How gadget craze is ruling us

How gadget craze is ruling us

Author JoeDigital | 30.11.2007 | Category Gadgets

Have you ever wondered, what is the last gift you gifted to your partner? Most of us would say, a cell phone or a music DVD, or a Playstation etc. But when it comes to think of candy floss or a soft toy or a heart shaped pillow, we laugh out loud saying ‘it’s outdated’.

I feel technology has put us at a crossroad, where we rate emotion on one’s gadget craze and intelligence quotient. The good old gifts like books, poems, chocolates, hand written scented letters are being replaced by costlier and swankier gifts like iPods, Blu-ray player, MP3 player etc. But all these lack the human touch, the touch which differentiates a purchase from a ‘gift’. One thing that never stops to surprise me, is happiness is measured the credit rating and dollar value of the gift, to be flaunted among the peers and thrown in cupboard corners when obsolete?

Negative impacts of Violent Video Games

Author JoeDigital | 30.11.2007 | Category Video Games

A team of scientists from Michigan University believe that those kids who play violent video games tend to resemble to the violent characters.

The violent characters of the video games have an impact on the kid’s mind and as a result they acquire this tendency of growing up into a criminal minded person rather than being a peace loving citizen. Although the British Board of Film Censor says that there isn’t any evidence which can help you believe in the favor of this argument, and they think that there is no such negative effect of these games. But on the other hand, the researchers have come up with their conclusions after spending a long time over these issues. The research has been published in the Journal of adolescent health. It is believed by these scientists that the problem these video games are causing is second only to the lung cancer problem which is being caused by smoking.

UK losing higher positions to under developed countries in science competitions

Author JoeDigital | 30.11.2007 | Category Science

If we want our coming generation and the rest to come to live a blessed life with all the advantage science has given us, it is important that people pay attention towards quality science education.

Unfortunately things appear to be going in the opposite direction in some parts of the world. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEDC) rating the schools from Britain have been beaten by the schools coming from less developed countries. The recent ratings believe that the students coming from England are not good at reading as well. Earlier they were holding third position in that regard, but just like science education, they have slipped below the top 15 in reading as well. Although in the competition which was held in 2000 in the same dimensions, English schools were on fourth number in science. The decline in the rating has many reasons. The schools and teachers of science in England and other similar countries have to pay attention towards retaining the attention of their students. These students are brilliant, but they have lots to get distracted. OEDC needs to improve scientific education policies.

Canada opens wireless industry to new competition

Author JoeDigital | 29.11.2007 | Category Canada, Telecommunications

The Canadian government on Wednesday paved the way for new cellphone companies by announcing new rules for an auction of radio airwaves designed to spur competition in the wireless industry. About 40 per cent of the spectrum will be reserved for new entrants with the remainder open to all bidders, including Canada’s big three providers — Rogers, Bell, and Telus. The government will also mandate roaming area agreements which will force existing carriers to share their networks with newcomers for five years, plus another five if the new entrants can build up their own networks nationally.”

This is big relief to cell phone users all across Canada as we can all finally have a choice in a carrier that isn’t already owned by the big 3, and hopefully cell phone plan costing will also go down to the rates of our American counterparts (**COUGH/COUGH** Fido…) full article can be found here: http://canadianpress.google.com

TomTom ONE Generation 3 GPS, best GPS for the money!

Author JoeDigital | 29.11.2007 | Category Consumer Electronics, Gadgets

After getting lost with my current budget GPS I recently purchased the TomTom GPS from Bestbuy in Canada for 149$ + Tax (13% In British columbia … blah). The TomTom currently has a 150$ in store rebate making it the cheapest name brand quality GPS available. After going through a couple other low cost GPS systems such as the Navigon (which by the way would get you lost even going to 7-11) I have found that this GPS is deadly accurate when getting you to the destination, it is small lightweight and comes with maps of the USA and Canada. The “points of interest” are also quite up to date as I found a small sushi shop in the directory which I was very surprised they knew about it :-) currently available across canada .. here is the link to bestbuy .bestbuy.ca

LG Cell phones. Life’s .. well not so good

Author JoeDigital | 29.11.2007 | Category Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, Telecommunications

There was an interesting story about a man who dies from an exploding cell phone while working on a construction site in Korea. The phone was made by LG and aparently exploded, damaging his heart and lungs leading to his death. An LG official confirmed its product was involved in the accident but said the company would not comment directly on the incident because the cause was not confirmed. However, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to company policy, said such a fatal explosion would be virtually impossible. I guess it must have been caused by the sudden suprise of having a phone explode in your shirt pocket. Full article can be read here: http://www.foxnews.com

The state of the Vancouver tech job market

Author JoeDigital | 28.11.2007 | Category Canada

Recently with the company that I work for we have tried to hire a new intermediate sysadmin, we must have gone through about 500 resumes and interviewed 10+ people for the position. My major disappointment was to find that almost none of the applicants we interviewed had a strong mix of technical and interpersonal skills. Has the Vancouver job market become so diluted that we cannot even find a single decent sysadmin with skills in more then just windows desktop support? its been 6 months…

From the World of Mobile Phones

Author JoeDigital | 28.11.2007 | Category Consumer Electronics

Man has moved forward from stone to the cellular phone age with no time to look back, rather I believe, no ways to look back.

The market demands more and more innovation and it’s a jungle out there with the smartest to rule and the ‘obsolete’ to die out. The fact that does technology drives the market or the market drives technology advancement is similar to the chicken and egg story. The cellular phone we use today has a GPS enabled, a camera, a huge memory capacity, games, organizers etc, but how many of these facilities we use is the question that bothers me. We have all the gadgets, technology packed and suave, but the necessity is not defined or measured. This is what happens when we have a lot of options and companies giving us ‘good to haves’ at throw away rates. We like it or not, we have to move on or else the waves of time will push us to move ahead and embrace new technology. Nokia mobiles are leading the industry in sales while Sony Ericsson mobiles are the best technology packed items. Most of the Nokia mobiles are nice to look at and technology packed, but are costly.