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My alarm clock confuses me, too. The designers decided to pepper the surface with buttons I must absolutely not touch.

Oh wow, I just realized that that’s why I have trouble with locks too. Weird.

Sad thing is, it’s still faster to move coloured pieces of paper between counters than it is to do e-banking transfers.

good stuff. the one about the car clock cracks me up. I just do a quick mental calculation when i need to know the time (its off by 50 minutes). I probably spend more time doing the math, then if I would just open the glove box and look at the instructions just once.

good to know that even the library-queen of cool has tech issues.

I got rid of my answering machine and kept Caller ID. I much prefer knowing who called. I can find out what they had to say if I opt to call them back. Besides, anyone who really needs to talk to me knows to IM or email.

Like a lot of people I have no television, but I do have a nice
7” screen DVD player.

I’m also old fashioned enough to use a nice old fashioned
windup alarm clock.

One of my recent achievements was to get a new stylus for
my 15 year old record player.

On the other hand I used to use an old fashioned duplicator
in order to produce newsletters & leaflets in my younger
days. They were time consuming & very dirty machines to
operate, & I’d hate to have to use them again, even if I can
become very nostalgic about such items.

There is a friend of mine who runs a couple of websites, &
who uses only open source software. He too does not own a
television or radio.

He also gets most of his news via email.

All of which shows just how much of a technological mix &
match we now all have.

For your car clock, just disconnect the battery and re-connect it at noon or midnight. Wa-lah! Of course, you then lose all your radio station pre-sets, but you know how to that again don’t you?

Sorry if this gets through, Jessamyn, just testing your comment Challenge plugin. I have to do something to cut down on my comment spam.

I’m with you on all those unnecessary cell phone features… but the magic of direct deposit is pretty sweet.

“Mailing paychecks”?

Is that common in the US? Your employer doesn’t just deposit straight into your bank account? I don’t think I’ve had a paycheck in over a decade…

Reading the rest of your post, I’m going to hunt you down on Facebook and lose to you at Scrabble. With you on e-books and podcasts, but I love my iPod. I don’t even drive (how’s that for a tech-NO?)

[…] tech-NOs: http://www.librarian.net/stax/2253/my-tech-nos/ « előző | Takács Dániel — 2008. 03. 02. […]

Note to Simon (comment 10): I think Jessamyn has a number of different employers (she’s a consultant), so I doubt that direct deposit is available to her in all cases.

Nevertheless, it’s amazing to me how many of my (full-time, one employer) co-workers don’t take advantage of direct deposit.

I can’t set the time on the clock in my car and it’s set to some crazy time [i.e. not like an hour or two off]. I’d like to, but this time of year if I’m not driving the car it’s too cold to be in it. Erica?

–> It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to change the clock in my car when it was daylight savings times. Setting car clocks is not very intuitive and every car is very different.

My bank is in Washington state. While I do a lot of e-banking with them, I generally mail my paychecks to my bank to deposit them. This isn’t strictly technological in nature, but it’s definitely an old-fashionedness that looks like a tech-not.

–> I direct deposit all my checks, in fact my company requires it.

I can barely use my cell phone. I can take a picture. I can make and receive phone calls. I can text, but I still try to answer it when someone is text messaging me. I like to think I’d be a better study if the thing worked in my house.

–> I use my cell phone to make calls. That’s it. I know my cell phone has other features like a calculator and games but I never use them. I read my text messages but I have yet to send one to anybody. I still use email for that.

I have very little e-book curiosity. My interest in e-books is purely professional.

–> I prefer the traditional book format but will consider e-books if its a book I don’t want to buy and its not available in the library.

I have an iPod I rarely listen to. I have an iPhone I don’t use much (both were gifts). I like to have them, but I usually just listen to the radio in my car and iTunes on my laptop at home.

–> I don’t have an iPod but have an MP3 player that does a similar thing. I listen mainly to CDs in the car but use the MP3 player when working out.

I have created more podcasts than I have listened to.

–> You’re one up on me there. I wouldn’t have a clue how to create a podcast. I have downloaded a few, mainly just to say that I could do it.

I don’t play online games much. I play Scrabulous (come find me on facebook!) and that’s pretty much it. When you have a job that’s online, spending more time there just doesn’t seem as appealing.

–> The only computer games I play are Minesweeper and Solitaire.

I use my TV to watch movies only, and even then pretty rarely. I was a Nielsen family earlier in the month and I sent the whole book back blank.

–> I hardly ever watch TV, maybe a couple hours a month. I mainly use my TV to view DVDs.

I don’t have voice mail, just an answering machine. No caller ID, so please tell me who you are when you call.

–> I don’t have caller ID either because I didn’t want to pay the extra money. I don’t have voice mail either, just an answering machine.

When I have to set the alarm to wake up, which happens rarely, I’m as likely to set it for PM as for AM. This is more of an absentminded professor thing than a tech-NO, but I’ve sortof never gotten the hang of setting an alarm on something without hands

–> I usually don’t have problems getting an alarm clock but I will too, set it for PM instead of AM once in a while.

And lastly, because I grew up in the country, I pretty much don’t understand locks. I have a heck of a time with any door that locks, remembering which direction to turn the key, or rememebring my keys period.

–> I have a lot of problems with this too. Every lock is different. Some you have to turn right to open; others its left. If they were made more uniform, it would be a lot easier.

I don’t have a cell phone or call display. I’ve had both in the past, but simply don’t need them in my present situation (I live a block from work and have no need for a cell phone for emergencies, and I’m just not a phone person so I don’t call people just to chat much). All the rest - I’m the person people call up or bring things to to figure out how to reset or reattach all the wires. I guess I’m pretty much a tech-yes!

I'm adding you to the Poetry Friday Roundup!

This is a glorious poem. It speaks to me on so many levels:

-- As the kid of a Presbyterian Minister, so many memories of being talked half to death during just about any church event, the more ceremonial, the talkier.

-- As a rebellious church musician trying to lively up liturgy (in my case, a bunch of Norwegian Lutherans, stand in for the Episcopalians).

And white people clapping on the beat – an old friend of mine jobbed with a bluesman in Minneapolis in the 70s. On beat clapping irritated the man something awful. He used to look out over his audience (especially at suburban venues), size them up, and drawl, “And if any of y’all white people out there feel like clapping, it’s on TWO and FOUR!”

The poem also captures beautifully the blend of emotion and accomplishment associated with spiritual milestones – I’ve felt a similar rush at the Bar Mitzvah of a friend’s son, the installation of a friend as pastor, and at a service where a friend entered the novitiate.

Well done!