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I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

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Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#101

Post by card_zero »

eddieroger wrote: post #40
cschep wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the point entirely. You're opting in and enjoying it, great! Do you really believe you chose to opt in? The author is saying that opting out is extremely painful and that THAT is wrong. We should all get to choose if we want to walk around with a smart phone or not. It's now basically required to invest in a privacy destroying device that makes huge corporations that much richer to function in society.…

> Do you really believe you chose to opt in? Yes, in that I am of free enough will to choose not to use something or do my homework before making purchases. I'm also not saying that you shouldn't be able to walk around without a smartphone, but choices, like speech, aren't without consequence. If you want to pay for something at a location that only takes cash, but you won't carry cash because it's easily stolen or l…

You missed out the parts about "extremely painful" and "basically required", as well as "privacy destroying" and "makes huge corporations that much richer".

So, for the analogy, let's say lots and lots of businesses and public utilities are cash only, and carrying the cash exploits you for Google's profit somehow. Or we could stick to the idea that carrying cash is a theft risk, but let's say the businesses are indirectly in cahoots with the pickpockets through a chain of corruption and that's why everybody requires you to carry cash and be vulnerable.

You can choose not to do it, and your choice is not without consequences that are morally wrong, and you'd be right to complain about that. Otherwise if "not without consequence" implies that you shouldn't complain, then you're offering a viewpoint of it being a dog-eat-dog world, and that's just the way it is, if you resist you'll suffer and you're a fool, so take the easy path and don't worry about the morality. Resignation.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#102

Post by inigyou »

thesdev wrote: post #72
stronglikedan wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word "requirements" is doing a lot of work there. I've never met a QR code where scanning it was required of me.

So you'd leave the restaurant if it has a QR menu?

Restaurants have thin enough margins already. They aren't turning away a customer for not bringing a phone. There's one tiny burger place just around the corner from me that's delivery/pickup only, not even a QR code, but they have a sign outside saying 10€ combos and they're 15€ on the website... I just asked them. They have very good halloumi burgers and perfectly cooked fries. They were happy to accept my cash, too.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#103

Post by snazz »

MisterTea wrote: post #48
burningChrome wrote: post #18

I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy. "Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone." "Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either." Some of the more painful things you have…

> - Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out. This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an Amer…

In my experience in the U.S., I can manage my accounts at various banks and brokerages just as well from the website as from a mobile app. I’m ok with them restricting how their apps can be used as long as the browser remains an option. The requirement to use an app for all account management (or for authenticating to a website) seems to be mostly a European phenomenon.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#104

Post by parapsychic »

I've always admired people who can live without a smartphone. I met one linux contributor at an open source conference who doesn't have a smartphone. He uses an old dumb phone, doesn't have any socials and always carries cash! In a country like India, where every payment runs on a QR code, it's crazy that he can survive without it. He asked me to look up directions to the metro, memorized it, and left.

One other thing is that he isn't socially awkward. He could go up to people, and ask for help, which I think a lot of us tend to avoid, and instead use apps to solve them.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#105

Post by inigyou »

burningChrome wrote: post #18

I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy. "Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone." "Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either." Some of the more painful things you have…

Business requires sacrifice. I'd get a separate business phone for your business's Instagram and your business's Facebook and so on. You have to have Instagram the same way you have to have an accountant - hold your nose and do it anyway - refusing either one will just ensure your failure.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#106

Post by inigyou »

MisterTea wrote: post #48
burningChrome wrote: post #18

I have a motorola smartphone. I don't have google play installed. I mainly use obtainium for app installation. Its a bare bones phone and it drives my business partner crazy. "Just log into our instagram account and. . .right, you don't have insta installed on your phone." "Can you log into our scheduling app and. . . right, you don't have that installed on your phone either." Some of the more painful things you have…

> - Not having any banking apps on my phone. Every time my son needs a few bucks in his account, my wife has to do it if we're out. This is the most tyrannical things about smart phones -- banking apps. I get it, the bank wants to ensure the platform is not a liability. But it forces most of us to use one of the only two "trusted" mobile providers on earth: Google or Apple, both of which are American (and I'm an Amer…

Many work on GrapheneOS

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#107

Post by inigyou »

bilekas wrote: post #24

> They are willing to accept all the conditions of your apps, including sending you personal data, registering an account, etc. I've had this exact problem this morning, I wanted to download the ASD-STE100 https://www.asd-ste100.org/STE_downloads.html#article02-2l and they use a request form to get the download. Unfortunately the last question: > Do you consent to us collecting your data? This form has the only purpo…

So you filled out a form with your personal data and were about to press the submit button to send it to them, but you don't consent to them knowing that data about you?

It seems the checkbox had its intended effect of serving as a double-check gate about whether you really want them to know that information.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#108

Post by branon »

creaturemachine wrote: post #96
branon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on what type of computer (if not smartphone) you have at hand, you can probably use a search engine to find the same menu. Or ask somebody at your table. Or ask the server. Or point at somebody else's food and say you want what they're having. Or eschew the menu entirely and ask to be surprised. Chef's choice can be fun. Or leave yeah, I think that's valid. TFA is predicated on the notion of pretty-much-lyi…

The idea is you shouldn't have to have any sort of computer on your person to participate in public life. If a proper eat-in restaurant can't maintain a paper menu then it's an indication of the level of service that's sure to follow.

Perhaps that's the grandparent commenter's idea but I don't think it's the point the article is making:

> So, seriously, I do really like the smartphone idea. It’s just that I don’t have any browser or "social" app on it. And I don’t want anything else than what I have.

> I wish I could say it is all I have, that I’m a true minimalist.

He defines true minimalism as having an _ideologically conformant_ computer, not no computer at all.

Re: I don't have a smartphone or at least I wish I didn't

#109

Post by zzo38computer »

I do not (and never had) a smart phone, either.

I have been at one restaurant that had a QR code to view the menu, although they did provide a iPad to any customer who needed it. (At the time, I was with someone else who had their own iPad.) It was not very good food (and badly managed) so I do not intend to return there in future.

If you do not want to print the menu in multiple paper copies, then you might consider a single epaper display somewhere that the customers can easily see (anyone with a camera or a camera phone can take a picture; someone with pencil and paper might copy it out by hand).

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