He doesn't own a mobile phone and he is proud of it. And he thinks virtualization is over-hyped. Find out what else we prize from Linux guru Linus Torvalds. "Linux has done what I wanted it to do for the last fifteen years, literally. So since very early on my motivation actually came from the outside: my motivation came from problems that other people see. I don't see the problems, my usage model is actually fairly simple and it's still the same development model that I tend to concentrate on. So I am actually motivated by other people's issues, and sometimes they make me go 'those people are just crazy, that's just insane', but sometimes the crazy people have some of the most interesting problems too."
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Member since:2006-02-15
Phone cuts down the middle and gives you the basest form of communication - the ums, ands, errs of conversation, with none of the humanistic benefits.
That is actually one of the reasons why I very much hate talking on the phone. And I have some issues which makes it almost unbearable for me to talk on the phone to people who I don't know from before. I could easily talk face-to-face but when I can't see them and their facial expressions I just kind of lock-up and can't say anything :/ But well, I sure love sending SMS messages all around! 
Member since:2007-04-11
Member since:2005-07-06
My phone has this super neat feature which your phone might have as well. When it rings I can see, before I answer, who's calling. And if it's someone I don't want to talk to right then I can press a button that makes the phone stop ringing without actually ever having to talk to that person. Hell I don't even have to check who's calling, I can just make it stop ringing and check who called later. If someone had something really important to say they'll follow up by sending an SMS, which I can read at my convenience. This way I can have my phone on and still only talk to those people I want to talk to when I want to talk to them, and if an emergency of some sort pops up (like a bunch of my friends decide to go out to pub and they want to know if I want to join them), I can find out about it right away.
I'll admit that if my phone didn't have those features it would be very annoying.
Member since:2006-02-15
Member since:2005-07-28
Most phones have that, but the point is I don't even want it to ring or vibrate or anything to distract me. I feel like an animal sometimes, my whole life led by the sounds of alarm and bells.
I think it is time for me to move to the Great Basin and start a doomsday religion.
Member since:
2005-07-28
My rule with my friends is I will talk for 30 seconds in the case of an emergency or a quick informational rap.
Otherwise, drop by and visit, or e-mail.
With e-mail you get word choice, detail, and compositional detail -- a communication that is sometimes prosaic, sometimes concise, but something you can file and refer back to if you like.
In real life conversations you get the full spectrum of communicative devices - facial expressions, gestures. You aren't limited by the technological limitations of cellphones where voices cut out when the other side starts to talk, not to mention the signal problems in bridges and so forth, low battery...
Phone cuts down the middle and gives you the basest form of communication - the ums, ands, errs of conversation, with none of the humanistic benefits. They're horrible. Which is why every phone conversation I've ever overheard has ranged from banal to plainly idiotic. Get behind some yakking teenager in the supermarket and you're in for some misery.
I think cell phones are fantastic as emergency devices. I despise them for every other use. I despise other people for not being able to shut up for 5 minutes. Mostly I despise people driving badly while yakking about asinine crap. Short conversations like "need directions" or "should I pick up milk" - this is where they come in handy and useful, imho.
Cell phones could have been a great thing. Instead, they're electronic drivel machines.
And Torvalds's point is probably the most important - since I'm going to turn it off anyway, because I'll talk to you *when it is damn well convenient for me to do so*, the utility is diminished. I might as well leave it in the car. When someone interrupts me to answer the phone, I find that pretty insulting, if only because (except in obvious emergency situations), I'd never do that to someone else.
People need to talk less and think more, jabber less and converse more, and we need less prattle and more discourse.
NOW GET OFF MY LAWN YOU IPHONE TOTING WEENIES. IN MY DAY, WE DIDN'T NEED BLUETOOTH AND TEXTING AND CELL PHONES.
WE'D YELL AND SCREAM FROM THE TOP OF HILLS AT EACH OTHER UNTIL OUR THROATS WENT RAW AND WE WERE COUGHING UP BLOOD AND EVEN OUR MOTHERS TIRED OF OUR VOICES, AND WE'D BE SENT OUT TO THE WOODS TO DIE LIKE ANIMALS....AND WE *LIKED* IT.