I hate smartphones

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I would never give up my keyboard for a touch-screen.

It's incredibly easy to write a sentence or several sentences on a keyboard, versus a smartphone. Especially for people who have sausage fingers.

Smart phones, as other people have pointed out, don't have the functionality of more fully fleshed out operating systems.

I have personally always used some variety of Windows (I'm not a Linux nerd or anything like that).

I worked IT for a number of years, and I've used 'em all. I tell people that I have the same agreement with Apple that I have with Microsoft: They both keep doing stupid things, and I keep cussing at both of them."

"Peak Windows" was Windows 7. After we got past the Windows 8 debacle - which was Balmer's attempt to foist his touchscreen religion on everybody - 10 and 11 both do run faster, but are infested with both spyware and crapware that are almost impossible to get rid of.

Mac OS updates itself every year whether its needed or not - and these "upgrades" break everything. The only difference I can see between the first version of Mac OS I ever used (Jaguar), and the modern versions are harder to view screens (Grey characters on GLARING white!), grossly de-contented software (I'm looking at YOU, iPhoto/photos), and broken software/functionality.

Both M$ and Apple want to make my expensive computer into a crippled smartphone. I'm still using a Mac Mini from 2011, and a Win 7 laptop from 2010, but "next time" I'm going to return to Linux. I left Linux 30 years ago because I got tired of doing my own support, but its far better now and doing my own support sure beats the increasingly brain-deadness of the "Big Two".

Neither would I but recently there's been a real anti-keyboard element in our culture.

Look at the way they're trying to push tablets over desktops.

I've seen ads saying you can seriously "replace your laptop with an iPad". That would be like trying to replace your car with a tricycle.

They're putting touchscreens into everything. I hate them. No tactile feedback. You actually have to look at the screen to get confirmation that you've pressed the icon.

Touchscreens in cars? Extremely dangerous. In old-style cars I can change the radio preset by feel alone without ever taking my eyes off the road.

Unfortunately a large portion of the population are drinking the tablet and touchscreen kool-aid. I've heard of schools that replaced student laptops with students iPads because "iPads are more modern". I talked to a middle school aged boy at a church dinner who lamented that he had to write a lengthy essay on a touchscreen.

The micro-computer revolution was designed to empower the average person by giving them a computer. The iPhone revolution is designed to disempower the average person by giving them Tiktok.

I have fond memories of Windows 7. It was probably my favourite operating system (with Windows XP being a close second).

Windows 8 & 8.1 were awful. I remember trying the latter out and quickly getting rid of it.

Yeah. I don't have any time for tablets. I cannot see any reason why I would want to use that as opposed to say, a laptop or desktop.







Yup.



That's a good point.



That sounds painful.



Haha, yeah.

I think like a lot of things, it's performative action. It looks and feels more hi-tech (to them) to make kids use tablets.

But I also don't know why the kid wouldn't get access to a computer and just copy the completed document to the tablet when they were done.

Never underestimate the power of marketing to make people act against their own best interests.

That middle school boy I met at the church dinner may have been the exception. Plenty of kids his age may have grown up with iPhones and iPads and they'll grow into adults who think using a tablet is their main computer is both normal and desirable.

Normalising iPads wasn't a side effect of putting iPads in schools, it was the goal.

There is a thread on Reddit in which teachers say that their teenage students don't know how to use computers.

Teachers will give them simple tasks like "cut this file out of this folder and paste it into this other folder", tasks that weren't even the subject of the lesson, merely preparation for the actual lesson, and many students were unable to do it.

And why would they? For the modern teenager, iPads and iPhones have existed since their early childhood.

Files are handled automatically in iOS but the inability to organise files or move files from one program to another is a huge disadvantage, disempowering the user.

But these iPad natives will never realise that because you don't miss what you never had.

The teachers in the Reddit thread correctly guessed that the reason their students, contrary to expectations that "young people are good with technology", lacked basic computer skills is because they were raised with an iPad not a PC.

I couldn't find the thread but I found a similar one.

That might be what you or I would do but for kids trained in a different mindset they may not think like that.

That is, assuming they even could get access to a computer to copy from. Some of them don't have a computer at home, just a tablet. Or maybe they only have the school tablet they take home with them every night.

I was reading in that reddit thread that there is something of a class divide. Poor families might buy a cheap Android tablet instead of a desktop computer.

You might say "if they were poor, why don't they buy a cheap used computer?" But we must remember that the poor don't always spend in their own best interests. Ironically it is the poor who are most likely to overpay for things.

Public libraries exist. They typically can provide access to a computer.

Like I said, they don't think the way you or I do. They might not try to find a PC at the library because they don't want a PC in the first place. People tend to stick with what they're used to. If they've got a tablet at home that's what they'll get used to. If their tablet breaks they'll buy another tablet instead of getting a PC. Because that's what they're used to.

Maybe the same applies to us to. We use computers instead of tablets. Because that's what we're used to. Are computers better? Of course they are. We find tablets more difficult to use. But a part of that difficulty comes from the learning curve. The fact that we're going from a device we're used to a device that we're not used to.

Yeah, it is sad how people seemingly jump onto the bandwagon of iPhones & iPads, as a replacement for real computers such as laptops or PC's.

I mean, iPhones aren't even the best type of phone out there, even with basic OS's such as Android being the competition. How then, could iPhone possibly be a PC replacement?

I learned all of the basic functionalities of a PC in high school since I took an IT class that was optional and then added to that base of knowledge over the years of regularly using a PC.

If they're a pro-user of a tablet they probably know they can connect a keyboard to it, either via bluetooth or with a USB-C adapter.

Only if they see not having a physical keyboard as a problem. Many of them grew up with touchscreen typing, not touch typing. If they're hunt and peck typers the physical keyboard might not give them an advantage.

I learned to touchtype at school. If some schools aren't giving students devices with physical keyboards then those schools probably aren't teaching touch typing lessons, even for kids that BYO their own bluetooth keyboard.

Sure, they could probably download Mavis Beacon themselves but many won't even think of that. Schools have a pretty big influence on what kids learn. Most kids aren't able to have an adult level hindsight about what schools aren't teaching them and then learn that stuff at night.

Even when they grow to be adults, they might not want to use a physical keyboard outside of work because they're used to touchscreens. They're not going to be buying a bluetooth keyboard unless they think not having a keyboard is a problem that needs to be solved.

And most of these touchscreens "drive" just like a PHOOOOOONNE!! Pure disgust.

As for touchscreens in cars, that's the subject of yet another very long rant - let's just say I'm "done" with new cars, I'm going to keep my old junk running.

I don't like smartphones either, but I've used them for work since the first iPhones.

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I used the apps I needed a lot, I had to communicate quickly wherever I was.

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I prefer personal computers.
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The keyboard is fast, even if I think really badly with the touch.
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Sometimes I touch hybrid touch and keyboard screens thinking they are touch only.

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The police here have technologies to fine.

They see holographically and images and go inside them wearing specific glasses.

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If I think of a mass evolution I think of holography and augmented reality, which is already present.

Artificial intelligence is.

I wanted to buy a Dashboard Cam for the car. It was interesting.

But I chose a normal mirror one.

4k g motion and various specifications.

I know it won't last long, there's no point in spending too much money.

2 years is enough for me.

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Ah, Blitzkrieg, you know? I started writing again like our grandparents did.

Pen and paper.

The evolution of these technologies is directly proportional to the involution of our minds.

We don't use them.

I think there will be very simple technologies to be able to write by hand on a holographic projection.

Hybrid and electric cars.

They cost three times as much, they last nothing.

They have raised the costs so much that they make the cars pay double.

If you don't change them, you can't drive here at all. Money wasted.

From the first places in Europe our car manufacturers now have created agreements with other companies or have acquired them.

To produce useless mini SUVs. I have SUVs that have sold like crazy in states like Brazil.

Touch screen is already an old technology here but they still use it, and in cars if the monitor it is not well positioned and it is also useless.

You will go to the controls like the steering wheels of Ferrari.

Already before 2018 we listened to a conversation on the phone without touching anything other than the steering wheels.


Now people use smartphones in an unholy way while driving.

I honestly would every possibility when you are on the move. However, we have laws.


Zero tolerance.

In all areas.

Result? The new regulations do not apply.

I would have the driving test repeated for free.

But if you don't pass it perfectly I would take away driving licenses.

Or in any case I would make at least 10 free lessons compulsory for people.

This morning I had a Ferrari in front of me and a Lamborghini behind me.


I was very careful.

If I had touched them I would have had to take out a bank loan to pay for the damages.

A friend of mine has the radar in the car she saved him from hitting a pedestrian who crossed where he couldn't do so.


She braked without him realizing it on her own.

Cars have their own laws.


It didn't happen due to the law on smoking in public places .



No one has ever transgressed because people would immediately reprimand him verbally.


It's the people who count, if no one wants the wrong things these things won't pass.


If you go over the line by centimeters at the traffic light you are fined electronically.


Yet logic dictates that you don't go fast at the traffic lights but slow down much earlier. Here there will be millions of roundabouts. In the city thousands.



They never give the right of way.


They think of braking at the last moment.



But it is impossible even on dry roads.


The areas near the roundabouts are dirty of pollutants that cannot be seenResult?

if you're driving fast, you can't brake immediately.



They think they're also taxing tire pollution


Absurdity: roundabouts with traffic lights. But they made them to prevent cars from stopping unnecessarily.


If I ride a bicycle here I can pass anywhere.


there are a hundred thousand of them around in addition to motorbikes and cars.



Where do they cross?


Near the roundabouts.


Here nothing is precise.


In my region yes.


There has always been priority.



And we stop for pedestrian crossings. You don't see anyone using a smartphone while driving, or even tuning the radio, and in any case everything it is implemented in the steering wheel.


With manual transmission, hands always and only go on the steering wheel, people keep one hand on the gear shift


Immense distortions: no one honks here..... it makes noise or creates a nuisance.


Too bad it's needed.

I challenge you to drive in Italy: you would never be able to do it. I've only seen Istanbul in worse conditions.