Digital Dilemma

Amazon Dash Button

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Early in 2015 Amazon released a new product/service called Amazon Dash, which allows people to order products directly from their homes.  Whenever a product, such as toilet paper or laundry detergent, is running low, the customer can order the product directly through Amazon by speaking, or scanning the item’s barcode, into a wand.  Once ordered, the customer confirms the order in his/her Amazon account.  Then the order arrives through the mail. I suppose one day we’ll be able to 3-D print it instead.

The Amazon Dash also comes as a button, instead of a wand.  Each button is for one specific product.  Amazon recommends putting the button next to product for re-ordering convenience.  For example, the bathroom would have buttons for toothpaste and toilet paper. Never run out of tp again!

I can definitely see the appeal of Amazon Dash.  By pushing a button, or waving a wand, my house could be turned into a grocery store.  Amazing, creepy, and weird, all at the same time.  I lived over 5 years in an apartment with a steep 3-floor walkup.  I grew accustomed to picking up a few things daily, just to avoid carrying heavy loads up the stairs.  Most of the time I didn’t mind.  It allowed me to try a wide variety of things from different shopping areas around the city.  I knew where to find the best of anything.  I enjoyed seeing what was available.

Would Amazon Dash be able to cater to such specific, specialized grocers?  Or would I be required to get all my specialty items from mega-suppliers?  I did wonder about this and a few other things.

  1. What if I want to switch brands?  Dash buttons are only for one product and come imprinted with the company logo.
  2. What about apartment dwellers?  My building doesn’t accept packages.  I have to retrieve packages from a busy post office with restricted hours, about 10-minutes away.  Pretty inconvenient.
  3. How would I keep track of all the orders coming in?  It can get confusing to keep track of so many orders, all arriving at different times.  If I get everything from the grocery store, everything arrives at the same time.
  4. How would you control annoying guests, like myself, or children, from pushing the dash buttons?  It could become annoying to reject orders all the time.

Amazon Dash, here to stay, or is this just the beginning…

Digital Dilemma, True Confessions

The Construct of Privacy

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I have to admit I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to calling a cab.  Ideally, I would prefer to hail a cab on the street by waving my arm over any other method, even Uber.  A lot of people who know me always seemed puzzled by this, especially since I love efficiency and convenience.  In both of those areas, Uber clearly excels.  My response is always the same, cabs preserve anonymity, especially if I pay with cash.

I explained my reasons for preferring cabs over Uber to a friend of mine the other day who, incidentally, is 10 years my junior.  “Oh,” he replied, nodding his head slightly.  “I get it, you still believe in privacy.”  I paused for a moment when he said this.  Did I really think I could protect my privacy by refusing to use Uber when I so willingly sign away my soul agreeing to lengthy terms of service every time I use a new app?  The more our privacy rights are infringed upon (e.g. surveillance cameras, lengthy terms of service agreements, etc.), the less likely we are to notice, resist, or object to them over time.  And yet we do it all the time and make compromises for the convenience and thrill of using technology.

People may enjoy publicly displaying and broadcasting the best, the juiciest, and the most exciting parts of their lives through various social media channels, but they often do so from a personal, private device.  Sometimes smartphones (and other handheld personal devices), actually enable people to have privacy.  Contained in one device could be hundreds of personal, private bits of content such as photos, “sext” messages, notes, drawings, voice mails, all of which can be guarded and protected.

My friend also mentioned that a lot of people use Snapchat, a messaging service that deletes the message seconds after the recipient has opened and viewed it.  This may not fall under a traditional definition of privacy, but I would feel more inclined to discuss private and personal things if I knew a record of the details wouldn’t (or couldn’t) be preserved.

As we bumble along trying to redraw and establish the boundaries of privacy, I find myself continually wondering about what it means to have privacy and the impact of digital communications and social media on my rights.

So who, exactly, is constructing the concept of “privacy” these days?

Digital Dilemma, Human Archives

Dad’s Faulkners

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My father’s collection of Faulkner books was one of the first things I moved into my new apartment.  I moved the small box over by hand and placed it carefully on an empty shelf.

My BA in literature was non-conventional and didn’t cover a lot of “dead, white men” authors.  Over the years I filled in some of the gaps, but I never got around to Faulkner while my father was alive.  Afterwards the guilt I felt interfered and I could never commit to reading them.  The last time I was at my mother’s house, I carefully packed up Dad’s collection, which had now survived multiple purging sessions, into a small box labeled “Dad Faulkner + Herman Hesse”.  I placed it in a pile of boxes destined for Toronto.

Dad's collection, boxed and ready for transport.

Dad’s collection, boxed and ready for transport.

Now I feel lucky about the opportunity to discover a posthumous connection with my father, as though our relationship can continue to develop even after his death over 12 years ago.  If I’m really lucky, I might find notes or marginalia, valuable insights about what he was thinking when reading the books.  However, my father and I were always in agreement about keeping books pristine.  We never wrote in books, folded page corners, or highlighted passages.  My father even got annoyed at me for selling back my text books at the end of a semester.  He firmly believed you should hang onto your books as a way to preserve acquired knowledge.

I wonder what he would think about the new ways we think about gaining and maintaining knowledge.  And how some people read books electronically, like his daughter.  I wonder if I would have had the same opportunity if my father’s collection had been digital.  How would I know the Faulkners had been his favorites?  Would I have to rely on a list of stats indicating how many times he had read something, provided I could even access the digital collection?

With the print versions, I can learn about my father from the things he left behind and the condition they’re in.  Things like worn pages and those containing stains or creases, all offer clues as to which passages were re-read or mused over while eating something.  Well-loved items are typically either completely worn out or in pristine condition and visible.

Do we miss out by going digital?

Excited to tuck into the collection.

Excited to tuck into the collection.

Ecuador, Galapagos, Human Archives, Patagonia

Heart Vibrations

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I remember the first time I saw a penguin.  We were on a cruise through ice fjords surrounding Tierra del Fuego in Patagonia. Seeing penguins was highly probable at this time of the year, but nothing was guaranteed. On the first day in the afternoon we drifted into the area near Tucker’s Islet, home to a colony of Magellanic Penguins.  I was hanging out in the lounge, my binoculars glued to my face scanning the horizon for penguins.  And then I saw one, a distinctive black-and-white form scooting around like a duck on the surface.  Wow! My heart started to flutter.

We boarded the zodiacs and headed to shore.  The suspense built as we rounded a corner and spent time observing a Rock Cormorant rookery.  As we backed away from the cliff edge and moved forward we could see dozens of tiny black-and-white shapes moving against the backdrop.  We edged closer pulling up onto the shore.

Magellanic Penguins – Tucker Islet

A few things impressed me right away about penguins.  Their strange call, almost like a musical form of gargling, hit my ears before I really focused in on them.  Dozens of chicks and adult penguins appeared before us scattered along the shore, some of them huddled in close formations.  Every where I looked it was a frenzy of animated activity.  It seemed every penguin was moving in a different way, all at the same time.  Some were flapping or preening, others were laying down, walking, or snuggling with each other.

One of my favorite moments was watching one penguin shuffle down to the water with a drunken gait, bend forward like a wizened old man, and then glide seamlessly into the water.  Instant transformation.  Wow!!

When I saw Galapagos penguins last year, I found myself filled with the same mixture of awe, delight, wonder, and incredulity.  Sometimes it still doesn’t feel real that I saw penguins.

This little one went for a swim to cool off just as we got there.

This little one went for a swim to cool off just as we got there.  It was the second penguin we saw in the Galapagos.  The first one was featured in an earlier posting.

Penguins swimming – Elizabeth Bay mangroves – Galapagos Islands

I’m continually impressed by these amazing, magical animals.  They live in barren places but somehow find a way to get along, play, and keep each other safe from those leopard seals!

Sunning Penguin

Sunning penguin in Elizabeth Bay mangroves. It was wild to see them in warm temperatures hanging out with turtles, flightless cormorants, marine iguanas, sea lions, and pelicans!

Ecuador

Balance: Quito Last Day

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Our last day in Quito commenced by touring the Archaeological Museum. I was amazed to learn about the different groups of people who had habited this area for over 11,000 years. What struck me was how peacefully the groups had co-existed with evidence supporting trade between the different regions. Each region of the country, namely the jungle, mountains (Andes), and coast needed the other ones to have everything necessary for survival. After our visit to the equator later that afternoon I wondered if maybe living so close to it had somehow fostered the peaceful cohabitation.

In the afternoon we toured a fruit market. Displays of brightly colored fruits and vegetables lined the walls, sitting in their baskets like edible jewels. The colors were rich and saturated. We tasted many fruits I didn’t even recognize. Our guide broke the fruits open with her hands and passed them around for us to examine and taste the gooey, slippery, sweet innards filled with seeds.

It was like walking through the gardens of Babylon. Every walkway was filled with gem-toned fruits, including many fresh from the jungle that I had never seen before.

It was like walking through the gardens of Babylon. Every walkway was filled with gem-toned fruits, including many fresh from the jungle that I had never seen before.

After we headed to the Museum at the Centre of the World located at latitude 00’00’00’. The museum is outdoors and filled with lush plants and brightly colored flowers. The tour is interactive and we got to experience the effects of being right on the equator first hand.

One of the many pathways through the museum.

One of the many pathways through the museum.

In one demonstration the guide filled a portable basin of water on the equator. He removed the plug and the water flowed straight down, no swirl. He repeated the demonstration about 3 feet into the Southern hemisphere. This time we could all see a slight clockwise swirl in the water flowing out of the bottom. He repeated the experiment in the Northern hemisphere. We were amazed to see the water swirl counter-clockwise.

What really blew our minds was learning that the Earth rotates around the equator as the center point and not the poles. When you think about the Earth spinning this way, the swirl is clockwise from the South and counter-clockwise from the North. This is why the wind, currents, and storms in the South rotate clockwise and vice-versa in the North.

This is how the Earth is really spinning. It's quite different from how we always see globes positioned upright.

This is how the Earth is really spinning. It’s quite different from how we always see globes positioned upright.

After the museum we ate ice cream made with some of the fresh fruits we tasted earlier. Then we headed to another museum showcasing handicrafts from indigenous peoples in Ecuador. We toured the museum, ate a farewell dinner and headed for the airport. I left feeling transformed & balanced. Must have been that walk on the equator.

The force of gravity is slightly reduced at the equator, making it more difficult to balance and walk in a straight line.

The force of gravity is slightly reduced at the equator, making it more difficult to balance and walk in a straight line.

Happy New Year!

Deletion, Spring Cleaning, True Confessions

Clearing Clutter in Hard to Reach Places

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I’m moving in early January after having lived in my current apartment for over 5 years.  Even though I purge regularly, I decided to start going through all my stuff now to get rid of anything I don’t want to take with me. Over the weekend I hauled out my stash of gift boxes & bags, assorted tissue papers, and other bits to wrap up a few holiday gifts.  After wrapping the presents, I looked at what was left and decided it would be pretty silly to move a whole bunch of empty boxes, gift bags, and tissue papers.

Incidentally, I also remembered that one of my larger cupboards was cram packed with this kind of stuff.  In fact, it was so full that putting something in it was a speed game to see if I could shove something in and close the door before things started falling out.  This particular cupboard happened to be high up.  I couldn’t reach anything in it unless it was right at the front, which is where I stored cloth bags for grocery shopping.  Since I could never see in the cupboard or really touch anything in it, it was super easy for the pile to grow over the years.  It was always one of those things “I would get to later.”

Sunday morning I texted my neighbors to see if they could use my wrapping supplies for their holiday gifts.  Fortunately they agreed to take it all off my hands.  This was it, my big opportunity to empty out the cupboard. I grabbed a stool and swept 5-years of collecting onto the floor into a gigantic pile of plastic bags, cloth bags, gift bags, bubble wrap, and tissue paper.  It looked daunting.  I decided to time myself.

The pile of clutter that poured out of the cupboard. It might not look like a lot, but the pile was solid and over a foot high.

The pile of clutter that poured out of the cupboard. It might not look like a lot, but the pile was solid and over a foot high.

Fifteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds later, I had everything organized into a few piles.  Gift bags were sorted by size and packed into one of the larger bags.  Tissue papers were packed into one of the gift bags.  I consolidated all of the plastic grocery bags into one larger bag in case I need them during the move.  Next step is to go through the cloth bags and get rid of any I no longer want.

About 15 minutes later, I had everything sorted and ready to go. I like to grumble and complain about these kinds of things, hence the reason why I time myself. I find it hard to argue with myself after learning how little time it actually takes to clean up.

About 15 minutes later, I had everything sorted and ready to go. I like to grumble and complain about these kinds of things, hence the reason why I time myself. I find it hard to argue with myself after learning how little time it actually takes to clean up.

I’m always surprised at how easy it is to accumulate clutter, especially in those hard to reach and rarely used places.