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This is the Modem World: The connected cyclist's dilemma
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. The number of health-tracking gadgets and apps is officially out of control. Fitbit just announced its Force activity-tracking watch. Apple integrated Nike+ and activity sensors into its latest smartphone. Jawbone, while initially a Bluetooth headset maker, is now pushing the Up. Nike FuelBand. BodyMedia Link. Pebble. Pear Pro. I can keep going. Heck, Garmin, which has been making fitness-related GPS devices for years, is on a roll, and I should know because I spent hundreds on a Garmin 810 a couple months ago.
This is the Modem World: There are no 'Classic Gadgets' and here's why
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. She was parked on Palos Verdes Boulevard. I was chugging up the hill on my road bike, trying to get some much-needed exercise on an early Saturday morning. The cool mist was still rolling in from the Pacific Ocean, and combined with the early morning horizontal light, it created little beads of moisture on her white finish like a can of beer on a hot summer's day. I romanticize, yes, but she was a Lotus Esprit, my favorite car of all time, in perfect condition. I'm not sure why the Esprit is my favorite, but it certainly has something to do with James Bond and a die-cast toy version I had in the '80s. Either way, I love the car, and it, to me, is a classic design. It broke design barriers in the '70s when other cars of the time -- ones that we consider classics -- were huge and angry. This one was sleek and futuristic; small, but big on the eyes. I drew it over and over again on school notebooks. I tried to improve the design by coming up with my own version called the Aerovette. But nothing was as perfect as the white 1977 Esprit.
This is the Modem World: Everything is over-designed -- everything
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I had a conversation with a friend today about the upcoming PS4 birth. We're both crazy excited about getting the new console come November. I mean, what's better than a brand-new box of electronics delivered via UPS on a sick day? Seriously, what's better? I'll wait.
This is the Modem World: The warm embrace of the machine
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. My glasses are about 5 years old. I realized last week that it's probably high time to replace them. Besides, I needed a new contacts prescription and, for all I know, my eyes have completely changed in those short five years. It's also important to mention that my glasses look like they're about 5 years old, so yeah, it was time. I pulled up Yelp and sought out an optometrist in the area who accepted my form of vision insurance. I made my appointment online. I received an email confirmation shortly after. The day before the appointment, I received a robo-call reminding me of the time and location.
This is the Modem World: Cooking is good for nerds. Nerds are good at cooking.
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. Let's over-generalize the nerd archetype for a moment: unhealthy, eats fast food, drinks sugary sodas, sits on his (or her) butt playing video games, a misanthrope with nothing better to do than troll Reddit and pirate some leet warez. Antisocial, anti-nature, probably works in IT while angrily commenting on tech blogs behind the shield of anonymity. We all know that's not accurate, but there is always truth in the construct others give us. Appease me, won't you?
This is the Modem World: The brain modem is here
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. Consider this headline: "Researcher controls colleague's motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface." This. Happened. University of Washington nerds put an electrode-speckled cap on Rajesh Rao and attached it to a computer that was connected to the internet. They then put Andrea Stocco in another room on the other side of the University of Washington campus, plopped another electrode cap on him and connected that to a computer.
This is the Modem World: Movies are no longer fun now that I know everything
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. My mom loves to tell the story about the first time I ever saw Star Wars. "He was 6 years old," she tells anyone within earshot. "Barely able to see over the seat in front of him, grasping a popcorn in one hand, soda in the other. It was the only time I ever let him drink soda," she lies to assuage any doubts about her parenting abilities. "Then the words come up, the ones that disappear into space. And the John Williams music. Joshua's mouth drops open. He then clutched the popcorn and soda and didn't touch them for the next two hours. He was lost in another world."
This is the Modem World: Hyperloop, we can do this
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. So Elon Musk revealed his vision to build a roller coaster between LA and San Francisco. The reaction, at least so far, has been positive and dreamy. At first, Musk said he wasn't going to build it, but clearly as a reaction to the love we've thrown his way, he plans to build a "demonstration article." Can we please, please make this happen?
This is the Modem World: The day Google died
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. One day, Google will not be the technology giant that it is today. Consider the following: In 1968, the Pontiac GTO was Motor Trend's Car of the Year. Today, Pontiac is a historical footnote of General Motors. In 1981, IBM launched the PC, which became the de facto standard of personal computers, spawning hundreds of PC clones and dominating the computing market to this day. In 2005, the IBM PC business was acquired by Lenovo, and the IBM PC is no more.
This is the Modem World: The sinister side of the '80s BBS
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. Some of the following, for legal reasons, may or may not be fictional. My first modem was a 300-baud Apple-Cat II. It was an expansion card for the Apple II and simply plugged into a phone line. It was, simply put, a bad-ass piece of technology that turned me into a total digital delinquent. While my parents thought I was innocently learning to code BBSes (bulletin board systems) I was actually learning how to get things for free and paving the way for software pirates, phone phreaks and straight-up frauds of the future. The Apple-Cat II could connect to other Apple-Cat IIs at 1200 baud, which made file transfers pretty quick for the time. This meant we could trade entire games in about an hour. We'd log into bulletin board systems, share lists of things we had and set up times to dial one another to trade games. Usually a barter would take place -- your Aztec for my Hard Hat Mack. It was a lot like trading baseball cards, I imagine.
This is the Modem World: Social networking makes us feel alone
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I was listening to someone, somewhere, on something -- not really sure where, and it doesn't matter -- but someone said that they'd rather be alone than have friends who make them feel alone. It's probably been said by many people in many different ways, but for some reason, that saying has attached itself to me as I engage in my twice-daily social networking while comparing it to what I'm actually doing in my downtime that doesn't qualify as "work." Social networks make us feel alone. I'm not claiming to be the first to notice this, but now that there's a social network for pictures, for videos, for 140-character updates, for business networking, for food, for our pets...
This is the Modem World: We know too much
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I was enjoying a post-wedding celebration in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo just a few days ago, late-night ramen that turned into later-night karaoke until we were kicked out of the place around 4 AM. A good night, to be sure. As I was collecting my things, I checked my iPhone for the best route home -- I am perpetually lost in Los Angeles as it's a city that has no compass. It suggested a jaunt through Hollywood and on to La Cienega. In an effort to keep myself from sounding like an episode of SNL's "The Californians," I'll leave it at that.
This is the Modem World: Four ways to fix e-commerce and shipping companies
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I'm going out of my head right now. I came home hoping to find my cool new Santa Cruz mountain biking jersey all wrapped in plastic thanks to UPS via Chainlove.com, my crazy-discounted gear site of choice. We're not talking anything expensive -- I think the thing cost me $20, but I was psyched to have a team jersey from my favorite bike company. I'm a bike dork, what can I say? I should have been skeptical when I tracked my package from the office to learn that it had been left at my "front door" at exactly 2:00 PM. While it's possible the driver hit the 2 PM mark on the head, it's unlikely that he or she left anything at my "front door" given that it's three stories or 76 stairs -- my mom counts and complains every time she visits -- above the street. In fact, every single delivery I've ever received here was tossed over my little wooden fence. But in my head, everything was fine. The jersey was waiting for me, my future as a Santa Cruz team member assured. Victory was mine.
This is the Modem World: Internet radio is inhuman
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I gripped the handset, twirling the coiled wire around my wrist, listening for a ring tone. Instead, a busy signal triggered an autonomous twitch reaction in my teenage hand: hang up, wait for dial tone, hit redial, listen for ring tone. Again. Again.
This is the Modem World: Seven levels of nerd hierarchy
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I have a confession to make. I love /r/cringe, the sub-Reddit dedicated to those moments usually caught on video that make us feel better about our lots in life when we can watch a 30-second chunk of happenstance and walk away thinking, "I am at least one level of dork above that person." Back in the day you were either a nerd... or not. There were no levels of dorkiness like we have today. You were into computers and Dungeons & Dragons or you weren't: that was pretty much it. You were grouped into a subculture that enjoyed all things electronic, idolized Brian Tochi, knew who Steve Wozniak was and could explain why Weird Science was not a nerd revenge film, but actually a celebration of giving up the machine for love and conformity shrouded in a Hughesian attempt to finally give the dweebs a chance to get some. Still a cool movie, though, and a righteous theme song.
This is the Modem World: Digital junk food
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I'm hanging out in Atlanta right now, getting ready to speak at Digital Summit 2013 about things you're probably not terribly interested in. Most importantly, I'm sitting at a bar and just ordered what looks to be a monster of a burger called the "Hot Mess" at a place called Park Bar near my hotel. Despite my disdain for online review sites, it was either this via Yelp or the hotel bar and, well, I find hotel bars depressing. It's also pretty clear that the only reason I ordered the Hot Mess is because my wife isn't here to give me a hard time about it. No, I'm not a kept man, but I respect her knowledge of health and try to let her guide me most of the time. But when I'm on the road, I sometimes let all bets fall to the floor so that daddy can dig into a burger uninterrupted.
This is the Modem World: The Great Computer Cold War of 1982
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I've known my friend Jeff since I was 2 years old. He was one year ahead of me in school, but in everything else -- little league, school, girls -- we were extremely competitive. We both had two sisters and looked to one another as brothers and yardsticks for prepubescent success. He was better at baseball and I usually had better luck with the ladies. Being better at baseball helped him with the ladies and having a way with the girls made the baseball thing kind of irrelevant. In short, I was better. I saw Jeff last week, and as we reminisced about the good old days of baseball and babes, he reminded me of what he called The Great Computer Cold War of 1982. "The great what?" I asked him.
This is the Modem World: Why don't I crash?
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. It raged with 3.5K of RAM, a high-speed cassette deck, and built-in BASIC. I used to copy game programs string-by-string from the back of COMPUTE! magazine -- tens of thousands of lines of code -- and small errors were not an option. One syntax error and the program wouldn't work. When I did make those errors, I'd go back, line by line, and check for differences. There was nothing -- at the time -- more annoying than seeing hours of code crash because of one bad POKE statement. That digital fastidiousness has stuck with me since. I keep all my computers' files in order, keep operating systems updated, backup constantly to a remote storage device and quickly go after a machine that's behaving strangely. The net result, and I may be tempting fate, is that I have never had a computer completely fail in the thirty years I've been using them.
This is the Modem World: Why are we still texting?
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. "Just text me..." How many times have you told someone that? Say you're meeting a friend somewhere: What's the first thing you do when you get there? You text him or her to announce your arrival. Why? Because that's how you're trained. You don't email, call or use some other protocol. And you know what? You're paying for that text even though you already have a data plan, unless you're grandfathered into one of the better unlimited plans of the 20th century. Truth is, SMS texts are perhaps the most lucrative service that providers offer -- more so than data or voice plans, and they want us to keep using the outdated technology whether we need to or not.
This is the Modem World: Bring It On, Sony. Please.
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. The Wii U launch sort of came and went, didn't it? I mean, it's a nice console, but it certainly didn't cause any major waves. In fact, Nintendo only sold 57,000 units in January. For those who don't track game console sales numbers -- and why would you -- that's bad. Very bad. The Wii U, at least so far, has underwhelmed consumers. There isn't a killer application just yet, and despite some interesting innovation with the touchscreen controller, no one is sitting in his living room, staring at an empty space in his entertainment rack, thinking, "You know what I need? A Wii U." And now we're all waiting so see what Sony does with the PlayStation 4. Rumors are that they'll do what Sony always does: Pack a ton of technology into a package that will be expensive -- but cost less than it should -- in order to get early adopters on board. It's actually possible that by the time this column is posted, Sony will have already released details about its upcoming hardware and you're too busy oohing and ahhing about frame rates and visual controllers.
