I like to work with new fangled stuff like computers and widgets of sorts. My problem lies with the fact that I’m not really interested in how they work anymore. I used to be. In fact I used to be the command’s Information Assurance Manager at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune. What made this change of mind?
I wear the badge of po’ farm boy done good. I was born in 1950 in a VERY rural eastern North Carolina where just having electricity was a luxury. Hell, we didn’t have indoor plumbing till I was almost ten years old. My dad somehow managed to drive a shallow well through the floor in the kitchen and then built a cabinet around it in such a way as to have the hand pump pump water straight into the sink. Always was a quart jar of water next to the pump to prime it.
Well, anyway, I recently signed on for a new smart phone. It’s a HTC Inspire. It really 
doesn’t inspire me, unless you count “Angry Birds” inspiring. I don’t know why I got it except it has bells and whistles like I used to look for. I guess its the residue of those by-gone days of wanting the latest greatest.
Okay, I got off on a trail. I’ve changed my mind about techno wiz-bang stuff, because, as a friend of mine who used to own a computer store said, “Computers barely work”. This stuff will break down with more regularity than my Corvette. That’s another story, but safe to say, the engine is ruled over by OBD I, a computer.
My computer has ought with one of the many patches MS pushes out so I quit allowing auto-updating. It makes my computer crash. I have learned though. I’ve bought a 500 Gig and a Terabyte external hard drive. Redundancy is the name of this game. I keep no files on my computer except what it takes to run it. If it crashes I’ve saved my stuff.
Again, I need to focus. This new phone has an 8 Gig micro S/D card to store the phones information on. All my pictures, etc are stored here. Or I should say were stored here. I went to look up a picture on it yesterday and low and behold my phone says my micro S/D card was empty. What the. . . Surely it hadn’t.
So when I got home I plugged the card into my desktop and sure enough, it was blank. I hate that. But, due to my redundancy, I was saved. When I bought the phone I put a copy of all the files on one of my externals. All I had to do is reformat the card and reload my phone’s files. I’m back up this morning and all’s well. The issue is, it broke and I know not why.
This po’ farm boy is tired of stuff that breaks. The Vette may be next.
Livin' Small 
planned obsolescence
n
the policy of deliberately limiting the life of a product in order to encourage the purchaser to replace it Also called built-in obsolescence
Ain’t the free market grand? This is what our system produces. Good thing you had the foresight to head this problem off at the pass. 😉
You’re right Peter. I’ve worked around retail for several years. Products aren’t made for durability or extended usuability. Take my desktop. It has MS XP Media Center OS. It will sunset in the not to distant future. When it does, my computer will no longer be able to get support of any kind. I’ll be left to my own devices. On top of that my files will not convert to the newer systems which are now 64 bit.
You got that new phone cause your girlfriend wanted one and you went with her when she went to look at them. Which she still doesn’t have — by the way…
A computer’s trouble enough–no phone for me except a land-line. And my car is a daily source of frustration–I’m looking forward to the day it totally breaks down, and I can (hopefully) get something reliable.
I wonder though, the way you describe the lack of modern conveniences in your home, as a child–sounds almost idyllic to me (though I must admit I grew up in the suburbs, and had all those essentials)–do you ever miss those days?
The more stuff we have, the more complicated life gets.