I am a Technophile
I think that I am now, officially, a technophile. I love gadgets and contraptions, and now I own a plethora of them. Got the laptop/tablet that I've been doing pretty much 100% of my art work and technical stuff on, and now I've even got an iPhone 3G, which is pretty badass, and I've run a jailbreak on it so I can use it as a wireless modem. I'm putzing around on facebook, got all sorts of tools and electronic devices, including things like infrared ranged thermometers and a custom modified paintball gun, and a lot of other nonsense I probably don't need, but I really enjoy having.
The real concern here is turning into a tool. People being into gadgets is fine, but if they do nothing but talk about them all the time it gets annoying as hell. Of course, anyone who's excessively into any topic is generally a tool. You gotta keep yourself somewhat rounded and not be all up in people's grill about whatever your pet hobby or interest is. Wine snobs, golf guys, lawn guys, car guys, work-out guys, gamers, pet owners, etc, etc... they can all turn into tools in a matter of seconds.
The other concern is people who are so into gadgets that they'll buy any piece of shit that gets tossed out of a factory. I don't think I'm one of those guys; I tend to research the stuff I get pretty well and I only get things that will be useful. Having a gadget just to show it off is the height of tool-dom, and it's something I avoid. The things I get I use pretty regularly.
So my current setup is as follows: Fujitsu 5010 tablet PC running Photoshop and Flash CS3, tethered by USB to an iPhone 3G (using pdaNet) for a wireless modem so I can do work and browse the web from literally anywhere. This seriously beats leeching wifi off of a starbucks out in the parking lot on my lunch breaks like a douche, desperately hunting for a close space so I can get a decent signal.
The iPhone is really good too. It's awful close to living up to the hype behind it, which is a rare compliment to give any technological gadget. Kind of sucks that it doesn't run Flash yet, but I understand the fear of opening up a mack-truck sized security hole in the thing by rushing out support. The 3G network on the phone has enough bandwidth to stream Satellite radio and play World of Warcraft at the same time. That's pretty god damn good.
The whole setup is pretty awesome. The only thing holding me back from absolute productivity in life now is my own apathy and laziness! Hooray!
Comments
I'm pretty much in the same
I'm pretty much in the same boat (with both gadgets and sports) but as long as you can boil it down to something that everyone can appreciate the "toolness" doesnt come across as thick. People roll their eyes at my iPhone until I start streaming funny clips on youtube then everyone loves it all the sudden. -Ken
Yeah, that does help
The one thing I get a lot now is that people think my tablet is a shitty little netbook, since it's rather small (13.3" screen) and the case looks very corporate and non-flashy. Once I start whipping out some art in photoshop the opinion changes rapidly. The bland case is a good cover though; most of my coworkers seem to assume it's a work laptop.
The one bitch I have now is that the AT&T network sucks horribly. Dropped-Calls n' Deadzones R Us. Sadly it's my only choice since Verizon isn't quite as ubiquitous as they like to claim, and their phones aren't as good.
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