Pet Peeves
Digital Devices
Topics covered in this document:
Introduction
Do we really need to be absolutely accurate, down to
the second? Do I really need to know how much I weigh,
down to the tenth of a pound or kilogram? How does it
improve my quality of life to know the exact outside
temperature?
What is this fixation with precision? We don't live
in a precise world ... so why are we replacing all those
perfectly good analog devices with digital devices?
Okay ... my job is with computers. I love them! They're
wonderful. So what am I complaining about? Well, it's
all those digital devices that don't add that much to my
life.
Digital Cameras
Do you think we'll ever have enough pixels in a camera
to match the millions of crystals per square centimeter
in regular film? Will a pixel be able to offer a near-infinite
range of brightness? Let's get serious here.
Sure it's nice to have an instantly viewable picture
on the back of a digital camera ... and we can send digital
photos to our friends and family via email ... or put them
on a CD or DVD. But what do they do with the digital photos
then? Huddle around the computer every time someone wants
to relive old memories?
For permanent photos, people still print them out. But
I guess it does spread the cost over more people. Instead
of me paying for reprints, I can just send the digital
copy and make everyone else pay for them. It works out
okay financially ... until people start sending digital
photos to me.
I have several CDs and DVDs on the shelf with family
photos on them. I looked at the photos when I got the CD
or DVD in the mail from the developer. But I'll probably
never put the CD in my computer again to look at those
photos.
Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. Dare I admit I do own
a Canon digital camera? Or that I really do like digital
cameras in general? Am I a hypocrit?
Digital Watches
And what about those digital watches that so many people
are so fond of?
Ask someone the time and you won't get an answer like
"a quarter to six." No. You'll get "it's five forty-seven,"
or some such answer. Does that mean I've somehow lost
a couple of minutes, thinking it was really "5:45" instead
of "5:47?"
How do I even know your watch is accurate? Does it receive
a signal from some time standard to keep it in sync? Of
course, with today's technology, it just might.
And what about it's cousin, the digital clock? How many
times have you lost power in your house and had to go around
resetting all the digital clocks? [While I'm on this subject,
why do all digital clocks have to have completely different
ways to set them? Why can't there be a standard set of buttons
on all digital clocks ... in the house and in the car?]
Does it bother you to watch the digital clock on your
VCR (if you still have one) or on your DVD clicking off
the next minute just a few seconds earlier than the digital
clock on your microwave? Even if you sync them once, they're
not accurate enough to stay in sync over long periods of
time.
For the ultimate in accurate timekeeping, why not have
a satellite broadcast time sync signals every tenth of
a second throughout the world? And every digital device
could be outfitted with a receiver so all I had to do is
turn the power on and within a tenth of a second, my digital
watch or clock would be set.
No buttons or complicated setup procedure. And everyone
in the world would have the exact same time ... well, all
except for those pesky time zones. Well, we'd also have
to worry about things like which cities honor daylight
savings time ... or what to do about those who do honor
it, but start on different days of the month.
Nature is Imprecise
Look at nature. It's not precise.
For starters, the Earth doesn't conveniently go around
the Sun in a precise multiple of a day or of a week or
of a month. Wouldn't it be nice if we went around the sun
in exactly 360 days ... down to the nanosecond? Then we
could have 12 months of 30 days each ... and never have
to adjust anything every leap year (or every 400 years).
We could have months of exactly three 10-day weeks or six
5-day weeks (though I'd rather have ten 3-day weeks).
In nature, everything gets rounded off ... or approximated
... even pi.
Just one of my pet peeves. Sorry to trouble you. Even
though I love digital computers and cameras, I refuse to
buy a digital watch.
What Next?
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Have a pleasant day!
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