

(And I'll consider getting a cellphone in 3-5 years, depending on how many iPhone models Apple will be offering by then.)