smart computer use?

Yeah, somebody’s actually doing that:

The first is the saga of a Yale student from Ohio who wants US Airways to pay $1 million for a video game system he says was taken out of his baggage. Jesse Maiman, 21 years old, says that an Xbox 360 system went missing from his baggage during a December flight from New Haven, Conn., to Cincinnati. Citing what he called “an unconscionable run-around” from the airline, he filed suit Monday in the Common Pleas Court of Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located. Maiman wants $1,700 for the loss of Xbox and for the maximum damages allowable, or $1 million, the Associated Press reports.

So, lose an Xbox and sue for a million then, eh? I guess whatever works. It does kinda suck that the Xbox was actually taken from his bag, that is pretty ridiculous and I guess I’d be pissed about that too, ha.

Moral of the story, don’t bring your Xbox on the plane, in your own luggage, or US Airways might take it.

So, everybody is using Twitter all of the sudden. I like it I guess. It’s fun to see the free-flow of info roll through that site. It’s hard to say whether it’s got long term staying power, but it’ll be fun to see what happens. If people are using it, it worth using!

I read about Google sounding out of touch about Twitter:

Last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented on everything from the economy (which he called “pretty dire”) to Android’s jump from phones to other devices. In other words, stuff you’d probably expect. What came as a surprise was the curveball he threw at everyone’s favorite micro-blogging website, Twitter.

“Speaking as a computer scientist, I view all of these as sort of poor man’s email systems,” Schmidt said. “In other words, they have aspects of an email system, but they don’t have a full offering. To me, the question about companies like Twitter is: Do they fundamentally evolve as sort of a note phenomenon, or do they fundamentally evolve to have storage, revocation, identity, and all the other aspects that traditional email systems have? Or do email systems themselves broaden what they do to take on some of that characteristic?” He then went on to call Twitter’s success “wonderful,” but it all sounded a little backhanded.

Yeah, he has a point that I can agree with. It does seem like it might just be a phenomenon. It’s hard for many things these days to have more staying power than email though.

I like it. I’m relatively new to Twitter, but it’s fun. I actually really do like how it’s relatively easy to gets tons of info and links of stuff you are interested in if you follow the right people, that is probably my favorite aspect.

I think I need to step into the new millenium and get something other than a tape player for my car.

Interesting. I leave my computer for just a few minutes and all of the sudden gmail grew some buttons.

I had to check some other themes just to make sure it wasn’t the theme I was using only. It does seem to be all themes. I also see some search inputs in the drop down boxes for “Move To” and “Labels”. Good stuff.

I haven’t noticed any updates to Gmail recently that visually grabbed me like this one. Maybe it’s just cause it’s such a commonly used interface component that has been given the new looks.

Heavy computer users tend to start to do everything on a digital level if possible. I do it. I’m not sure why exactly, but I’m constantly finding that it is more efficient and easier to do things if I use a computer, which is probably 80% of the reason.

The Daily Digital Grind

As a result, here’s the most common things I do from day to day, and all involve heavy use of a computer:

• Work
• Listen to music
• Produce music
• Play video games
• Watch movies
• Accounting & Finances
• Blogging
• Checking the weather
• Reading news
• Managing my schedule
• Communicating with clients and co-workers

Here’s a few of the things that don’t involve use of a computer that I tend to do from day to day:

• Sleep
• Shower
• Eat
• Disc golfing (in the summer only)
• Maintaining my aquarium (however my aquarium logging software is computer based)
• Driving to and from the office
• Going to the gym

Haha, I could probably go on and on, but this gets my point across.

So, even when I’m not working, a lot of my free time is also spent using the computer. This is probably not a good thing! It just so happens that a lot of my hobbies fall into the “able to do it on a computer” category.

Getting Non-Digital

After realizing this overwhelming use of digital resources for work and play, I started focusing on introducing non-digital stuff into my life. Why? Just because I can, but also the need to mix it up I guess.

What’s one of the first things I did?

I bought a Banjo and am going to learn how to play that.

It’s not digital. I can’t plug it into an amplifier or hook it up via USB to my computer. I can play it anywhere, including in the middle of the woods with no power source within miles of my location. This is a good step in a non-digital direction. The sound is raw, compared to the computer-based synthesizers and drum machines I am used to playing with. I also don’t need to be in my studio to play it. I can play it anywhere. I can sit on the porch and hammer out some bluegrass at will. Well I gotta practice a bit more before I’m hammering out bluegrass at will, but you get the idea.

I’ve only had the Banjo for a couple days, but I already like being able to go home at night and pluck away on the Banjo, forgetting that I was even involved with marvelous technology for the last 10 hrs of the day.

The non-digital sound, the natural feel of the simple yet complex instrument, it’s a great break from overwhelming computer use in daily life.

Sometimes mixing in a lot more non-digital stuff will make your daily computer usage seem like less of a grind, and you might even regain some appreciation for computers, assuming you have started to take their usefulness for granted. I know that using computers less myself makes me appreciate them more, which is why I try to get away from computers from time-to-time if possible.

How’s Your Non-Digital Outlook?

Are you ever feeling overwhelmed by the digital nature of modern society? You probably are to some degree. Take a look at your day to day life and make sure that you get some non-digital stuff going from day to day, especially if you rely on computers as much as I do.

Don’t forget that music doesn’t need to be digital, vinyl records are fun to have around for something different. Want to learn to play guitar? Try acoustic first.

Some more examples:

• Want to get into more art related hobbies? Buy oil paints or get into woodcarving instead of using Photoshop more than you already do at work.
• Woodcarving is a nice alternative to a 3-D modeling hobby, for something more physical in nature (might be a stretch but helps make a point).
• Do you like to play online first-person shooter games? How about getting involved with paintball? That’s another very fun non-digital alternative.
• Try writing a letter to your parents every now and then, rather than trying to get them to use email more often. It’s a nice change of pace.

You get the idea. I’m not saying all digital stuff is bad, but I’m learning from experience that I should probably mix it up a bit to feel well rounded as a human being.