Remember life before email?

Remember life before email? I do. Vaguely. As I recall, we used things called "pens" and "stationery" and "stamps" to communicate with each other over long distances, or used a quaint invention called "a telephone."

Seems so long ago, doesn't it? But it was really just 20 years ago (less) that email started to take off. (Though can you believe, AOL, which, yes, still exists -- I know! -- it going to be 30 this year?! And that there are some people who still have @aol.com email addresses? Hi Steven!)

At the beginning, many people had no idea how to use this newfangled technology, as BMW playfully reminds us in this fun/funny Super Bowl XLIX ad featuring Katie Couric and Bryant Gumble...



Actually, I know people, make that many people, who still don't understand how email works, or know how to properly use or manage it. But since some of them read this blog, I will not name names.

Now it is hard to imagine life without email.

(You know what else is hard to imagine? Going back to how we dressed and wore our hair in the 1990s. Though I hear animal prints are going to be big this spring!)

RELATED "BOY DO I FEEL OLD" ASIDE: While having dinner the other night, the spouse mentioned that my mother, while clearing out her apartment of over 40 years (for an upcoming, long overdue, renovation), happened upon a box of old 78s and 45s. To which our teenage daughter replied, "What are '78s' and '45s'?"

We asked her to guess. She had no clue. (Anyone else feeling incredibly old now? Granted, 78s were before my time, but I fondly remember 45s.) The spouse explained to her that they were types of records (which required another short explanation) -- and that 45s were the iTunes of their day, which I think is a rather brilliant description.

And now a word about nude photos and Internet privacy

First, let me say that hacking is vile and there is no defense for or of people who illegally obtain information and cause damage with or to it.

Furthermore, people who save or upload files (including photos) to what they have been led to believe or were told was a "secure cloud" (which is really just someone else's bigger, more powerful, more secure computer) have a right to expect that their files and privacy will be protected.

In other words: What the hackers who stole Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and other female celebrities nude photos and posted them on a message board did was not only wrong, it was illegal.

All that said, FOR YEARS NOW we have constantly heard about nude photos and videos and sexy texts "getting leaked." And we have heard about supposedly secure sites (belonging to credit card companies, retailers, hospitals, hotels) constantly getting hacked. So ya gotta wonder why anyone, especially celebrities, would trust or believe that their nude photos would be safe on their iPhones and iPads, especially if they had sent those photos to anyone.

Granted, I'm a news junkie (and, okay, write about technology for a living).

So do celebrities not read the news? Did they somehow miss all the stories over the last five or so years (or longer) about their friends' nude photos and videos and sexy texts getting leaked? Did they not read any of the articles about problems with mobile security, or at least hear about it from a friend? Do they not have grandmothers, or mothers, or friends who constantly told them, don't email (or text or tweet) anything you don't want your grandmother to see?

Btw, I'm not saying that people who take nude selfies or who let their boyfriends take nude photos of them are "asking for it." (Though I am constantly surprised when I hear girls and women say they were surprised and hurt that their boyfriend or friend shared that nude photo of them. Really? In this day and age that surprises you?)

Again, I am not in any way condoning what the hackers did, but...

If you are really really concerned about a nude photograph of you possibly showing up someplace you didn't intend it to, the best way to prevent that happening is... don't take a nude selfie or allow your boyfriend to take nude photos of you with his phone or iPad.

For more information on Nudiegate, read this piece titled "A comprehensive, jargon-free guide to the celebrity nude-photo scandal and the shadowy Web sites behind it" from The Washington Post.

I refuse to be a slave to my mobile phone

[Alternate title: And one ring tone to rule them all!]

The spouse and I have had a running battle for weeks now, maybe months, regarding my mobile phone.

I am, I believe, one of the few remaining people on the planet who refuses to be bound 24/7 to my precious mobile device -- keeping my phone off most of the time and using it primarily to communicate (i.e., text) with my teenage daughter when she is not home (i.e., when she needs a ride) and, okay, check my email when I am working on a project and will be out of my home office for more than an hour or so.

The spouse, on the other hand, wants me to keep my smart phone on and on or near my person 24/7 -- or to have all calls and texts forwarded to my computer (using Google Voice). An idea that make me want to move to a tropical island with limited cell phone reception (albeit one with Internet access).

But I refuse to be a slave to my mobile phone!

While I see the utility of  mobile phones and agree they are a boon to those whose job or lifestyle has them rarely in one place or the same place for long (e.g., traveling salespeople, mothers of children who do after-school activities), they have become an addiction -- and an unhealthy one at that.



I don't know what it is Apple and Samsung are putting in their devices, but clearly silicon is the new crack. Just try to find someone with a mobile phone who doesn't touch, talk to, or just stare at it every 15 minutes -- less! -- or get twitchy when they haven't touched their precious device in a while. (Yesss, thanks to RIM, Apple, and Samsung, we are all Gollum now.)

The irony, while mobile phones allow us to roam without being tethered to an office or single location (just watch out for those nasty roaming fees!), they have instead tethered us to them. But I refuse to bow down to my silicon overlord (she wrote while typing furiously on her laptop computer)! So the next time you call or text me on my mobile, and I don't answer, you know why.

So "smart," even an elephant can use it

Smart phone? More like smart elephant.



Still, if Peter the Elephant can figure out how to use the Samsung GALAXY Note smart phone (without reading a manual), there's hope for the rest of us. (Me, I prefer a smart phone with a keyboard, but that's because I'm a dinosaur, not an elephant.)

All those in favor of requiring vendors to have Peter the Elephant test their "smart" device before releasing it to the general public, type "Aye" in the Comments!

UPDATED 3/29/12: CNN's Jeanne Moos just did a great segment on Peter the Elephant -- and other animals using smart devices -- which you can watch below.

Introducing the new iPaddock, the first iPad for horses

The folks at Apple (and BBC Comedy) have been foaling around with the iPad again. The result? The new iPaddock, the latest in equine technology.

Want to give your stud or stallion a real treat, something he can horse around with? Hoof it on over to the nearest Apple store so you can him the new iPaddock. (Also appeals to little fillies and old gray mares.)



[H/T CuteOverload.com]