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Free Yourselves! Turn Off Your Laptops
Pajamas Media ^ | November 1 | Frank J. Fleming

Posted on 11/01/2009 11:16:49 AM PST by AJKauf

It’s worth looking at how life used to be. Now, as early as a thousand years ago, people didn’t have laptops. Back even further, in the hunting and gathering days — the 60s — there were no computers of any kind. At all. The primary method of social networking was drawing pictures on cave walls. So, for instance, if one of the cave dwellers was hunting buffalo, instead of using his cell phone to update his Facebook status to “kilin buf-lo,” he’d go to the cave wall and draw a picture on it of a buffalo next to himself holding a katana or a ball and chain — you know, whatever it was they used to hunt buffalo.

As you can see, this was a very tedious way to keep people informed of what you’re doing, because painting takes time and you aren’t always near a cave wall, as you could be out building a fire or getting a coffee from Starbucks. Often, one’s CaveWall status went without updates for days and was thus quite out of date. Plus, people were limited to hunting things that were easy to draw.

Now, that all seems rather tedious and hard to manage. In fact, it almost makes directly talking to each other sound easier in comparison — which is usually the first sign of a bad app. But I ask you this: with all your computers and internet and fancy touch screens, how many buffalo have those things helped you to kill?

Yeah, that’s what I thought....

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: addiction; psychology; technology
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1 posted on 11/01/2009 11:16:49 AM PST by AJKauf
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To: AJKauf

Pretty funny.


2 posted on 11/01/2009 11:22:32 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Communism comes to America: 1/20/2009. Keep your powder dry, folks. Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: AJKauf

Not only am I going to leave my laptop on, but I’m going to use it more than I ever have. While I still can! That’s before Obama and his communist czars shut us down. Then I’ll go back to writing on the wall of my cave. LOL


3 posted on 11/01/2009 11:27:18 AM PST by NRA2BFree (President Obama agreed to commit an additional 40,000 troops to help fight Fox News," Jay Leno)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: AJKauf

Are you an exec at a major TV network..?

That, or an editor at the NYT..?


5 posted on 11/01/2009 11:32:01 AM PST by gaijin
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To: ShadowAce

.


6 posted on 11/01/2009 11:47:14 AM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: AJKauf
the 60s — there were no computers of any kind. At all.

Not quite correct


7 posted on 11/01/2009 11:51:28 AM PST by Signalman
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To: AJKauf

Yeah, but back in those days, you couldn’t go to googlemaps and get a terrain map of the area you wanted to go kill the buffalo at...or weather report....or order something directly from Cabela’s website to help you kill that buffalo...or for that matter, check the local game laws for when the season was so you don’t get into trouble with the local fish and game people...

or even round up your hunting buddies via email or twitter...or post pics of the successful hunt on photobucket.

So there.


8 posted on 11/01/2009 11:55:38 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum (Without the Constitution, there is no America!)
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To: Bobkk47

I miss those days.


9 posted on 11/01/2009 11:57:21 AM PST by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: AJKauf
how many buffalo have those things helped you to kill?

I don't need to, I order them on the internet.

10 posted on 11/01/2009 12:01:38 PM PST by Defiant (The absence of bias appears to be bias to those who are biased.)
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To: Bobkk47

Been there, done that. Thanks for the memories.


11 posted on 11/01/2009 12:07:32 PM PST by bytesmith
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To: Bobkk47

Well, the comment WAS written by a guy who also said cavemen hunted buffalo with katanas.


12 posted on 11/01/2009 12:10:30 PM PST by ctdonath2 (End the coup!)
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To: Glenn

... we spent hours at a keypunch machine ( and waiting for one ) and waited hours more for turnaround before getting the output on 130 column spooled paper from a chain printer, then more hours poring over the gibberish to figure out what trivial programming error we made ...

... and we LIKED it that way!


13 posted on 11/01/2009 12:18:15 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: bytesmith

You do admit that you don’t want the computer to be doing everything do you?


14 posted on 11/01/2009 12:48:47 PM PST by GenY Republican
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To: dr_lew
spooled paper from a chain printer

I remember the Nancy One. That thing could move some paper. Loud as hell.

I also remember always having a radio around so we could listen for loops in the signals the big iron used to spew all about.

15 posted on 11/01/2009 12:53:03 PM PST by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: AJKauf

Turn my laptop off???? I finally got to borrow one for the weekend. Of course, I’m going to use it. Besides, if I turn it off, who would pick my berries on Farmville??


16 posted on 11/01/2009 12:57:29 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (Obi-Wan Palin: Strike her down and she shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.)
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To: AJKauf

“Back even further, in the hunting and gathering days “

I miss those days.


17 posted on 11/01/2009 12:59:28 PM PST by HereInTheHeartland (The End of an Error - 01/20/2013)
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To: AJKauf
Back even further, in the hunting and gathering days — the 60s — there were no computers of any kind.

I had a computer programming class in college as a freshmen in 1965.

18 posted on 11/01/2009 12:59:54 PM PST by ColdWater ("The theory of evolution really has no bearing on what I'm trying to accomplish with FR anyway. ")
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To: dr_lew
... and we LIKED it that way!

Speak for yourself. It was pure hell. But a good way to meet the coeds.

19 posted on 11/01/2009 1:02:33 PM PST by ColdWater ("The theory of evolution really has no bearing on what I'm trying to accomplish with FR anyway. ")
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To: ctdonath2
Well, the comment WAS written by a guy who also said cavemen hunted buffalo with katanas.

Probably not more than once.

20 posted on 11/01/2009 1:31:05 PM PST by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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