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why I'm still on paper
Feb. 10th, 2010 08:09 amA lot of people today run their lives off of Blackberries or iphones or other devices which are supposed to be spelled with a capital letter in the middle. I don't, and an article comparing the iphone with Google's competing Nexus shows why.
The article uses as an example the appointment calendar function, and illustrates this with side-by-side photos of the two devices' month view. Here they are:
Then, also, you have to stuff your brain with all the commands, which are never intuitive to me, and which will all be totally different when you replace the device, even if you get one from the same company. I have enough trouble with my cellphone and my desk computer in that regard; I don't need another one.
For my entire adult life, every fall I've wandered down to a stationery store - since I moved here out of grad school, it's always been the same store which I know always carries them and has them in stock - to buy a pocket-sized spiral-bound "month at-a-glance" calendar made by this company. Here's a small sample view of a page from something similar to the one I get:
I don't normally lead a life of heavy appointments, and when I've had one at work, a page-a-day desk calendar has been sufficient to keep track of that. This is for my personal appointments, and since one inch square a day is enough to keep track of them, what I most want is the ability to view them all over a month period, and to be able to freehand scribble as much or as little info as I need about them, up to what will fill the box. And write smaller or spill over when that's necessary. A green bar or a little dot doesn't tell me what my appointments are without dropping down to a closer view. This does, and it has worked exactly the same way for decades, even centuries, and that's why I'm keeping it.
It also has an address book section (I keep my address file on my computer, update it each year with the hand-written corrections from the previous year's book, print it out, and paste it in), and an inside cover pocket which is useful for keeping coupons, bookstore trade slips, stamps, reminder lists, etc. So it's all in one, and all I have to do is remember where I put it and to check my schedule in it, problems I'd have with an electronic one as well. I have all my old ones dating back to the dawn of time, and they're occasionally useful too, like for when I wanted to make a list of everything our book discussion group had ever read.
But what I most like is that I have a whole month at a glance. I like wide views and context, which is one reason I'm not totally enamored of reading on an iphone or even a larger device like a Kindle. I need to be able to see more text at once to keep track of where I am. (Trying an iphone convinced me it would be OK for very light reading, or for re-reading books I already know, as an agreeable way to pass the time.) This is also one reason I'm not giving up paper maps for electronic ones. The large-area views don't have enough detail, and the small-area views don't cover enough area.
The devices, in short, are too small, and anything large enough is too large, and too heavy, to conveniently carry around all the time. Until they make a computer that's as lightweight as paper and that folds up like paper, and no, an implant would not be a good substitute, I'll keep using my paper devices so long as I can get them.
The article uses as an example the appointment calendar function, and illustrates this with side-by-side photos of the two devices' month view. Here they are:
The Nexus is on the left, the iphone on the right. The writer's point is that Nexus more easily shows how much of each day is booked, while the iphone has more convenient navigation buttons. But with both of them, you have to navigate off the month view to see your appointments.
Then, also, you have to stuff your brain with all the commands, which are never intuitive to me, and which will all be totally different when you replace the device, even if you get one from the same company. I have enough trouble with my cellphone and my desk computer in that regard; I don't need another one.
For my entire adult life, every fall I've wandered down to a stationery store - since I moved here out of grad school, it's always been the same store which I know always carries them and has them in stock - to buy a pocket-sized spiral-bound "month at-a-glance" calendar made by this company. Here's a small sample view of a page from something similar to the one I get:
The actual two-page spread is 6.5 x 7 inches, and each day's box is about one inch square.
I don't normally lead a life of heavy appointments, and when I've had one at work, a page-a-day desk calendar has been sufficient to keep track of that. This is for my personal appointments, and since one inch square a day is enough to keep track of them, what I most want is the ability to view them all over a month period, and to be able to freehand scribble as much or as little info as I need about them, up to what will fill the box. And write smaller or spill over when that's necessary. A green bar or a little dot doesn't tell me what my appointments are without dropping down to a closer view. This does, and it has worked exactly the same way for decades, even centuries, and that's why I'm keeping it.
It also has an address book section (I keep my address file on my computer, update it each year with the hand-written corrections from the previous year's book, print it out, and paste it in), and an inside cover pocket which is useful for keeping coupons, bookstore trade slips, stamps, reminder lists, etc. So it's all in one, and all I have to do is remember where I put it and to check my schedule in it, problems I'd have with an electronic one as well. I have all my old ones dating back to the dawn of time, and they're occasionally useful too, like for when I wanted to make a list of everything our book discussion group had ever read.
But what I most like is that I have a whole month at a glance. I like wide views and context, which is one reason I'm not totally enamored of reading on an iphone or even a larger device like a Kindle. I need to be able to see more text at once to keep track of where I am. (Trying an iphone convinced me it would be OK for very light reading, or for re-reading books I already know, as an agreeable way to pass the time.) This is also one reason I'm not giving up paper maps for electronic ones. The large-area views don't have enough detail, and the small-area views don't cover enough area.
The devices, in short, are too small, and anything large enough is too large, and too heavy, to conveniently carry around all the time. Until they make a computer that's as lightweight as paper and that folds up like paper, and no, an implant would not be a good substitute, I'll keep using my paper devices so long as I can get them.
