Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

I was reading the New York Times on my iPad at breakfast this morning when I saw the above photo and died laughing.

The article is really interesting and talks about our addiction to gadgets causing problems with our ability to focus, which then hurts deep thought and creativity – a lot of the stuff covered in You 2.0. They even cite a UC Irvine study, which I’m pretty sure is the study done by Gloria Mark, who’s in the film.

One thing I’ve noticed is a lot of the gadget addicts, or at least people who can’t handle the balance between interacting with the real world and virtual one (gadget etiquette), seem to be adults in their 40s and 50s.

Ever since my father got a Blackberry he’s always checking email (and he still talks really loud on the phone in restaurants, holding the mic in front of his mouth like he’s on a walkie-talkie). It’ll get to the point where his fiancé and I will tell him to put the damn thing down.

I’m not saying I don’t text or email at dinner, but I’ll only do it if I’m left out of the conversation and I’ll stop mid-text if someone starts talking to me.

And as for multi-tasking, my mom claims she can multi-task, like talk on the phone while writing an email, but it’s total BS and I’ve called her out on it. She’ll be on the phone with me and I’ll quiz her on what I just said and she won’t remember.

So is that age just a rough transitional generation that’s figuring out how to incorporate the use of gadgets in life while still maintaining human interaction, while my generation is used to having smart phones and can better handle the two?

By the way, this is my first fully iPad generated post, and it was a great and easy experience.

This is some typewriter hating right here.

Of course he could have always downloaded this to his computer.

Great TED Talk by Dan Pink on how rewards do not make a great motivation tool. There’s tons of research from decades worth of studies that have proved this, yet the system still continues as normal.

There’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.

He also touches on Results Only Work Environments (ROWE), which I’m a big fan of and that idea was part of what inspired me to go independent.

Also making the rounds is the release of a study by Stanford concluding that multitasking makes you bad at everything you’re doing.

The huge finding is, the more media people use the worse they are at using any media.

So, bottom line, if you see an executive multitasking who works on rewards, run far away.

Writing on a manual [typewriter] makes you slower in a good way, I think. You don’t revise as much, you just think more, because you know you’re going to have to retype the entire fucking thing. Which is a big stop on just slapping anything down and playing with it.
- Will Self

Reading the title you can probably guess what this program can do, or more what it can’t do. The above quote got me thinking about the process of writing on a typewriter and I was surprised to not be able to find any program that could mimic that interaction.

So on a whim I ran with this weird idea and turned to Elance, where I found Denis Sokol in Russia and he created this program.

It’s super, super simple and basic. All you can do is type in one direction. You can’t delete, you can’t copy, you can’t paste. You can save and print. And you can switch between black text on white and green on black; full screen and window.

Download Here

The program runs through Java, so it should work on any operating system, but make sure you have the latest version of Java here. Feel free to share, modify, and post the program however you like. All I ask is that you please reference this site with a link either directly to this post or the site (http://www.lifehackingmovie.com).

Hope you enjoy and let me know what are you thoughts are on using it.

This software is licensed under the CC-GNU GPL version 2.0 or later.

I have Crohn’s Disease. I’ve been hospitalized twice in two different cities that are not where I’m living, so tracking down my medical records has always been an issue.

I’m on the right medication now, and I haven’t had any issues for over a year, but the lack of warning symptoms always worries me that I could have a flare up any time, any place.

So far Haiti I made a digital dog tag. Basically it’s a USB drive with emergency information, medical records, and other important data.

Here’s what’s on it:

• Emergency Text File – This file, named !Emergency so it stays at the top, has all my personal information (full legal name, date of birth, current address), illnesses I have, medications I’m on, and a few emergency contacts with “In case of emergency, contact” in a few different languages. I also have a printed copy.
• Passport Image – A scan of my passport
• Medical Records – I asked my doctor’s office to make me a copy of everything they have. I ran it all through my Canon Pixma all-in-one (much cheaper than a ScanSnap) and saved it as one big PDF.

I like to play worst case scenarios in my mind, and of course the obvious one is what happens if I lose the drive or it gets stolen. Identity security versus medical safety.

I decided to take the risk and not password protect my records because I’d rather be a healthy victim of identity theft than something worse.

I’ve put the drive on a metal chain which I’ll wear around my neck, so it should be very secure.

Any ideas for anything else that should go on the drive?

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning. Follow me to see how things go.

Photo by bruckerrib

The terms were for $100 they would transcribe 15 hours of footage over 2 business days. Well let’s just say you get what you pay for.

It ended up taking about a month for everything to be completed. Now normally that would be unacceptably long, but I was so busy with other stuff I didn’t have time to work on the film, there was no rush. Plus the low, low price and headaches it saved me was worth it.

The transcriber dude (or company) said the hiccups were due to the footage containing a lot of techno mumbo-jumbo, and I’m sure the people doing the transcribing were not native English speakers. I bet he wanted to charge me more after he realized what a headache I provided, but he stuck to the original price. For what I got it was well worth it.

The transcribed files were to my specifications, with time code marks and speakers identified. I’ve printed them all out and they fill a 2-inch binder. They’re now covered in notes and highlights and is the bible for editing. (The provider was CreativeBlox. Despite the length I would recommend them.)

I’ve been experimenting with Elance for other jobs but haven’t had as much success. One was for someone to build a custom WordPress theme for this site and another site, but all the bids I got were for generic, corporate lamo blog designs.

I posted it under programming, but I think I needed a graphic designer. Ideally a graphic designer/WordPress guru. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Another job was for this weird text editor program idea I had, similar to JDarkRoom or WriteRoom. This was a really simple lifehackery mod to a text editor program I wanted to put on this site. I thought it would be cheap and easy but I was getting bids for hundreds of dollars. Any programmers? Bueller? Bueller?

I just called about 40 unregistered voters in California to remind them to mail in their registration form by Monday, via Rock the Vote. While the project itself doesn’t sound too mind blowing, it was how we did it.

Rock the Vote has a Facebook Application that anyone can install to call people in states where voter registration is still open from a list of people who were previously sent voter registration forms from Rock the Vote.

As you can see, they supply you with a name and number and a script with every possible scenario and outcome. The majority ended up being voicemail messages, but how awesome is this? Anyone can join, call, and help the cause. We’re in Tallahassee calling voters in California.

A group of about 20 of us got together and in 90 minutes we called over 1100 people.

Think about all the causes that could use something like this. Whether you call 1 or 100 people, each call helps take the load off struggling non-profits who would’ve needed to hire someone to do this.

And through the magic of Facebook, the Application even put a message in my feed letting everyone know I’m getting people to register to vote, with a link for them to add the application and help too.

The app was developed by Nico Networks. No idea what it costs, but I’m sure it’s cheaper than hiring a telemarketing team.

Hopefully more organizations will start using Facebook Applications to their full potential, and for causes a little more meaningful than sending Bumper Stickers.

And of course, make sure you’re registered to vote and vote on November 4!

First TechCrunch50 dispatch. Micoy has created a 3D technology that lets you walk around and interact in a 3D virtual environment.

What prevents this with traditional 3D technology is since there is only one focal point, when you look away you lose the 3D illusion. With their technology, each pixel is 3D so you can look anywhere and still maintain the virtual illusion.

With sensors you can even interact with the world a la Minority Report style.

Check out the camera to shoot live action towards the end of the podcast. It’s like Disney’s Circle-Vision on steroids.

Star Trek’s Holodeck a Reality – Episode 02