Hi
Just making a comment about the idea of being able to be contacted "24/7". Recently I purchased a Harrier PDA (telecom) for the big boss at work. You can use it to do just about anything a computer can do; make word documents, download files, mp3 player, calender, video camera etc- as well as use it to call people! As it turns out she left her charger at home whilst on a 3 day business trip. So that night she decided to take the battery out to conserve power.
- She lost everything; all her numbers, settings, ringtones, etc. According to the Telecom guy it's not supposed to be ever turned off- She had tried to find the off button but to no avail, itcould go into "flight-mode" where the mobile phone funtion is turned off but the PDA still remains on.

This I think has rather interesting implications; This piece of modern technology was designed to always be switched on. If you tried to turn it off you lost all your data. Is this the way technology is heading? It conjures up images of HAL and A.I. technology where machines dont want to be shut down; they become more than machines, they become alive in the sense that they never are "off".

Do you switch your mobile phone off at night? I dont. I am able to be contacted "24/7"- why? (if my freinds are ever in an emergency they know someone is able to be contacted) We truly are the generation of instant gratification!- (was that from FTV100?). What does that tell us about our culture today? I dont even switch my phone off in cinemas, I just put it on silent so I know what call I am missing. Is this reason created from the idea of needing to "get-ahead" in todays world? You must'nt let anything pass you by or you are missing out. I think it is taken to the extreme in American media- There are dedicated TV channels for weather, news, anything! When I came back from America I actually found myself agitated that I couldnt just flick to channel 22 and check out the weather for the next day. Or voyeristically see what the weather was like in Paris.

But it doesnt really matter how "good" your multi media phone gets because when you think about it there is still only 24hrs in one day. It doesnt matter that with technology you can hold a video conference with someone across the world and text at the same time, whilst surfing the web for your pizza order and listening to your fav mp3; people still have a finite amount of time in the day. When they are doing one thing it's actually less productive- and not going to 'get you ahead' - by being distracted by your myriad of information on tap. Call a one-track minded guy but all this continual multi tasking is becoming a nightmare!
Who here txts and drives?

Anyway if youre having trouble finding something to talk about go to the link below. Its a tech-digest blog with all sorts of new technology discussed.
http://techdigestuk.typepad.com/