not all progress is bad

rugbyken

rugbyken

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like most people of my generation approaching 70 my understanding of technology peaked with the reel to reel tape recorders , but this evening i’ve sat on the Algarve 1800 miles from home and with facetime and phone spoken with family & friends easier than i would have spoken to them around the corner 20 year# ago so not all progress is crap,
 
I agree! With family in Thailand, new Zealand and various other parts of the world, I never cease to be amazed at how easy it is to communicate nowadays. Even my 90 yr old mum in law now can talk to her daughter regularly with help to sign in, and it makes so much difference to her. We moan about internet speeds and technology which is baffling ( well, to me, anyway) but it definitely has improved some aspects of life. Double edged sword though!
 
I agree technology can be a great thing but on the other hand just remember Big Brother is watching you :D
 
It is amazing that the "common man " can now with the couple of clicks from a mouse communicate with others around the world at an extremely low cost.

My early days with Fiat involved a bit of market research not specific to cars as such one company we looked at was British Airways who at the time 80 % of transatlantic flights were business. It would be around 1984 and they identified that it wasn't the de funct Pan Am or TWA etc that was the threat but the telecoms companies offering video conferencing on a global stage that cut could down travelling, hotel costs fatigued staff etc, To say we were cynical you can imagine.

Fiat at the time owned Telettra a communications company instrumental in HDTV increasing bandwidths upload /download speeds quite big on the continent and sold out to Alcatel in about 1990-91.

Whilst I was open minded at the time and the telecoms side really didn't concern me, I could see the idea / potential . But what we have today far exceeds what I could even imagine 30 years ago.

I believe we are unwittingly witnessing a new industrial revolution .And I don't think we have scratched the surface yet. Any young person not a bad idea as for a career move

Channa
 
channa said:
It is amazing that the "common man " can now with the couple of clicks from a mouse communicate with others around the world at an extremely low cost.

My early days with Fiat involved a bit of market research not specific to cars as such one company we looked at was British Airways who at the time 80 % of transatlantic flights were business. It would be around 1984 and they identified that it wasn't the de funct Pan Am or TWA etc that was the threat but the telecoms companies offering video conferencing on a global stage that cut could down travelling, hotel costs fatigued staff etc, To say we were cynical you can imagine.

Fiat at the time owned Telettra a communications company instrumental in HDTV increasing bandwidths upload /download speeds quite big on the continent and sold out to Alcatel in about 1990-91.

Whilst I was open minded at the time and the telecoms side really didn't concern me, I could see the idea / potential . But what we have today far exceeds what I could even imagine 30 years ago.

I believe we are unwittingly witnessing a new industrial revolution .And I don't think we have scratched the surface yet. Any young person not a bad idea as for a career move

Channa
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I agree with you and the thing is were is all this technology going to stop , time travel , flying cars and so on
 
jeffmossy said:
I agree technology can be a great thing but on the other hand just remember Big Brother is watching you :D
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I like the thought of big brother watching over me, if I am doing no wrong ,what have I to fear? look how many baddies that have been brought to book using CCTV , bring it on I say , ID cards and ID chips too.
 
vindiboy said:
I like the thought of big brother watching over me, if I am doing no wrong ,what have I to fear? look how many baddies that have been brought to book using CCTV , bring it on I say , ID cards and ID chips too.
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With the greatect respect Vindiboy I think that is a very naive attitude.

Governments put in surveillance cameras to one job, survey. Which is fine in a freely elected, accountable system.

However when the system, left or right, becomes authoritarian, and we have had one or two in the past that have come close, then its not so good.

In these conversations its usual to say "just read 1984" to see where it can go wrong, but I think the words of Martin Niemoller speak louder =-

Martin Niemoller: "First they came for the Socialists..."

Dezi
 
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Dezi said:




With the greatect respect Vindiboy I think that is a very naive attitude.

Governments put in surveillance cameras to one job, survey. Which is fine in a freely elected, accountable system.

However when the system, left or right, becomes authoritarian, and we have had one or two in the past that have come close, then its not so good.

In these converatios its usual to say "just read 1984" to see where it can go wrong, but I think the words of Martin Niemoller speak louder =-

Martin Niemoller: "First they came for the Socialists..."[/url

Dezi
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Hmm point taken ,but still not bothered.
 
I reckon CCTV is just the thin end of the wedge. Without going all "conspiracy theory" few people realise just how much we are all watched in one way or another. Mobile phones can be monitored easily, Your internet use is closely watched, you only have to do a search on google for something you are thinking of buying and almost immediately ads start popping up on screen for what you were searching for !
Yes it can be argued that if you are doing no wrong then why worry? Well I think invasion of privacy is the reason to worry !
 
DaveH55 said:
I reckon CCTV is just the thin end of the wedge. Without going all "conspiracy theory" few people realise just how much we are all watched in one way or another. Mobile phones can be monitored easily, Your internet use is closely watched, you only have to do a search on google for something you are thinking of buying and almost immediately ads start popping up on screen for what you were searching for !
Yes it can be argued that if you are doing no wrong then why worry? Well I think invasion of privacy is the reason to worry !
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Well Dave, just by a quick wander through this site I have learned that you live in County Durham are alone /single ?just retired 2018 and have just bought a Rapido 775F on an 03 plate, you worked with high voltage electricity on mains supply . All of this information was made public by you on the internet?
With a little more research I am sure I could find out a lot more about you , and you are concerned about invasion of privacy ?
 
I love technology and embrace all that I can afford... always have. My daughter and other family members and friends live in Australia, America or Spain and I love that we can chat away freely and stay in each other's daily lives. There's a but though. Gathering and selling data is big business with huge financial rewards and that's the main problem with the world today... greed at someone else's expense - profit at any cost. IMO the fact that we have great technology and communications isn't a problem in itself, it's that all sense of corporate social responsibility around how we use that technology (amongst many other activities) has been lost. I so wish companies would ask themselves not 'Can we do this?' but 'Should we do this?'.

A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from Equifax (a credit reference agency) saying that some of my personal data had been accessed following a cyberattack against them. The info accessed was from a historic file created between 2011 and 2016 - ie probably around the time my husband died in 2014 and I had to apply for cards, accounts, utilities, etc in my own name instead of his. The data they stole included my name, date of birth and my landline telephone number. The attack took place in May 2017 and they only just told me at the end of January 2018. They've offered me several free protective services with various agencies, including credit report monitoring, fraud protection registration and WebDefend but it means giving up lots of extra information to even more databases. Stable door springs to mind. I've decided to decline and take my chances. I'm left wondering why there still isn't perfect protection on vital data like this and can only conclude that it comes down to money. I have no doubt they have the technology to eradicate data theft but probably at the expense of the bottom line and the shareholders... as I said, lack of corporate social responsibility.

Despite all this, if anyone tried to prise my laptop, imac, ipad, mobile phone, mi-fi, Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, etc, out of anything but my cold dead hands... well, they'd be in for one heck of a fight :pc:
 
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Until recently I never knew about the dark world on the internet a tv programme put that right ( albeit I suspected)

I am perhaps unusual but believe such as Lauri Love in the news this week is far more useful in developing safe software than incarcerating the man for 99 years

Data mining , theft , is part of the gig...so do we ban it all ? create some set of strange rules because the state knows best ?

We cant uninvent the wheel at basics, therefore any dubious activity on the internet stakes you cant undo only prevent and protect. That is a personal duty of care via educating ourselves that doesn't mean becoming an expert in Unix or cobol ( old hat)

My biggest fear of the internet is on a bus you see people tapping away on a smart phone, all the big retailers eg Asda shop at home delivered to the doorstep etc ...All exciting stuff but what are we paying in the respect people are not talking / socialising any more that really concerns me longterm.


We as a society or a great part of it socially excluding ourselves I think that is the negative ...so do the positives outweigh the negatives ? interesting thought s

Channa
 
DaveH55 said:
I reckon CCTV is just the thin end of the wedge. Without going all "conspiracy theory" few people realise just how much we are all watched in one way or another. Mobile phones can be monitored easily, Your internet use is closely watched, you only have to do a search on google for something you are thinking of buying and almost immediately ads start popping up on screen for what you were searching for !
Yes it can be argued that if you are doing no wrong then why worry? Well I think invasion of privacy is the reason to worry !
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No pop ups under linux and as for phones use ubuntu edge or other open phones running sailfish and encode all outgoings,ve have ways hair flick.
 
trevskoda said:
Hence i use linux with encripted folders and a rolling ip address when im sniping around.
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I thought you did all that Trev, because like that there maingate you live a bit on the "shifty" side of life.

Just saying.

Dezi :cheers:
 
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