Regarding its availability, I think it's sad that they dropped support for Symbian OS. I wonder what made them drop an existing platform - I would've understood not bothering to develop for a new one, but not drop an existing.
> Nokia terminated its support of software development and maintenance for Symbian with effect from 1 January 2014, thereafter refusing to publish new or changed Symbian applications or content in the Nokia Store and terminating its 'Symbian Signed' program for software certification. (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/18502_New_Symbian_a...)
http://somafm.com has some good instrumental channels, too. I also have a playlist of things I've curated from Magnatune over the years, there are some strong instrumental artists over there.
Could it be that the glasses also tell you which tools you'll need, allowing you to plan ahead, whereas the alternative is to fetch a tool when you need it?
Generally when you're doing shit like this you read the destructions first and grab the tools. That is if your destructions are good and actually list them and sizes which most aren't... Which wouldn't help if it was or wasn't in glass, that's a content problem not a form factor issue. I will say I'd rather bring these hardened devices in than get oil on my smart phone which is what I did last week.
I do like sticking my smart phone in holes to take photos there I can't otherwise get.
I don't think they have an advantage, as I've noticed that kids knowing their way around their phone are often completely lost when put in front of a computer. They never use the computer, they have everything in their phones. Compared to a computer, a phone is simple, and you aren't actually solving any problems while using it (you're just downloading and running apps). When you have a phone, however, there's no need to learn the computer. This means that they're missing out on the computer learning curve that we experienced.
Again, Rasp Pi and the whole "maker" movement are mainstream. My daughter is in a STEM Middle School and she has done more things at age 11 than I did when I was 18! They're teaching Android game coding to kids age 10.
I think your daughter is lucky to be going to an exceptional school that teaches programming at age ten. The vast, vast majority of American students do not have these kinds of courses. May I ask what school system your daughter is in?
GNU social AND/OR mastodon...They're compatible with each other (though not 100%, the basics work across each other), because they use the same underlying protocol!
After a long addiction where I had used my phones as projects rather than tools, I decided to unwind. The blinking notification light was the first one to go, as I couldn't concentrate when it was active (which was most of the time). The next step was to buy a huge battery which made my phone twice as thick, but I only needed to charge it every few days which was a huge thing not having to worry about constantly. After a couple of weeks I started disabling more and more of the apps which made my phone buzz, and at the end I had only the most basic apps.
At the final step I realized that I had a huge expensive phone with only basic functionality and a web browser that always seemed to steal my attention (procrastinating on the web). I bought a Nokia C5-00 (dumbphone) and told my family that if they needed to reach me, they'd have to text or call - everything else would be dealt with a couple of times a day on my tablet.
It's been a year, and I love the freedom to work and be with friends and family without constantly having my phone in my face. I also seem to handle boring situations much better as I no longer can rely on my phone to entertain me whenever I have 3 minutes to spare. I am now a 22 year old Swedish programmer with a dumbphone that I charge once every 1-2 weeks, and I love it. Also, the reactions from co-workers and train conductors scanning my SMS-tickets are very interesting.
I did a similar thing. I replaced my iPhone (after I dropped and smashed it) with a Nokia 105 "dumbphone". It can only do calls and SMS messaging. It's the best thing I've ever done. I knew I'd get by without most things but I wondered how I'd get by without google maps in my pocket. I bought a road atlas for the car and quickly re-learned how to read a map and plan a route the old fashioned way. If I'm going somewhere the seems remotely complicated to find I'll just print off a google map before I leave. Looking back now, it's scary how reliant I'd become on dumbly following google maps turn by turn directions.
Emails, again I simply deal with the way we used to before smartphones. As and when.
Most 2FA systems also still support SMS as an option so even that's not a limiting factor of using a dumbphone.
My new phone cost me £10 and costs only £5/month to run because I literally cannot use any data.
The only downside I've encountered is the feeling that others are being ignorant/rude whilst blankly staring into their phone. You don't notice this when you're doing it too, but it's really very noticeable once you stop.
I've never been truly addicted to my phone, even though I've had a smartphone since before they were a thing (HP iPaq, running Windows CE). I've always been app-phobic on phones, only ever installing the minimum that I need. As such the notification problem has never been an issue. If my phone is flashing, it means I've missed a call, or there's a text message. That's it. Most people don't use SMS anymore for casual conversation, so I don't get pinged about those until I'm in front of a computer.
I do like having a web browser in my pocket though. I'm old, and I was there when dial-up BBS's gave way to basic dial-up internet. I used the internet as a resource, and I still mostly have that mindset. It's not an entertainment platform for me - I fire up a browser when I want to find something out, and then I close it again. However I do watch the odd fun YouTube video from time to time (not on my phone tho).
This switching away from being always-online seems to be picking up as a trend. I think it's a good thing. Like all things, the internet should only be used in moderation.
The internet is a tool, no different from a shovel or a paintbrush, and you don't spend all day carrying those around and looking at them, do you?
I disagree with the Internet is a tool... statement. The Internet is definitely not just a tool. It's a different type of consciousness; it's not completely mature yet as to approach the organic, human type, but it's definitely much bigger than a tool.
Your disconnection from it may help you rediscover your own consciousness and do things the old-fashioned way but it doesn't confer any superiority or higher levels of intelligence or higher information evaluation abilities on you.
What kind of higher information evaluation abilities are you talking about? The way I understand it is that if you're using the internet, is you're disconnecting from the pipeline, and evaluating information that you already have. Internet is for gathering, maybe filtering information. But the actual evaluation is usually separate from it.
You're looking at a very specific case. My point is more general.
Some people tend to believe that a return to the old ways of no invasion of the zeros and ones of the Internet would make their lives better by some significant margin. They see some less digitalized folk and wish they could have that life because they also believe the lives of these folks are much simpler, more triangular, etc.
Nassim Taleb and a few others have advocated a disconnect from news. This makes sense from a knowledge building POV as some folks actually only know stuff about the world through mainstream media, which I believe is particularly unhealthy and misleading.
Disconnecting from the entire Internet however is a different matter. My point is that such a recoiling into a zero Internet shell doesn't necessarily confer any superior analytical abilities on anybody. It may help your sanity/peace of mind/mental health (depending on what your obsessions are)/etc.
And to your point about actual evaluation being separate from the information processing pipeline, I also disagree. More often than not you still need the various resources available on the Internet to aid in the evaluation of the data/information you have collected.
There's such a thing as a responsible/profitable use of the Internet and the gains are probably much higher than whatever any sound minded individual would gain from a disconnection.
- I went without any phone at all at first, after breaking my smartphone much like you did; then decided I should at least have an old Nokia charged in case of emergency. No contract at all.
- I don't like using it, and I still hate voice/SMS 2FA, I use Authy instead wherever possible.
- I cheat a bit, since I do have a Nexus 7 still which I use around home and sometimes put in my pocket for podcasts. I don't think this is really cheating though, since it's WiFi only, so it's not really different from using a laptop - I can't be connected unless I'm stationary.
> The only downside I've encountered is the feeling that others are being ignorant/rude whilst blankly staring into their phone. You don't notice this when you're doing it too, but it's really very noticeable once you stop.
Yes! I don't mind it too much at the moment though, because I just think I'm glad not to be doing that. I've occasionally half-joked (with family) something like 'Well, it's nice to be out somewhere different for a change while we use our phones, isn't it?' :)
> Emails, again I simply deal with the way we used to before smartphones. As and when.
Which is exactly the opposite of my way of handling e-mail versus SMS. It it's really really urgent, be courteous enough to give your time and call me. For anything else send an e-mail.
E-mail is my primary communication channel and any device that can't handle it is useless. Whereas SMS is discourteous to me as it demands that I read and respond on one particular device, rather than that which is most convenient or appropriate. Quite often I'll read an e-mail on my phone and sit-down at the laptop to compose a reply.
Have been thinking about doing the same. I've had a company paid phone the las five years but I wish they would get me a good pad and a cheap nokia instead.
Doesn't that just redirect you to Google's search results (encrypted.google.com), and thus makes the point of using DuckDuckGo in the first place unnecessary?
I'd like to add a fourth choice: ask every time. When the app wants to access your GPS coordinates, you can grant it temporarily. Much like Android's integrity tools (maybe it's just a Cyanogenmod feature) where you can choose to be asked every time an app wants to access some kind of data.
The mix of the grandparent's and your options might give a very streamlined UX: the app is always given the full permission which is but only simulated by default, and any actual access the user is noted of that with a non-modal message box, where one can turn the simulation on or off. Some permissions (e.g. storage access) may not be hard to generalize like this, but it may work for other permissions like GPS and so on.
> Some permissions (e.g. storage access) may not be hard to generalize like this
In fact doing it this way would be very bad.
In sandbox model it’s usually the container that owns the file selection ui, perhaps accepting some plugins etc. from the client. The client is never granted permissions to see outside the sandbox. Pretend mode in this context would result in requesting unnecessarily broad access.
IMO for things like location the only way to do it both in user-friendly and privacy-friendly way requires a capabilities system. When an app is given privacy-sensitive data it shouldn’t be simultaneously granted any permissions that allow this data to be leaked.
