Chad Smith is a Graphic Artist and Web Designer at The Baltimore Guide. Note: He is actually not a robot as pictured.
Recently I had a friend say to me, “Chad, how can you stand to work with computers. They break all the time, they’re slow, complicated, incompetent at times, and can’t even fix themselves when something goes wrong. Isn’t the point of having a computer to AUTOMATE things? I HATE computers.”
All I could say to him was, “I don’t know how I do it, either.”
As a kid, I was always drawing and painting. My natural academic focus was always the arts (which some folks will go to great lengths cut funding for), leaving me at quite a disadvantage in the after-college job market (oh, there’s the reason). So what was a guy to do?
Well, I figured I could use those magic computer-things to learn how to make advertisements and websites. Being from a business-owning family (seriously, everyone in my family owns a small-town business), commercial art just made sense for me. Thus began my exploration of technology and what it could do for my very sans-computer skills.
So as I write this blog, I’d like everyone to remember that technologically-oriented people are not gifted wiz-kids that derived their computational skills from the gods, but normal, everyday folks who realized the benefits that technology could have for their lives. Every minute that I’ve spent with a computer, has given me back 10 minutes of free time. My paintings take days, not months, to finish now.
Before we start, I’d like to encourage anyone who has a hobby to find out how technology can take it to the next level. In that sense, I think you may eventually realize that you don’t actually “hate” computers. And if you think you’re the only one who hates computers these days, check out this article http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/22/i-hate-computers-confessions-of-a-sysadmin/
IN THE NEWS
I’d like to point out that I was definitely wrong about a seemingly useless product, the Apple iPad. At first, I had thought that the iPad couldn’t match the raw processing power of a real computer, yet didn’t have the functionality of a portable computer (like a Blackberry Cellular Phone). I just didn’t think it served any purpose that wasn’t better fit by another product.
So why have one? Well, once again it seems that the tech market has more niches than anyone could imagine. Take, for example, a 99-year-old glaucoma patient who can now take up her old hobby of reading and writing again, all thanks to the iPad’s incredible finger-powered zoom feature (you may have seen this on an iPhone commercial where someone looked like they were pinching the screen). Check out the video below to watch an Apple-fan’s newest toy become a functional piece of technology.
Also, Oprah releases her own version of branded Apps for the for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre and Google Android, allowing fans to keep up with the Harpo’s biddings and advertisements. And just when you thought you had Mom’s spending under control! Read more about it here.
I’d also like to comment on the internet social-networking behemoth, facebook. With all the good things that facebook brings to the web, it may be getting too powerful for comfort. Apparently, some folks suspect a plan by big brother, I mean facebook, to turn the entire internet in to a personalized popularity contest.
While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, they are still trying to find ways to hook their product onto sites where it doesn’t belong. Why should we have to be on facebook and not any other social-networking site? Why does every article on the internet have to have a “Share on facebook” button? That’s the question these folks are asking. I already miss the good-old-days where I only had to bow to one evil overlord’s web standards. Click here if you want to read more on that topic.
Oh and by the way, the first full face transplant is a success. Yes, a man now has a fully functional face that he was not born with.
Get your tin foil hats ready.
Those crazy Japanese electronics companies are up to it again. Apparently, we will all control our computers with our minds in 2020. For some reason, I’m not really that surprised, but I’m still just as horrified.
In unrelated news, we can all save the planet by working from home on our computers. Good luck getting your boss to believe this.
That’s all for now, tune in next time for more opinion, news and crazy links, downloaded straight to your nerve net at BaltimoreGuide.com
