Thursday, July 1, 2010

Weekend Assignment #325: Tech-Savvy

I spent five hours today setting up a friend's cable box, half-broken tv set, cable modem and new computer, and getting them all to work together. That's the inspiration for this week's question.

Weekend Assignment #323: Tech Savvy NOW CLOSED!
When you bring home some new piece of technology, do you usually get it up and running with pleasant anticipation and calm confidence, or is there more likely to be much swearing, wailing and gnashing of teeth? What's the most trouble you've had with a new computer, tv, phone or related tech gadget?

Extra Credit: Who do you call in to help, if you get stuck?

Here are the guidelines for participating:
1. Please post your response no later than than 9:00 PM, EDT on Wednesday, July 7th. You can do this either in a blog entry of your own or in the comments section of the assignment entry.

2. Please mention the Weekend Assignment in your blog post, and include a link back to the original entry. Using one of the logos shown here is encouraged but not mandatory.

3. Please come back here after you've posted, and leave a link to your entry in the comments to the assignment. Please post the URL itself rather than a live link.

4. Visiting other participants' entries is strongly encouraged!

5. We're always looking for topic ideas. Please see the "Teacher's Lounge" page for details. If we use your idea, you will be credited as that week's "guest professor."

6. We reserve the right to remove rude or unpleasant comments (not to mention comment spam), and to leave entries off the linking list if the person has been rude or unpleasant, or fails to mention the Weekend Assignment in his or her entry.

Meanwhile, here are excerpts from last week's responses. Click on each name to read the whole entry:

Anne said...
I have literally never tried to imagine what the world would be like in 50 years. I asked myself why not and my response was: “Because according to Star Trek, we are hip deep in World War III right now and it is going to get worse before it gets better. I don't want to think about it.”

Mike said...
Feel better? Good. Pardon the flicker of my holo, I need to get that fixed. I guess I should explain. About 20 years ago a company designed the holo-projector for business meetings. It was a better option than traveling and videoconferencing. If it seems like the person is right next to you it's much harder to ignore their ideas, or to put it down. It turned out to work really well, so people started using it for everything. Now, nobody leaves the safety and comfort of their house anymore.

Sandrine said...
In 2062, my son Max will be 59. His friends Imogen and Julius will be 55 and 53. My bloggy friends' sons Jacob and HRH will be 59 and 53. Hopefully by then mid to late fifties will count as late middle age! But I'm not so much worried about their physical conditions. I've got some other more pressing questions: where will they be in 2062? Will they be hiding out, alone, in bedsits? Scared to come out in a world they still don't really understand and that definitely doesn't understand them? Will they be shunned by society? These are not crazy worries. This is the world many adult autists live in now, and unless some pretty hefty changes take place in the next fifty years, it's not going to be any different for our kids. And, let's face it, in fifty years' time, we might no longer be around to help them.

Stephen said...
And so, I slip on my time-visor helmet, and prepare to reveal to you the FUTURE! Or FUTURES! as the case may be: The time-visor vibrates, and images start to appear – images of world both familiar and strange. I slip through the time-stream, selecting a moment, a point, a possible future. I close my eyes. And open them again.

Trevor said...
Dear Dad,
I hope in some form you can get this letter. It’s been 20 odd years since your passing. With this new wormhole thing Perry(my husband, who your future self didn’t like until he gave you a grandson) is working on, I think this will show up on your computer in time. Here’s hoping. Otherwise, I’ll leave it with your cryo-account, and you might get it when you wake up, if ever.

Karen said...
So what do I think will actually be around in 2062? I expect that the easy stuff - better, smaller, faster tech toys, solar power and other alternative energy sources, etc. will all continue to be designed, refined and readily available. The energy thing has been on America's and the world's back burner far too long, and I believe that will start to change in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, President Obama's priorities and other factors. The other, fun stuff, the flying cars, personal robots and so on, will depend on what's possible, cost effective and provides a benefit that people want. Is a humanoid robot better than a Roomba? Would flying cars scooting around the sky have even more accidents than cars on clearly-defined, well-marked roads? Probably, unless you got really clever with programming them. Maybe monorails for distance and slidewalks or People Movers for short hops will be more practical, but I suspect people will always want the autonomy of their own individual vehicle whenever possible.

Wow, you folks really came through on this one, with some truly outstanding entries. I'm seriously impressed! But can you set the timer on your DVR? ;)

Karen

5 comments:

  1. Yes. I can set my DVR. But that's about it:

    http://chicagovolunteering.blogspot.com/2010/07/learned-helplessness.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a girl thing! http://paris-ankara.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-girl-thing.html

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  3. Technology and I may not precisely have a love affair per se... but we certainly have a peace accord... which is to say we get along pretty well (and we'd get along better if technology would stop with the "being expensive" thing it does so well)...

    http://undiscoveredauthor.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/weekend-assignment-tech-savvy/

    ReplyDelete
  4. My secret shame...
    http://trevorcurtis.tumblr.com/post/782759647/my-secret-weapon-wa-again

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've been too busy wrestling with technology to write about it!

    http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2010/07/weekend-assignment-325-tech-savvy-sort.html

    ReplyDelete