De-cluttering

Clearing clutter makes us reflect, forces us to drop persistent habits and frees up capacity for change.

Society makes us develop a regime and it is embedded in educational approaches, cultural norms and economic reward systems. So it is not surprising that change requires purpose, a determined effort and a re-questioning of our past rationale.

There was a logical reason why we purchased that shirt, that can of produce and the gadget that lies around. Was it on an act of impulse, a gesture of self reward, a true need that so many years ago or an echo of sentimentality? Whatever the reason it was, it does not matter now that I realise I have not used it in the past 3 months.

There can be that work office momento.
It can be that sensational cooking aid. There can be an accumulation of household stuff that once was utilised happily by more occupants. The reckoning comes with a limitation of storage space, less users and experiencing a different stage of life.

In our throw away contemporary society, there is a decreasing reward for the not unenviable attitude of taking good care of our possessions. Manufactured stuff are made obsolete in even shorter time cycles. The faster advent of technology attracts us to change to newer models that are more responsive. 

On the other hand, it can be argued that the construction of mass produced items, be they be housing, communications enablers or transport vehicles, may not have the same crafted quality of items made in the past with lesser numbers and more passion.

The emphasis on acquisition, especially of trivial items in a consumerist society, encourages the constant flow cycle of household stuff. When landfills, recycling and resale allow the clutter of a household to be reduced, on line purchases, physical shopping malls and children ensure the arrival of potentially more clutter through another door. Is it a fruitless and unwinnable process? It is up to each person to want to declutter, in goods, nutrition or in society's demands.

Millennials who value mobility more than possessions are an encouraging example of decluttering. They do not want to be tied down with a vehicle, furniture and pets when they know they have an adventurous life with only portable items and still be connected with the bigger world out there.

This all works out so well until the arrival of the baby.

In the end, each individual is best placed to first declutter the mind of unnecessary things and perspectives. Then only go to throw out the unhealthy food, the out of fashion trousers or skirt, the souvenir and the Facebook posting.

#yongkevthoughts

Landline, Mobile and Video Telephony

Landline is on the way out.

I am told the NBN infrastructure in Australia does not optimally support fixed line telephones as well as the previous arrangements we have had since the invention and installation of the house phone.

Retro phones are sold in decreasing prices and are destined to go the way of the compact disc, television set and analogue media. At least, however, to replace them involves paying less than buying a new smart mobile phone.

The old fashioned phone does not need to be recharged regularly in order to function. It even has a back up battery until the day the NBN contractors arrived at your abode - now you have to cough up replacing with a new battery as the NBN has disenabled the previous back up battery that was working fine.

Both landline and mobile phones are subject to nuisance calls, hacking, fraud and pesty commercial sales. Every human communication opportunity is utilised by the so called slick oily sales person, the threatener, the deranged, the opportunist and the tricky mind. They can turn up at your door, infiltrate through your electronic and digital transactions or place a pesky virus to destroy or manipulate your data. So in the perspective and attitude of such parties, the phone is only a mechanism to possibly deprive your comfort of privacy, sense of integrity and steal your money.

Everyone would recall those irritating landline telephone calls around dinner time,  after you reckon you deserve a rest and quiet time after a long day at work or business. Millennials may not feel the obligation to answer every phone call, but baby boomers on the other hand grew up in an age when one was supposed to be civillised when speaking on the phone.

Fraudsters, trouble makers and the not so pyschologically stable can take advantage of this presumption of civility on the part of people who pick up their ringing phone. However, the negative experience of being on the unpleasant end of nonsense, prank, spam and fraudster calls has made telephone owners more cautious.

Would you pick up calls with unknown or unshown or private numbers? What do you think of pre-recorded messages blaring at your ear when you answer a call? How would you react trying to listen and understand foreign accents on the phone when you did not initiate the call?

With smart phones, you can report, block and prevent the hassling caller from calling again. You may not be able to do that with the landline telephone. In the latter scenario, you most likely do not even know the phone number of the person who has dialled you, unless your fixed base phone supports a number identification ability.   Underlying this experience, a primary matter remains not satisfactorily answered by the Government and the telcos  - who the heck gave access to my phone number?   Even registering one's telephone number in a Government initiative of "don't call me" does not mean a prankster cannot call through.

And then there are Skype, Facetime and other easily accessible video interaction calls. They can be more intimate, revealing and effective, as one can evaluate non verbal behaviours of the participants, apart from the use of the tone of voice. People tend to be on a better countenace profile using such a combined video and voice communication channel.

The average cost of making an international phone call is often higher from a landline. There is also the reduced accessibiliry of phoning from a landline if you are not near this phone.  On the orher hand, voice over the internet protocol calls have significantly reduced call costs.

Concurrently, it is also interesting to note the relative combinations of text versus voice messages. That is why the mobile phone provides a plethora of apps other than just serving as a voice conduit and exchange. In the process, our privacy has been more invaded, compromised and degraded more than when we just held a landline telephone.

#yongkevthoughts

The Search in Cyberspace

On the Internet, we type in the key words and click on a search engine before finding their top suggestions.   

Numerous search platforms have risen in as many previous years.  Is the process for individual users as direct and simple as going through manual directories, conversational checks with mates or walking around a suburban shopping strip?

Contemporary society may seem to enable things on a faster and more accessible basis, but what is the hidden price for users?  A key feature of daily life as we approach the iconic year of 2020 is the less need to physically be at the source of your products and services, whilst surrendering much privacy to the electronic channels that enable such convenient transactions.    Cyberspace increasingly dominates as the delivery channel, all as part of the overall picture of so called automated script and other artificial intelligence coming to every one of us in daily life experiences.   The information comes to us without us never having to get out of our seated position in front of a screen -  but that only operates if you have access to your wi-fi or phone coverage.

The dominating feature in cyberspace is the trail each of us leaves on every finger tap we make, let us call them "clicks" as a broad term of reference.   These clicks make it ridiculously easy to take us to images, data and knowledge we require or seek.  The trail of clicks, like any human idea or invention, can be misused.   The profile such clicks build of us, whether by waving a smart payment card, tap on web links or in exchange of messages, can be huge and yet most of us do not question the risks, implied and real, in developing such a trail of clicks.  

When we chat face to face in person with someone else  - and not utilising any smart machine  - the chances of the memory of such an encounter remains most likely only with the participants  - unless there is a roving drone or satellite over head taking photographs of our encounter.   

If you carry your smart phone with you whilst having a conversation, some party somewhere in the proverbial internet Cloud has noted where this conversation has taken place.    You may not fully realise that by having your smart phone beside you always, you have voluntarily enabled the most powerful tracking device to monitor your movement. Yet being easily located is useful when one is lost on a hiking trail, need a shared ride service or when individuals really wants to be known where they are.

Commerce finds accessibility to such personal profiles  of actual and potential customers a mine full of golden opportunity.   What irritates me is the commercial presumption that each of us will continue to behave the same in the future.   You would most likely have had the experience of being hassled through cyberspace communication channels to buy more of recent purchase.    We may also be offered unsolicited recommendations to acquire similar and comparable products or from different brands.   These so called artificial "intelligence" channels interact with us as if we do not a right to change our mind or want to explore new products or experiences.

My other pet dislike is the quick arrival of surveys questioning about my experience of a recent transaction or goods receipt.   This may be for relatively minor commercial transactions.   Even questions are asked by the courier company, apart from the party that sells the product.   This hard push of incessant request for feedback turns me off.   The feedback asked is generated by faceless software.

How are the rankings in search engines arranged when we look for answers through them?  Do the top web links that jump up at our face for attention really that good and popular?  Be cautious and beware that most things in search engines are not what they appear to be.   Those suggested web links at the top of the page can range from advertisement supported matters to dodgy information in relation to what you want.   The key words you choose to write and click are important for the search logic utilised by different search engines can vary.   At times, there is an over load of suggested web links.    Some web links that come up front at the top  do so due to the number of hits, but again be wary of such a measure.    Do be cautious to only click on valid websites that answer your query, especially in internet banking,  for search engines are one source of also leading us to fictitious and dubious links.    When in doubt, let it go and ignore such web links that send you vibes of fraud and low quality.   Look at the wording of the web link, the words chosen, whether they are from a foreign country and its over all feel.

Not under our personal control when using cyberspace is a trail and life of what is created, stored and deleted by us.   In real life, we draw our window blinds, shred our paper records and are discrete in what we tell strangers and casual friends.   On the internet, hackers and unauthorised parties are determined enough to uncover such trails about ourselves even if you had consciously deleted your log of search matters.   Each of us have to come to terms as to what the implications are what we have in cyberspace.    

Intrusive adverts or website invites pop up in unexpected moments when we use the internet.  Often, we should not surprised,  for the nature of such pop ups relate to something we have used before or searched in the past.   One of the more irritating things is that the operators out there know in which physical part of the Earth you are located.   Providers recommended to you seem to be localised in where they are. It is not amazing that there are providers which have invested huge sums in location enabled software or applications. 


Gone are the days when you bask in your own private glory when searching for knowledge - unless you still visit the local library and search for information amongst the book shelves.    There can be personal benefits in being able to go back to a recorded trail in cyberspace of what you have searched in the past ten  years.   The question you have to answer your self is whether the dangers and pitfalls are worth the convenience.