OT: (NOT A JOKE) Be careful what you wish for....

[Richard Kreiss]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com
> [mailto:filepro-list-bounces+rkreiss=verizon.net at lists.celestial.com] On
> Behalf Of Bill Campbell
> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 1:31 PM
> To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
> Subject: Re: OT: (NOT A JOKE) Be careful what you wish for....
> 
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010, Richard Kreiss wrote:
> >>From my non-technical brother.
> >
> >This is interesting reading.
> >
> >http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11263559
> 
> That makes excellent points.  I don't know my wife's mobile phone number
> as it's on speed dial on my phone.
> 
> One of the points I found very good is the section on industrial thinking.
This
> ties in directly with an excellent book I'm reading now by John Taylor
Gatto,
> ``The Underground History of American Education'' which goes into the
> primary motivation behind government schools -- to turn most children into
> effective cogs in the industrial and war machines of the state (think the
> ``education'' of the puppies by the pigs in Orwell's ``Animal Farm'').
> 
> If the UK article is correct about actual changes in the brain, and it's
applicable
> to government schooling, that's really depressing.
> 
> Bill

As you say, especially with automated address books, people no longer
remember phone numbers. I make a special effort to manually dial phone
numbers that I need to recall quickly. It takes me three of four times
before I actually remember the phone number.

In my younger days, teens, if I could remember a girls phone number when she
gave it to me in writing, I felt that subliminally I didn't want her take
her out. 

Using a search engine like Google to do research, may be quicker than doing
research in the library, but you lose a lot. I remember doing a research
paper in college where I needed to use the New York Times microfilm file. As
I viewed the microfilm, I came across many interesting facts from the early
1950s. Although these articles had nothing to do with the paper I was
writing they were very interesting nonetheless.

The other problem with Google searches is that humane mess other pertinent
information regarding the subject.

As for the London taxicab drivers, I feel somewhat of a kinship with them
with regards to New York City. I lived in New York for almost 55 the years
and know my way around the city quite well. However if someone asked me for
driving directions, I would have to stop and think very carefully about
supplying them with directions: especially to the Wall Street area. I drive
to these areas without thinking as I know all of the turns by sight.

My wife and I were recently in Charlottesville Virginia. We had a
reservation at a restaurant which was off of, what is now a pedestrian mall.
We put the restaurant address into our Garmin and I dutifully followed the
directions. When I was instructed to make a left turn and then another left
turn, I make that first left turn and realize that the street was closed off
due to the pedestrian mall. At this point I realized that the Garmin had no
idea that this pedestrian mall had been there for at least four or five
years. I turned around, parked my car, and walked to the restaurant.

Relying solely on technology can lead to horrendous errors were Lisa minor
inconveniences.

When the power goes off and people try to use their cordless phones at home,
they find they don't work. When New York City had its major blackout,
cordless phones and cell phones did not work. However, the old-fashioned
pots phones worked as they got their power from the phone lines.

At least Verizon has taken power failures into account when installing FIOS
systems. A battery backup comes with the system. Of course this won't help
if there is a power failure downstream where there calls are being routed
through someplace with a power failure in their routers and switches are
down.

It is bad enough that kids today don't learn how to do math properly. They
depend too much on calculators or computers to get the answer. In many cases
they would have no idea what the correct answer should be and therefore when
an error occurs they don't realize it.

I better get off this bandwagon before I write a thesis on the subject.

Richard