The day has dawned bright and sunny, so I suspect we'll be spending more time outside than at the keyboard. But not before we have a chance to meander our way through the Sunday newspaper. I can't describe it all that well, but there's a certain sense of calm and peace associated with plopping the carefully folded paper on the kitchen table before it gets gradually shared with everyone in the family. Before, long, each section is carefully unfolded, ready for the kind of slow, studied exploration that no laptop or iPad can yet replicate.
[Note to my wife: I still want an iPad.]
Today's paper, the Toronto Star, adds a fun wrinkle to the adventure: My latest article, Is it the end of the line for the landline? leads the business section. The piece examines the long, slow decline of the conventional phone in favor of mobile and Internet-based telephony services.
Earlier this week, I also published a piece in Processor.com, Power & Cooling Developments, that takes a closer look at some key data center technologies will impact your life more than you might suspect. Later today, my head may be discussing a disturbing case of rape and social media on CTV News Channel. More on that as I know.
Update: TV interview confirmed for 3 p.m. Eastern. If you're in Canada, you can watch it live on CTV News Channel. I'll post the link to the video here once it's posted to their server. Here's a link to the tragic case that started it all.
All told, a great writing/media week!
Your turn: Have you cut the landline chord yet? Why/why not? If you have, what's the experience been like?
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24 comments:
Well, if u mean literally, I can't.. If we have a power outtage, cell phones definitely would have a hard time... My kids who share an apt. do not have a landline...My ex bf stopped having a landline once he sold his condo and then moved and leased a house where he rents out rooms there. Call me old fashioned, its always been sort of my security.. Even tho I may use my cell, its nice to know that landline will always be there. Kinda like my kids...
Hubby tried to cut the landline cord when he moved to his new apartment; he has good mobile reception and a laptop so planned to use mobile broadband. Unfortunately the mobile broadband has proved so unreliable that he will be switching back to British Telecom broadband.
Also people are more likely to call him on a landline, especially parents in their 70s, since it doesn't cost so much (and some of that is perception I know, but that is a fact of life).
So, no is the answer!
We still have a landline, but mainly only solicitors use it. It is nice to have a number to give out on surveys and such rather than giving out my personal cell number.
Yes, cut it after I realized I was paying 40 buck a month for something only telemarketers were calling me on...
Oh man I LOVE that song! I didn't even realize anyone else knew it... at least not well enough to quote it.
Congrats on your features -- especially a lead story! And to think we knew you when. Well, okay, by the time I came along it wasn't "when" anymore. But it's still cool to see.
Until cell phone reception is better (my iPhone works wonderfully everywhere *except* at home) and until I can dial 911 and they can pinpoint my location, I'll hang onto my land line. If I could have those two things, I wouldn't mind getting rid of the house phone.
I just finished reading your article, Carmi, and thanks for giving us a link to it. You are an extremly good writer. I have not cut the cord yet. But a whole lot of my friends have! Because I run a 24/7 info church service from my home, I have to be available all the time. And what happens on one of those times I lose my cell?
I cut my land line several years ago, immediately after they made it so I could port my land line phone number over to my cell phone. I have not missed it at all. I've never been much of a phone talker, my conversations tend to be limited to things like "I'll be there at 8" or "Tell ya all about it on Tuesday." And thanks to texting, those kind of conversations are not hindered by bad reception.
I know the time will come eventually, but I'm not ready to give up the landline.
Go ahead, get the ipad... does that mean I get to go shopping too? :o)
xoxo
People can't we just mix old with new!!
Cell phone shmel phone how about cancer phone or little child killed by driver making senseless call NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD PHONE.
For me I do not want to be contacted 7 24. play with ring tones, games,talking about new technology on cell phones or be looking look for my charger to recharge.
I see lineups at a cell phone kiosk a lot and laugh lol MOST LOOK FRUSTRATED. Back in the day the family phone hung on the wall and sat there for years it never broke and was never thought about until it rang.
All my long distance is free to other rogers customers on my LAN LINE and I have never had 1 telemarketer call me at home People it's called the no call list from the Gov of Canada , takes less than 10 seconds to register!! http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/telemarketing.htm. DON'T kid your self CELL PHONE users, you are being telemarketing and buying , let me see, upgraded your phone lately , downloaded ring tones for money, bought extra accessories, had your provider send you text or e-mail about your account, Who are you trying to kid. Cell phone is a marketing bonanza, and they know where you are all day and night and can and do market to you based on your usage and patterns, This is fact.
We all made it though life with out cell phones before about 1990. If a customer or Boss need to reach me they can buy and pay for it besides I love my sexy Banana Yellow VINTAGE 1974 CONTEMPRA that hangs on my kitchen wall, and my trusted rotatory beside my computer and yes Rotary Telephones work the same for automated push button prompting.
I elect to mix old with new, when the phone rings at home I see the caller name and number on the TV SCREEN , and can answer it (free service) or let it go to voice mail. to each his own
PS: I was bugged for the last 2 years to buy my 16 year old a cell phone, so two years ago I STARTED PUTTING 60 BUCKS AWAY A MONTH, TYPICAL CELL BILL basic I am sure. I surprised my son and took him to the Caribbean. 60 bucks a month to talk to all his friends, or Great Father and Son trip. HELLO HELLO!!! Cell phones lol
You sure do get around Carmi - TV, newspaper, blog - you're an inspiration! About the land-line - we still have one, but still no answering machine, just a call display option so we don't have to answer those interminable 1-800 numbers trying to flog everything from our own identities back to us to a 'get out of jail free' card for some deserving soul in Timbuktu (this is the most difficult one to ignore, but I already donate to Amnesty so my conscience is clear). And here's something else, and you're never going to believe it for an instant, I don't have a cell phone! Guinness Book of Records, here I come ...
Kyle, I'd meet you half way; I prefer the landline for normal calls but I like to have the option of the cell phone when I'm out and about. The 24/7 contact is more likely on the landline as I switch my cell off at night.
Catharine, I'll join you in that record book, but for a different reason; we don't have TV!
Kyle - I completely agree with you about the 24/7 connect, telemarketing and driving while on the phone. But, those are all personal choices. I do not talk on the phone while I'm driving, I screen all calls - if I don't have them in my contacts I don't answer. The other really beautiful thing that a lot of cell phone users don't realize is it does have an off button! I use mine a lot, that's what voice mail is for.
I control my cell phone, it doesn't control me.
Well, I cut the cord a long time ago. BUT... I am thinking about getting it back. Sometimes I go out and leave my cell at home and I feel soooooo free! I'm 25 years young and I my generation loves constant connection, but I believe in a simpler time where if you call me and I'm not at home, you leave a message and I get back to you. You don't have to be able to reach me wherever I am. People survived without cell phones for centuries.
I think with the multiple choices the modern mobile phone gives you when it comes to interacting with people , the landline is completely useless. People are no longer satisfied with an old-fashioned conversation , they want to be able to follow them on social networking sites etc. and the landline poses no competition for the multi-functioning phone...
My home security systems works on the landline so I still need it even though I don't want it.
no haven't gotten rid of land line. I need it to call my cell phone so I can find it.
I still haven't cut the landline cord yet. How will all the telemarketers and politicians get through?
I've only just got a land line after nearly 5 years without one, and I pretty much only got it to improve my internet service and because someone else is paying for it!
I've managed just fine wothout it all these years... only problem is that with a mobile everyone expects to be able to get a hold of you every second of the day!
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no landline cutting here.....
our reception is appalling, without the landline ALLl my conversations would be heard by the street. I'm the one walking up and down the road, mobile phone ( cell phone) to my ear
MMP, ha it's the same here! I have to either stand in the garden or sit in the bedroom upstairs to have a mobile phone conversation.
Totally cut the landline cord three years ago. Cut the TV cord four years before that, so it really wasn't much of a stretch.
Oh. And in the backside of nowhere in Fairbanks, Alaska... phone reception? Ha. Anyway.
I do a whole lot more mountain climbing, cycling, kayaking, rock climbing and hiking now that I've gotten a grip on life's priorities.
I still read a hard-copy local newspaper, WSJ and Economist... and somehow manage to get all the information I could possibly need about the state of the world at large (thanks to NPR).
I like my hybrid, mobile life. It's a good life. Simplicity... it's underrated.
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