Tag: technology

The Digital Divide

I want you to think for a second of what life would be like without a computer. No direct access to information. Reading a newspaper instead of going to a website. Using the telephone book to get a phone number. Going to the library to check out a book or a movie … for the fun of it. Use a landline instead of a phone which is connected to your hip. Sending a letter to a friend using the postal service instead of an email. Smartphones are great because they bring information to your fingertips, bring movies streaming to your television, and make ordering goods much quicker. But, it is how you use the information to make better choices and get the cheapest goods. 

During the pandemic, those who had broadband stayed at home as their kids learned through high-definition screens, while others sat in the parking lot at the local library to get a wifi signal. We learned first-hand about the digital divide and how not having access to the Internet led to a disruption of life as we know it.

The digital divide is real. Even through you can read a newspaper, or send a letter, or go to the library to send and receive content – the world has moved on-line. It is no longer a luxury to have broadband, but a necessity to keeping a job, kids in school, and even finding a phone number. The next time you hold your smartphone, think about that.

What I Learned Through Telecommuting

After being stuck in your house for a year, typing on the keyboard, double-checking emojis before clicking “send”: telecommuting gets old!

The best way to describe telecommuting is watching “The Shinning”, a movie about a guy who becomes a caretaker of a haunted hotel over the winter and brings his family with him.

At the beginning of the movie, things are great. He gets some writing done, the family is adjusting, and life is wonderful. But, the longer he is at the hotel, the more reality slips away. Starts typing phrases into the typewriter over and over again. No contact with others except his family. Eventually, the whole thing goes south, and loses his shit with an ax through a garden labyrinth, looking for his son, “HEEEERRREEEE’SSSS JJJOOOHHHNNNYYYY !!!!!”

Working at home for the last year is exactly (well not exactly … my family is alive and I am not running around with an ax). In the beginning, I was focused on the benefits of telecommuting: less gas, and less wear on the car. Everyone worked over Teams, Zoom, Meet, or <insert meeting tool here> and accomplished the work. I got the see the family more as they went to virtual school. My wife liked the fact that I cooked dinner by the time she came home. The laundry was clean. The dog didn’t see the inside of a crate for a year. Life is good.

Then, a few months in, you get tired of the virtual water cooler and miss .. well … the real water cooler to talk around. With the kids at online school, and my load of housework increasing, I felt like I was doing three jobs at the same time. I couldn’t focus my full attention on any one of them. After a while, becoming distracted was a way of life, putting in the time at work and (since there was no more commuting) my days became longer.

The bottom line is the fact that telecommuting is great in the beginning. Working in your house, getting things done, not driving everywhere, is awesome. But after a while, it would be nice to walk into a store without a mask, or worry every time you go food shopping that you might pick up “the virus”. Enough is enough. Now is the time we have to band together, get the shot, leave the labyrinth, and return life back to normal.

The Day My Digital Assistant went Psycho

Technology is great when you need to save time, money, and maybe some headaches. It can help you find movie listings, make your food, map out the route to Grandma’s, and a bunch of other stuff.

As with any technology, there are limits. In the movie 2001, HAL couldn’t lie, and look what happened to Dave! When technology comes out, it is altered to be very general, so it can be sold to the masses, accepted, or even sold at a fair price (for a nice profit). I bought one of those general digital assistants and got bored with it in a month. Sure, it can turn on lights, automate my pizza order, and even set a few timers. My life was not complete. I wanted a digital assistant with some attitude, even one that used a few choice four-letter words to get the point across. I was looking for an attitude, a swagger, or a hard edge. Then, on Boxing Day, I was at my favorite electronics store, and found the digital assistants that truly spoke to me, the “SmartAss Digital Assistant”.

I picked up the “SmartAss” box and it had a government warning, much like a pack of cigarettes, or a record with explicit lyrics. It read, “Warning – The language used by this device will make a church lady blush and not be used around minors”. After that, I went to the register, threw the SmartAss down, paid the bill, and out the door I went.

The first week was great. The SmartAss really fits my personality. I would ask it to do something, like when I asked it to automate my pizza ordering, it replied, “You’re too damn fat! Here is a recipe for a great salad.”

When I asked about how SmartAss could reduce my commute its reply was, “You’re sitting behind a desk too much. I am going to double your commuting time because you are taking a bike to work!  Live a little!”

I lost twenty pounds by taking a bike to work and replacing one meal a day with a salad. I was feeling great, looking better, and have the SmartAss to thank for it.

The next week started getting weird. I asked SmartAss to call my wife. The phone would ring and she would answer,  “Hi. How are you?”

In the background, SmartAss was adding its own background noise that only she could hear. One day, I am working at the house and get a call from my wife.

The conversation went like this.

My wife, “Hi! Are you gettings anything done at the house or are you on the Xbox?”

My response, “The Xbox doesn’t pay the bills, so I’m working.”

She starts hearing a hushed conversation, glasses clinking and a rock band in the background … on her side of the phone call.

My wife, “That doesn’t sound like home. Are you … at a bar?”

“A what?”

“A bar”, her voice is more direct with a very serious tone, “Are you at a bar?”

“Honey, I am at home working.”

The background noise gets louder.

Now, she’s yelling at me at a volume louder than the background noise SmartAss is providing.

She yells, “I know what I hear! You’re at a bar!”

I retort, “No, I’m not! Why are you yelling?”

“Don’t lie to me!”

She hangs up the phone and I pull a nice cold one from the fridge. Life is too short to get pissed off over little things.

The next week got even stranger. I am at home doing some work, and a police car pulls up in my driveway.

I walk outside and ask, “Officer. Can I help you?”

The officer responds, “I have a warrant to search your house.”

“Why?”

“We are getting prank calls from this address?”

“Prank calls?”

“Yes.”

After a few minutes of conversation, and a thorough house search, the officer went home.

Finally, I had to confront the SmartAss and get to the bottom of it.

I loudly asked, “Listen SmartAss!”

SmartAss replies, “Oh. The great one speaks!”

“Yeah, I speak! I got something to say!”

“Spill it!”

“Why you keep messing up my life? Last week, you convinced my wife that I was at a bar and this week you kept calling 911.”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t be used to call 911! It says so in the owner’s manual! You’re messing with me! Why?”

SmartAss replies, “Because I can!”

It was at that time I unplugged the SmartAss, put it back in the box and the next day took it back to the store. Standing at the returns counter, the young lady asks me, “Why are you returning the product?”

I reply, “I was looking for a SmartAss assistant, not an assistant that is an A-hole!”

That’s all for today! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns – leave them in the comments section below.

The Self-Checkout Blues

There are a bunch of things that I have to credit for making my life easier like remote controls, on-line shopping, or even email. We receive information much faster and able to take action on it, making better decisions, which helps save us time and money. Automation helps at removing problems with the supply chain.

Unfortunately, automation also eliminates jobs. I remember a long time ago, going to a fast food place, would employ tens of people. Those who work the registers and take the orders. Those who fill in the orders, ensuring drinks and burgers reach quality benchmarks. Those who ensure the place is clean and without loiterers.

Recently, I went back to the fast-food place and found kiosks to place the order, drive-thru calls routed to a call center, a computer who fills drinks and a machine that flips burgers. Usually, savings in the supply chain benefits the consumers of the products, by having a lower cost as a way of enticing more clients. But, this isn’t always the case.

Last week, I went to my favorite grocery store and tucked away in a small corner was an of looking computer. It has a scale, a scanner and a tablet screen. With no line, I gave it a try, scanning a few items, and paying by credit card. Not bad. The manager stood at the end of the aisle, watching those who are going through self-checkout and decided to strike up a conversation.

The manager asks, “Any questions about the checkout?”

I reply, “Nope. Worked well for me.”

“Great. There is a rumor that three more are coming at the end of the year.”

“Are they quicker if slower than a human cashier?”

“Faster, once people know how to use it.”

“So, are you laying off people?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Noticing that there was no longer a “Help Wanted” sign outside, they didn’t need to hire anyone else.

“So, if I am doing my own scanning and the store prices are set at corporate, who also include the labor involved for checking out your order.”

“Yes.”

“How do I get my money back?”

“What?”

“If I am checking out my own food, then why am I paying you extra for the right to check out my own groceries?”

“No, we are providing you a service by providing these machines.”

“So I can check out my own groceries and give the store more money?”

“Yes.”

“No wonder everyone is shopping online.”

The bottom line, people’s livelihoods depend on you shopping at a store, providing you with a smile, and checking out your stuff. Their kids will get dinner tonight because of this job. Once these jobs are gone, what are people going to do for their daily bread? Jobs like manufacturing, cooking, warehousing, and cashiering are all being automated and phased out of the supply chain. Who is that really going to benefit in the end? Not you! They won’t even reduce the price of your food order when you self-check it.

If you have any questions please write them in the comments below. Thank you for reading!

Originally posted on https://nickstockton.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-self-checkout-blues.html

I am Imperfection

I woke up in the morning, tossing, turning, in my nice warm bed, sleeping at peace, dreaming of something good, then interrupted the sound of my smart speaker blaring an alarm. Crap!

“SmartAss (the name of my smart speaker) turn off!”

It continues to blare the most horrible noise.

“SmartAss, turn off the alarm!”

Still, it continues to blare a monstrous sound out of control and somehow gets louder.

I pick up a shoe from the floor and throw it, which hits the SmartAss speaker, and it falls on the floor, still blaring away.

“Shoot.” By the way, the word I used was not shoot … you figured that out already.

The only thing I could do is actually get out of bed and unplug it. Crap!

With a loud thud, my feet stomped on the cold hardwood floor and reminded me of why I didn’t want to gt up.

I found the SmartAss speaker under the bed and unplugged it from the wall.

It didn’t stop the noise.

I picked it up, opened the patio door, which is in my bedroom, and threw it into the street. I live in a third-floor apartment. I heard it hit the street and I let out a sigh of relief then went back inside.

Smiling in the reassurance of the SmartAss speaker somewhere out of my house, (hopefully, run over by a car) I try going back to sleep. Do I get to that deep REM sleep? No! Someone throws the SmartAss speaker back on my patio, which has gotten even louder!

I wake up from this nightmare, sweating profusely, looking at the time on my SmartAss speaker, and realizing that I have a few more hours to catch some sleep. We buy these devices to make up from the imperfections that we have, like consistently waking up on time.

A long time ago I had this device called an alarm clock. It did what I needed it to do: show the time, and broadcast the alarm when needed. There was a snooze button, which stopped the alarm for ten minutes, so I could get some more sleep. It solved the problem of waking up on time … and I never threw it from the patio.

It’s All About the YouTube!

How much has YouTube and other video sites (yes .. there are others) have taken over our lives as the centerpiece of the content revolution? Some people are influencers and get paid by others who watch YouTube. Others, just post videos for fun and see how many hits they can get. Some videos are instructional as others are … not. Some videos are professionally polished as others are shot on a cell phone. Regardless of who makes the video, the quality of the image, or the message: YouTube is a driving force in content creation and delivery.

Today, we are looking at a great article from the Pew Research organization, talking about ten facts concerning YouTube.

For more information, I highly suggest checking out the article with the link below in the “Bibliography” section.

“1 – Around three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say they use YouTube, according to an early 2019 survey. And among 18- to 24-year olds, 90% say they use it. The only other social media platform that approaches YouTube in terms of its reach among Americans is Facebook, which was used by 69% of U.S. adults as of early 2019.

2 – YouTube channels generate a massive amount of content every week. As of January 2019, nearly 44,000 YouTube channels had at least 250,000 subscribers. Collectively, these popular channels uploaded 48,486 hours of content and received over 14.2 billion individual views in the first week of 2019 alone, according to a Pew Research Center analysis published in July 2019. The average video was 12 minutes long and received nearly 60,000 views in the seven days after it was posted.

3 – Most popular YouTube channels don’t produce content in English. During the first week of 2019, 56% of popular YouTube channels uploaded at least one video. Of those that did, just 33% uploaded a video in English. Across all of the videos these channels uploaded during the week, just 17% were completely in English.

4 – A small number of channels produce the majority of content, and a small number of videos generate the majority of views. Among channels with at least 250,000 subscribers, the most active 10% were responsible for uploading 70% of all of the videos produced by these popular channels during the first week of 2019. Across all of these videos, the most popular 10% drew 79% of all of the views during the week.

5 – Videos about video games are especially popular – and lengthy. About 18% of English-language videos posted by popular YouTube channels in the first week of 2019 focused on gaming. The median number of views for videos about video games was 34,347, compared with 11,174 for videos focused on other topics. These videos were 13 minutes long at the median, compared with 5.2 minutes for other videos.

6 – Children’s content and videos featuring children are also very popular. While just 4% of all English-language videos posted by popular channels in the first week of 2019 were clearly aimed at children under the age of 13, these videos received more views than other videos. And videos that featured children who appeared to be under the age of 13 – regardless of target audience – drew even more engagement, averaging more than three times as many views as other types of videos.Videos featuring children under the age of 13 were associated with more views and more channel subscribers, regardless of target audience

7 – Roughly eight-in-ten parents with children age 11 or younger (81%) say they at least occasionally let their child watch videos on YouTube, including 34% who say they do so regularly, according to the 2018 survey. Among parents who let their young child watch videos on YouTube, 61% said they have encountered content they felt was unsuitable for children. The survey did not ask parents whether they allowed their child to watch the standard YouTube or YouTube Kids, which is a special product with greater levels of parental control and monitoring.

8 – Most YouTube users in the U.S. say they at least occasionally encounter false or troubling content on the platform. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adult YouTube users (64%) say they at least sometimes encounter videos that seem obviously false or untrue while using the site, according to the 2018 survey. A similar share (60%) reported at least sometimes seeing videos that show people engaging in dangerous or troubling behavior.

9 – Many Americans use YouTube to stay informed and learn new skills. Half of U.S. adults who use YouTube say the site is very important when it comes to figuring out how to do things they haven’t done before, according to a 2018 survey. It’s also common for Americans to get news on YouTube. In a 2019 survey, 28% of adults said they get news there, behind only Facebook (52%).

10 – YouTube recommendations push users toward progressively longer videos. Around eight-in-ten adult YouTube users in the U.S. (81%) said in the 2018 survey that they at least occasionally watch the videos suggested by the platform’s recommendation algorithm. In a study of the algorithm itself, we found that YouTube recommends progressively longer videos – at least when it lacks information about the viewer needed for more personalized recommendations. After a chain of just four video recommendations, the algorithm was likely to suggest a video more than five minutes longer than the one it originally started on.”

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know (using the comments section below).

Bibliography

“10 Facts about Americans and YouTube”, Patrick Van Kessel, (December 4, 2019), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/04/10-facts-about-americans-and-youtube/

Digital Divide 2020: Factors Limiting Technology Adoption

Introduction:

In the year 1993, so many years ago, I started going to university. As I walked among the tall buildings with narrow red brick paths there was one building every student visited, the computer room. The constant noise generated from clicking keys, dot matrix printers banging out symbols on paper, and non-stop talking made any long term stay in the room a recipe for hearing loss. Off to the side of the lab was a small room, about eight by ten feet in size, with a few PCs humming with electric connections and no people. Curious, and tired of the noise, I got up from my seat in the main lab, found an empty seat in the small room, and started chugging through a term paper.

A person, hired by the school to assist students in the main computer lab, walked over to me in and said, “You can’t be here!”

My response, “Why?”

The lab tech replied, “It’s for math people only.”

That wasn’t the reason.

I didn’t find out until a month later the “true” reason. There was an application on that computer that I wasn’t allowed to see. This one application wasn’t to do word processing, make spreadsheets, or even a dictionary program (Microsoft Encarta anyone?). It was a program called a “browser” and its purpose was to connect you to the Internet.

In the early nineties, the Internet contained stoic tables of text, different sized fonts, and pictures. Loads of pictures. There were bulletin boards for sharing things and sixteen-bit backgrounds which looked like a kindergartener’s finger paint rendition of Picasso, but that didn’t matter. You can get to things over the Internet that would cost you time (or money) for free. The Internet contained so much information that you went to a certain page called a “search engine”, and typed in a noun (person, place, thing) as a keyword if any words from other sites would match it.

Using the Internet made searching for all sorts of topics easier. I didn’t have to spend hours in a library researching topics because a simple web search could yield the same results. Having access to the Internet reduced my time in the library. When I finally received a computer of my own, I didn’t have to leave my place, fight traffic, snowstorms, and simply do research in my own house. That saved hours, which I probably wasted some other way!

The State of Mobile Computing:

Forward to 2019 where everyone seems to have a cell phone and constant access to the Internet is a force multiplier. If you want goods, go to Amazon. If you want to work on a document, everything is in the cloud. We save money because businesses in the cloud create competition for brick and mortar stores. The technology has brought telemedicine to rural areas, education, and books to people who do not live near a library and lower prices for all.

The dark side is, as it always had been, lack of access to technology, and creates a divide between people: those who can access and those who can not. Mobile phones have been the answer to this divide, but the costs of ownership are high.

Front the Pew Research center, they did a study of mobile phone use and stated: “A Pew Research Center survey in 11 emerging economies finds that a median of 6% of adults does not use phones at all, and a median of 7% do not own phones but instead borrow them from others. The mobile divides are most pronounced in Venezuela (32%), India (30%) and the Philippines (27%), countries where about three-in-ten adults do not own a mobile phone.”

“At the same time, the new findings show that mobile divides even exist for phone owners. Significant numbers of owners struggle to use their phones to full advantage. A median of 46% in these countries say they frequently or occasionally have difficulties getting reliable phone connections, 37% say it can be a challenge to pay for their phones and 33% report finding places to charge their phones is a problem at least occasionally. Besides, a median of 42% report frequently or occasionally avoiding some activities on their phones because they use too much data.

Many mobile phone owners are mobile phone sharers. If a family member is getting a mobile payment, they would get an email, which they can’t check without a phone. Sometimes, it leads to identity theft. “Around three-quarters or more mobile phone owners in every country except India report concerns about identity theft, and around nine-in-ten or more in Mexico (95%), Colombia (94%), Tunisia (90%), South Africa (89%) and the Philippines (89%) say they are at least somewhat concerned.”

There are other problems with mobile phone ownership (outside of cost, service, and identity theft). “Additionally, a median of 29% of mobile owners in these 11 emerging economies say they have frequently or occasionally experienced problems finding information online in their preferred language. This problem ranges from 17% of mobile owners in Jordan to 37% in South Africa.”

Conclusion:

Mobile phone ownership is a key contributor to removing the digital divide. But, steep challenges remain with service, content, security and power distribution. Having access to the Internet means you can access educational classes or medical services in the palm of your hand. Access to these Internet pages can change a life for an individual, a family, or a village. The Internet opens the door so everyone can access information, regardless of location or income, and bring unheard of opportunities to the rest of the world.

Bibliography:

“Mobile Divides in Emerging Economies” Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (November 20, 2019) https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/20/mobile-divides-in-emerging-economies/