"A what pod?" (Or, Being stubbornly old-fashioned when it comes to new technology)

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Whenever I record something off the radio, I still do it on a cassette c/o my battered 1989 midi system. I still record TV shows on VHS, and feel a bit furtive and grandfatherly when I have to buy new tapes. I always make phone calls on my landline. I'm the only person in the world who doesn't download music or burn my own CDs.

In what ways are you still living in the past when it comes to technical stuff? Do you do it out of stubborn 'It's a bloody fad' reasons, or out of laziness, or out of financial necessity? Or because you think the old ways are better?

Every so often, I keep thinking I really must rectify everything I mention in the first paragraph. But it all seems out of my reach - whenever I get close to saving up, an unexpected bill comes along and I can't do it. And yet I'm convinced I'm THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who still uses cassettes. Even my *dad* doesn't use cassettes.

Actually, here's a side question to this thread: do you know anyone (under the age of about 50) who isn't on the internet? There must be some. About five years ago, it was quite easy to scoff 'Ha, it's a myth that everyone's online - my friend Colin isn't for a start', but is that still true? Is it possible to be a kid these days and not have internet access? I still think of internet access as a luxury, something I'm grateful for having, and certainly something I don't have a *right* to have...I don't know if that's a way of thinking peculiar to my generation though. Or just peculiar to me. Do kids born in the 90s take the internet for granted the way we took TV for granted?

I read the other day that Robert Crumb doesn't own a computer. To which my first thought was 'How? He's Robert Crumb!' But then that's a ludicrous way to think, since I too happily grew up without one.

[lazyhour]

Gah.  We are all terribly impressed.

Let's have a fight.

[imitationleather]

My mum can't use a computer or the internet. It's been great because ever since I first got the net (back in '98 when I was 12) I've had completely unrestriced and unsupervised access! Made me the man I am today, did that.

I would say my mum is the biggest technophobe under 50 I know, she won't even let us get a touchtone phone. That said, after a few months she worked out how to use the TiVo but not before we'd had numerous arguments about me bringing another remote control into the house. Perhaps she just can't be bothered to learn how to work new things.

[another Mr. Lizard]

I went into HMV the other day for a pack of VHS tapes, and they hadn't got any! I panicked for a moment, since I still tape loads of stuff on video and also trade tapes with several regular contacts - was this the end? Had the powers-that-be finally made tape obsolete? Fortunately I found plenty of VHS in MVC just round the corner, and next time I visited HMV the tapes were back on the shelves. But it was a warning to me that it will happen one day...

I resisted buying a CD player in the mid 80s, thinking "they're for Dire Straits fans, aren't they?", but eventually had to succumb around 1991 when my own favourite artists began putting CD-exclusive tracks out. The same is starting to happen with downloads, so I suppose those of us who have as yet resisted (for financial or other reasons) will be forced into broadband - and, as always happens, will wonder 6 months later how we ever did without it.

ELWT, you're not alone...

[imitationleather]

Ah yes, we didn't get a CD player until 1995. I had to buy Parklife on cassette. Cassette!

[Mister Cairo]

Well I`m scared of using any kind of credit or debit card on t`internet as I`m too worried about things going wrong and reckon that I should be able to carry out these functions in the ways we did before the Interent was created.

I`m also still surprised that visiting one of a plethora of "lyrics sites" leads to a fuckload of spyware being installed on my computer. Given that my sister seems to attract advertising programs like some kind of magnet, I spend at least an hour a week cleaning out the hard drive via Ad-Aware etc.

Our family didn`t even have a PC before 1999, and we still have Windows 98. The fact that you have to spend money upgrading even to download Microsoft`s anti-spyware programs seems wrong to me, but`s that off the point as is some of this,I fear).

[Ciarán2]

I don't own a computer (I'm getting one though) or an iPod (I'm thinking of getting one though). I've never had a computer and a am a friend of internet cafés. I've never burnt a CD or downloaded a track. I can't buy online as I don't even have a bank account let alone a credit card account. I still use the cassette tape, whose handiness is intact despite the rise of bastard Copyright Controlled "CD"s.

I have several friends who have never used the internet and they do live in a big city, so it's not a yokel-type thing. They are a little bit eccentric though.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I`m also still surprised that visiting one of a plethora of "lyrics sites" leads to a fuckload of spyware being installed on my computer. Given that my sister seems to attract advertising programs like some kind of magnet, I spend at least an hour a week cleaning out the hard drive via Ad-Aware etc.

See, there - I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I understood you up to 'lyrics sites'.

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

I've been taping the new Doctor Who on lovely old VHS tapes, just like in the old days. To be honest I wouldn't mind DVD recorders and iPods and what-have-you but most of these things are well out of my current price range. With regards to p2p stuff I do download music and copy the occasional CD, but I'm more of a traditionalist when it comes to these matters, I just prefer to buy stuff I like in the format that it's intended to be in (e.g.: with all the lovely artwork).

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

All you people who have opted for 'No' on the cassettes question - does that mean that when something interesting turns up on the radio, you have to do lots of computery faff before you can record it? If so, does that make you nostalgic for the old stick-a-C90-in-the-machine-and-press-play-and-record days?

[Saturday Boy]

Well I`m scared of using any kind of credit or debit card on t`internet as I`m too worried about things going wrong and reckon that I should be able to carry out these functions in the ways we did before the Interent was created.

Have you ever paid with a credit or debit card in a resteraunt, or a small shop?

I bet they didn't even have https:// written on their t-shirt.

Our family didn`t even have a PC before 1999, and we still have Windows 98. The fact that you have to spend money upgrading even to download Microsoft`s anti-spyware programs seems wrong to me, but`s that off the point as is some of this,I fear).

Use Adaware and Spybot, both freeware. Use Officeorg instead of Word, AceFTP for your uploading needs, etc. etc.

[gazzyk1ns]

All you people who have opted for 'No' on the cassettes question - does that mean that when something interesting turns up on the radio, you have to do lots of computery faff

Nah, just make a note of what it's called and then download it. Or do you mean whole shows? If you've got a capture card then yeah, you'd probably do that, if you weren't sure anyone else was doing it (on places like here, UK Nova, etc.). It's not really "lots of computery faff" though, it's just pressing a record button with your mouse as opposed to your finger.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

If it's something that's obscure and will be a pain to track down later (eg, stuff from local radio), isn't the cassette option easier? Although I suppose hunting around for a spare C90 is as much trouble as swiching your pc on.

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusual for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now.

I was pretty much computer-free in my student years, which is a shame because 92-95 was around the time when computers were really changing and the internet was emerging etc. By the time I finally worked out how to use one, everyone had sort of overtaken me and knew tons more than I did.

Here's another one - the last time you wrote someone a normal letter. I used to do that all the time, but now I only do it when sending thank-you letters to elderly relatives. (My infant cousins send thank-you letters via text, which really pisses me off.)

[Frinky]

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusal for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now.

...why would I want to do that?

[Ciarán2]

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusal for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now. Here's another one - the last time you wrote someone a normal letter. I used to do that all the time, but now I only do it when sending thank-you letters to elderly relatives. (My infant cousins send thank-you letters via text, which really pisses me off.)

Yes, well at my university (Trinity College, Dublin) you'd have to get special written permission to submit a hand-written essay without losing marks. I want to submit my post-graduate thesis handwritten, by the way. (I'm studying semiotics, so it seems pertinent).

I continue to write letters though, sent one last week to my pal who has gone to live in America.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusal for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now.

...why would I want to do that?

Well, it's not a question of wanting to - it's just that when I was a student most people wrote their essays by hand. You typed them only if you wanted to impress people, and even then it was seen as a bit corporate and clinical.

I suppose there's a pleasure in handwriting for its own sake - sitting late at night in your room, scribbling away madly. The fact that you can't correct anything, so you have to write the whole thing in rough first (a pain, but there's a certain satisfaction in getting it right). It does sound ludicrously archaic doesn't it? But it wasn't that long ago, and - as I say - it was just what most people did. Back then, computer access would only have been in the library - which meant late-night essay-writing was always a biro job.

[Frinky]

...and even then it was seen as a bit corporate and clinical.

Interesting, that. In my eyes, any kind of markable work is considered a formal document, and, as such, should be typed. Then throw into the equation, as you said, ease of editing, etc, and that to me leaves handwriting such things obsolete (or, as you better put it, an archaic excercise at best).

I do agree that handwriting is plenty satisfying - all personal notes should be handwritten for fear of being "clinical" - but I can't imagine why that shouldn't apply to university work, etc.

[Lewis]

I used to use cassettes to record everything up until a couple of years ago. I stopped using them for two reasons; firstly I've got hundreds of tapes here and another few hundred back in my parents attic and they just get on my nerves to be honest as they take up too much space. A couple of years ago I started hooking my radio up to my computer and recording it on there, not only did this save money and space it meant I could edit shows straight away and then store them as mp3's, either on my hard drive or on CD's. The second reason I stopped using cassettes is because I couldn't record 3-4 hour long shows without using several tapes and missing 10-20 seconds of audio when the tape runs out. I originally only downloaded Blue Jam from here so I could fill in the gaps in the sketches from my tapes!

These days I've got a bug digital radio and it really has changed my life. I can timer record up to 9 shows as MP2's straight onto an SD card, whack it in my computer, convert to MP3 and then burn about 70 hours of radio onto a DVD. God, I love technology.

I still love my old tapes though and even if I had the time to convert them all I still couldn't bring myself to throw them away.

[mrpants]

I pretty much type everything I can, but that's mostly because my handwriting is appalling.  No one can understand it and I think it looks horrible.

I normally apologise for using Word in the first paragraph if I'm writing a letter to someone.

Recently I managed to get some rare early Buck65 recordings that are only available on cassette.  When I opened the package they came in it suddenly dawned on me that I no longer own a cassette player.  I'm thinking of renting a nice cassette deck and transfer them to my hard disk, partly so I can actually listen to the tapes and partly to keep the cassettes safe somewhere.  But I couldn't believe that somewhere along the way I stopped owning a cassette deck!

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I do agree that handwriting is plenty satisfying - all personal notes should be handwritten for fear of being "clinical" - but I can't imagine why that shouldn't apply to university work, etc.

There's always the 'I just hate computers, alright?' argument. But this is partly my point - nobody ever seriously considers that anyone under the age of 86 would actually have that view. It's taken for granted that everone has computer access and wouldn't have it any other way.

It seems really odd to think that, as recently as the early 90s, *all* school and college work was expected to be handwritten. If you had a computer (or even a typewriter), it was seen as a bit of a luxury, and writing essays on it amounted to showing off. All this sounds like I'm talking about a stupidly archaic world, but I'm only going back ten years or so.

[Timmay]

Hundreds of tapes? DVDs with 70 hours of radio on? When the hell do you get time to listen to it all? In other words, what's the point?

[Saturday Boy]

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusual for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now.

At both my Universities (BNC, Manchester) it's out of the question, yup.

[Saturday Boy]

Hundreds of tapes? DVDs with 70 hours of radio on? When the hell do you get time to listen to it all? In other words, what's the point?

Ummm.... I've got hundreds of LPs, it's not any different is it?

"A bookcase? Full of books? When d'you etc."

[Lewis]

Hundreds of tapes? DVDs with 70 hours of radio on? When the hell do you get time to listen to it all? In other words, what's the point?

Well, the hundreds of tapes go back about 15 years, pretty much everything I recorded since I was about 12 years old, so I have heard all of those many, many times.

As for the DVD's with recent stuff on... yeah, you do have a good point there! I started getting a bit obsessed when I first got the DAB and tried to record as much as I possibly could, I've calmed down a bit now but recording and archiving stuff is a life long addiction of mine and one I find hard to break. Plus these days I really enjoy sticking a random tape into my stereo and listening to an old radio show from the mid-90's, I listened to Steve Wright interviewing Gabby Roslin last week and got all nostalgic therefore I presume I'll enjoy sticking a DVD into my player in the year 2020 and listening to Jonathon Ross interviewing Matt Lucas. Little Britain eh? Remember that?

[Lee]

Hey, all you students on here - tell me, is it COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION to submit handwritten essays these days? When I was at university (92-95), it was quite unusual for them to be typed, but I imagine that seems an impossibly archaic attitude now.

As far as I know, it is. Certainly on my course anyway. Someone handed in a handwritten piece of work (spanning about 9 pages), and it was handed back immediately with a request to be typed, with double line spacing naturally.

I've found that I only time I ever write something down is when making a note of something when I'm not near a computer. Which is quite sad really, and I've definetely noticed a deterioration in my handwriting since leaving school, when handwriting was on the agenda five days a week, and that writing for long periods actually hurts now. Yes, it hurts me to write. And this has all happened in under two years, which considering I was writing every day for 14 years or thereabouts during compulsary education really astonishes me.

But typing is just so much more convenient than handwriting. If you make a mistake, just delete it and type again. No rubbers, no tipp-ex, no scribbles, just write straight over it. If you want to move bits around, just literally drag it across the screen, without re-writing anything. Typing is just easier and more convenient in my life. That's my excuse.

Oh, and I was rather suprised to find out last night that Eric Hall doesn't know what an iPod was. I explained in laymen's terms that's it's "like a jukebox, except it holds about 2 weeks of music, and it's smaller". I think he's sticking with vinyls for now. Good for him.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Oh, and I was rather suprised to find out last night that Eric Hall doesn't know what an iPod was. I explained in laymen's terms that's it's "like a jukebox, except it holds about 2 weeks of music, and it's smaller". I think he's sticking with vinyls for now. Good for him.

I don't really know what an iPod is either really. Actually, that's a bit faux-grumpyoldman of me...I know broadly speaking what they are. They're like Walkmans except the headphones are white. They also seem more trouble than they're worth, and too clinical for words, but my attitude would probably change if I could afford one.

I genuinely don't know what a 'bluetooth' is though. I Googled it once,and all I got was website which...um, assumed you already knew what they were. Is it a mobile phone-cum-palmpilot thing? I've no idea.

Credit on my mobile phone expired months ago and I can't face topping it up. I do despise mobile phones more than any other invention, and if it wasn't for the occasional convenience of texting 'I'm running a bit late' type messages (which admittedly is quite useful) I'd happily do without one. I really hate seeing people wittering away into them while walking down the street - I just want to shout 'Get off the phone! You're outside! You've got *trees* to look at!'

[terminallyrelaxed]

edit: I think I replied to the wrong page it don't make no sense

[Hoogstraten'sSmilingUlcer]

Lee wrote:

But typing is just so much more convenient than handwriting. If you make a mistake, just delete it and type again. No rubbers, no tipp-ex, no scribbles, just write straight over it. If you want to move bits around, just literally drag it across the screen, without re-writing anything. Typing is just easier and more convenient in my life. That's my excuse.

That's true, and it's certainly better (and in fact, enforced rigidly) to write essays on the computer - it looks all nice and neat, and you can polish it endlessly - but I'm always afraid that if one day I'm asked to handwrite a lengthy piece of something, my handwriting will have been technologically eroded into a childish, illegible scrawl. I'm also slightly sceptical because my computer's crashed several times whilst writing an essay, which, whilst only losing a couple of lines (I now Ctrl-S after every sentence) is just incredibly annoying. And printers? Fucking tossing shitting bastard heartless cunts of printers.

Technology-wise, I've had a Phillips Savvy mobile for about four years. It was the first I ever got, and it was a Christmas present from a friend, and I can't be arsed to actually step into a mobile phone shop and be giggled at for buying a slightly-less-than-cutting-edge model. My Savvy does everything I need it to: it phones and it texts. I would only ever buy a newer model if it came with an in-built cure for cancer, which I'd probably never use anyway.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

You know that joke Peter Kay used to do about how, on the first day of the autumn term, everybody had forgotten how to write? That annoyed me, the idea that kids never write anything in their spare time - when I was a kid, that's *all* I did.

[Clinton Morgan]

Taken from http://booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1580

The other day, I read somewhere something that delighted me. The
suggestion that how wonderful it would be if we had had e-books for
many centuries now, and suddenly, we had that marvelous great
technological advance, the printed book. You know, how wonderfully we
would welcome the printed book. You don't have to plug it in, you
don't have to worry about whether your machine is operating properly
or not. You don't have to download it. You just have to pick it up,
poor dog-eared thing that it frequently is when you've read it enough,
and carry it along with you and settle down in a corner with it.
How--what a marvelous technological advance we would celebrate it as
being.