Justifying My Expensive New iPhone

6/9/2015

Try Holding This and Typing at the Same Time

I keep looking for good reasons for carrying around a rectangular gizmo that feels like a manhole cover, while pecking with the edges of my fingers.
The other day I found a reason. I was walking in my town near the train station and spotted a woman my age in some modest distress. It was a warm day, and she had just gotten off the train and could not find her dentist's office.
Maple Street? I have lived here over 40 years, and I walk and drive and ride my bike all over town, but sometimes the names of back streets elude me.
Get out of the sun, I suggested. I can find it.
I hauled the thing out of my fanny pack, and lunged at the microscopic keys with my thick fingers. Many mistakes later, I discovered that Maple Street was one block long, one block away. I drive on it all the time.
The lady was fine, just lost. She thanked me and began walking at a brisk pace to keep her appointment. I had just amortized some chunk of the price and the frustration of learning all the codes and tricks and mysteries of this fad.
Next time I can truly justify my obsession, I will pass it on.

(Written on an old-fashioned traditional laptop, just like my grandmother and grandfather used.)
.

Alan Rubin link

6/9/2015 05:36:08 pm

George

You are kicking and screening, but you are just beginning the slippery slope of "I don't know how I lived without it".

My wife, another non-techie, will not admit that she "never" wanted an iPhone. It might be difficult for her to choose between me and an iPhone as it can be periodically upgraded.

Peter R Wilson

6/11/2015 03:32:18 am

Now, do have BEIN Sports in HD for the Copa America?

Peter R Wilson

6/11/2015 03:33:35 am

Please add a "you" where appropriate in my prior post!

George Vecsey

6/11/2015 07:04:25 am

Pete, in a word, no. Enough is enough. Plus, it's like subsidizing FIFA. GV

Brian Savin

6/11/2015 06:46:33 am

Honest truth: I just asked Siri, "Does George Vecsey give you a hard time?"

Siri answered by pointing me to this very blog entry.

I rest my case...and so does Siri.

George Vecsey

6/11/2015 07:00:01 am

Brian, true story. The other night I found a place for the manhole cover on my night stand and must have touched the wrong button. I said something normally dopey to my wife, and this voice from the iPhone said something sarcastic (I forget the words)....In other words, Siri is more human than we know., I have no idea what I did to unleash her, but I am sure this is how wars start. GV

Brian Savin

6/11/2015 12:39:26 pm

If there is war, I will be in the trenches with you!...out of years of habit if nothing else. However, I strongly recommend peace negotiations. I have no idea how strong this new fangled technology might be.

Thor A. Larsen

6/13/2015 12:15:25 am

Grandchildren from the age of three are perfect teachers for the IPHONE as Arlene has learned in the past year. As far as need, I have it with me all the time. How else would I have been able to follow your blog as I travelled in France recently. I suceumbed to its need after we visited Croatia three eyars ago and most teenagers had one! Just don't use it when walking in NYC. Asd far as your fingers, with continued practice they seem to get pointy!! Welcome to the Millenium Generation!!

George Vecsey

6/13/2015 03:11:10 am

Thor and Arlene, you give me hope. GV

KL Bob

6/14/2015 03:33:19 am

Sorry to be late to the party, but great post script in parentheses!
If Apple has Swype, you might want to try it. It takes a little getting used to, but it's faster and easier than tap tap, backspace, tap.

George Vecsey

6/15/2015 03:28:53 am

Bob, thanks, my point being, look how far we've come. I started out typing on an Olivetti portable (still have it) and handing the yellow foolscap to the Western Union operator. I am grateful for what we have today. GV

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Justifying My Expensive New iPhone

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