SaysDave.com

How technology affects us, so do we behave.

It may take decades, even longer, for us to grasp the significance of the digital lifestyle and revolution and the breadth of changes the revolution has wrought on us.

The ability to share easily information, especially on a global scale, is democratizing. How will this effect organizations or institutions that attempt to control and repress individual thoughts and actions?

However, no-cost digital publishing, such as blogs, allows the formal media to discredit the sources of ax grinding and soapbox standing Computers that offer feedback to the human users are perceived as more friendly, and the users enjoy the interaction more, if the computer offers positive feedback or compliments.

How well do we use computers as tools to benefit our activities, as compared to using alternative technologies?
The personal computer is eminently suited for many indispensable modern tasks, such as surfing the web, sending e-mail messages, and communicating in the fast-paced digital environment of instant messaging. However, other tools are available for these tasks: cell phones are the most notable alternative technology. We use computers for many other tasks, many of which predate the personal computer, and while the tasks can be accomplished on the personal computer, the tasks were not developed because of having access to a computer.

These digitally-optimal tasks include composing letters and notecards; recording class or meeting notes; and researching spelling, definitions, and etymologies. Arguably, as an academic, I often find the freely available web based dictionaries to lack substance and reliability, especially when comparing synonyms. Traditionally published dictionaries often, in my opinion, present a more complete linguistic evaluation.

It is not worth considering the quality of most word processor-based thesauri. The software vendors should leave these functions out of the products, unless they are willing to design properly an accurate thesaurus database.
Maintaining a personal calendar is one example of tasks that does not require a personal computer. In fact, many folk who have a strong reliance on a personal computer for most other administrative tasks continue to maintain a manual pencil & paper calendar. Until operational necessity forced me to share my personal calendar with coworkers, in the early 1990s, I had a near religious attachment to my leather notebook calendar. It was only after the value of sharing my calendar data became significant did I finally acquiesce and begin to use an electronic calendar as my primarily appointment management tool. To share my calendar data, I needed an application that seamlessly integrated in my company’s local area network. Even after beginning—for five years– to use a digital calendar, I printed my schedule and carried it in my leather notebook. This meant that in order to always have a current calendar with me, I would have to print six pages, sometimes four or five times a day…a fresh copy each time I left the office, just in case a change had been made since I last printed the calendar. At an average cost of 4¢ per page, this habit became a noticeable budget line item.

In the mid 90s, I purchased a handheld computer, one running the popular and powerful Palm operating system. With this device (and the four updated versions that I have since purchased), I can synchronize all of my calendar entries with the application running on our network server, enabling bi directional updates: insertions, deletions, and changes.

My current handheld computer has wireless capability, and it allows me to access my networked data and the internet. I occasionally use my handheld to browse the web and check my e mail when I am out of the office at a wi-fi hotspot: airport terminal, hotel, client site, or coffee shop (along with bookstores, one of my favorite relaxation haunts).

Regardless of my personal choice, do I need an electronic calendar? Yes, because I must easily share my data with coworkers. However, if someone who operates independently, and does not need to share data, chooses to keep a paper calendar, there is no loss of functionality: the possible exception is the ease of making a backup copy of valuable appointment data.

I have found another helpful use for my handheld computer: logging my aircraft flights. Federal air regulations require that I maintain a record of my flights as a pilot. All pilots that I have met rigorously log all flight time, even if as a passenger in the right seat, they took control of the aircraft for only a few minutes, while the pilot in command read a chart or took a break from the tedium of a long flight. Interesting, the Federal Air Regulations do not specify the format in which pilots must keep their flight data. So, in addition to a traditional hardbound paper logbook, I maintain a digital database of all flight data in my handheld computer. Not only do I have automatic calculations of each flight (fuel used, duration of flight, type of aircraft flown), I also have a complete backup copy of my paper logbook (or vice versa, as you prefer). Pilots that keep only a handwritten, paper logbook must take time, every once in a while, to make photocopies of their logbooks. Unless a pilot has a current logbook, he may not take off.