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Well ain't this fun. My internet provider is abandoning my town and will no longer do repairs so I need to find a new provider for $$$$$$ so I tried to pay all my bills and was denied access to 2 because my chromebook is outdated so I need to buy a new updated one $$$$$ I know stamps are expensive but not this expensive.Tried to buy a new chromebook on amazon and they will not ship to my address fun city.I do not like this modern world one flip of a switch and you are down kinda scary.
Well ain't this fun. My internet provider is abandoning my town and will no longer do repairs so I need to find a new provider for $$$$$$ so I tried to pay all my bills and was denied access to 2 because my chromebook is outdated so I need to buy a new updated one $$$$$ I know stamps are expensive but not this expensive.Tried to buy a new chromebook on amazon and they will not ship to my address fun city.I do not like this modern world one flip of a switch and you are down kinda scary.
You may have to get starlink, but it is pricey.
Why not just go to Best Buy or similar to pick up a new chromebook? You know they automatically age out though.
You may have to find the nearest Amazon lockers and use them in the future.
Modern world? No, it looks like you are going to have to do it the old school way.
Lesson from the above, is how easy modern tech makes our lives.
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It's tough to live these days (or for past 30 yrs) without decent internet access (which plenty of rural USA does not have).
Two device authentication adds another level of complexity (no cell signal in rural areas)
Those developing software, applications and security must be doing it from systems tied to a network with dependable connectivity, as it doesn't work that way in 'real life' of a typical user.
We're toast.
A couple years ago, I got into a back-and-forth discussion (argument) with a poster about the availability of high speed internet and cell service in rural areas. This poster kept insisting that everyone had access to internet and 5G even though I live in an area where the high speed ends just a few poles down the road from me and we still don't have 5G, in fact large dead areas with no coverage. So many developers live in cities with everything around them, they don't realize large swaths of the country are rural.
True story: I had a boss a few years ago who felt we spent too much on rural transportation and everyone should live in the city. When I asked "what about farmers who grow the food need roads to get to market" he said "They should move to the city and they won't need trucks to haul food; they can buy it at the store like everyone else."
A couple years ago, I got into a back-and-forth discussion (argument) with a poster about the availability of high speed internet and cell service in rural areas. This poster kept insisting that everyone had access to internet and 5G even though I live in an area where the high speed ends just a few poles down the road from me and we still don't have 5G, in fact large dead areas with no coverage. So many developers live in cities with everything around them, they don't realize large swaths of the country are rural.
True story: I had a boss a few years ago who felt we spent too much on rural transportation and everyone should live in the city. When I asked "what about farmers who grow the food need roads to get to market" he said "They should move to the city and they won't need trucks to haul food; they can buy it at the store like everyone else."
LMAO, that's a good story. How did he get to be boss?
I was living in a very rural area in Ontario for a time. We had satellite Internet, and there was never going to be anything better because it would not be worth the expense to any company to run miles of fiber optics to serve a few people, most of whom were not there for the winter anyway.
I'm also in a rural area, heavily forested mountains. Plenty of people here are still using DSL for home internet, or nothing at all. I had a neighbor with satellite internet and service often dropped out during winter storms. A few times she went and stayed at a hotel in town because she needed internet for work. Sounds expensive.
Cell phone coverage here is very spotty. "I was out of range" is a common phrase. If I ever find the right property for sale, I'm hoping it'll be out of range.
LMAO, that's a good story. How did he get to be boss?
I was living in a very rural area in Ontario for a time. We had satellite Internet, and there was never going to be anything better because it would not be worth the expense to any company to run miles of fiber optics to serve a few people, most of whom were not there for the winter anyway.
I wonder about something like healthcare. Rural people often believe they should get the same services that people in cities take for granted. I'm not talking about simply a medical clinic where they can see the doctor. Many believe they should have access within just a few miles to fully equipped hospitals with a full menu of services. My b-i-l was an orthopedic surgeon and worked in surprisingly well equipped hospitals in cities with less than 20,000 people performing hip and knee replacement surgeries.
I've wondered if one of the keys to cutting health care expenses is to close some of these hospitals and require those in rural areas to come to the big cities to get anything more than emergency care and family medicine.
Its not popular to advocate what I do. I've irritated several people even making this suggestion. Yet, it should be obvious that the per person cost of delivering services like total knee replacements is going to be higher in rural areas where the demand for this sort of thing is not as high as in cities.
.......I've wondered if one of the keys to cutting health care expenses is to close some of these hospitals and require those in rural areas to come to the big cities to get anything more than emergency care and family medicine.
........
Well, like I say, if so, you won't have to worry long about me. Being forced off the ranch and having to move to the city would kill me a lot quicker.
It seems to me that the ability to live mostly "tech-free" is drawing to a very rapid close. More and more people are assuming that everyone has a Smartphone with various apps, that everyone has Uber service available to them and having a car for individual use is selfish and wasteful, that anyone who does not subscribe to modern urban leftist beliefs is an idiot, and that expecting good service in restaurants is silly and unrealistic. In addition to this, brick and mortar stores are rapidly disappearing or in financial trouble, and Kindles have mostly replaced old-fashioned books -- and now the latest (so far as I know) is that Best Buy will stop selling DVDs because so many people subscribe to a streaming service. CDs (compact discs) are also becoming more obsolete, from what I have read-- but what is funny to me is that I have noticed that vinyl LPs have made a return in popularity.
So, if you do agree that our way of life is going the way of the dinosaur, how much longer do you think those of us who prefer a simple and mostly tech-free environment will be able to resist and refrain from joining the 21st century?
And, yes, I know the above is something of a rant, but -- of course -- feel free to post your own rants!
It’s interesting because I’ve found tech has enabled me to have a much simpler life in so many ways.
I so remember the days before computers and the palaver trying to get passports, book hotels, book long distance calls, having to catch a bus to town to go to departments/ offices to fill out bureaucratic forms. Spending hours in town trying to hunt for this or that and getting home worn out with empty hands.
Add to that being able to get an mri, x ray and blood tests and get online to see the results within days and processing that info via zoom is a godsend when dealing with critical health issues and concerns.
I think that things are better in general but I fear it's starting to go too far. What annoys me the most is having to go to the trouble of setting up an account with a password just to do one simple thing that I'm never going to do again.
Used to be, you could make a phone call and talk to a real person instead of needing to set up an account so that you can "chat." Now, if you call the place you just get a robot and anyway they usually just tell you to visit their website (for which you have to set up an account.)
Another thing is that it's extremely difficult for many of the elderly. If they can't see well enough or don't have the manual dexterity to use a phone, they 're in trouble. Sometimes I feel like we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
How about when you buy something and there are no instructions? Oh, you just go online and find the model # of what you bought and print out the instructions. Would be so much simpler if they were generous enough to provide instructions on paper in the first place.
But I've always loved doing research and learning new things, I love having my phone give me driving directions so I don't get lost, have paid bills online for many years, etc. Just wondering if it's starting to go a little bit too far.
I wonder about something like healthcare. Rural people often believe they should get the same services that people in cities take for granted. I'm not talking about simply a medical clinic where they can see the doctor. Many believe they should have access within just a few miles to fully equipped hospitals with a full menu of services. My b-i-l was an orthopedic surgeon and worked in surprisingly well equipped hospitals in cities with less than 20,000 people performing hip and knee replacement surgeries.
I've wondered if one of the keys to cutting health care expenses is to close some of these hospitals and require those in rural areas to come to the big cities to get anything more than emergency care and family medicine.
Its not popular to advocate what I do. I've irritated several people even making this suggestion. Yet, it should be obvious that the per person cost of delivering services like total knee replacements is going to be higher in rural areas where the demand for this sort of thing is not as high as in cities.
In the rural Ontario area where I stayed there was a six-bed hospital with an emergency department about fifteen miles away. It was the smallest hospital in that particular system. If you needed more care than they could give, you were transported to the nearest larger hospital about an hour and a half away.
They also had a service that started in the rural areas and then found its way to the more suburban places by the time I left. Paramedics could be called to the home and they were authorized to make a determination whether the patient could be treated by them right there or if a trip to the hospital was necessary.
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