Slashdot Mobile Luddites

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Yeah, I know, bitching about Slashdot is like bitching about the weather. But I wonder when the fuck those morons are going to get a clue about mobile phones? In response to this article by Taco about Samsung's new smart phones, this moron's comment is a classic (ranked at 5, Insightful):

Missing Old Cell Phones/Plans

I long for the days when I used to be able to get a simple cell phone with a simple interface, contact phone book, and good reception -- for less than $25 dollars a month! Cell phones are getting so ridiculous that I finally gave up on them. You have to pay at least $45 a month (after taxes...), and for what? Internet access that I don't use. Games that I don't play. Instant text that costs me even more.

I wonder if a bare-bones plan with simple, easy to use phones (not glorified PDA's/cameras/gaming consoles) would actually do quite well in today's market for people like me that don't need all of the frills. I know people have talked about this before, but why aren't the cell phone companies listening?

Urgh! Not only did this moron pine for this sort of luddite device, but *every* single response to him as well, and the moderators modded him up. Hey look, I hear that stuff all the time from people. But techies are supposed to be grokking this stuff by now.

Here's my gentle response:

Luddites all of you. You and every moron who modded you up and every frigin' commenter who responded in agreement (which seems to be all of them). Amazing.

Is this not Slashdot? News for Nerds? WTF is this attitude towards new technology? WAKE UP. The mobile phone is in use by 1.5 BILLION people world wide. By the end of the decade that number will have almost doubled and more people on Earth will be using it as their primary computing and communication tool than any other device.

The mobile phone is a PLATFORM now. Get it?

Long gone are the days when it was used for just making phone calls, just like long gone are the days when Linux was used just for servers. Do you bitch every time someone launches a new CPU or adds new stuff to computer OSes just because you don't need anything except VI? "What's with all this multi-threading, multimedia and GUI support? I don't need any of that crap!"

Get used to the fact that mobile phones are now the most important piece of technology in the world. More important than your PC or your television or your iPod.

Bitching about how you want a simple mobile phone with cheap service is like bitching about only wanting a Pentium 3 and basic AOL dial up because all you use your computer for is email and the web. The rest of us who are trying to focus on the future are sick of hearing from you backwards motherfuckers.

Urgh. It's been like this for a while. I don't know why I even bother reading Slashdot any more.

-Russ

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