Sometimes modern life confuses me

[John Arton]

Modern day life with all its gadgets can get confusing at times.
Take the telephone.
When it was invented it consisted of a speaking tube and a listening device. You wound a handle that sent a signal to the exchange where an operator asked what number you wanted to be connected too and then she/he would pull out various plugs and fit them into various sockets in order to connect you to whoever you wanted to talk to. Time progressed, telephone improved to the extent that they had a dial that you used to dial the number you wanted but there was still an operator plugging the wires in and out and whom you could talk to asking for a number or making a reverse charge call. The system then went automated whereby a machine made the connections but the operator was still there if needed.
Then came mobile phones with a hand set that was the size of a house brick and needed you to carry around a tx/rx module,
Time moves on and the mobile phone becomes smaller and more reliable but instead of it being a device to enable you to call and speak to someone whilst you are out of your home/office it is now a device than can take pictures, record video, allow you to surf the internet, switch your central heating on in your home from anywhere in the world, tell you where you are anywhere in the world to a matter of a few feet and is now called a smart phone.
A smart phone huh!! It is so smart that any government can listen into your conversations, track your movements and also all your conversations, texts, voice mails can be hacked by spotty faced teenagers who can steal your bank accounts or by journalists who hack into your phone in order to publish lurid stories of your love life, business transactions etc, etc. but do not allow you to make a reverse charge call and charges you to speak to an operator if you request it to find a number for you!!!
Smart phone!!!!!! I think not.
Now television.
The first television had a screen the size of a postage stamp behind a magnifying glass that gave you a viewing screen of around 10 inches. These were basically mechanical devices. The cam the cathode ray tube which gave you a screen size (if you were posh and wealthy enough) of up to around 21 inches.
Then came liquid crystal and plasma television that also grew into smart t.v.;s that can connect to the internet without wires and have a screen of up to 50 inches.
On top of all this we have satellite t.v. where programs are beamed up to a satellite and then bounced down to earth to be decoded and displayed by a set top box, giving us thousands of channels to watch instead of the 4-5 prior to the advent of the likes of Sky and Virgin media.
And what do these providers (along with BBC and ITV etc.) then do. They exhort us to watch their programs on our 10 inch tablets (not those slate ones that the ten commandments were written on) or on our 3.5 inch smart phone screens anywhere when we are out of our homes, just in order (I think) to further annoy fellow train/bus/car/coffee shop customers etc. with all the tinny noise coming from the speakers on these devices (and this is all on top of those people yakking away on their mobile phones at the top of their voice telling someone 1 mile away that's its raining/sunny/coffee cost £2 or whatever useless piece of information they can think about).
Progress for t.v.!!!! I think not.
If I want to watch t.v. I want to do in the comfort of my own home with a cup of coffee and a sarnie or even a beer or two, sitting on my comfy sofa in a warm sitting room, watching it on that expensive 40 inch telly with surround sound that me and wife treated ourselves too a couple of years back, not wandering the streets or sitting in public places where if you start shouting out at something you are watching on the t.v. ("you stupid bersterd" if you are watching a politician pontificating, or "amazing" if you are watching one of David Attenborough's nature films) people around you stare at you as if you are mad and move away from you.
Progress, no way.
And that are just two thing in modern life that confuses me at times, don't start me on common sense being replaced by health and safety heck lists, or personnel suddenly becoming human resources!!!!
Rant over for the day, I'm going to retire in my confused state and read a book that led to Melville's tale of Moby Dick.
rgds
JA

[Keith Tindell]

Hi, John, read a book!!, what about the kindle? Download books from anywhere . .Only joking , I have just bought A 40 inch TV, I will never know what it's capable off in my lifetime, all I want to do is watch the bloody tv, it seems this thing can do all sorts,I can't even make head nor tail of the instructions, kt

[vic mcclymont]

Keith, ask your grandson / daughter they will sort you out.
Vic

[John Pruden]

just look at your computer you turn it of from the on button ? jp

[happy daze john in oz]

So we bought a smart TV, a 55 inch for the price of a 50 so he tried to convince me of. Smart yes and a five year old could work it out in two minutes. Problem is there is never a five year old arouind when you wanty them. But no matter, it works well, has Netflix and i view so I can watch what i want when I want to. Only one problem, they are a bit too big to take to the local restaurant, feel a bit left out when all the other diners are on the I pod or smart phone, dinner time conversation they call it.

[j.sabourn]

Just wait till some aspiring scientist goes a bit further into the science and technology involved, and says all the rays radio and gamma and ones we have never heard of are causing climate change, everyone will be crying into their tea cups and refusing to give up and return to the dark ages. Kids will have to taught correctly, people will not be brainwashed every time they press a button, the power of conversation will return, and things will go back to normal. At least one can live in hope. JS

[j.sabourn]

I wonder if todays population had to go back to the radio as their only means of recreation, how they would view their weekly treat of "Rays a Laugh" featuring Ted Ray and Bebe Daniels, or Dick Barton Special Agent, or listen to the Dulcet tones of Donald Peers. Would be a shock to their systems nowadays, and yet most of us got great pleasure from.. In fact would probably still prefer to some of the garbage they put on TV screens. As regards TV in Oz have never seen such a slipshod way they have of going about their programs never run on time, and change the program to suit themselves and not the viewer. If a TV licence was mandatory, don't think many people would own a TV. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

I wonder if todays population had to go back to the radio as their only means of recreation, how they would view their weekly treat of "Rays a Laugh" featuring Ted Ray and Bebe Daniels, or Dick Barton Special Agent, or listen to the Dulcet tones of Donald Peers. Would be a shock to their systems nowadays, and yet most of us got great pleasure from.. In fact would probably still prefer to some of the garbage they put on TV screens. As regards TV in Oz have never seen such a slipshod way they have of going about their programs never run on time, and change the program to suit themselves and not the viewer. If a TV licence was mandatory, don't think many people would own a TV. Cheers JS

John, they deliberately mis time the progs so you are stuck with that station. If you change to watch something else you miss the end of this one. It is all about advertising not entertainment.

[John Arton]

Another thing----Plastic Bags!!!!!!
Our local council insists that all household waste (food waste etc. ) be placed in plastic garbage sacks before it can be put into the household waste bin.
Now when I go shopping, purchases are placed in a plastic bag that is marked as being recyclable and for that privilege I have to pay 5p per bag so to avoid that we take our "lifetime" bags (made of a heavy paper like substance) along with us and pack our shopping into these. This 5p charge does not apply if you are buying clothes though (in a cloths shop as opposed to a supermarket)!!!!
Now we have another waste bin that is solely for recyclable items (cardboard, paper, tins etc.) but if I put a plastic bag in this waste bin, the bag being marked recyclable, then the council will refuse to empty this bin and put a PLASTIC tag on it telling me they have not emptied it as it contained plastic non recyclable items in it.
Confusing, you bet.
rgds
JA

[gray_marian]

#1, John, Don't get mad, get even. I no longer have a compost heap so I use the allocated brown garden bin for fruit & veg peelings. Line bin first with leaves twigs etc then fill to your hearts content Just cover over with leaves again before pick up day.
To dispose of shopping bags [hubby sometimes forgets] use them for household rubbish instead of buying refuse sacks. Bad day?........ Recycle glass bottles yourself.......therapeutic smashing them into the bottle bank