Dean links to some sad and rather negative commentary on ‘dumbphones’ this mornng…

I like to think I’m fairly savvy with new technology.  For some reason, however, I’ve resisted all attempts to get me to buy a smartphone.  No amount of mocking from friends and co-workers has gotten me to budge.  I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one.

I support, praise and endorse ‘dumbphoneness’…I too am a hold out, partially because I don’t really have much of a need for a mobile phone and for that the el cheapo one supplied through work does the trick. Perhaps if peeps were LESS net-enabled and had to pause (possibly even think) before twitting/posting/blogging, they might be more contributing to a general increase in the standard of online knowledge and information instead of jamming it up with bland info-custard (or substances of similar consistency). I think that there has only been one occasion in the last couple of years that a more-enabled phone might have been useful for me and that was when I found that the Mitre 10 Mega in Palmerston North (John Cleese’s ‘most boring city ever’) had shifted and I wanted to learn its new location. But instead of Google-mapping or some such, I just called directory service and rang them up…perhaps this will become more of an issue when dial-in directory services die…?

If I need a map, I plan ahead before I leave…never have I needed the flexibility of a tasked B-1B to be retasked and have to prepare a whole new mission package enroute – if I did, then someone would probably provide the tools to do the job. If stuck, the good old Wises map book is still pretty useful and doesn’t rely on coverage or batteries to function – just some sort of ambient light…

I’m rough on equipment and tools…or more accurately, equipment and tools need to be able to survive me…a $50 cellphone is not going to draw too many tears if it gets dropped in cement; on the other hand a $800 i-Thing causes trauma if there is the faintest trace of a  scratch on the non-replaceable screen. While the el cheapo is obsolete before it is even bought (apparently), I don’t care but the i-Thing will be equally obsolete a few weeks/months later too…

Angry Birds Schmangry Birds…I still haven’t finished Lego Star Wars on the phone that Carmen bought me for Christmas 2006 (and which she has since repossessed for her own use)…I remember purchasing and loading that up at Waikato Hospital when the twins were born in April the next year…

One of the aforementioned twins – one day old – in 1.3 magapixels – does the trick. Apparently cameras aren’t allowed in the ICU but new nanas have special dispensation…

If I take a picture in all its 1.3 megapixel glory with my phone, I don’t feel a pressing shaft of urgency to share it with the world then and there…many people might want to learn from this before they cross the start line on a big night out…what seems like a good idea when half-cut NEVER looks prettier in the morning and that goes equally as much for those pics you posted in the wee early hours down Courtney Place…And let’s be honest about it, more many purposes a lowly 1.3 megapixel image more than suffices – what the Internet DOESN’T need is more bloated blurry megamegapixel images of the regurgitated kebab you forced down after the bars all closed…

…and the case against…

In an article titled Goodbye Michael, Carl Prine at Line of Departure  kicks Michael Yon into touch – finally…I don’t really care whether Carl made this decision all on his very own or whether someone further up his food chain either made the decision or gave him the OK to call it as he saw it…either way, it is a clear sign that everyone has just grown tired of all the Yawntics and would rather see the back of him…

This, of course, led to the inevitable international conspiracy post on Mikey Yawn’s Dispatches site this morning in which everyone from Stanly McChrystal to Santa Claus gets blamed for all the woes in Yawn’s life…Mikey perhaps you need to look a little closer to home for the true culprit…I think that may be the balding Ewok pictured in the Goodbye Michael article has a lot to do with it…As we’ve all been saying (and you just ain’t been listening) you need to go offline and Zen your navel for a while to get some perspective and reinvent yourself as the kinda of photojournalist (emphasis on the ‘photo’ – you could do yourself worse favours than throwing away your keyboard for ever) that the thinking serviceperson (AT ANY LEVEL) might want to have something to do with – trying to be the military version of News of the World clearly hasn’t worked for you…