Linux Format forums

Re: A Confession

oldpenguin — Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:02 am

Author: oldpenguin

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:02 am

quote: (seems my java is off)

This thread is beginning to sound a bit like the TV programme "Grumpy Old Men" ( and Women).

Strongly suggest you review your "last access" dates on files you
believe confidential. A real eye opener. FB, and the rest of the cookie
providers are like vagrants looking for unlocked doors with no one
home so they can rummage though your house. Nothing on the net is
private.

Re: A Confession

Paradigm Shifter — Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2012 8:18 pm

guy wrote:

I read somewhere (so it must be true) that around 15% of smartphone use is actual phone calls.

And about 75% is spent discussing what you all use your smartphones for (while waiting for that download to complete). This is an example of how the mobile internet is fast overtaking the fixed internet - I only spend 55% of my time on my desktop PC discussing what I do with it (I spend the rest of the time reinstalling stuff).

Crikey... really?

I find that quite scary.

I probably use my smartphone about 5% for internet (when I desperately need to look something up away from a library or 'net connection) 10% for e-mail, 10% for texts and 75% for voice calls. With a very rare game of Chess against a cheating AI when bored rigid.

But then, my phone usage has evolved as I've grown older, or replaced an old phone. As a teenager, I spent far more money on texts than on calls, and mobile internet hadn't been invented.

Re: A Confession

guy — Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:44 am

Author: guy

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:44 am

Paradigm Shifter wrote:

Does no one use a phone to make calls and send texts, any more? (Other than Ram and myself...)

This thread is quite cathartic!

Farcry — Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:15 am

Author: Farcry

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:15 am

@el chapul�n:

Must agree with much of your rather well-expressed rants - there is a group behaviour at play with Facebook which I find very disturbing. Sleep-walking, trance-like ... and some of the information (circa 1937) from http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/intro.ipa.html applies here, especially the Bandwagon effect.

My own "real" job (not IT) and extensive confidential contact with the public is such that I could never, in sane mind, join Facebook under my true name. But just how moronic is it to reduce the infinite subtleties of human relationships to the dichotomies of (not) 'Like' or (un) 'Friend'?! Recall the politician who went to war with the cry of "you're either with us or against us".

You don't have to be paranoid to be dismayed at the decay of genuine social skills, especially among the young today. I'll end with the joke that "I'm old enough to have actually MET my friends"!

Re: A Confession

wyliecoyoteuk — Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:30 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:30 pm

Me too.
No Fakebook, Twatter or Linked-out here.

(My wife is on FB though)

Re: A Confession

roseway — Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:59 am

Author: roseway

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:59 am

I am a grumpy old man.

Re: A Confession

ajgreeny — Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:11 pm

Author: ajgreeny

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:11 pm

This thread is beginning to sound a bit like the TV programme "Grumpy Old Men" ( and Women).

Mind you I am a bit of a luddite who has never used facebook nor twitter, and has a mobile phone which will only make phone calls and send text messages, which is precisely why I wanted a mobile phone.

Re: A Confession

leke — Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:03 pm

Author: leke

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:03 pm

I too have to confess I've joined facebook since going to polytechnic. If you want to be part of the project groups people form, you have to conform to the popular choice of social network. I just spelled my name backwards and let people figure out who I was from my picture (which was not as straight forward as it sounds, since I gimped myself into Gandalf ).

Re: A Confession

towy71 — Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:13 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:13 pm

All my nephews and nieces are on FB my daughter is the only luddite, she doesn't have a phobile mone either, similarly SWMBO uses email but that's it

Re: A Confession

el chapul�n — Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:31 pm

Author: el chapul�n

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 4:31 pm

M-Saunders wrote:

But to flippantly suggest that everyone on there is a "sheep" shows a gross misunderstanding of how humans work.

1) I referred to the "sheeple effect", i.e. the tendency in humans to do what someone else is doing because "if they're doing it, it must be safe".

2) I did not suggest that everyone on fakebook is a sheep.

3) Using my apparent "gross misunderstanding of how humans work" in your argument is not good debating.

An example of the sheeple effect:

M-Saunders wrote:

Everyone was on Facebook

Did you ask "everyone"? Or was that an assumption? Or perhaps it's a generalisation much like some of mine...? Then again perhaps you're right and everyone was on fakebook and I'm just being pedantic here, but I'm not the first pedant in this thread.

M-Saunders wrote:

Sigh. No they haven't. They haven't "gone" from anything.

*SIGH* yes they have - unless you're going to take that as a black and white: "all computers are now smartphones which can only access social networking sites and pr0n, other types of computers no longer exist" kind of statement? And of course it is pretty obvious that is not what I was inferring...

M-Saunders wrote:

But these "it's all over" predictions are just ridiculous.

Whereas I did not actually make any "it's all over" predictions...

I'm just being a miserable old git and having a rant... most could see that and took it with a pinch of salt, except yourself apparently. The British like to moan, etc...

Re: A Confession

Bazza — Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:48 am

Author: Bazza

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:48 am

Hi el chapul�n...

> Ignorance is never a strong defense.

Ah well, consider me ignorant, gullible and naive then.

(Or, maybe I just don't care enough to worry about FB's antics.)

Re: A Confession

M-Saunders — Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:46 am

Author: M-Saunders

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:46 am

el chapul�n wrote:

fakebook is a perfect example of the sheeple effect - "everyone else is doing it so it must be ok"

Not always, no. I'd never been interested in Facebook, but at the start of the year I moved to a different country and spent a few months at a language school. Everyone was on Facebook (not everyone had mobile phones that worked in the country). Just about every social activity was planned on Facebook, and I realised how much I would've missed without it. I've made many good friends and done lots of things thanks to it.

I have no interest in the company and I understand the privacy concerns. There are problems with Facebook. But to flippantly suggest that everyone on there is a "sheep" shows a gross misunderstanding of how humans work.

el chapul�n wrote:

Computers have gone from being educational and work tools to goggle boxes for idiots to watch TV on, read about celebrities and post inane drivel on "social networking" sites.

Sigh. No they haven't. They haven't "gone" from anything. They're more than ever used as educational and work tools They just happened to be used by more people now, some of whom use them for non-serious stuff which we consider pointless. But these "it's all over" predictions are just ridiculous.

Wikipedia, travel guides, Google Maps, science websites, Khan Academy, astronomy forums... There's more great serious content than ever before out there. There's a lot of crap too, of course, but let's stop with the doom and gloom scenarios

M

Re: A Confession

el chapul�n — Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:32 am

Author: el chapul�n

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:32 am

Bazza wrote:

Some people are just SOOOOOO paranoid...

Ignorance is never a strong defense. Some people may be paranoid, but many more are extremely gullible and naive...

Re: A Confession

wyliecoyoteuk — Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:38 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:38 pm

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT out to get me........

Re: A Confession

Bazza — Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:25 pm

Author: Bazza

Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 3:25 pm

Some people are just SOOOOOO paranoid...

I have no problems with FB. It is just a fun site for we oldies...

I use my _public_ Email address instead as I couldn't give a proverbial s**t whether it gets hammered, (with or without a password), or not. It is shown in abundance on the WWW.

My callsign is also public domain so my real home address and some details can be _ripped_ from the WWW! Big Deal...

My old Compuserve all digit Email addy is still active and that can be found on the WWW if you look hard enough; however if you can find my third private email address anywhere in the public domain then I will allow you to post it on here...

Have fun finding it... ;o)