Monday, August 29, 2011

Analog man in a digital world



I'm not a very tech-savvy guy. My computer skills are pretty much limited to email, basic googling and writing this blog - that's it. I don't Tweet or do Facebook, uploading an image like the one above strains my capabilities, and creating a link to post a video here is something I have to figure out anew each time I want to try it.

It's the same with cell phones - I don't have a "smart phone". I just changed cell phone carriers (see Adios, AT&T) and my new phone makes calls - that's it, no internet, no multi-media capability, not even any texting; just calls. Oh, wait - it has a camera, but I don't know how to use it so I don't think that counts.

TV - same deal. My cable company is upgrading to a new all-digital format with a fancy new name (Xfinity, I think) and lots of new channels - more than I could watch in a lifetime - and all kinds of stuff I don't care about like movies on demand and video recording, yada yada yada. All of this new capability required the addition of a new box to make it all work, of course, so I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a try. Long story short, no way I could program the box to make it work so I took it back to the cable company, told them I didn't want it and asked what would happen if I just plugged the cable into the back of my TV without any box, and the answer surprised me. If I do that I will get the "basic" cable deal, which is to say my local stations, and that is all I ever wanted anyway - at a substantial savings over the expanded coverage afforded by the box. Strangely, none of the notices I received telling me that I urgently need to acquire a box to receive the new all-digital services mentioned this option. So "basic" cable is what I have - and I'd dump that if I didn't need a roof-top antenna to get the stations over the air (but that's an option I may look into again).

So I'm telling you all this because when I read the Dilbert cartoon strip posted above (at least I hope it's posted) I was reminded yet again as to just how far behind I am technologically speaking. Unlike Dilbert, I don't even have a laptop. Like I said, analog man... And I'm perfectly happy that way. (Now if I can just figure out how to publish this without losing everything...)

2 comments:

  1. I'm still annoyed that my analog phone - which once saved my two small children and me stranded in bumfuck Texas - was considered by some yahoo to be "defunct." I still can't get the same coverage with digital that I could with analog. Seriously PISSES ME OFF. (forgive my loud cursing, please) I'm STILL waiting for digital to offer the same coverage analog did 15 years ago?!?!?!

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  2. Don't hold your breath, @Deb - I suspect there's much more money to be made in providing 4G service in metropolitan areas than reliable voice coverage in bumfuck, TX.

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