Wrapping Up The Week

TGIF

I have actually completed enough To Do’s (yay!) that I can take a moment, and review my week. I saw a few interesting news items, as well as a few other not-so-newsy things (unless you’re a Big Picture type), which I’ll mention. Also, I have been in a position where I have been able to observe and question 20-somethings inre: how they’re using the technologies of today (needless to say, it ain’t for productivity). I’ll also sneak in a comment or two about a few other things.. ready? Let’s begin.

* What does this tell you?

.. the most read article – in a magazine with a boatload of topic areas and news items – is .. How do I get Windows 8 off my machine. I wonder if anyone in Redmond is noticing these little hints?

* In the Other Tech Failings Department, you probably already are aware that the makers of the once I-Simply-Have-To-Get-One-Of-Those Blackberry smartphones has tanked in a big way. Now all that’s left is for others to eat their own: Apple throws recruitment party for BlackBerry employees and 2 Founders of BlackBerry Weighing a Takeover Offer.

* And the short answer is “YES”: Smart machines: Will they take your job?

“Chief information officers need to plan for smart machines to replace workers and boost profit margins. You may not like the outcome.” Read more..

* In the LMAO Department: I bought an iPhone 5s, but I returned it the next day

“It’s a beautiful device, but it loses out against cheaper Android devices with better usability.” Read more..

[ smart move, but points deducted for tardy realization. ]

* I saw an article in my local big city paper about how the Lionel trains people decided that to keep the company afloat, they had to develop a kids game for smartphones/tablets, or die. So they did. It’s called “Battle Trains”. Talk about selling your soul to the Devil.. Tech infusion makes toys more interactive

“For more than a century, the maker of Lionel Trains made generations of kids and kids-at-heart happy selling a pastoral play activity – watching scale-model trains rolling gently past miniature villages, farms and bridges…“

I sincerely, deeply, hope no person EVER buys this game. Toodle-loo, Lionel. Nice knowing ‘ya.

What does that say about our culture today, and modern economics?

* A whole two readers chose the “Halloween is my favorite Holiday” in my recent Poll (my thanks to those who voted).

Which might tell us something about humans, and then again, maybe not. For decades now, I’ve grown to where I almost do not like that carnival. And being the grouchy curmudgeon, have even had years where I turned out the lights, and pretended not to be home (and told myself I was helping the neighborhood kids’ dental hygiene). If I did don a “costume”, it was to stick a bent coathanger wire in my tie, and I told people I was Dilbert. But there was something infectious in that one person’s enthusiasm for Halloween (who spawned the poll) that has me thinking… maybe… it could be fun?

* In the LMAO Department: What if Facebook stole your identity?

“No one company (and possibly no government) has ever had the power to shut off an individual’s personal connections like Facebook does today.” Read more..

[ If you read only one, read this one. And while you’re at it, the reader Comments, too. ]

Today’s quote: “What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.” ~ Sigmund Freud

Uhoh. Almost forgot! Today’s FF Video:

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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