"One month. 50,000 words." That's part of the mindset behind NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The idea behind it is that anyone can write a novel, and you can do that within 30 days. The event is held every November, and has been in existence for many years now. There's no real "prize" for doing it, as it isn't an event where you compete against other writers. Instead, you are awarded the title of "winner" if you manage to complete at least 50K words and have that verified by their servers by midnight on November 30th. I've been aware of it for the past eight years, and for the previous seven I kept telling myself I should try it. I have ideas in my head for stories, after all. Then November first would roll around, I'd slack off on it (or forget it existed), and after a couple days I'd give up any ideas toward doing it.
Not this time. Back on November 1, 2017, I undertook the project, and even through a bout of a major cold towards the end, I persevered. By the end of the month, I had clocked in almost 51,000 words, and actually wasn't done yet! I could see that there were plot holes in it, and boy, did it ever need a rework, but after wrapping up the final chapters, I had literally written a book.
Now the fun begins. The editing. I originally wrote the thing using Google Docs, because it was effectively free and I had access to it anywhere I wanted to work on the writing. Unfortunately, Docs, much like Word, doesn't exactly lend itself to long-form writing. It's fiddly to deal with chapters, and trying to move sections of text can potentially pose problems. As such, I'm going to be taking another dip into something new, and learn how to use Scrivener.
Scrivener is a piece of software that was literally designed with writing books in mind. It has a ton of features that make writing easier. The downside of it is that it was originally designed for Macs, so some of the interface is a bit screwy in respect to what most PC users are used to dealing with. I'm going to be installing it and running through some tutorial and training exercises on how to use it, and then once I get that done I'm going to start pulling the scenes and characters into it and try and make some sense of what I've written, while fleshing out the parts that need work and excising the parts that just don't fit. Here goes nothing, it's going to be an adventure.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
There needs to be licensing for technology providers
I've seen it more times than I care to count in the customers I support: Some office's "tech" (and I use the term loosely) throws a 2TB drive into their "server" (again, loosely) to be their main drive, and doesn't bother setting up a RAID of any sort. He then carves off less than 100 GB as the C: drive, leaves the rest as data storage space, and then doesn't bother to call us when he installs the software, nor does he check the path it's installing to. Therefore, the software that's supposed to be eating up that data space on the secondary partition starts filling up the primary. Flash forward about six months to a year, said software has eaten up the majority of the C: drive, and the office calls us flipping their lids that they're running out of space, blaming us for their predicament.
This is the kind of stuff I deal with on a daily basis, and it's not an isolated thing. Too often a company will hire a tech without knowing what the tech can and cannot do. Too often that "tech" is a FOAF (friend of a friend) who "knows some stuff about computers", when in all actuality they were just barely able to set up their own DSL modem and get their shiny new smartphone to talk to if over WiFi. These are the kind of guys who can barely install a printer on a workstation, much less share it out and make sure it works properly for other computers on the network in a workgroup configuration. Then, finally, when they make a dog's lunch out of the setup of everything, they blame the issues the software is exhibiting on the software, instead of the underlying network or computer configurations, and play dumb when we call them on the carpet.
These are the situations that make me cry for a proper licensing for computer technicians. I'm not talking about specialized certifications, like those provided by Cisco and other providers. I'm talking about a general, standardized technology certification that confers a license to service, repair, and otherwise handle computer and network hardware. CompTIA's certs are the closest thing I've seen to a general certification, with the A+ and Network+ exams, but even then there is no requirement for someone to pass these to be able to call themselves a "computer tech". Automotive techs have to pass ASE certification to prove their competence. Lawyers have to pass the bar exams. Medical practitioners have to pass their own licensing exams. Yet, for some reason, there is no blanket certification authority for computer techs, and it just makes me shake my head.
This is the kind of stuff I deal with on a daily basis, and it's not an isolated thing. Too often a company will hire a tech without knowing what the tech can and cannot do. Too often that "tech" is a FOAF (friend of a friend) who "knows some stuff about computers", when in all actuality they were just barely able to set up their own DSL modem and get their shiny new smartphone to talk to if over WiFi. These are the kind of guys who can barely install a printer on a workstation, much less share it out and make sure it works properly for other computers on the network in a workgroup configuration. Then, finally, when they make a dog's lunch out of the setup of everything, they blame the issues the software is exhibiting on the software, instead of the underlying network or computer configurations, and play dumb when we call them on the carpet.
These are the situations that make me cry for a proper licensing for computer technicians. I'm not talking about specialized certifications, like those provided by Cisco and other providers. I'm talking about a general, standardized technology certification that confers a license to service, repair, and otherwise handle computer and network hardware. CompTIA's certs are the closest thing I've seen to a general certification, with the A+ and Network+ exams, but even then there is no requirement for someone to pass these to be able to call themselves a "computer tech". Automotive techs have to pass ASE certification to prove their competence. Lawyers have to pass the bar exams. Medical practitioners have to pass their own licensing exams. Yet, for some reason, there is no blanket certification authority for computer techs, and it just makes me shake my head.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Bringing a new member to the family
When you experience the loss of a pet, it can be pretty hard - especially if that pet has been part of your life for several years. When Bubbles passed away a few weeks ago, I was pretty torn up for several days, and not a day goes by that I don't miss seeing her. One typically doesn't think that when you give a pet a "forever home" that it's going to end at some point in the future. Denial is a strong defensive tool, and we will typically ignore the facts of reality until it slaps us upside the head. I know that we can never replace Bubbles, but we can open our hearts and home to another pet, and give it just as much love as the one we lost. Kathy went to the Decatur humane society the other day, just to look around and meet some of the cats. She wasn't expecting to have one of them pick her, but one did.
Yesterday, we got to bring home Alaina. She's about five months old, short-hair, with a classic marbled tabby-and-white coat. We tried introducing her to Holly last night, but there was a lot of growling and hissing; Alaina hid behind the TV stand, and Holly ended up heading for the basement. That was to be expected, considering how territorial cats are. We ended up putting the gate back up between the kitchen and living room (since Holly can't jump over it and Alaina apparently doesn't know how high she can jump yet), and draped a sheet over it so the two couldn't see each other. That calmed things down, Alaina perked up after that, and was more than happy to come out with a little coaxing. Given that she'd spent most of her life indoors in a cage, she seemed a bit overwhelmed by her new surroundings. We spent most of the evening comforting her in her new home, and she eventually curled up on the couch and napped a bit. We left her in the living room area overnight (gated off from the kitchen with the doors to the other rooms closed) so she could get used to the smaller space first. We also left the TV on, playing a DVD that the humane society gave Kathy that was supposed to be useful for pet-sitting. I think the noises from the DVD spooked her more than they helped her. When we got up in the morning she was hiding under the armchair in the living room, hunkered down in a box of cat toys that had been stashed under there. I think we may need to get a cat bed for her and line it with something that smells like her humans to help her sleep.
It's funny to see all the new things that a kitten experiences for the first time. We noticed a couple times she would hiss at apparently nothing, but then we realized that she was seeing her reflection in various shiny things and was thinking it was another cat! She also apparently wasn't aware of her ability to jump. Kathy coaxed her into jumping up onto the seat of the armchair this morning while playing with her, so I highly suspect we're going to come home tonight and find all kinds of things knocked off of the couches. I'm hoping she discovers the cat tree we put up for her and takes a shine to it. Right now it's just standing in the corner like a kitty stripper pole, and it looks a bit sad. Maybe if I get some dangle-y toys and staple them to the underside of the platforms to give her something to play with she'll take more of an interest in it, but I know acclimation to a new environment takes time.
 |
| Alaina checking her new territory. Pardon the potato quality pic. |
Yesterday, we got to bring home Alaina. She's about five months old, short-hair, with a classic marbled tabby-and-white coat. We tried introducing her to Holly last night, but there was a lot of growling and hissing; Alaina hid behind the TV stand, and Holly ended up heading for the basement. That was to be expected, considering how territorial cats are. We ended up putting the gate back up between the kitchen and living room (since Holly can't jump over it and Alaina apparently doesn't know how high she can jump yet), and draped a sheet over it so the two couldn't see each other. That calmed things down, Alaina perked up after that, and was more than happy to come out with a little coaxing. Given that she'd spent most of her life indoors in a cage, she seemed a bit overwhelmed by her new surroundings. We spent most of the evening comforting her in her new home, and she eventually curled up on the couch and napped a bit. We left her in the living room area overnight (gated off from the kitchen with the doors to the other rooms closed) so she could get used to the smaller space first. We also left the TV on, playing a DVD that the humane society gave Kathy that was supposed to be useful for pet-sitting. I think the noises from the DVD spooked her more than they helped her. When we got up in the morning she was hiding under the armchair in the living room, hunkered down in a box of cat toys that had been stashed under there. I think we may need to get a cat bed for her and line it with something that smells like her humans to help her sleep.
It's funny to see all the new things that a kitten experiences for the first time. We noticed a couple times she would hiss at apparently nothing, but then we realized that she was seeing her reflection in various shiny things and was thinking it was another cat! She also apparently wasn't aware of her ability to jump. Kathy coaxed her into jumping up onto the seat of the armchair this morning while playing with her, so I highly suspect we're going to come home tonight and find all kinds of things knocked off of the couches. I'm hoping she discovers the cat tree we put up for her and takes a shine to it. Right now it's just standing in the corner like a kitty stripper pole, and it looks a bit sad. Maybe if I get some dangle-y toys and staple them to the underside of the platforms to give her something to play with she'll take more of an interest in it, but I know acclimation to a new environment takes time.
Monday, September 8, 2014
A Eulogy for Bubbles
That's the two-line obituary, but two lines definitely couldn't sum up the life of such a wonderful pet. I first met Bubbles about seven and a half years ago, when Kathy and I started dating. Kathy had her since she was a kitten. Bubbles was a beautiful, medium-long haired Maine Coon. She had soft, silky fur that would change color in the sunlight depending on how the light would shine through it. She had big, expressive eyes, a white blaze on her face that connected to her white chest and belly, and white socks on her big paws.
She was inquisitive and talkative, and definitely a lot more vocal than other cats. If you talked to her, quite often she would talk back, possibly even carrying on a conversation with you (she liked to get in the last word.) She could read peoples' moods, and quite often would curl up with Kathy when she was feeling sad or depressed. She would go tearing around the house like she was possessed when she had a case of the "kitty crazies", and even at her advanced age she could easily jump half the height of a door frame to swat at the "no-see-ums". She liked being petted, but only on her terms - she wasn't a lap cat, and heaven help your hand if you tried to pet her without her being ok with it.
She liked to sneak downstairs to the basement to try and steal her sister's food, even though she had a perfectly good bowl of her own upstairs. She also liked to swipe bites of "people food". Whenever we would crack open a can of mushrooms or olives, she was right there begging for a piece. She could hear the wrapper on a slice of cheese being opened from across the house, and would come squirrel up for a small nibble of it that I would break off the corner. She was a fiend for raw spinach, but you had to tear it into bite-size bits for her, otherwise she wouldn't touch it. If you sat down on the couch with an ice cream treat of some sort, you had to keep an eye on it - otherwise, she'd be right there, trying to get her own licks in. There were times, based on her proclivity for non-cat-food items, that we wondered if she wasn't a person, reincarnated as a cat.
She loved to lay around in sunbeams, or perch on the back of an armchair we had by the window so she could watch the world outside. In the spring and fall when we would have the windows open, she would spend hours sitting in the window sill watching everything and taking in any "new sniffs" she could. She loved the outside - Kathy has told me about many times when she lived in an apartment with a small patio, how the cats would happily spend all day out there if you let them. She was afraid of thunderstorms, and when one would roll through she would typically curl up by either my or Kathy's feet until the weather had passed, but otherwise she was a fearless force to be reckoned with, that would gladly attack your feet that were under the blanket in bed or chase that elusive red dot (from the laser pointer) with abandon.
I can still remember when I realized that Bubbles had accepted me as "her people". I don't recall the exact date, but I remember what happened. When Kathy and I would lay down to totally zonk out for the night, Bubbles would usually jump up onto the bed and pester us for a bit before she settled down at the foot of the bed. She would come up and walk on top of both of us, and usually bunt her head into both of us, wanting attention. She would usually get a few pets on the head, and then go away, but one night she decided to crawl up my chest (I was reclining, not fully flopped down to try and go to sleep yet), turned around so her butt was toward my face (and her tail could readily smack me upside my head), settled in and hunkered down, and started purring. At that point I knew she felt safe around me and she trusted me.
I'm going to miss that insistent little fuzzball.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Top Five Road Trip Songs
I recently listened to an episode of the podcast "Top Five" where they ran down a list of their top five road trip songs. For anyone not familiar with the podcast, it's part of the Major Spoilers podcast network. Every week three or four of the site's hosts get together and run down their top five selections in a given category, discuss their reasoning behind their picks, and generally have a good time while doing it.
The Road Trip episode resonated with me, mainly because I used to do a lot of road trips. The five-plus hour drive between Columbus, OH and central IL where my family lives made for some long drives back in the early 2000's when I would come home to visit, so I put in a lot of time making mix-tapes to play in the car. I know that's probably an alien concept to today's youth. These days, fortunately, I have the iPod loaded up with my library and can just put that sucker on shuffle and cruise, but I worked with what I had back then - and it was a dual-deck shelf stereo with a built-in CD player.
It was hard to pick out just five songs, but after poring over my music library, here's what I came up with:
The Road Trip episode resonated with me, mainly because I used to do a lot of road trips. The five-plus hour drive between Columbus, OH and central IL where my family lives made for some long drives back in the early 2000's when I would come home to visit, so I put in a lot of time making mix-tapes to play in the car. I know that's probably an alien concept to today's youth. These days, fortunately, I have the iPod loaded up with my library and can just put that sucker on shuffle and cruise, but I worked with what I had back then - and it was a dual-deck shelf stereo with a built-in CD player.
It was hard to pick out just five songs, but after poring over my music library, here's what I came up with:
- "Life is a Highway" - Tom Cochrane. The original version from the Mad Mad World
album, no exceptions. The cover by Rascal Flatts (which people might be more familiar with from its use in the movie Cars) just doesn't hold the same energy for me. It's a song you can blast while you cruise down the open road, headed for your destination, singing along at the top of your lungs.
- "Get Over It" - The Eagles. From their Hell Freezes Over
album. Driving beat, high energy, kick-ass lyrics. A good one for when you have a nice, straight stretch of interstate road where you can open up and drive really fast.
- "Ready To Go" - Republica. Found on their eponymous Republica
album. Another one with a driving beat, although it starts and ends a tad slow. Fun to drive to, even if you don't know the lyrics.
- "Banditos" - The Refreshments. I can imagine that when they pitched the album name of Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy
to the record execs, they got a lot of weird stares. This one is another one to sing along to. If everyone in the car knows the lyrics you can have a blast belting them out, and there's something inherently geeky about the line that goes "So give your ID card to the border guard / Your alias says you're Captain Jean-luc Picard / Of the United Federation of Planets / 'Cause they won't speak English anyways".
- "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen. Easist to find on their Greatest Hits
album. I'm sorry, but you can't have a road trip play list without including at least one song by Queen. Hell, you could do a whole play list of nothing BUT Queen songs, but that'd ruin the effect of the whole "Top Five" thing. The other obvious (and very valid) choices have already been used, so I went with one that Google picked for the doodle they put up for Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday. It's fun, it's high-energy, and it's the perfect song to cruise down the road to.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Thoughts on the Comixology App changes
Last weekend, Comixology (pretty much THE major online retailer for digital comic books) made a big change to its flagship app for Android and iOS devices. This was in the wake of Comixology recently being acquired by Amazon. The basic upshot of the changes to the app were that they removed the ability to do in-app purchases that would cycle directly through the devices' respective app stores. Here's a breakdown of the changes:
Android (Google Play) app - Added a shopping cart function. App redirects to a Paypal payment page when you check out, bypasses Google Play payments.
Kindle (Amazon App Store) app - hasn't been updated, still does in-app purchases. Also has never properly displayed the weekly sales Comixology throws, nor does it display the sale pricing that the Android version or the website displays.
iDevice app - no shopping cart, no redirect to PayPal, no redirect to Safari. Not much more than an over-glorified viewer.
Unsurprisingly, this has drawn a lot of ire from comic book readers that are members of the Cult of Jobs. They took the rating of the Comixology app from nearly five stars down to 1.5 stars shortly after its release. It also had me scratching my head a bit as to why they didn't include a shopping cart with a redirect to Paypal or sideload that to the user's account on Comixology via Safari, but I assumed that is probably because there's something in Apple's App Store agreements about bypassing their storefront for a third-party payment system. It only makes sense that Apple's view on it would be along the lines of "if we can't take the money then nobody is going to take the money!" This could potentially be exacerbated by the fact that the Marvel Comics and DC Comics apps, both of which are powered by Comixology's back-end, still allow for in-app purchases. I definitely expect that to change in the coming weeks.
The actual Android app seems to have been hurt the least in all of this kerfuffle. The impulse-buy functionality of the app is still alive and well, it just jumps over the Google Play wall to have you pay for your purchases via PayPal. No big deal there, considering that's how I already did my purchases through Comixology. For Android users, it's basically "business as usual".
The anomaly here is the Kindle app. Out of the three, the Kindle app has always been the weak sister. It has never shown the weekly sales on its splash page, nor does it show the sale price of books that would be visible on comixology.com if you browse to that specific issue in the Kindle app. One could easily assume that this is because Comixology originally had a non-compete clause in its contract to have the app in Amazon's app store, promising to not undercut Amazon's price on collected trade paperbacks or run sales that beat Amazon's pricing.
The weird thing is, now that Comixology is under Amazon's umbrella, you'd think that they'd have updated that version of the app FIRST, adding in the weekly sales and tying your Comixology account to your Amazon account. Maybe that's in the works for the future. If it is, here's a list of things I'd like to see in an updated Amazon Comixology app:
All in all, this is definitely a state of flux for Comixology. Amazon has recouped their 30% that was going to Apple and Google, but at what cost? They've certainly shot themselves in the foot with the change to the iOS devices, and their suggestion that those users just create a Safari shortcut to their store is going to fall on deaf ears. If they'd just been up-front about the changes and flat-out stated "hey, we're doing this to cut out the middleman, and we can't redirect you to an alternative way of paying for your comics because Apple won't let us", they might not have drawn so much grief. I know that the $5 credit they gave everyone for the inconvenience isn't going to make up for a lot in the minds of the CoJ users. Android users probably won't really care - for them it'll be business as usual, and I know it has been for me. As for the Kindle users, they can only hope for a better experience in the future.
Android (Google Play) app - Added a shopping cart function. App redirects to a Paypal payment page when you check out, bypasses Google Play payments.
Kindle (Amazon App Store) app - hasn't been updated, still does in-app purchases. Also has never properly displayed the weekly sales Comixology throws, nor does it display the sale pricing that the Android version or the website displays.
iDevice app - no shopping cart, no redirect to PayPal, no redirect to Safari. Not much more than an over-glorified viewer.
Unsurprisingly, this has drawn a lot of ire from comic book readers that are members of the Cult of Jobs. They took the rating of the Comixology app from nearly five stars down to 1.5 stars shortly after its release. It also had me scratching my head a bit as to why they didn't include a shopping cart with a redirect to Paypal or sideload that to the user's account on Comixology via Safari, but I assumed that is probably because there's something in Apple's App Store agreements about bypassing their storefront for a third-party payment system. It only makes sense that Apple's view on it would be along the lines of "if we can't take the money then nobody is going to take the money!" This could potentially be exacerbated by the fact that the Marvel Comics and DC Comics apps, both of which are powered by Comixology's back-end, still allow for in-app purchases. I definitely expect that to change in the coming weeks.
The actual Android app seems to have been hurt the least in all of this kerfuffle. The impulse-buy functionality of the app is still alive and well, it just jumps over the Google Play wall to have you pay for your purchases via PayPal. No big deal there, considering that's how I already did my purchases through Comixology. For Android users, it's basically "business as usual".
The anomaly here is the Kindle app. Out of the three, the Kindle app has always been the weak sister. It has never shown the weekly sales on its splash page, nor does it show the sale price of books that would be visible on comixology.com if you browse to that specific issue in the Kindle app. One could easily assume that this is because Comixology originally had a non-compete clause in its contract to have the app in Amazon's app store, promising to not undercut Amazon's price on collected trade paperbacks or run sales that beat Amazon's pricing.
The weird thing is, now that Comixology is under Amazon's umbrella, you'd think that they'd have updated that version of the app FIRST, adding in the weekly sales and tying your Comixology account to your Amazon account. Maybe that's in the works for the future. If it is, here's a list of things I'd like to see in an updated Amazon Comixology app:
- Actual access to weekly sales on back-issues and collections
- Full integration of Comixology and Amazon accounts. This includes porting any digital comic books or trades that I may have purchased via Amazon or Comixology into one, unified app
- Amazon Prime perks, possibly with a lending library feature or unlimited access to back catalog issues
All in all, this is definitely a state of flux for Comixology. Amazon has recouped their 30% that was going to Apple and Google, but at what cost? They've certainly shot themselves in the foot with the change to the iOS devices, and their suggestion that those users just create a Safari shortcut to their store is going to fall on deaf ears. If they'd just been up-front about the changes and flat-out stated "hey, we're doing this to cut out the middleman, and we can't redirect you to an alternative way of paying for your comics because Apple won't let us", they might not have drawn so much grief. I know that the $5 credit they gave everyone for the inconvenience isn't going to make up for a lot in the minds of the CoJ users. Android users probably won't really care - for them it'll be business as usual, and I know it has been for me. As for the Kindle users, they can only hope for a better experience in the future.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Smart Phones, Dumb Users
A couple nights ago my girlfriend and I were watching TV and a commercial for the new iPhone 4S came on, spotlighting the new Siri software. After the commercial aired, K turned to me and said, "That's a pretty cool feature." My response was, "Yeah, but...", and then I launched into my thoughts.
Don't get me wrong, having a digital assistant software that recognizes language and is able to take care of tasks for you is pretty damn cool. I'm not debating that. What bothers me about the whole situation is that it removes yet another layer of the user being able to handle their hardware. It gets rid of the user having to know how to navigate a search engine, or being able to find a solution on their own, or even handle the most menial of tasks, such as setting an alarm or placing a reminder in their calendar. This is just the latest iteration of having yet another "smart" feature built into a device that everyone can use on a day-to-day basis.
Smartphones are great tools. I love being able to hop on the Internet at any time I want to look something up or make a quick post to G+ or Facebook. I love being able to get in a quick game of Angry Birds while waiting in line, or have several gigabytes of my music collection along with me in my pocket. But smartphones also have made people more dumb. No one remembers phone numbers anymore; they just plug them into their phone and let the phone handle that for them. I keep all my contacts backed up to my Google account so if I lose my phone I'm still ok, but if the average cell phone user probably doesn't. So if they lose said phone, they're screwed. The same thing goes for getting directions and navigating to a location where one has never been before. Most people these days can't read a map to save their lives, thanks to reliance on the GPS units and live maps that are available on their phones. No phone equals no ability to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. Or heavens forbid that any of the aforementioned features up and quit working, or the user accidentally messes up their settings and can't figure out what they did. Given the metric boatload of crapola (delivered courtesy of our users) that I have to deal with on a daily basis at my job, where we support a very specialized software and a very specific range of hardware, I'd hate to see what the support staff for the cellular companies have to deal with on a daily basis.
Anyway, the whole point of this stream-of-consciousness rant from back when I saw the commercial boils down to supporting yet another one of my core beliefs - Man creates the tools to make his life easier, but in the long run it will only make life harder because fewer and fewer people will know how to repair the tools when they break.
Don't get me wrong, having a digital assistant software that recognizes language and is able to take care of tasks for you is pretty damn cool. I'm not debating that. What bothers me about the whole situation is that it removes yet another layer of the user being able to handle their hardware. It gets rid of the user having to know how to navigate a search engine, or being able to find a solution on their own, or even handle the most menial of tasks, such as setting an alarm or placing a reminder in their calendar. This is just the latest iteration of having yet another "smart" feature built into a device that everyone can use on a day-to-day basis.
Smartphones are great tools. I love being able to hop on the Internet at any time I want to look something up or make a quick post to G+ or Facebook. I love being able to get in a quick game of Angry Birds while waiting in line, or have several gigabytes of my music collection along with me in my pocket. But smartphones also have made people more dumb. No one remembers phone numbers anymore; they just plug them into their phone and let the phone handle that for them. I keep all my contacts backed up to my Google account so if I lose my phone I'm still ok, but if the average cell phone user probably doesn't. So if they lose said phone, they're screwed. The same thing goes for getting directions and navigating to a location where one has never been before. Most people these days can't read a map to save their lives, thanks to reliance on the GPS units and live maps that are available on their phones. No phone equals no ability to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. Or heavens forbid that any of the aforementioned features up and quit working, or the user accidentally messes up their settings and can't figure out what they did. Given the metric boatload of crapola (delivered courtesy of our users) that I have to deal with on a daily basis at my job, where we support a very specialized software and a very specific range of hardware, I'd hate to see what the support staff for the cellular companies have to deal with on a daily basis.
Anyway, the whole point of this stream-of-consciousness rant from back when I saw the commercial boils down to supporting yet another one of my core beliefs - Man creates the tools to make his life easier, but in the long run it will only make life harder because fewer and fewer people will know how to repair the tools when they break.
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