Author Archives: Joshua Fruhlinger

This is the Modem World: Why don’t I crash?

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World TKTKTK

My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. It raged with 3.5K of RAM, a high-speed cassette deck, and built-in BASIC. I used to copy game programs string-by-string from the back of COMPUTE! magazine -- tens of thousands of lines of code -- and small errors were not an option. One syntax error and the program wouldn't work. When I did make those errors, I'd go back, line by line, and check for differences. There was nothing -- at the time -- more annoying than seeing hours of code crash because of one bad POKE statement.

That digital fastidiousness has stuck with me since. I keep all my computers' files in order, keep operating systems updated, backup constantly to a remote storage device and quickly go after a machine that's behaving strangely. The net result, and I may be tempting fate, is that I have never had a computer completely fail in the thirty years I've been using them.

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This is the Modem World: Nothing is new. It’s been done before.

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World Nothing is new It's been done before

It's funny how things come back around. When I was growing up in the '80s, music was looking back at the '50s and '60s and re-creating it into some of the best bands the world has seen. Paul Weller wouldn't have become the songwriter he is had he not grown up on the Beatles. Likewise, Paul McCartney wouldn't have become the genius that he is had he not been raised on Little Richard. And now, bands are looking back at the '80s and re-doing that explosive era -- with both good and bad results that I will not go into here lest I make new enemies.

Culture is cyclical, and we're beginning to see that technology is bound to follow that same rinse-and-repeat formula.

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This is the Modem World: Who’s driving this thing?

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

This is the Modem World Who's driving this thing

I was never a fan of push notifications. The only alerts I wanted to get while my phone was sleeping included calls, texts and super-important reminders. I didn't need to know if someone liked the photo that I shared. I didn't want to be notified if I hadn't played a particular game in a few days. I'd get around to it. I'd find out on my own.

But lately, mobile operating system makers are pushing the push, rallying to turn their home screens into notification centers that cull all your social, entertainment and organizational information to allegedly make our lives easier. And, to be fair, the more information we consume, the more home screens filled with notifications and push messages are beginning to make sense: show me what's up so I don't have to go find it. I get it now.

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This is the Modem World: When tech can’t save us from road rage

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World When tech can't save us from road rage

So I'm driving home the other night after a decent day of work, looking forward to a little run, some dinner and maybe a movie. Taking my normal north-south route along Crescent Heights, I listen to Tame Impala to calm the nerves and enter another mental state.

I'm at one of those intersections in which two lanes become one because of a parked car in the right lane ahead. I, being in the right lane, gun it a bit at the start in order to get some distance from the guy on my left.

He's having none of this, apparently.

Turns out my car is faster, though, and I edge him out. I see him wave his arms frantically, shaking them and then applauding.

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This is the Modem World: When we Google too much

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World When We Google Too Much

Our cat Mischa is ill, and I am sad. But sadness is only one of the things I am feeling. Because of technology and the internet, I am angry, frustrated and a little bit freaked out.

Here's why.

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This is the Modem World: Nerds in rabbit holes

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World Nerds in Rabbit Holes

I have many interests: mountain biking, martial arts, video games, running, reading, cooking and horror movies. For each one of these, there is an internet rabbit hole so deep, so full of information and compatriots that it's a miracle I ever actually follow through on them. Ask yourself this: Do you do what you say you do online?

The internet is great at allowing people to nerd out on their particular interests. While it serves up news and media like a champ, many of us spend our time deep-diving into whatever rabbit hole interests us. When we nerd out about technology here at Engadget, for instance, we're getting a double dose: reading about technology in a tech environment. It's a beautiful thing; it's addictive and we lose sight of reality while we're going deep. We could be in a bar, at home, at the office -- wherever it is, we lose sense of our environment.

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This is the Modem World: The internet may be killing cash

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

This is the Modem World The Internet May Be Killing Cash

We worship money. It can be exchanged for life-sustaining stuff, makes us powerful and drives us to make new things. It also drives us to do some very strange stuff, but that's a subject for another day and place. You may not bow to the altar of the dollar, but you certainly recognize the need to have some in order to survive.

While we adore money as a society, its time may be limited as a currency, and the internet may be to blame. Money wasn't always king. Before we traded cash, we exchanged gold, cows, clamshells, rice, copper, tea leaves and even bat guano. At some point in those currencies' lives, people determined that there were other things worth more and moved on to trade those.

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This is the Modem World: Why are we still texting?

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

DNP This is the Modem World Why are we still texting

"Just text me..."

How many times have you told someone that? Say you're meeting a friend somewhere: What's the first thing you do when you get there? You text him or her to announce your arrival. Why? Because that's how you're trained. You don't email, call or use some other protocol.

And you know what? You're paying for that text even though you already have a data plan, unless you're grandfathered into one of the better unlimited plans of the 20th century. Truth is, SMS texts are perhaps the most lucrative service that providers offer -- more so than data or voice plans, and they want us to keep using the outdated technology whether we need to or not.

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This is the Modem World: The dark side of Google Glass

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

This is the Modem World: The dark side of Google Glass

I want to be excited about Google Glass -- I really do. I saw Robocop as a kid and dreamed that, one day, I too could walk around with a HUD that would feed me information on call, receive messages and record the world around me.

But now that years have passed and I've witnessed humanity worship the smartphone, make prevalent voice-controlled navigation and perfect self-mounted, POV digital video cameras, I'm not so sure that Google Glass is going to be good for us as a society. There is a dark side to what appears to be a wonderful coming together of complementary technology, and I'm here to poop this party.

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This is the Modem World: The dark side of Google Glass

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Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.

This is the Modem World: The dark side of Google Glass

I want to be excited about Google Glass -- I really do. I saw Robocop as a kid and dreamed that, one day, I too could walk around with a HUD that would feed me information on call, receive messages and record the world around me.

But now that years have passed and I've witnessed humanity worship the smartphone, make prevalent voice-controlled navigation and perfect self-mounted, POV digital video cameras, I'm not so sure that Google Glass is going to be good for us as a society. There is a dark side to what appears to be a wonderful coming together of complementary technology, and I'm here to poop this party.

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