Modern life, the internet and gadgets

What is it with modern life? We live in the strangest of times. Apart from the small matter of global warming and economic meltdown, we have a world in which John McCain is meant to be a serious contender for the most powerful job on the planet, David Cameron is meant to be taken seriously, reality TV has got so mental now that there are pointless shows about God knows what starring the most awful and pointless people from amongst the general public, and the general attention span of human beings is treated by the media as being no greater than that of one year old chimpanzee. What passes for drama on Film and Television is embarrassing; no longer do we seem to let the plot develop and the characters slowly reveal themselves, rather we seem to have an explosion or a tidal wave every 90 seconds, with legions of ridiculous characters darting aimlessly around in the most frenetic ways. But this is not my gripe; serious and sad as these things may be they are not what drives me demented. Neither is it bank charges that appear to be made up on the back of a fag packet or a news and current affairs agenda that kowtows to the will of the establishment. No my gripe is with gadgets, gizmos, computers and the information society.

Firstly, let’s take the internet. Why, oh why, is there so much rubbish out there, all of which is desperately keen to make itself acquainted with us. Whenever you type a keyword or phrase into Google, at least some inappropriate (i.e. useless to the task in hand) sites show themselves on the first page. Clearly these sites have all the wrong keywords embedded and are just wasting everyone’s time. I actually think in general that there is too much use of the internet on pointless things such as pornography, gambling and online gaming to the point that it slows down and interferes with internet access for serious users (business people, students, and people with something constructive to say etc.).

Then there is spam email. Exactly how lucrative is the online market for penis extensions, high interest loans and Viagra. It baffles as well as annoys me. More annoying than spam, however, is the excruciating ‘broken connection’. In these days of superfast broadband (which should be faster and cheaper in the UK than it is) how do we get broken connections. When you sell something (e.g. a broadband connection) make sure that it is unlikely to break.

Then there are websites themselves. Despite the WC3 conventions on accessibility and standards that have existed and been constantly revised and updated for over a decade, the majority of websites are non-standard compliant and inaccessible to people with disabilities. Yet, it isn’t rocket science to build a standards compliant, accessible website; I do it every day. Internet explorer lets too many substandard web designers off the hook.

I also have a gripe about computers and their operating software. I realise that people more sensible than me use Macintosh, or better still, Linux operating systems, and therefore are not subject to the nonsense of Microsoft’s constant process of updating Windows. Why didn’t they get it right before releasing it? They have gone one further now and developed Vista, an operating system that requires a level computing power that would have been a top of the range desktop at the turn of the millennium just to make the computer work, before you actually open any programs.

And finally, gadgets: Why do all MP3 players that cost less than three weeks wages constantly break? And why do all the different types of earphone hurt my ears?

That’s the last of the moans for now. Tomorrow I am going to go into my garden and photograph one of my dogwood plants. The house may be a tip, and the garden may be messy. Winter may soon be upon us and shortage of cash is a constant problem, but that dogwood as it prepares to shed its leaves looks absolutely stunning. If I get a good photo I will put it on facebook.