My Blackberry Is Not Working

My daughter sent me the link to this video over the weekend and it got the old brain cells working and raised a few questions. Have a look first.



Is there a technological gap between what is new on the market and those that are getting on in years?


I have this distinct feeling that the answer is a categorical Yes; and I think it goes beyond those with just the grey hair. There are probably about 2 generations who have no idea what the latest is and probably don't even care or think about it. Technology has most definitely become the domain of those under 35 and that perhaps is a sad place for the world to be in.


Part of the reason must surely be cost and people within their 30's and 40's have other financial commitments which have priority and then there is also desire; and that may be where the biggest problem is.


And for some gadgets  a reason may be the availability of infrastructure to make the latest work. TV technology is not there and limited broadband coverage to name but a few problems which exist.


Getting a new gadget is a bit like trying that new restaurant; will I like it? Well unless you give it a go you will never know and yes it is not going to serve the same food as your usual haunt. I get the impression that people within this age group have lost that desire to discover and are just very comfortable with things the way they are. "I don't like change" is probably the words you would hear most, if asked.


In relation to my last post, I was following the Japan earthquake on the news and the web and one read about the people twittering, tweaking or whatever; to keep each other up to date as to what is happening and where to buy various goods so that they could travel, eat and live (survive). Considering this must all have been happening on the go, I can only assume that the phone was being used and that a computer was nowhere to be seen. I suppose you have to take into account that the Japanese are probably the most technologically advanced of all the nations and looking at the results that it achieved through the nation being able to deal with the disaster, you have to assume that having it affordable and avilable is good thing.


This got me looking at Twitter and what it is all about and it is simply amazing. Is it for me? During my everyday life probably not as I see no reason why I would want to share my every move or thought during the course of a day with anyone. Plus some of it may have to be severely censored.  During an emergency I can see the enormous benefits to prevent cellphone networks being overloaded. 


Thus as part of my life I would have to assume that it has limited appeal to most people and surely this is just a dumbed down version of Facebook and it remains simply a gimmick with possibly a limited life (well not before the developers have become multi-millionaires). Although that said; the current users may grow out of it, but by the time they do, they will have taught their children and so the cycle will continue. Also it is free, now my experience of life has shown that nothing is for free, so somebody is paying something somewhere. I think this all a big ploy by the world telecommunication providers to keep traffic volumes up and thus continue to rake in the cash albeit through another means other than the good old telephone call. Twitter Inc. have a projected revenue of US$150 million for 2010 with 190 million user accounts, where do they get that cash from if it is free?

So to come back to the video. Although this is a humorous look at how the grey brigade see modern technology perhaps we are the smart one's and even though we may not know what the latest "Eggsbox" on the market is or how to deal with the "black spots" we still can use that which we have and at the same time keep some sanity and privacy around us.


What are your thoughts?

How Vulnerable Are We

Looking at the video footage of the latest earthquake in Japan got me thinking about how vulnerable we all are to natural disasters.They are generally something which we can do very little about and even with all the scientific knowledge in the world, they still cannot predict when it is going to happen. My heart really goes out to all the people in Japan and with us having some family there it makes it just all that more personal.


For those of you that do follow the news will know that New Zealand had its own quake a while back, on the 22 February 2011 and that was shocking enough, knowing that it is almost in your backyard. We have lived through the news coverage of that since it happened and it still dominates our local news and then with this happening in Japan, one just has to ask that all important question; "where will it strike next and are they related?" I found the following piece of very interesting information on the BBC News website History of deadly earthquakes and even though it only shows up to April 2010, looking down the list one sees a trend of an increase in frequency since 1999. This is confirmed by some pages in Wikipedia List of 20th-century earthquakes and List of 21st-century earthquakes. Is the world trying to tell us something?


Thus how safe are we really in the world and should we be taking notice of all the disaster recovery kits that we are being told to keep at home. What do I need to keep? Well here in New Zealand they have TV campaigns around being prepared and having a 3 day survival kit on hand. Interesting when an instance happens like in Christchurch where the inner city was cordoned off for weeks; so how did the folk who live in the inner city and no longer had a home, get to their survival kits. I have come to the conclusion that is just another money making scam by a few, knowing full well that you will have to replace all the food and water in your kit every 3 to 6 months because no foodstuffs will last that long and yes, even water has a use-by date on it. (a different discussion at another time). Better to keep beer and wine that lasts longer. Maybe that is a good business to get into.


I really think that there is very little that we as the individual can do and we are really very reliant on our governments to react to provide in the instances of such natural emergencies. Thus a question we should all be asking ourselves is; "How prepared is my government to deal with a catastrophic event?" Well the answer in New Zealand would be - not at all. It has taken them 3 weeks and still places are without power, water and sewer systems and only now are they starting to get potable toilets in for folk and restore some water systems. To my mind they could have strung temporary pipes all over the place very quickly have dealt with the sewerage issues a lot quicker as well. Shops took more than a week to get stocks in and then we had the TV presenters telling people to stay at home; "well how do I get some food then, my three days supply which you told me to keep is finished?" They just don't think do they? Interesting to see that within less than 12 hours the Japanese government has mobilised whatever resources it has to deal with the event. Quite nice when you have a military force that you can rely on or even better still actually have a military force. And then of course Japan has the full backing of the USA which New Zealand did not have. Well you cannot go around upsetting them by not allowing their nuclear vessels in your coastal waters and then expect them to drop everything to help you.


Finances obviously also play a role and no country can really afford the cost that any natural disaster brings with it. Or can it? My feeling is that in times like that a government has to forget about inflation and all that other stuff they keep telling us about and put the printing presses into motion and get the country fixed along with the people that live in it. Don Marquis is on record as having said "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday" How true that is in the New Zealand context. It is going to be quite interesting to see how long it takes New Zealand to rebuild Christchurch a city for population of 400,000 compared to Japan which is millions. I know who my money is on. A quote which comes to mind and I don't know who said it is; "You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate." It think that I most definitely fall into that category. But then perhaps that is just the old school in me where I was brought up to get things done. That just does not seem to be the way of the modern world (I will have this chat at some stage later with my thoughts on this).


Anyway to come to a conclusion; I think that we are all extremely vulnerable no matter what country we live in and it is up to us to make sure that as people we have governments in place to deal with crises and that we look after our neighbour. So who is your neighbour? Well lets not go there now.