Category Archives: advice

The cell phone trend

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I have watched the evolution of cell phone technology with fascination. The smart phones, the iPhone, Blackberries, everything that cell phones can do is amazing. However, I don’t think they can do everything. A new study reveals that only 1 out of every 4 households still has a home phone line due to various members of that household owning a cell phone. The younger generations are leading a trend toward all mobility all the time. For me, while I like technology of cell phones, I think there are still some advantages to having a home phone. For instance, if you need to call emergency services for a fire in someone’s home and you don’t have their cell phone, how will the firemen know where to go? If you don’t know the exact location of where you are (maybe you’re on vacation at someone else’s house), you may not be able to give accurate directions. With the dawn of digital technology, I believe that instead of traditional landlines, get a VOIP service. That phone number can have 911 services and will keep you safer than if you just have a cell phone. Plus, you can save money by investing in a lower priced cell phone package as most VOIP companies offer unlimited local and long distance calling.

I guess this makes sense

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I don’t know what to think of this. But, to be fair, I’m coming from a completely different point of view.  If you are single and looking to find Ms. Right (or at least Ms. Right-Now), there are a multitude of sites dedicated to playing matchmaker. But for some people, the process of filtering through profiles looking for a promising prospect, making the initial contact and following up is too time consuming. Enter the third party flitering service. For a nominal fee, an online company will take care of the filtering process for you. That way, you don’t have to lose time doing the sifting yourself.

The reason I find this hard to grasp is I came from a completely different angle. I dated in college, and while I was not Mr. Popular on campus, I did manage to atract a few women. When I got out of college and started working, I was single and worried.  I thought that if I hadn’t met the right person in college, I would be a bachelor for life. So, I did dabble in the online matchmaking sites and found nothing compatible. I tried a couple of blind dates, but we all know how well those usually work out. Finally, I looked to the one source that no one ever thinks to tap; future in-laws. I was teaching music at a grade school and the 4th grade teacher knew I was having trouble meeting people, so she set me up with her daughter. 3 months of being friends, 6 months of dating, and 9 months of engagement, we have been happily married for over 6 years. So, I hope that these online sorting sites work.

Internet addiction

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I guess humans can become addicted to anything. There’s a new study today that says some teens are showing signs of addiction withdrawal when they disconnected from anything internet related or even cell phones. They only followed them for a day, but that was enough for the test subjects to display anxiety and a general inability to function. We all know about drug and alcohol addiction, and recently gambling has become more of a discussion topic.  And really, anything done to excess can become an addiction: shopping (I once heard someone call this the “well dressed addiction”), work (“the most acceptable addiction”), sex and food are some more common addictions. So it stands to reason  that if we as a society place too much emphasis on the internet and related technology, it too can become an addiction.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love technology.  Technology allows me to remain connected to my family living in other states and friends from high school and college. But as with all things, there needs to be balance. We need to interact with the reality as much as the virtual reality.

Broadband internet solutions

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There’s a story about small cable companies not receiving money from the government with the intention of bringing broadband to rural areas. Larger companies got the lion’s share of the money. Smaller cable companies are worried about being able to compete for customers.  Here’s what I say about this. I live in a rural area and my wife and I run a web design business, so we have to have  cable internet. Fortunately, we do live close enough to a larger town to get a cable company to come out here and provide service.  I’ll tell you this though, if we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t have it.  We would rather run on air cards. Air cards run off of cell phone towers, and depending on the strength of the cell phone signal, you can get just as fast an internet connection as anything else out there. Cell phone towers have a better reach, but the only issue is the data.  The data plan for most air cards is only 5GB each month. After that, you pay through the nose. And running a web business requires a lot of data transfer. So, if you live in a rural area and want good internet, try an air card.

Something Everyone Should Know

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This is a cautionary tale that happened to my wife.  I have to pass this along so everyone can be prepared. 

My wife was coming home from work one day when she saw a car in the ditch along side the road. She pulled off and found an older lady that had spun her car and skidded into the ditch. The older lady did have a cell phone and had called someone in her family, but unfortunately, that person didn’t answer the call. My wife decided that the next step was to call the police, but she knew that this was not an emergency, so calling 911 was not the right number.  The non-emergency numebr was not in my wife’s phone nor did she know it from memory. My wife actually called me to ask for the number, but I didn’t have it stored in my phone either.  I had to look the number up in the phone book and give it to her. Despite those minor setbacks, the story does have a happy ending. The local police sent someone out, and the older lady’s relative arrived and to get her out of the ditch.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Find your local police department’s non-emergency number and store it in your cell phone as a new contact. Rest assured that both my wife and I now have that number stored in our cell phones. Cause we just never know when we’ll need it.