http://blog.zonealarm.com/2012/03/employers-requesting-usernames-and-passwords.html

You knew it was only a matter of time before they started taking advantage of the desperate state of the economy and the helplessness and vulnerability of those adrift in it.

Damn! I’m glad I’m retired and don’t have to deal with these bloodsuckers any more.

I have an old touch-tone phone in the house. I wonder how many people realize that when the power goes out, so does that nice wireless station in the kitchen. Some have backup batteries, but in my long experience of power outages, the power will usually still be flowing in the phone system if you plug in a non-electronic phone.

I have no idea how reliable cell phones are in widespread power outages. I assume critical systems have power backups, but who knows?

For sure, everybody and their cat will be jamming the circuits.

I have a manual typewriter. Okay, not essential for survival, but when the EMP hits, I’ll still be writing books. Very laboriously. I do NOT miss manual typing.

My own grandparents and great-grandparents dealt quite effectively with phones, and also had to learn the extra things you have to know when you’re on a party line. Like how many rings is “you.”

My kids are far better at using smartphones than I am, but I’m still “computer guy,” and have to deal with their computer screwups for them (the computer I’m using now is the first one since my PC-AT that I didn’t build myself from components).

I wonder what their kids will be doing.

It occurs to me that I have no idea what that code square does. For all I know, it brings up porn.

The telephone has been around a long time, but it changed slowly, people had a chance to adjust to it, to pick up on new features and learn how to survive with those that went away (remember when you could just dial a number and an operator would tell you the phone number of Betty’s Bagel Barn and offer to connect you? For free?).

Right now, not only do we have to learn a bewildering array of devices and systems, but they are changing all the time. So we have to learn how to learn new ones. I’ve used computing devices all my life at school and at work, still do, Hell, I used to earn my living as a Silicon Valley “scientific software engineer”, and I feel totally ignorant about modern computing. I didn’t even own a home computer until about 10 years ago, or a cell phone until about 3 years ago. I still have it, its one of those disposable $10 drug-dealer models with no camera, and I had to download its 70 page user manual off the internet to figure out how to use it. And I don’t know how to drive a car with “”paddle shifting” or “keyless entry”. I once could write assembler code and read a core dump in Hex but I can’t program (or even set up) my TV set. And I suspect that little white square full of black pixels you displayed is really the Mark of the Beast. And its not like I live on a desert island. I have been making an effort to keep up. As a computer mapping specialist, its not like I was actually isolated from digital technology.

The speed at which things are changing seems to be speeding up. My instincts tell me we’re heading towards some kind of logjam effect,
A society-wide constipation where the networks and devices we depend on running our civilization no longer become accessible to the people that need to use them for the most routine activities. We’ll all become like my friend’s grandmom.

However, I have set things up so I can pay them on the computer if I want to. Comes in handy when the paychecks show up just before the bill is due.

Companies try to sweet-talk me into “autopayment,” letting them pick it out of my bank account on their own when the bill comes out. Screw that.

I’m nowhere near as “connected” as I could be. My phone is a stupid flipphone, with the singular virtue of being waterproof and drop proof. When a smartphone comes out that can do this, I’ll think about it. I’ve squinched two Kindles so far just carrying it around. God knows what I’d do to an IPhone.

I’ve noticed those little things that look like postage-stamp sized Rorschach blots.

They’re in magazines, on bus stops, you name it. You show them to your smartphone and information appears. They’re called QR Codes. I had to research that just now to find a picture of one. I’d never heard the name before, and I’ve never used one.

The key is that I can still choose how deep I want to wade in, and I can wade back out if I want.

I did buy both of my kids a MacBook Pro for college. Like VR says, they’re needed for survival, and both kids have career-related software they run on them.

ER, computers are a required instrument at my school. Homework, quizzes, grades, and virtually anything else you can imagine that’s university-related is done on the computers. If you don’t have a computer, you can’t pass. Pure and simple. Sure, they offer labs, but their hours are insane

I don’t plan on an answering machine when I get out of college. The one on my phone is broken, and I just use the list of callers I get as a reference. If II don’t recognize the number, I don’t return their call, simple as that. I do get a lot of crap from my parents about this though – my dad’s always hassling me about not returning his voice messages.

I pretty much use the computer for only four things; uploading art, listening to music, checking various information outlets (BBC, Al Jazeera, Wikipedia, etc.), and talking with you guys. That’s it. I used to play games on the thing, but they’ve lost their appeal somewhat. Don’t really play video games at all, now that I think about it; and quite honestly, I couldn’t be happier.

To rage against the machine, I feel, is useless. Technology and innovation has always been our future. To rage against irresponible abuse of these things, however – that I WILL do.

Right after college that is >_<

You have to get on the grid to be noticed, to find out what’s happening, even to protect yourself. You may soon be forced to go online just to pay your bills. I can’t even imagine what being a student without a computer would be like. It’s getting to the point now you can’t get anything done by just calling somebody. And you know, every time you log on, someone will be listening, and someone will be billing you, and someone will be spamming your young ass.

How many times have you been watching the news and been told “for further information, log on to our website at…”
Living off the grid may soon be as difficult as living without a car, or a cellphone, or a TV. Hell, even a land line is useless without voicemail, and people don’t just call you after work.

Rage against the machine, my friend. Before its too late.

And as for the “missing options”; don’t egg them on, TB.