Ok. It's official. I hate technology. And I'm way too crabby to be eloquent so I'm just going say WHY I hate techonlogy instead!
- Touchscreen phones. Touchscreen phones should be banned for life and their creators hung drawn and quartered! It doesn't help that I have the crappiest touchscreen phone known to man. NOTE: Do NOT EVER, EVER, EVER buy an LG touchscreen!
- 3G vs 2G sim cards. Australia is held ransom by mobile phone companies. They lure us in, lie to us and then lock us to horrible 24 month contracts. And god forbid if you want to put in a different sim card. "Normal" sim cards (or ANYTHING prepaid) don't work in some phones. 3G sim cards don't work in any phone that isn't 3G and even contract phones are locked. Just get it unlocked...I hear you say. Oh if only it were that simple. To unlock it you have to call from...you guessed it a different phone. FYI I only have ONE phone. I live in a house with no landline. So I CAN'T call from a different phone.
- Locked phones. Australia has about 4-6 main mobile phone companies. Telstra, Optus, 3, Virgin and Vodaphone. All SUX! Telstra, which has the best coverage generally, is the WORST deal ever. 3, Virgin and Vodaphone have decent-ish call rates. However to buy a phone you have to a) give up your whole life as proof of who you are and b)promise to never use a different network again. The problem is that the phone you want might be sold through Optus. The phone network you and your friends are on might be Vodaphone or Virgin. Can you use the phone? No! It's locked to Optus and to unlock they con you in to handing over almost another $100.
- Computer code. Had an exam recently. It was for a computer programming class. Now you'd think that a computer programming exam would take place with a computer. Not so! We had to handwrite our code. Yes Handwrite it! I would seriously like to shoot the brainiac who came up with that idea.
- Websites which require logins. The guestbook is dead. It has instead been replaced by the log-in. EVERY single bloody website requires you to login. And sign up. And give copious amounts of details. And confirm the sign up. And choose a fancy password. And a fancy username. "No the username can't be remotely like your email; yes that username is free...oh wait it's not; yes I'll give you a box to leave comments but to click submit you have to sign up and log-in..." etc etc etc.
- Software. Recently someone bought me a lovely present. A netbook. "Great" I thought. Except it's not. It's cute sure but it has Windows 7 - the biggest piece of false advertising I've ever seen! It has no 'home' or 'end' keys. It has no CD drive. I can't install the software I've alright bought (because it's all on CD). I can't create it's OS backup (because I requires...you guessed it...a CD drive!) and I can't use my existing headset for skype chats because it only has 1 jack for some fancy-ass headset. If it wasn't a present I think I'd burn it!
- DVD region codes. I think I've griped about these before but if I haven't then don't worry. I will now. DVD's are only usable in a certain player. Each has a region code. If you don't have an unlocked computer/DVD player then you are screwed. Living in Australia 90% of the movies I like are....American. America is region 1. We are region 4. I can't buy off ebay or amazon or overseas. I can't get my favourite movies and I can't watch things on my laptop even when I can get them. DVD region codes are tied for top place in the top ten worst inventions of modern history (tied with touch screen phones).
- Light and sound pollution. NOTHING is quiet or dark anymore. I live in a complex with SEVEN others. Yes SEVEN. I have the smallest room known to man. My room is never quiet and it's never dark. Because I live with seven others I have a small fridge; it hums all night and so it's never quiet. Because the unit/house is part of a complex there are security lights everywhere so it's never dark. My set topbox (see gripe no9) has a light when it's off!!! My housemates NEVER turn off the lights (and NEVER EVER clean the kitchen either). I would do just about anything to be about 50km from the nearest town so that when I go to bed the only light is moonlight and the only sound are owls and the occassional frog/bird.
- Digital TV. Australia is trying to be 'modern'. Apparently in order to be modern you must buy as many unnecessary appliance as possible. The latest is 3D tv (something I catagorically refuse to encounter) however before that there was Digital TV. Analogue TV, whilst not fancy, worked. When you lost, say 10%, reception the signal was fuzzy but quite viewable. Now if you lose 10% reception the entire screen freezes with little boxes and flickers more than christmas lights. Not only that but in order to GET digital TV (and soon ANY type of TV) you have to either trade up to the newest, biggest, fanciest, most expensive TV you can find or fork out over $100 for a 'set-top-box'. However both of these solutions require money (which I don't have) and neither allow normal, standard TV recording. It used to be simple. Buy a video tape, set up the VCR to tape every night at 6pm (The Simpsons :D), go off on holiday and providing there was no blackout you'd come back to some neatly recorded programs. No longer. In order to record now, essential if you want to record on more than one channel, you have to buy a DVR, a storage box, ensure you get digital signal, make sure you either have lots of external memory or a way to transfer the data to a computer to burn it. It is no longer cheap nor simple.
- Non-necessary electronics. ie. Electronics salt and pepper grinders. They are so useless. We are SO lazy. What is wrong with manual ones????
So that is my gripe list of technology. I'd like to point out that YouTube is NOT on that list. I love youtube. Youtube is a wonderful walk down nostalgia lane and I have many things tagged on a nostalgia playlist from when I was a child. Although it does require you to sign-up in order to comment which causes it to lose a few points.
I could however add many things to this list which aren't technology related.
- I hate the fact that there is salt/sugar/preservatives/fat added to everything.
- I hate the fact that everything is wrapped in neat little packages. If I wanted fresh rosemary in plastic I'd put it there myself. It sickens me to think that in this day and age of trying to be MORE environmentally friendly that we put more and more stuff wrapped in plastic. These days I buy more wrappings than I do food!
Well those are my grips for today (because I won't use 2 more hours of typing complaining about LATIN! Grrr!) and so I'm gonna sign off.
Give me your thoughts - What things tick you off? Are they technologically related?
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