OT - smartphones and their place - was - Re: Free token for 16.04 Extended Security Maintenance

[Bret Busby]

On 14/05/2021, Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-users
<ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

<snip>

> PS: ...and I don't own and will never ever own a mobile phone again. I
> once owned one, but I will not become one of those smartphone addicted
> Zombies. It's already hard, but still easier to explain to not own a
> smartphone, than to own one and to explain that I will not use it
> everywhere I go and I never ever will join any of the trendy "social"
> networks. Fortunately those Zombies aren't aware that it would be
> possible to join such a network without a smartphone, too, so there's
> no need to justify myself for not being willing to join that crap.
>

I have and use a smartphone.

I do not remember where you are, but, here, in Western Australia, we
have supposedly compulsory "contact tracing", whereby everyone who
enters premises with walls, that are accessible to the public, is
supposedly required by law, to "check in", using either an application
on the person's smartphone, or, a check-in sheet, supplying the
person's name, address and contact details, for everyone else to see
(if the written method, rather than the smartphone method is used),
with the written method ensuring that, if anyone who has used this
method, has the coronavirus, then, everyone who uses this method after
them, will catch the virus. I say "supposedly compulsory", because,
where I live, in the shopping centres here, about one in twenty, do
the "required by law" checking in, and, social distancing is treated
with contempt, by about 90% of the people. So, the population here,
overall, is doing the best it can, to spread the coronavirus, in spite
of what the rulers in their ivory towers, say.

Apart from that application, using my smartphone as a wifi hotspot,
one of the 4G cellphone access companies (it is a dual SIM card phone
- not an overly expensive cellphone, but, a good enough for me,
cellphone), provides, in its contract, 486GB over a year, of data,
apart from the free voice and SMS message calls, within this country.
With that 4G data access, when doing system updates, I have got up to
about 6-8MB/s download speeds.

With that SIM card access, and, with the access of the other SIM card,
which is part of a "family pack", involving 4 SIM cards, providing
data quota of 80GB per month, with rollover of unused data quota,,
across the 4 SIM cards, it takes care of Internet access. And, one of
the SIM cards from that family pack, is in a dual frequency (for the
4G network, apart from the wifi network), 4G modem, and, last night, I
observed, before I turned off the wifi access in the computer, because
the downloading was unauthorised, that it was downloading at 10MB/s.

Those are very good data transmission rates, for consumers, in this
retrogressive country that is Australia.

I realise that some other countries have data transmission rates that
are 1GB/s or higher, but, this is Australia,. ruled by neanderthals,
who regard burning coal, as a sacred and compulsory activity, that has
to be increased, which is why about 80% of Australia's electricity
generation, is from burning coal. (See
https://www.nem-watch.info/widgets/reneweconomy/ for a dynamic
monitor, and, remember that the different states, have significantly
different populations)

With my cellphone, voice calls coming in, encounter a message, telling
them that they need to send me a text message or email message, so, I
am not troubled by incoming calls, so much.

And, the secondary SIM card in the cellphone; the card belonging to
the "family pack", involves that contract including free voice and SMS
calls within this country, and, to most other countries.

And, I do not belong to any of the social media stuff - that is for
the twits who are obsessed with teetering all over the place - when I
leave the house, the phone stays in my pocket, unless I am using it
for the "compulsory" contact tracing application, or, for the one or
two text messages with my other half, which are only viewed and
written, when stationary and not in a motor vehicle, or, for me to
make emergency calls, if needed. I prefer to see where I am going,
whether I am driving, or walking, unlike the zombies who walk into
things and people, and, trip, and otherwise crash into things and
people, because of their refusal to watch where they are going.

So, cellphones have their place, and, they need for their users, to
know the place of the cellphones.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............