Who is Susan Bradley?

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PROFILES By Chris Husted In a fast-changing world where new apps and devices are released by the month and updates by the week, all driven by a vigoro
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Rainer Bauer, Sueska, abbodi86, SueW, scoobydoo

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My 2nd computer was an IBM 8088 (my first was an Atari ST). And I took two semesters of COBOL in college so that I would one day have job security! I really loved COBOL because of the way you formatted the data – you could divide then redivide it into whatever column arrangement you wanted!

Interesting comment about how HP printer quality has intentionally been reduced. I’ve always thought of the high-end HP printers as being good quality. Not too thrilled with the low-end stuff. I know that for HP laser printers, it seemed that no matter which printer you had, you could always use the HP Laserjet III driver. Now it is the HP “universal driver”.

True, you must carry a phone. My work phone is an iPhone, but my personal phone is a flip phone. I don’t want my phone to take over my life; I use it just for phone calls and text messages, and to take pictures. That’s it.

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who is Chris Husted?

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Executive Editor at The Phuket News

According to the article in the newsletter.

cheers, Paul

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Will Fastie

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And a contributor to the newsletter.

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I am getting awfully tired of people insisting that everyone MUST and DOES have a smartphone.  Around 38 million adults in the U.S. do not (and about 7% of the population has no internet access whatsoever.)  It’s both inaccurate and insulting to dismiss all of us as though we don’t exist.

I know how to use a smartphone.  I’m not too poor to afford it.  I’m not a Luddite who hates technology.  I just wouldn’t get enough functionality out of such a device, that I don’t already get from my desktop or my flip phone, to justify the cost and the privacy and security risks associated with carrying one.

So, yeah.  Please try to keep in mind that we’re out here, and some of us actually do read tech blogs.

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jburk07, MrJimPhelps, Charlie

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I was the same way for many years, shunning smartphones, but late last year I learned a bit about de-googled AOSP (the open source bit of Android), right after I found that the carrier had disabled the mobile hotspot feature for which I bought my new 4g flip phone. My plan allows for all data to be used by the hotspot, and the phone has the feature, but not the version that is welded to my carrier (and there is no unlocked version; it’s sold through carriers only). So I went for the smart phone.

All I can say is… meh. It’s gotten old having a phone that big, and 99% of what I do is lug it around. It was the smallest cheap one I could find that could easily be degoogled, but it’s still way too big, at 5.something inches. I’d much rather have it 4″ like the first iPhone, or even smaller if they had one, but all the ones I see now are huge. I don’t care if it is hard to use because it’s so small… it would be easier to carry, and I carry it far, far more than I use it.

So I am thinking of retiring the smart phone (or relegating it to “small wifi only tablet” status) and getting a different flip phone, one with a working wifi hotspot. It was a fun toy for a while when I was setting up the third party OS, but once that was done and it was just about using it… again, meh. It’s just a bigger, less convenient version of the flip phone I thought I was buying. More and more, I am thinking the smart phone is much as I thought it was for the past 12 or so years… it’s the one piece of tech I can’t do with. (Though that’s not true either… there are lots of others, like anything else with the word “smart” in front of it.)

 

 

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jburk07, NaNoNyMouse

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I have a Kyocera DuraXV Extreme flip phone with Verizon. It is a great phone. Here are the most notable features:
* Wifi hotspot – so that other devices can connect through my phone.
* 5 MP camera
* Great speakerphone
* Excellent sound quality when you use a headset
* Excellent picture quality on its tiny screen
* Bluetooth connection with your car’s audio system
* Wifi calling – make calls via the internet. Helps if you have a weak or nonexistant cellular signal.

AT&T has what looks like the same phone – the Kyocera DuraXE Epic.

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jburk07

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My telephone company, AT&T, is switching next year to 4G and my current cellphone, a G3 LG flip phone, is going to be kicked out of their network, so they tell me, and shall be replaced with another that is compliant with the new standard. So I just checked and the Kyocera DuraXV Extreme is one of the 4G phones available from AT&T.

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In fact, that is exactly what happened to me. I had a really nice slider phone, one that I really loved. But it was 3G, and at the end of the year Verizon pulled the plug on their 3G network. So I ended up with the Kyocera DuraXV Extreme. I never thought I would ever pay $240 for a flip phone, but this phone is worth it.

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I do keep you in mind, but I also see the value in a smart phone.  My dad uses his for online banking, tracking his investments, watching news, youtube, and adding two factor to his banking and other actions.

I use it so I can track him as he drives (yes at 92 he still drives) and know where he’s at at all times. (he used to do similar to me as a teenager, as well as knowing where I am, now it’s come full circle).

I don’t see these are privacy and security risks when we choose to accept these risks and they give value to our lives as a result.  To each his own.

The writer of the piece who also interviewed Woody in retirement, specifically asked me what piece of technology I could not do without.  A smart phone is what “I” can’t do without.  It’s not necessarily what YOU can’t do without.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Rainer Bauer, Myst

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“A smart phone is what “I” can’t do without. It’s not necessarily what YOU can’t do without.”

Well, Susan, being a target for criticism is what happens, the price one has to pay, for being a celebrity. Don’t sweat it, just deal with it. Same as I do.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Celebrity.  Snort.  Yea, right 🙂

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Rainer Bauer, Myst

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Actually, Susan, it was less the quote from you than the author’s assertion that smartphones are “the one all-important device that everyone else also carries” that rubbed me the wrong way.  Of course they’re invaluable to many people, for many reasons.  Just not to everyone.

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AmbularD wrote:

Actually, Susan, it was less the quote from you than the author’s assertion that smartphones are “the one all-important device that everyone else also carries” that rubbed me the wrong way.  Of course they’re invaluable to many people, for many reasons.  Just not to everyone.

I agree. I should not have listened to people who kept telling me I needed to ditch my little nonsmart Samsung phone for a fancy one with face ID (At least I wasn’t stupid enough to get an Android phone with no face ID and constant spying by Google which I have blocked long ago six ways to Sunday on my computers). My iPhone 10R is very nice but it is very heavy and too big. My Apple watch is fantastic…but I have to have an iPhone to use it and I’ve come to conclude that it was not worth over $1000 for the phone (and $400 for the watch) and now at 2.5 years of age, $12 a month since it was two years old just to get some kind of coverage for software and hardware problems.

Apple cannot figure out why I cannot text anyone with an Android phone for the past six months or more. Apple has poor support for their products and it is extremely expensive on top of the high expense for the phone, laptop, etc. Dell’s support (Small Business division is great in recent years and has been for most of the 22 years I have had Dell computers partly due to a very long, but worth it, fight with them over an earlier XPS where I was victorious and Dell had to clean up its act) . Buying 4 to 5 years of support from them (Small Business division not Home but you do not have to prove you have a current business to purchase from SB division) on a new computer is well worth it. It is NOT worth it on an Apple phone that I paid over a $1000 for). If Apple would separate the watch then I would love having just the watch but not the overly expensive phone.

So, the most important devices I have are my Dell XPS computers (8500 and 8930 with nVidia cards) and my excellent (but aging at 7 years old now) Dell 24 inch Ultra Sharp monitor. A smart phone or laptop simply cannot compare to the power of both these computers or the joy of an outstanding wide screen monitor.

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