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Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#171

Post by kevstev »

Until recently, traveling outside the US meant giving up all data and essentially making my phone a useless brick I carried around for emergency purposes. And over the last 10 ish years or so, there have been varying degrees of wifi availability- at first in your hotel- for a fee- then in your hotel- then sometimes there would be hotspots at restaurants, then they were at all restaurants, and now wifi points are pretty much ubiquitous across cities in Europe and Asia. I have switched to Google Fi these days, which more or less now gives me continuous connectivity globally.

My take on it was that being completely off the grid was a bit annoying- its nice to completely detach, but literally having no idea what is going on at home, especially if you are in a non-english speaking country, its a bit disconnecting, in a somewhat bad way. All in all though, a few days in you don't even think about emails or FB or anything like that and its really freeing.

Having wifi at just the hotel was actually really nice- We went and did our stuff during the day, and at night- either before bed or freshening up for dinner- you get a quick update on whats going on in the world. You are detached but not isolated.

Wifi hotspots being ubiquitous- its kind of annoying- that constant "pull" to get an update is still always there. Instead of enjoying the view of the piazza, you are checking FB, quelling anxiety about what emails might be there (however silly that is), etc...

And tbh- I actually have a preference for places without ubiquitious connectivity these days. The demands of work are ever increasing- its really nice to have that hard switch to say no I am not available, its not possible for me to be available and not feel apologetic over it. I am literally off the grid- it really lifts a lot of that burden and anxiety off me anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#172

Post by sixstringtheory »

On one of my visits to SF from Boston for work, I realized I left my phone at home on my bed (there’s a sign of addiction right there: last thing I look at before sleeping and first thing I look at when I wake) and didn’t realize it until I arrived at the airport. My wife offered to bring it to me but I declined.

My coworkers were pretty amazed when I turned down a loaner on arrival in SF. It was a very refreshing week. I always like walking around SF but I feel that I paid more attention to everything. I still had a book I was reading so I got a lot more reading done, and made it a mission to hit a bunch of different parks while doing so.

I don’t recall even once missing it, and was sorta sad when I got home to it again. It’s amazing how quickly habits can die and take hold again.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#173

Post by blueridge »

May I recommend:

The Frailest Thing: Ten Years Thinking About the Meaning of Technology: https://gumroad.com/l/CWRfq

Michael draws from Albert Borgmann, Jacques Ellul, Hannah Arendt, Esther Dyson, Guy Debord, Ivan Illich, Daniel Boorstin, Johan Huizinga, Lewis Mumford, Neil Postman, Marshal McLuhan, Walter Ong, and many others as he explores how technology and technological idealism shapes our thoughts and actions.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#174

Post by crimsonalucard1 »

seesawtron wrote: post #2

It might be a bit unorthodox and I would possibly get flagged for writing this but I found the ideas of Kaczynski on impact of technology on us very profound and thought-provoking[0]. I try to separate the "art" from the "artist" and do not condone his violent actions thereafter. But this idea has been around in various shapes where people debate if its true that techonology is evolving at a much faster rate than our…

Glad you didn't get voted down.

People, by nature, have one dimensional views about a world that is in actuality multi-dimensional and highly complex.

Humans evolved this way in order to navigate the complexity of the world as quick decisions and judgements aid more in survival than best decisions made at the expense of haste.

It takes a lot of effort and luck to exit our biases and see that even a murderer, child molester, pedophile, rapist, racist, dictator etc. have multiple dimensions.

Not condoning crimes, but honestly I can relate to how someone like Dennis Rodman can chill with Kim Jong Il or even Hitler if he was still alive, but I'm not sure how people in general will react to what I just said and how far above their own biases they can pull themselves.

I guess we'll see with the karma, I used some extreme vocabulary in the sentences above. I think if the OP used the word "Unabomber" instead of "Kaczynski" people would be less forgiving as my initial reaction to his post was positive simply because I didn't recall who "Kaczynski" was...

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#175

Post by tomato2juice »

This is a great question. I try to spend my evenings without my phone now, and spend more time with family or reading. I also put it in either airplane mode, or do-not-disturb, plugged into a charger. I've been increasing the amount of time I can get by without my phone. The effects have been positive

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#176

Post by cperrine »

kevwil wrote: post #133

First 25 years of my life. It was glorious. I would start by making a list of what you think are critical uses of tech, and work on trimming that list down until all that's left is almost impossible to do analog. You'll probably need to buy stamps and a good map, and learn to memorize phone numbers. Film cameras are cheap but getting processing and printing can be an expensive hassle. I'm still wondering if search en…

On that, I recommend "Fool's Gold: Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library"

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#178

Post by zikzak »

thawaway1837 wrote: post #44

I was without a phone for a out 3 months. After the first week of constant anxiety because it constantly felt like I had forgotten something, it was incredible, getting used to not having Google Maps at all times, and drawing up the courage to ask strangers for help with stuff like using their stores phone to call a friend who I was waiting for, for directions, etc. it was absolutely incredible. I felt like a literal…

After a smartphone died a while back I went to a flip phone. I used a variety of cobbled together solutions to get SMS messages with calendar reminders, todo items, etc. The only thing I missed was Google Maps and Email. I was fine with both of these. Email should not be "urgent" and Google Maps was barely a consideration in a city I grew up in. But then we decided to sell our house, and instant back and forth using email, web links, etc was important. Going to new locations was happening a lot as we viewed homes. So I got a new smartphone. I really enjoyed the time without one. One trick I adopted after that and still use from time to time is putting my phone in ultra power saving mode. All the functions are still there but it is far less tempting to pick up. Example: no reddit app, so you are stuck using the browser, so you have time to ask yourself if you really need to go on reddit right now.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#179

Post by rolph »

crimsonalucard1 wrote: post #174
seesawtron wrote: post #2

It might be a bit unorthodox and I would possibly get flagged for writing this but I found the ideas of Kaczynski on impact of technology on us very profound and thought-provoking[0]. I try to separate the "art" from the "artist" and do not condone his violent actions thereafter. But this idea has been around in various shapes where people debate if its true that techonology is evolving at a much faster rate than our…

Glad you didn't get voted down. People, by nature, have one dimensional views about a world that is in actuality multi-dimensional and highly complex. Humans evolved this way in order to navigate the complexity of the world as quick decisions and judgements aid more in survival than best decisions made at the expense of haste. It takes a lot of effort and luck to exit our biases and see that even a murderer, child mo…

re garding the CIA comment, there are core values that are exactly opposite of what was stated.

Candor is a fundamental quality for any CIA associate you should be upfront and open about what you want and expect.

Recognition of the potential for positive contribution by any and all people, some volunteer this willingly, some must be managed into such a contribution or placed in a context that creates positive results from seemingly negative actions.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

#180

Post by throwanem »

rcfox wrote: post #160
throwanem wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally, you drain the capacitor first with the same resistor you're about to install as a bleeder. Much less ideally, you can short a cap with a screwdriver or something, but the degree to which that's a bad idea scales at least linearly with the value of the cap. I did that once with a photoflash cap, while trying to troubleshoot a failed Nikon SB-R200 ring-mount flash head - expecting the failure to be in the cont…

I inherited a stereo amp from the 70s, and I'm pretty sure one of the capacitors has gone bad. I've managed to find a schematic and PCB layout for it (remember when service manuals were a thing?) but I've been too worried about discharging capacitors to poke at it. For now, I just deal with a mains hum that's only audible when nothing is playing.

Amp power caps aren't usually bitey enough to be dangerous, although they will certainly hurt if you're careless with them. They also usually have bleeders, since a line-powered unit doesn't need to economize on power the way something like one of my flash heads does. I usually just poke a screwdriver across them when I'm doing a recap job, and I've never had them so much as spark. But for maximum caution, I'd use a 100K or so 1/2W resistor, connected with clip leads across the capacitor leads, and left for a minute or two prior to desoldering.

For an amplifier of that vintage, I'd probably be more worried about the fact that it'll likely be neither grounded nor double-insulated, meaning it's possible for an internal isolation failure to present a potentially lethal line potential on any metal parts of the case.

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