What about the beeeees?

[sabotabby]

I don't even have a regular cell phone, so why would I want an iPhone? I bet you don't need one either.

Comments

NOEZ

[frippy.livejournal.com]

Oh craps, in my purchase of a cell phone (because I'm going to be moving out this summer), I FORGOT ABOUT THE BEEZ.

Re: NOEZ

[sabotabby]

And if the bees don't scare you, think of the NSA.

[becauseshewas.livejournal.com]

My husband was threatening to get me on for my birthday, and I barely answer my current phone!

[sabotabby]

My mom's always threatening me with one. I figure that if I'm not in my apartment, it means that I'm doing stuff, which means that I don't have time to talk on the phone. (Note: I am almost always not in the apartment.)

[jhfurnish.livejournal.com]

The Iphone looks interesting, but they're saying the costs are much higher than you'd think, so there are probably lots of hidden charges. It's probably a real wallet-bleeder.

[sabotabby]

I <3 Apple, but their stuff is almost always more expensive than it needs to be.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I use a cell phone a lot. If I was out of town more I would need a Crackberry or equivalent. An iphone looks like a reasonable alternative to a Crackberry.

[sabotabby]

I may have thought of getting a Crackberry—repeatedly—but I will resist.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I want one, but I also want ALL shiny new toys. I'm much like my father that way, in that if you were to put a little metal box with a big button that did random things in front of me I could probably happily push the button until the end of time. :)

[sabotabby]

Would it be a big red button?

*now thinking of marketing possibilities*

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

I find cell phones incredibly convenient but there's something about the iphone that's so flashy and slick that it makes me want to live in a cabin in the woods. Ok one with plumbing but still.

(My vision of simple living almost veered off and included me sitting by a fire singing "kumbaya" but I think that's because that particularly bit of imagery has lately seeped into my brain. As a corollary to the sabotabby-apperception corollary to Godwin's Law, regarding Kronstadt, I have noticed lately that the longer any set of simple-minded conservatives are mocking liberals, the closer the probability comes to 100% that someone will mention the song "kumbaya.")

[sabotabby]

Indoor plumbing is awesome.

Re: Kumbaya. I'm not sure if it's a corollary to the sabotabby-apperception corollary* or a law in its own right. But I've noticed that too, and this must be codified and incorporated into intertubes discourse.


* Speaking of which, we need less unwieldy name for it. Maybe just the Kronstadt Corollary. Or the Trotsky-killed-people-too! Corollary (if you're an anarchist) or the STFU-Crusty-Punk Corollary (if you're a communist).

[billie0.livejournal.com]

I already have an ipod and a cell phone so I don't need an Iphone

[sabotabby]

Admittedly, I want an iPod.

[jamie-miller.livejournal.com]

No one needs a cell phone.

[sabotabby]

Your icon! Hee!

Phun Phacts about the new iPhone...

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

Another reason not to get one:

http://jvmatucha.livejournal.com/185458.html

Re: Phun Phacts about the new iPhone...

[sabotabby]

Creepy, but not remotely surprising.

A major rambling tangent.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

The agressive removal of payphones is the only reason I'd ever consider having a cellphone. I'd be tempted to see a casual connection between payphone decline and cellphone rise as merely like the street car / auto connection, had I not directly witnessed a different capitalist /racial context of payphone removal.

I lived in Uptown in the early 90s when it still was largely low income. It had the highest number of households without phones on the North side of Chicago. Many people in my building and precinct (I was an unpaid worker for the quasi-Marxist Alderwoman) were phoneless.

Going without a phone became more viable in the late 80s when the bell breakup led to telcom knockoffs offering things such as cheap beeper and voice mail services, which was an alternative for people who lacked a steady income and address for a land line.

Side note: Interestingly, a phone bill was more often necessary as proof of residence, especially since more low rent properties were utilities included in those days. Being phoneless made a tenant more vulnerable to slumlords seeking to void any legal claim to occupancy.

The tools of this alternate system became stigmatized by the class associations - beepers were equated with drug dealers, payphones were targets of the drug war and telcoms were happy to subvert the unprofitable altcom.

The first step was to block payphones from receiving calls, meaning any beeper owner without a land line now had no contact point. It was a pretty decisive blow, coupled with removal of some phones and making others phone card or credit only after sundown (which had the side benefit of being laden with hidden fees). It had the side effect of making payphones less attractive to all users and owners, leading to a major shift of the payphone business to sleazer operators.

Another side effect of this is a serious fucking of the 911 system. If no one has a cell phone in an emergency, you're SOL in many parts of the city. I witnessed a major accident and had to pay to get on the subway just to access the last available payphone in the area. Even with advances in cell tracking, mobile phone calls are far less useful to the 911 system in terms of immediate location and response.

In short, the iPhone represents yet another increase in the info age class warfare which could kill us all.

Re: A major rambling tangent.

[sabotabby]

I've often had those thoughts (why are there fewer payphones? What does this say about public space and accessibility?). Hadn't thought it out in such a systematic way, though, and I'm inclined to think that you're absolutely right.

[incendiarymind.livejournal.com]

Cell phones are not bad. Cell phones don't abuse people, people abuse cell phones.

[sabotabby]

I can't figure out how to dial on them. :(

[threeliesforone.livejournal.com]

i live with mr "i sell mac & mac accessories!!!!" so if i hear the word iPhone one more time, i am going to scream. & it's not even like he wants one...it's because he's COMPLAINING about people wanting them & driving him crazy at work.

omfg.

[sabotabby]

He has my sympathy.

...

Can he get me discounts on stuff?

Re: NOEZ

[begundan.livejournal.com]

>>I don't even have a regular cell phone
Nice.

>>"Mr. or Mrs. [my last name] are there"
Apropos, how is sabotabby pronounced (stresswise), and does it mean anything?

In an utter non sequitur, I discovered your series of blogs on Russia and it was surprising and funny :). I'm going there in a week myself.

Re: NOEZ

[sabotabby]

Sabo like "sabotage," tabby like the cat. The Sab Cat is an anarcho-syndicalist symbol. It's a black cat, but for some reason it's also called a sabotabby. The only explanation I can find is that the first drawing I could find of one was a tabby cat, and they must have changed it to a black one later.

Where in Russia are you going? And for how long?

[livingfossil.livejournal.com]

I don't have a landline... cell service allows my family to tell me how much they love me.

[sabotabby]

The problem is that if I had a cell my family would be telling me how much they love me all the time.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

My thoughts about cell phones run thus. First, I will admit to barely owning one. Me and Adrienne share one that we only turn on when we go traveling so we have something for if our car breaks down or whatever. That said . . .

The essence of post-democratic forms of government will be technologically driven (as have most advances in democratic and pre-democratic forms of government). Part of what we need is accurate, concise and immediate access to information. Cell phones are the most effective modern way of providing that information to people.

While I don't have the money or and must fight an powerful inclination not to have a cell phone, cell phones and advances in related technology are, I think, part of the way we'll get rid of capitalism and other odious governmental forms to become a freer society.

[sabotabby]

I think technology can drive progress, but it also reflects where we're at, culturally speaking. The NSA thing is the most obvious example of how cell phones can curtail freedom, but there are more subtle problems, too. We become atomized (people in transit talk to a disembodied voice rather than the physical bodies around them) and for many people, cells expand the workplace into one's daily life (your boss can now reach you anywhere).

They can provide information, but at the moment, only in a limited way—a way that's even more limiting than the shift from print-based media to TV and teh interwebs. Small screen = more concise and more immediate, but not necessarily more accurate.

That's not saying that they're inherently bad or even undesirable (even though I'm, personally, consistently annoyed by them). But they won't contribute to positive political changes unless a shift in that direction is already happening.

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

I don't get why anyone would want one in the first place. If I were getting some kind of 'smart phone,' I'd get one that's, well, smart. Functional, you know. Not an iPhone.

also, check out this lulz:

"Apple also has Al Gore, author of “The Assault on Reason,” on its board of directors. Everything the company does is subject to reinterpretation based upon the reasonable, critical examination of new data."

[sabotabby]

Hahaha. What does that even mean?

[apperception.livejournal.com]

I'm getting two.

[sabotabby]

What's the other one for?

I want some honeycomb.

[fun-drive.livejournal.com]

I want one, but I can't afford one. They're slow anyway. Maybe the next ones will be faster.

Re: I want some honeycomb.

[sabotabby]

Resist! Resist!

[99catsaway.livejournal.com]

Cell phones are wonderful! They're the most efficient way to find lost people in crowds, and figure out if someone is stuck in traffic, and summon help if you're stranded, etc. etc. etc.

But iPhones seem a bit...overboard?

[sabotabby]

I don't know why they bother me more than regular cell phones. But they do.

ON Topic

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Have you been following Brent's attempt to get an iPhone on PvP Online?

It's a whole thread of PC v. Mac fanatic antagonism / hilarity.

Re: ON Topic

[sabotabby]

Hahaha.

I like to think that, like my vegetarianism, my Mac-loyalty is not of the obnoxious variety. But then, I've met few, if any, stereotypical Mac fanatics.

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

I rather enjoy not having to worry about phone messages until I get home.

[sabotabby]

Yes. Except then I have to check them, which sorta blows.

[theyuck.livejournal.com]

What's an iphone?



Ha ha just kidding.
The one nice thing about iphone hype is laughing at all of the people who are actually camping on the street in front of the store for something that costs so much and will do nothing to make their lives better. Actually, maybe that's just really depressing.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

I actually didn't know what an iPhone was until about 5 minutes ago, when I looked it up on wikipedia, since I Can Has Cheezburger and sabotabby seem to be talking about it today, ha.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

But wut you mean?


The bees can kiss my a$$, they don't do shit anyway. In the meantime, I can browse teh internets, talk to mah freinds, send txt msgs 2 mah hunny, and lissen 2 muzaak ALL AT ONCE! lol.