Does computers make us dumber, or no?

Posted by admin | deep thoughts, living, technology | Wednesday 20 August 2008 7:41 am

I just read an interesting article in Wired Magazine called The Critics Need a Reboot. The Internet Hasn’t Led Us Into a New Dark Age. It’s not one of their 20-page epics, it’s more of an editorial piece. The premise is that “the experts” are all atwitter about how computers and technology and video games are making us dumb.

I’ll spoil the ending; it’s still worth a read. The answer is that they’re not. (more…)

New website

Posted by admin | technology | Friday 25 April 2008 11:30 am

I’m starting a new WordPress based website, I’ve spent the morning sorting out kinks and bringing old blog posts in from my MySpace page to jump start things. I’m still digging for a theme I like (theme, as in Wordpress theme to control the look of the site, not theme as in “man’s inhumanity to man”), and I’m going to expand it soon with some photos and some music postings and stuff, just have to pull it together. I’m hoping that something like this that’s easy enough to update and all will let me post more stuff more often… If you see anything funny, please let me know, but it’s all pretty thrown-together for now anyway….

For the odd soul that ends up reading this (Hi, self!), expect lots of dramatic changes as I mess with templates and all that.

I hate technology. No, love. I love technology. No, hate. Hate was right.

Posted by admin | living, technology | Monday 14 April 2008 10:59 am

As people who know me will tell you, I’m kind of a weirdo about technology. I do computer work and actually hate computers at least some of the time. I write electronic music and not totally comfortable with the idea of electronic music. I love drum ‘n bass and all that, but I still have this dumb notion in the back of my mind that real people should be in the same room playing instruments that they’ve worked to learn in order to make “real” music, especially someone like me who has practiced doing just that, it seems almost treasonous to do computer-only stuff. I own a cell phone but I never answer it. I mean, I’m OK at figuring out technology-related problems that arise in my life so some people mistakenly think of me as a “techy.” I’m not. I’m able to just generally figure stuff out because if I don’t fix certain kinds of problems, nobody else is going to do it for me. And if what I need to figure out happens to be on a computer, then I’ll figure it out. But I also figure stuff related to food, music, dogs, parenting, home maintenance, politics, photography, shaving, clothing, reading, writing, and just about anything related to living. Since I wear glasses most of the time, that makes me a “techie” I guess. Whatever. Anway, to those who know my relationship to cell phones and computers, what I say next may shock and amaze you. (more…)