Privacy in the Era of Big Data

As a follow up the discussions of Snowden and his leaking of government secrets, this article about the Obama campaign’s use of data in the elections is fascinating.  

Data You Can Believe In

How the precision targeting of “persuadable” voters that put President Obama over the top in 2012 could revolutionize the advertising industry. 

http://nyti.ms/10uaj2K 

A friend had been telling me for quite some time the topic everyone is talking about is Big Data. This was before I started reading about it everywhere. But it sure does reinforce how much info is available and how little privacy anyone has. The fact that a lot of this information is out there as a result of our own actions does not necessarily make it a good thing. 

 Nevertheless, I filled out a survey today for a free rewards card at Macy’s—and just put more of my data out there in the vast mess of Big Data. No doubt someone will now be slicing and dicing all that with everything and I’ll get more email offers for things I might want but really don’t need.  

Will someone save us from ourselves?

How to Not Sound Like an Idiot When You Leave a Voice Message

I learned how to dictate some years ago when I first started working in a “professional” job, that is, one with a secretary. Think “Mad Men” era. Secretaries were all female. Almost all “professionals” were male.

For you kids, that was when dinosaurs roamed the planet and copies were made using carbon paper. Secretaries took dictation in shorthand and some professionals were starting to use this new-fandangled device called a portable Dictaphone.

Dictating into a machine took me awhile to adjust to. I felt a bit foolish talking when no one was listening. Of course, this was before everyone had voice messaging. Secretaries took messages too.

But once I developed the skill of dictating I became adept at dictation. I could fire off letters and documents much more quickly than I ever could have typed or hand-written them. Of course, my real-life secretary often caught my mistakes and blunders before the letters went out.

Nowadays “secretary” means something far different than back then. I doubt any real human takes dictation any more. Most executives, lawyers, and other so-called professionals now do their own typing.

But a skill, once learned remains—I suspect somewhere in the memory banks between the brain and muscle memory. Such as the proverbial ability to ride a bike. Or shift a manual transmission.

So I was delighted to find someone does still take dictation--the iPhone –S, which Siri, in fact, is very good at. Maybe not quite as good as an old-fashioned, human secretary. She doesn’t catch my mistakes but makes a few of her own. However she is much better than I am typing one-handed.

You see, after rotator-cuff surgery, I upgraded to the iPhone 4-S for the dictation function. I know, that’s far from the latest smarty-phone technology. But it was a big advance for me from a three-year-old iPhone. One that just sat there and looked at me unless I used my fingers.

I had decided to get one of the newer iPhone’s, thinking, after all, if Martin Scorsese can dictate in the back of a cab, per Apple’s commercials, surely I can too. Of course, Martin Scorsese can make great movies—something I can’t do. But he made using the voice recognition software look easy. Surely dictating on a smarty-phone would be a big step up from trying to type one-handed, whether on my old iPhone or even on a regular computer.

An interesting twist--after rotator-cuff surgery, I suddenly had two new Siri’s in my life. The physical therapist for my shoulder was named Siri, just as is the iPhone dictation feature. Before now I had never known of anyone, human or software voice recognition program, named Siri. I could not make this coincidence up. And both were helping me function after surgery.

 All my old dictation skills came rolling back from my memory banks. Even though I’ve long-since parted company with Siri, my therapist, I’m still closely tied to Siri on my iPhone. She types my emails, texts messages, finds restaurants, Googles answers to questions and generally makes my life much easier.  Though occasionally with glaring mistakes if I don’t proof read before sending. Such as “Meet me at the “muscles and burger bar” rather than “Meet me at the Mussels and Burger Bar.” Oops.  But, so long as I proof what she writes, Siri does a pretty good job.

Today, as on many other days, I was returning emails, sending text messages and searching Google for various places on my iPhone. It occurred to me I needed to leave an old-fashioned voice message for a friend. After I ended the message I realized I had included things like punctuation, new paragraph, and other dictation instructions that don’t normally belong in a conversation or voice message.

I tried to leave the friend a follow-up message explaining and apologizing for the nutsy-message that really should have gone to Siri, not one of my other friends. I hope the human friend understands. I’m sure Siri would.

Digital perfection

Apparently seeing no longer means believing. I guess it hasn’t for some time. For example, we all understand a photo is just a representation of the digitally-enhanced, much-better-looking version of whatever is in the photo. Not only are the models skinnier than in real life, more perfectly coiffed, and flawlessly corrected of all blemishes, but they also are virtually-enhanced and reshaped to look more gorgeous than possible in real life.  

Not just human models are digitally perfected. Animals have now gotten into digitally-contrived perfection. Sheep are “corrected” to look whiter than real sheep. Wet dogs are digitally corrected to have no stray water drops. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/arts/magazine-editors-and-photographers-on-retouching-photos.html?pagewanted=all

Grass is made greener, skies bluer, and all of life better. You and I no longer need to don our rose-colored glasses to see the rosy glow in all things digital. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not criticizing this digitally-enhanced photo "reality." Actually, I think it makes a lot of sense.

In "reality," brides spend small fortunes, not to mention undergoing pain and suffering for “boot camp”, plastic surgeons, lipo specialists and extreme diets to look perfect in their wedding photos. Some of the latest trends for brides are truly extreme. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/fashion/weddings/Losing-Weight-in-Time-for-the-Wedding.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

http://inyourface.ocregister.com/2010/12/01/bridal-surgery-tv-show-gets-few-viewers/23900/

There really is no need for brides or anyone else to endure those types of indignities as well as the lengthy and expensive ministrations of make up and hair stylists to look their best in photos. Why go to all that bother when the photographer-enhancer could do all of that at much less cost and effort. 

Food for thought. Luckily, I'm not at the stage of life to need a bridal make over. Right now, I was planning on going to the gym and then brushing my dog. But why should I? Instead, I think I’ll just photoshop the dog and me. And relax while having a drink and a snack. Cheers to all you digital photographers out there.

Happy Laptop

My laptop is back! My wonderful, 11" Mac Air, formerly with multi-colored vertical lines in the center of the screen, which expanded to cover most of the screen, has been magically restored by the Apple geniuses. Actually, I believe they replaced the monitor portion, screen, or whatever they call it. And now I am typing on it.

No longer do I have to watch TV and mutter, who is that actor and where did I last see him or her. driving my husband crazy with my muttered questions. Once again I can look up the answer to the nagging questions bopping around in my brain, preventing me from following the program we're watching. You can sing along with me: "My laptop is back."

All I have to say is the Apple extended warranty for my Mac Air was totally worth it. The repair/replacement not only was done at no charge to me, no questions asked. But the laptop was back at my local Apple store, ready for pick up in three days. I'd been told it would take about three to five days. Apple both emailed and called me on the third day to let me know it was ready. Sing along: "My laptop is back."

I decided my Mac Air deserved its own upgraded cover as well. While skimming the Amazon web site to see covers for the 11" Mac Air, my mind became boggled by the diversity, range of prices, and praise and criticisms of the various covers. From fine leather, book-like coverings for well over $100 but criticized as awkward because the monitor cover fell off when the laptop was opened to cheesy, leopard-patterned plastic for a few bucks, I had looked at so many covers I no longer could make any decisions. Sing along chorus: "My laptop is back."

Since I was feeling so exuberant I checked out the Mac Air covers in the Apple store. At the time I bought my laptop the only cover the store carried for the 11" Mac Air was a neoprene sleeve that fit so tightly I could not pull or push the laptop in or out. Weak hands I suppose. At that time I was leaving on a long trip, so I shopped around and eventually found a Microsoft carrying case in the right size.  So this time when I went to pick up my newly-repaired Mac Air, I decided the time was right to treat my laptop to its very own, Apple-designed cover. Oh, you know the chorus by now. If not, hum "Little Green Apples" as sung by Roger Miller, Frank Sinatra or Burl Ives. At least I think they all sang it.

Because you see--my Mac Air now is sporting a trendy, transparent, apple-green snap-on cover. And my laptop is back.

No product endorsement intended. I'm just happy to be surfing the Internet and writing again wherever and whenever I please.

Mad Men and Women in the 21st Century

I am not a great typist. And I have only myself to blame. In high school, a million years ago, when it was mandatory for all girls to take typing, and when my Mother said I would never get a job if I could not type, I had to speak to the principal, a Jesuit priest, and talk him into giving me a special dispensation. I got out of the requirement by telling the truth.  I explained I did not want to bring down my GPA with a typing class and also that I had no intention of taking any job that required typing.

Well, that strategy worked pretty well for me. You will not be surprised that I became a lawyer. I was always better at talking about things than typing or spelling. You see, I became a lawyer those million years ago when attorneys still had secretaries.  

Go ahead, you youngsters out there: Laugh. There really was a time when professionals had secretaries. And the professionals were almost exclusively men and the secretaries all were women. You’ve watched Mad Men on TV. You know what I mean. 

You might think that solved the problem. And it did for a few decades. But now that everyone has to do their own typing, or as they call it, “keyboarding” my spelling and typing issues should also be resolved. Every computer now comes equipped with “Spellcheck” or some variation thereof. That solves my typing, er… “Keyboarding” inadequacies.  

Actually, not so much. The mess Spellcheck makes of my typing is worse than my typing. And that is saying something. 

This is not one of those articles about the obscene things Spellcheck and particularly iPhone technology can do for a careless digit. But there are some corrections that I have to wonder--who came up with the default corrections for mistypes? 

What were they thinking?  For example, "Fir day". How can spellchecker think I mean to type fir day all the time? And what is fir day?  Surely the odds are greater that I mistyped Friday than some imaginary holiday in Norway.  Or maybe there really is a fir day somewhere.   

And how about “Spellcheck.” If you type Spellcheck, it corrects to spellchecker?  Who ever uses the word spellchecker? Except of course, the geek who created that word. 

Then there is my all time favorite: “Return gin”.  My mistaken typing of “returning” routinely is corrected to be “return gin.”  Now why would I always be writing about return gin? And who says that, let alone does that. If I had some gin I would not be returning it. You can bet after a session at my keyboard I can use all the gin I can get.

Old Computers and Older Women

 

I finally understand why some men choose to replace their old models and move up to a trophy wife. Too much upkeep.

You see, a 60 year old woman is a lot like a ten-year-old computer.  If the hard drive and motherboard do not go out entirely the computer is still so much trouble to update and keep working.  Sometimes it is just easier to get the newer model.

I did not have to face that tough a choice recently.  My pc’s motherboard and the processor had died.  So I sprung for a new pc.  Now I am pretty happy.  Mostly because the computer works with my old software for the most part, the old monitor and also my old ergonomic keyboard.

I also was pleased to find my old printer works just fine. It’s refusal to print was not the result of its temperamental nature in how paper was loaded.  I cannot tell you how many times I loaded and re-loaded paper thinking that was the problem.  Little did I know: the printer is hooked directly to the mother board or the processor. I forget which.

In any event, the old printer now prints faster than a pair of lovey-dove rabbits turn out baby bunnies. Though it is too old for its scanner and what-not to mesh with my new pc.  But who cares? Scanning was a rare chore on which I had to consult the manual.  Easier to send it some other way, even if that meant snail mail. On the other hand, I do wonder if I should get a new printer, one that does everything or plug along with what is workable but sometimes temperamental.

Sort of like the upkeep choices an older woman faces.  There are the essentials: Healthful diet.  Exercise.  Halfway fashionable clothes that are still comfortable on a body taken to sagging at unexpected places. And what about clothes that are clearly cute and trendy. But not designed for the woman in her 60’s.  As they say, just because you can fit into it doesn’t mean you should wear it.

Then there are the more difficult maintenance issues. The graying hair. Whether to color or just condition and let it go natural.  I frankly can’t tell when the colorist at the salon has finished what it is she has done. Even she admits the grays blend in with the blond so there are no “roots.”  On the one hand, the grays are wiry and uncontrollable without a little color treatment.

If you can count, you can tell I have run out of hands.  But I am still left with the question: is it worth sitting in a salon for forty-five minutes and spending more than what you would pay for an iPhone just to get rid of the unrulies? And yes, I have tried so many hair care products to get rid of the unrulies I could have bought an iPad.

Another option is to treat the gray unrulies with a home color product or glaze, or some-such, myself. After reading all the directions, applying the mess to my hair, setting my ancient (by technology standards) iPhone’s timer, and sitting around at home with goop on my head, then realizing my nails need doing too, but there isn’t enough time on the timer to do them at the same time, I wonder if any of it is worth the effort. After all, I still have to fool with my new pc and see if I can re-set the screen resolution so I can read what I am typing. That is, unless I buy a pair of glasses especially for the computer.

Next up on my list: I have purchased a home gel nail care kit.  The new stuff that leaves your nails good to go for at least two weeks. Even if you use your computer, do a little gardening, cooking and stack or wash dishes. Again, not sure if frugality and time justify the end result. But can a mature (I hate that word but is “old” any better?) woman go out in public with nails that look like she works at the zoo?  This project will probably be as good an idea as it would be for me to attempt to repair the motherboard. 

Now that my computer is working, my husband had his laptop repaired. Turns out there was a dust ball inside his laptop.  No big deal right?  Well, when he got it home, not only is the screen resolution not right but the sound no longer plays. And he uses his laptop primarily for reading news and listening to music. So you can guess how happy he is.

I just hope my husband doesn’t decide his wife is as much trouble to maintain as his laptop.  

Steve Jobs

I just finished reading Walter Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs.  The book is as much about the technology as it is about the man.  Or maybe Steve Jobs was as much about technology as he was about humanity.

Even though Jobs was not an engineer and not particularly good at software, he nevertheless, was the key player in creating some of the most people-friendly, technological products ever developed: the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod, for example.

From Isaacson's authorized and well-documented bio, Jobs also was the person you would be least likely to want to know. There's neither need nor space for illustrating Jobs' regularly obnoxious, ill-tempered, and downright brutal behavior.  If you want examples,  Isaacson's book abounds with them.

So I find myself obsessed with the question of how such a personally nasty human being could come up with so many devices designed to serve people so well.

Was nastiness a necessary part of his creativity. If his parents had required he behave in a more well-mannered fashion would they have destroyed his creative spark? I don't know. 

I do know, based on the discussion of Jobs' constant mistreatment and apparent disregard of people as individuals wit the feelings there is a huge contradiction in Jobs' insight into the human psyche.  Jobs somehow knew the design many humans would want before they even know they wanted it. How could someone with that much insight not be more of a mensch? 

I write these comments on an Air Mac. the perfect laptop for someone like me with shoulder and arm issues who has trouble carrying anything that weighs more than a couple of pounds. I keep track of my schedule on my iPhone because it is simple and also lightweight.  I use my iPhone to take photos. My $300 digital camera sits at home because I no longer bother with a camera when my iPhone takes nearly as good photos. And again, it is simple and lightweight. The iPhone camera also allows me to take better photos in terms of composition: I can see what the photo will look like in advance. I don't need a music player because my iPhone holds over a thousand songs on it. And so on.

I don't need to belabor how Apple products have changed many people's lives. You already know. 

If Jobs had learned to  keep some of  his incredibly untactful, unpleasant, or unnecessarily harsh judgments to himself, had treated his family members, co-workers, employees and friends as any decent human being should, would I now be typing on a clunky, heavy, laptop, trying to navigate through DOS on my computer. Without Jobs' bad behavior would the world be without the iPhone?

I don't think so.  In my work experience, people often worked better together when there was a cooperative spirit. But then I haven't created anything as elegant as an iPhone. I'm not one to be superstitious but for some reason, the more I write criticism of Mr. Jobs, the quirkier my laptop seems to become. the highlight and edit functions now are no longer working. So maybe I will end with an obvious concession to his genius: since the Renaissance no has created a device as elegant as the iPhone.

This is the particular part of my post which I cannot seem to edit : "Jobs was proud to describe his essential personality trait as an "asshole." He said that it was his job: to be an asshole."

Maybe I need to leave those two sentences just "as is."

Here's some of what the FBI files say about Steve Jobs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/steve-jobs-fbi-file-bomb-threat_n_1265519.html#s678174&title=Steve_Jobs_FBI?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Traveling in Dreaded Real Time

Traveling can be fun and enriching.  Exploring new venues.  Seeing new sights.  Sampling new foods, meeting new people, daring new adventures.

But traveling, whether for work or fun, can be tiring. There always is something from home you wish you had with you that provides comfort, whether it is your own bed, comfy pillow, or ratty sweatshirt.  Maybe the dog who greets you at the end of the day with a happy wag. Or having a washer/dryer close at hand in the event of a mishap. Even the choice of clothes one's own closet offers which is not available in the space of a suitcase.

I love to travel but there is one thing I miss from home more than all the other comforts combined: TIVO. or more accurately, my digital TV recorder.  I don't watch all that much TV, whether at home or on the road.  But at home TV viewing is never in DRT (Dreaded Real Time).  I don't even know when the shows I watch actually are aired.  My digital recorder records them and I watch them, "buzzing" through commercial interruptions whenever I need a fix of some TV show.

The problem is not that I am missing some particular show.  TIVO, or generic TIVO, is on the job recording any show I may want to later view.  While traveling, at the end of a long day of sight-seeing, for example, if I should need an NCIS "fix", chances are at any given time a re-run of that show is on some channel.  The problem is, that and most other shows are subject to long commercial interruptions. By the time I sit through several minutes of commercials I either have lost interest in the program,  fallen asleep or both.

Even on commercial-free cable channels, such as HBO, if you do not have a digital recorder you have to actually know when the program is on and be there at the TV to watch at the appointed hour.  Either way, you are living in DRT and subject to the schedule of the television broadcast rather than it being subject to your schedule.

Without a traveling-TIVO TV is just too demanding.

DOROTHY'S IDEA OF THE DAY: Why not have a portable device that allows a person to access the shows he or she has recorded on a home TV recorder and watch them while traveling. Or put a DVR in hotel rooms so travelers can record something worth watching when they return to their room after a long day. The hotel even could let you set up your list over the Internet before you got to the hotel.

iMonopoly

If these are hard times, and I know they are, I have just one question:

Why is the Apple store always jam-packed with customers?

I went for my “One-on-One” class.  And had to almost wade through the customer lines to sign in.  Afterwards, while I waited to pay for my two purchases (a new iPhone screen cover (two for $15) and a new iPhone case (ugly orange, $30)  I got to talking to another woman, middle-aged, somewhat frazzled (basically a lot like me) who also was waiting to spend her money.  She had been playing with a display iPad while planning to make several purchases from her Christmas shopping list at the Apple store.  She was afraid to wait to purchase the items until November for fear they would be on back-order by then.  So much for a recession going on.

I have an old version of the iPhone.  And have been trying to resist the new iPhone 4S, the latest Apple toy.  I also own a relatively new Mac Air laptop.  When I bought my laptop, for an extra $100, I signed up for a year’s worth of One-on-One class.  I am still learning boatloads of new information about both "toys" at what are essentially individual tutoring sessions.  In theory during the one year I can take an unlimited number of classes.  But I can only schedule one class at a time.  For example, after I finished my class I registered for the next available class, a little over a week away.  On average I attend at least two classes a month, sometimes as many as four.  At that rate I am paying no more than the cost of a cup of coffee for a fifty minute session with a private tutor. 

At the session I had a list of questions and issues.  One was the extreme slowness and sometimes unresponsiveness of my old iPhone.  Some Apps don’t want to open.  Sometimes the camera is sluggish. And so on.  I told the instructor I recently had replaced my iPhone’s screen protector, the cling-on film to keep it from getting scratched when I stash it in my purse or a pocket.  The protector I used was one of several in a package I had purchased at the same time I bought the iPhone. So the screen protector, in terms of technological stuff, was really old. I also had two iPhone cases, one basic black and one white in a 2-pack box bought at the time of my original iPhone purchase.  After several years I had tired of the dingy white case so I replaced it with the other case, a similar, rubberized "sock", using the original hard shell that snaps over the rubbery sock, forming a two-piece case.

Rather than agree with me that my old iPhone was past its prime, and that I "needed" to buy a new iPhone, the One-on-One instructor (this one, a woman about my age who somehow had mastered the finer points of Apple stuff) suggested a couple of simple solutions.  


The first tip was one I had learned a long time ago with my PC: shut it off and turn it back on. 

I’ve gotten so used to leaving my iPhone all the time I had forgotten this basic sure-fire, all-purpose, well basically only high-tech solution I know when a technological thing won’t work right.   Turn it off.  Then turn it on again.  Apparently rebooting is a thing of beauty for all things high-techy, even an iPhone.

The other two tips: buy one of the newer model screen protectors that don’t interfere with the touch technology. And buy a new case for my old phone.  The old case, even though I had used it for only a few months had sat around in my desk since the time I had first bought my iPhone.  And the rubbery stuff no longer held its shape.

I did not have to pay another $200 for the latest model iPhone, I did not have to pass Go and try to transfer everything and re-learn the few tricks I finally now knew about my iPhone.  I was paying $45 for a few small pieces of plastic, one of which is an ugly orange case. (They only had three styles for an iPhone as old as mine.)  Nevertheless, they made me feel like a winner.

Sometimes I do feel I am playing the game “Monopoly” when I go to the Apple store.  But when a company is this good at what they do, I suppose they get to take my money to the bank.

Apple Picking Or Tree Chopping

Steve Jobs was especially good at getting us to always want the next thing.  Sort of like  the gangster Johnny Rocco, played by Edward G. Robinson, in the classic Humphrey Bogart movie "Key Largo".  When Rocco was asked what he wanted, Bogey suggested to Rocco that Rocco always wanted "more".  Rocco agreed.  And Rocco also agreed he never got enough.

That is me and maybe you, when it comes to the latest Apple product or the latest electronic device.  I have a vague feeling all the "more" I crave has a downside: from mining rare earth elements, all the way to the third world land fill where the dead devices ultimately land.

Now a theatrical performance, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" hits this troubling nail on the head according to a review in today's NY Times.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/theater/reviews/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-of-steve-jobs-review.html?ref=arts

Lost iWay of Life

Many folks no doubt are mourning the passing of Steve Jobs, calling him a genius and wizard.  With his elegance and vision he may even have been the Da Vinci of our time.  Have you seen the Da Vinci exhibit with the clever folding bridges, sleek carts and amazing inventions?  He was more than an artist. Though for the artists in the crowd it may be a sacrilege to compare the iPhone to the Mona Lisa.  

Like millions of others, I have an iPhone and have had one for several years.  I bought mine for $200 with a two year contract with AT&T (full disclosure, AT&T is the company that gobbled up my previous employer, BellSouth, thus allowing me to take an early retirement and waste my time and yours with, among other ventures, my writing).  

Less than a month after I paid $200, a new iPhone was released.  One that did a lot more for the same price as the iPhone I had just bought.  And the iPhone I had just bought was then reduced to $100. Talk about losing value when you drive it off the lot.

Recently, I also bought the Air Mac computer.  It cost more than double what net books of its size cost (it weighs less than two pounds).  But it is elegant and accomplished and finally meshes perfectly with my iPhone, something my old PC would never do.

I have started keeping a list of writing ideas as well as a “To Do” list on my iPhone.  When I travel I use my iPhone as a GPS, an alarm, a camera, a flashlight, and for email and text messages.  I also now keep my calendar, my contact list and my photos on my iPhone.  And on occasion I actually use it to make phone calls. The last is the only thing it is not all that good at.  

Kind of scary: if I lost my iPhone I would be totally in the dark, literally and figuratively.

In a few days the new iPhone 4S, will be released.  although it does not look outwardly all that different than my old, old, iPhone, I understand from my brief research that it has many improved features, including accepting voice commands on a scale reminiscent of Hal, the murderous computer, in the sci-fi classic movie “2001, A Space Odyssey.”

Steve Jobs and Apple have helped to turn a certain segment of the population into all-consuming creatures with a need for the latest i-Invention.  The need to go out and buy the latest and greatest, even if what we have is still quite serviceable. 

With my ownership of two i-Devices I have to admit I have been hooked by the elegant design and utility Steve Jobs created.  As much as the astronauts in 2001 were dependent on Hal.  The iPhone has become a nearly indispensable tool, or should I say crutch, in my daily life. 

But despite that, or maybe because of the hassle of transferring data and learning the new twists, I am not ready to go upgrade my current iPhone (which has barely any memory remaining nor the new special features) for the latest improved iPhone 4-S.  Not to mention the $200 for something I already have that still works quite well.

I am left with a couple of questions:

1) Would Da Vinci still be as famous if he had not been satisfied with the Mona Lisa and in a few years was out peddling the mLisa4?

2) Is the next Steve Jobs at a university or perhaps still in diapers? 

I’m not worried; he or she is out there somewhere.

21st Centruy Technology--Paleolithic Brain: The Dangers of

I know I promised my next post would be a tale of how Tom Waits dispelled some old ghosts.  But there is a goblin of more recent vintage I must dispel. Recently I was guilty of emailing without brain fully engaged.  I do that a little too often in speaking but this is the first time in awhile that I did it with email. 

A friend sent an email to a group of friends about a mutual friend’s good fortune.  Her family member was safe after being in a dangerous circumstance. My first reaction, a most primitive one, was an enormous sigh of relief.  But in truth, not for my friend but for me.  I did not want to have the pain, however attenuated, compared to what hers would surely be, of sharing in a friend’s enormous loss.  My own fears were foremost in my mind, rather than the enormous celebration and joy my dear friend and her family must be feeling.  And in my response, with laptop open as I half watched a baseball game, I let my visceral reaction of relief shape my hastily-written response. I then hit “reply all” without noticing my dear friend, who was in the midst of joy and relief I can only imagine, was on the distribution list.

I have been reading renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman’s book “Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain” about the many layers of unconscious neural circuitry we carry with us.  How so much of what we do every day really is “hard wired” into our circuitry, instinctual behaviors chosen by evolution for their properties of survival of our species.  I realize the best, and sometimes the worst, of what I do often arise from some place within my brain of which I am not conscious.  How many times my brain comes up with an answer before I even know there is a question.  In this case, my primitive brain was concerned first and foremost with my own avoidance of pain.  I was happy I had avoided the potential pain of having a friend suffering.  Not, by any means, the emotion appropriate for a home-coming celebration.

In a moment, the impact of my email hit me when other friends covered my response with their own good wishes of joy to our mutual friend.  By then it was too late to undo my hastily sent message.  I sent a more thought out note to my dear friend.  And I spent the night hoping I had not caused her pain.

If we are an instinctual species in many respects we also can be a species that cares and learns from its mistakes.  In the future before I use my twenty-first century devices to communicate with others of my kind I am going to make sure I have used the higher functioning part of my brain to check  my primitive gut reactions before hitting “send.”

Falling Grandmas and iPads

Dorothy’s Idea of the Day:

Recently I was reading a short article about what’s new in technology and came upon a new type of case for the iPad and laptops.  The case is lightweight and soft but hardens instantly upon impact; protecting the electronic device from breaking if dropped, or attacked, say by a bowling ball.

Wow!  This certainly is a gee whiz kind of technology.  For some reason this new laptop and iPad cover got me to thinking what we could do with that type of technology if it were applied to garments for people with osteoarthritis, brittle bones or who were healing from a broken bone.

When I could not find the newspaper article I had read I was not surprised to find a report on the new “Extreme Sleeve” in “Gizmag”

http://www.gizmag.com/gform-laptop-case/18555/

Turns out my idea is not so original.  The technology was designed to protect skaters and cyclists and had been adapted for use to protect electronics.  Maybe someone already is thinking about using the same type of protection for those at risk of breakage even if they are not into extreme sports. 

But wouldn’t it be interesting if someone could develop the reverse of this technology: a substance for flooring, for example which instantly turns soft and flexible if you drop your laptop or Grandma falls.  Just a thought.