I am becoming a Luddite

[a nameless entity]

1)I don't do facebook.
2)I don't twitter.
3)I don't have an ipod or a blackberry.
4)I refuse to read a book on a kindle or ipad.
5)I am not renewing the contract on my aging cell phone, and I am not getting a new one.
6)When my Thunderbird email program self destructed after it last automatically updated itself, and all attempts to repair or reinstall the program failed, I got annoyed and reverted to Outlook Express.
7)I am seriously considering going offline for good once my aging monitor or my aging PC bites the dust.
8 )My ISP charges too much for too little. One more price increase and I am gone!!
9)I watched the USA convert from analogue to digital TV broadcasting with dismay, and am very annoyed that Canada is now following suit.
10)My brother has a wide screen HDTV. It's nice. But with the 7.1 stereo, the blueray, the cable box for the extra channels, and the TV itself, you end up with so many remotes that it's darn nigh impossible to figure out the combiniations of buttons that need to be pressed over 4 remotes just to be able to watch a little TV. I certainly can't figure it out, and if something goes wrong, it takes my brother a few minutes to sort it all. Madness!


I don't give a damn about most of the new distractions or toys out there these days. And newer isn't always better. Many good computer programs become bloated and crash prone with time, due to so called improvements and extra features. Digital TV broadcasting only offers better sound and picture if you get a strong signal. A weak signal means either lots of choppiness or stutter, or no picture or sound at all. I'll take snow and hiss over that nonsense on my TV any day, thank you very much!

I am becoming a total Luddite, and I love it. It feels hip to be so square.

[Hermskii]

I am halfway there nameless. my phone is still an old flip-phone which I actually replaced instead up upgraded because it works and works well as it is. I may get rid of cable. I too don't have half the things you mentioned. I too was real mad when they changed to digital TV. Lots of this new stuff bothers me but lots of it is in fact pretty cool!

[ZippityDooDa]

Unfortunately Guys its only going to get worse, libraries will cease to exist and everything will be digital...guaranteed. Technology is the future my friends.

[EvilGrins]

I only use facebook for family and people i've actually met. I probably would've avoided being a twit for any length of time if I hadn't discovered the numerous roleplay communities on it. As to the kindle, well, I got one as an XMAS present and I was opposed to it as i like books...but at the time I had no internet at home and the kindle has a broswer built into it.

[David]

I too have a flip cell phone. I use the cell phone for a PHONE. I do not text on it, I do not search in the internet on it, I do send email on it.

If I want to email or search the internet I will use my computer.

I do have a decent TV (46" LCD), solid surround sound, blu-ray player (but I only have DVDs but the blu-ray upscales the dvd). I do enjoy the thundering of a good movie.

I do not twitter, I do not have an I-Pod, I do not have a kindle (I am not a book reader in the first place but my wife enjoy good books and I think she likes the feel, the smell, and the experience of a physical book.

I think my cable company does charge more than they offer me, but I do use the internet to stay in (fast) contact with family and when you need to goggle a question, it is nice when you can find an answer.

[David]

P.S. (about the internet) I get come onto the forum and participate in conversations with people across the globe.

[a nameless entity]

Avoiding all of this kind of bad stuff in the first place, is another massive argument in favour of my attitude:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story ... lware.html

[a nameless entity]

Well it seems that by October 1st I must decide if I am going to keep my word to myself or not. My ISP has decided that they deserve another $4 a month for my "Lite Plus" account.

They are renaming it to "Express 8" because they are giving me a small increase in bandwidth to 8 Mbps from 7 Mbps. I also get an extra 10 GB of downloading before the extra charges kick in. And the rate per Gigabyte of the surcharge has been reduced by $0.50 to $1.50 from $2.00. But the maximum surcharge is raised from $30 to $50. So they are giving with one hand, and taking away with the other.

Now I never use more than half of my old maximum of 30 Gig download traffic per month anyway, so the increase is useless to me. And since my upload bandwidth remains at 800 Kbps, I don't think I'm getting all that much more overall bandwidth for gaming purposes either.

I made a vow to myself a couple of years ago that if my ISP ever raised my rates to over $50 per month including taxes, that I would disconnect their modem from my router and return it to them. So as of October 1st my rate will be $46.95 per month + 13% HST = $6.10 for a total of $53.05 per month.

And this is why I must decide if I am going to swallow this price increase or not. Dropping down to their "Lite" plan is not an option, gaming on that is terrible compared to only bad with "Lite Plus".
And I am sick and tired of being nickel and dimed to death by these guys.
The only other option is DSL, and the phone company charges the same rates for bandwidth as the cable company, so no joy there.

I'll let you know my decision in late September. Hey it's only another $1.04 a week, right?

[Hermskii]

You have given this plenty of thought already. I say to make a deal with the phone company. tell them what you want to pay and how long you expect it to stay at that price. Expect to be screwed no matter what. Then call your cable to disconnect once you have a deal with someone else and then cable will talk serious pricing with you. Good luck!

[David]

I received a notification via email on this topic. Yay.... is it working again, or was this a fluke?

Sorry..........................Continue On......

[Hermskii]

We are still in test mode. Keep testing it.

[Scify]

I do newer flip phone. There are people who text message me. My sister told me .They change cell phone company.Do to fact where they move to they are phone as 1 bar or none.I have get newer phone because I am my sister plan (She help me out and I try help her out too). I'm tired press two or three or four get right letter.I can talk better than I can write.I am get color nook for chirstmas( it poor person Ipad) because I live small apartment. I am running out room for books.I don't buy new stuff. Can't afford digital TV .

[a nameless entity]

You have given this plenty of thought already. I say to make a deal with the phone company. tell them what you want to pay and how long you expect it to stay at that price. Expect to be screwed no matter what. Then call your cable to disconnect once you have a deal with someone else and then cable will talk serious pricing with you. Good luck!

Thanks Herm, I've kept what you said here in mind this whole time. I have been putting off paying my bill as I debated what to do, and thinking perhaps to just put off the decision from month to month. But a couple of things happened this week to further cement my tendencies towards Luddite-ism.

Two days ago I had to reset my contract with my cell phone company. So I called them via my landline only to discover that I "had" to redo everything from my cell phone regardless of how much I hated talking to machines, and my expectation that something would go wrong during the process, because it always does! So I very unhappily used my cell phone to reset the credit card part of the process successfully, only to get dropped while waiting to speak to a customer service representative for the rest of what I wanted to do. So I called them back via my land line again and waited and waited again to finish up. -Only to discover that they are doing massive changes starting next month, and that I must do it all over again in November!

Then today I had to activate my new "chip and pin" credit card. I got the card a few days ago, but had to wait for the pin to arrive in a separate mailing. Well the pin got here, and I peeled off the security sticky label to be able to read it, only to discover that it was completely illegible. So after fighting with that bank's system in order to be able to talk to a real person and explain the problem, (and getting dumped into the Francophone queue for some reason, -which also happened with my cell phone company the other day too, oddly enough... ) I finally got to explain my situation to a real person. But now I have 3 days to go to one of their bank branches to reset my pin. There's a branch at a local shopping mall which works out well because:

After all this nonsense this week, I was in just the right mood to call my ISP and tell them that I had had enough of paying too much for too little. I explained that I was aware of their new customer promotions for two similar stand alone packages that offer massively better speed and bandwidth for only a few bucks more a month, good for 1 year. And that it was either upgrade to one them, or goodbye. Because I was so exasperated by my previous experiences, the young lady I was speaking to knew I meant what I said by the tone of my voice. So she passed me on to another department and I chose the better of the two deals, which works out to only $9 more a month, taxes included. The person in that department kindly advised me to just explain my situation again after the one year is up, and I should be able to get whichever promotion is being offered at that time.
I have to take my modem into their office at the same shopping mall to be exchanged for another one that allows greater bandwidth, but since I'm going there anyway, that's fine.

Yes, I am at least somewhat of a hypocrite since I have a cell phone, didn't walk away from the internet, and still use credit cards. But the squeaky wheel got the grease today, and that will do nicely for now.

[Hermskii]

Congrats! Something is better than nothing.

[a nameless entity]

Once the new modem is installed my internet speed and bandwidth will be massively improved. Hypocritically speaking I may well be; but it is going to be awesome!
Even Keller may be impressed the next time he comes onto the UT2k4 server and tries to own me again.