Could You Live Without a Smartphone For a Year? (techtimes.com) 179
shanen writes about Vitaminwater's latest "publicity stunt," where they will pay $100,000 to one select contestant who can live without their smartphone for a year: All you have to do is come up with the most amusing entry [about how you will spend 365 days without the device] and have sufficient willpower to give up your smartphone for a year. They obviously have to pick a power user to make it interesting, but that's not the reason I'm disqualified. I would just read more books, which is boring from their perspective. So maybe you want to share your idea here? If it's really good, you don't have to worry about someone stealing it. After all, you'd have the evidence that it was your idea first, but you might be able to refine your entry while amusing the mob. The company will reportedly give you a 1996 cellphone to use in times of emergencies. Also, they will reward you with $10,000 if you are able to get through 6 months. According to Tech Times, contestants can use computers or desktops, "but not smartphones or tablets, even those owned by other people, or anything which the candidate can scroll or swipe on." Always-listening smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are permitted.
To make sure the candidate doesn't cheat, Vitaminwater will subject them to a lie-detector test at the end of the year.
To make sure the candidate doesn't cheat, Vitaminwater will subject them to a lie-detector test at the end of the year.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Call me crazy, but for $100,000, I'd drink tea for a year.
Hi, crazy. The question is would you drink only Vitaminwater for a year?
I think that would me much harder, and quite possibly less healthy too.
Re: (Score:1)
yes I don't drink the stuff.
what is a smartphone anyways? (Score:2)
thats what interests me about this.
would a what would have been called a featurephone be okay? those have internet too.
6310i has j2me, possibly the first phone to do so. so would it be okay?
or can I just haul my laptop around?
also the whole concept is fucking stupid exactly due to there being people who don't use one anyways. for me, I need to use them for development even if I participated. but then again it's just a publicity stunt.
No way (Score:1)
A human can only go 7 days without water, 30 days without food, and 90 days without a smart phone. This is common knowledge.
Re: No way (Score:1)
Nope. Without symbiotic parasites we'd not survive long. That's part of the complicated unsolved problem of living in space.
Re: (Score:2)
By "symbiotic parasites," I think you mean mutualist symbionts. Commensal and mutualist symbionts are not parasites. The definition of a parasite is that it provides no benefit to the host.
Re: (Score:1)
We can quibble about roles. The bugs have mixed value.
Re: (Score:2)
Oxford: An organism that lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other's expense. [oxforddictionaries.com]
Cambridge: an animal or plant that lives on or in another animal or plant of a different type and feeds from it [cambridge.org]
Merriam-Webster: an organism living in, with, or on another organism in parasitism (an intimate association between organisms of two or more kinds especially: one in which a parasite obta [merriam-webster.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Huh.
Odd that so many free online dictionaries are so misleading, but you get what you pay for.
Lie detector (Score:4, Insightful)
And yet they can go their whole lives without ever being subjected to an accurate lie detector test. In fact, nobody has ever done anything else.
That should be:
"To make sure they don't get paid, Vitaminwater will subject them to a phony lie-detector test at the end of the year."
Re: (Score:2)
What is the classification of a smart phone?
If I add a G4 Wireless to my laptop I will get 99% of my smartphone functionality with 100% of my laptop functionality. Now granted My laptop doesn't have super long battery mostly do to it being over powered. But for 100k I would gladly get a an ultrabook with longer battery life.
I am half expecting Apple to drop the ability to make phone calls on the iPhone XI, as who uses their phone to call people anymore?
Re: (Score:2)
What is the classification of a smart phone?
It's a science fiction device that acts with at least rudimentary intelligence as it facilitates your verbal communication.
A smartphone, on the other hand, is a device for extracting the maximum amount of money from people looking at pictures of each others' cats and dinners, and broadcasting ill-written but thankfully short text messages.
Telegram and Chick-fil-A One (Score:2)
If I add a G4 Wireless to my laptop I will get 99% of my smartphone functionality
The other 1 percent being communication services that your may employer or clients require of you and which are deliberately exclusive to iOS and Android and unavailable on Windows, macOS, and GNU/Linux. Creation of a new account on the Telegram messaging service is one example. Restaurants' apps for ordering ahead are another.
Re: Telegram and Chick-fil-A One (Score:2)
"You don't have a Telegram account yet" (Score:2)
Then Telegram's account creation policy must have changed between when you signed up and when I tried a week ago [slashdot.org]. I put my phone number into the web interface on a PC running Firefox, and I got this error message:
Emulator under 2D barcode; Play-exclusive apps (Score:2)
If your laptop has enough CPU and RAM to run an Android emulator usably, good luck fitting its screen under the 2D barcode scanner of a quick-service restaurant's till when it's time to scan in for payment and rewards. And good luck lawfully acquiring applications in the first place if they're exclusive to Google Play Store. A lot of these applications aren't on F-Droid or Amazon, which I'm told are the primary app stores for users of Android emulators.
Re: No way (Score:2)
Easy-peasy (Score:5, Informative)
That's easy-peasy for me as I don't own a smart phone.
And I'm not a senior citizen to boot!
CAP === 'objector'
Re: Easy-peasy (Score:5, Funny)
Same here!
Sent from my iPhone.
Re: (Score:3)
The qualifications require that you own a smartphone, so you're disqualified.
My problem is that I don't have or want a Twitter or Instagram account, so I can't enter.
On a side note, there seem to be a lot of 4 and 5 digit UIDs here bragging that they don't have smartphones...
Re: (Score:1)
I haven't had a cell phone for 15 years and I don't miss it.
When I tell people I don't have one, they usually tell me I am lucky.
Re: Easy-peasy (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I've never had one, too. I had a mobile phone forced on me several years ago (no internet, pay as you go, almost pointless camera, tiny screen - about 1 inch), but I only use it for incoming calls. I get maybe 1 a month. I have a phone at home and work, and the same with the Internet. If I'm not at either of those it means I'm doing something.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry but I believe your time would have been more effectively used the following year as such:
a) researched improved property on a beach outside
of the US.
b) assured sufficient beer supply and resources to
maintain at proper drinking temperature.
c) threw a hook in the ocean and worried about
making sure you had sufficient hydration (see
above)
If you get bored, audition young native girls.
I don't have one now... easy peasy (Score:2)
I don't have a smartphone now.... I've got a candy bar phone with no camera, and no internet. I text about once per week, and make about 5 calls per day, mostly related to coordinating with a friend I give rides home to. I get that people find those things useful, the only really compelling need for me is I wish I had google maps at times... but yes, you can live without it.
Re:I don't have one now... easy peasy (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't have a cell phone. Well, I have one (a gift) in a drawer, but no subscription.
At jobs I have been issued smartphones, which I have kept laying unused in a corner after the necessary updates.
I use a wrist watch, a couple of tablets (WiFi), DSLR and proper computers with large screens and good keyboards. ...
Those serve my use cases better, and I won't get run over by a train or trip into the water
I have a good sense of direction (which gets practiced by not relying on GPS).
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I'd give up my smartphone before I'd give up my third 23" desktop monitor (two in portrait mode).
I use SMS to organize the use of shared transportation resources with my wife, and to intermingle social errands into my monthly shopping day. I could probably get by quite comfortably on 100 mobile SMS messages a month, no mobile voice service at all, and some kind of VoIP thing at home.
My third desktop monitor is in active use at least 70 hours per week, and heavy use about half of that time (where
Feedback improves your sense of direction? (Score:3)
.
I have a good sense of direction (which gets practiced by not relying on GPS).
I actually think my sense of direction has been honed and even improved by training against my smartphone. I've become better at retaining orientation in stairwell reversals and in "feeling" what maps actually mean on the ground without relying on distinctive landmarks as much as I used to.
These days I've become increasingly able to study the map in advance and negotiate complicated routes without needing the smartphone--but it's also reassuring to have it available if I need it.
Re: (Score:1)
Or, like, get a paper map. Jeeez.
Re: I don't have one now... easy peasy (Score:1)
I used to use Microsoft's "Streets and Trips" software which came self contained on a few CD-ROMs that I installed on my pc. When I wanted to go somewhere I would laser print a few maps. No internet connection even needed on the pc.
Re: (Score:1)
LG flip-phone here. Never text. Rarely even turn it on (road emergencies and the like). Never feel like I am missing anything.
Nothing you can scroll on? (Score:2)
So nothing with a multi-line display? Bring on the knobs, switches, and lights! Batch processing FTW!
Re: (Score:2)
So nothing with a multi-line display?
Good thing vi works just fine for single line editing.
That said, no scrolling doesn't really preclude multi-line displays. I remember consoles that operated in page mode, blanking and starting at the top when a page was full.
A very good deal. That's easy. (Score:2)
That one's easy. I'm a poweruser but giving up a smartphone for 12 months for 100 000$ sounds like a very good deal to me. No sweat. I'll check if I can apply as a non-USian.
Not difficult (Score:2)
I spend most my time on desktops anyway, always one at hand except when I am going out.
The string attached is the ban on using other people's smartphones. Friend shows you a funny cat video on his smartphone, you're fucked.
I can live with a 1996 cellphone... (Score:5, Informative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Full keyboard, wide display, email, probably enough to run ssh to my server and a VNC client......
Re: (Score:2)
I don't even HAVE a smart phone! (Score:1)
Where do I get my money?
My entry (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd give you a funny mod for that one (if I ever got a mod point).
So far there haven't been many suggestions that seem related to the actual "contest", but maybe that's because everyone else is as confused as I am by the entire idea. I think the underlying motivation is that it's some sort of social commentary on people being too dependent on their smartphones, but I, too, am not getting the joke.
(As the "propagator" of the so-called story I feel obliged to look over all the comments... However now I'm wres
no cell smart or otherwise (Score:2)
Nope. Google calendar, Waze, E-Mail (Score:4, Interesting)
I keep myself busy with professional, family and social events, and everything goes into Google Calendar. Usually I add things from my Linux workstation, and those entries are all synced to my Google Pixel 2 phone. As something gets close, my phone will remind me, and Waze can also tell me it's time to start driving.
I had the Twitter and Facebook apps on my previous phone (a Nexus 5) and consciously didn't install them on the Pixel 2 -- I spend enough time on social media as it is, I don't need to be crouched over a phone when I'm out -- that's when I should be chatting with friends, family, and people in my network. I even use my smartphone as a .. phone. I'm self-employed, so my clients can call me with questions. I have a stand-up meeting with my main client every day or two. Sure, I could use a land-line for that, but if he calls me and I'm travelling .. pfft.
The smartphone's also my alarm clock and my camera. Giving up all (most) of the functionality of a smart phone isn't going to happen.
Times have changed (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I can do even better (Score:2)
I can live without Vitaminwater for a year.
Lie-Detector? (Score:5, Insightful)
And we have detected a bullshit-campaign. Lie-Detectors do not exist. The only thing that exists is elaborate pseudo-science scams that scare people into thinking their lies could be detected.
Probably some people calculated how much getting this amount of attention would cost them conventionally and found that 100k plus, say, another 100k of work was actually very cheap.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That is my point: A lie-detector does not work by detecting lies in general circumstances. It works by making people scared of it, so they either a) do not dare to lie or b) are so very nervous when lying that the thing can actually detect something.
Incidentally, the same mechanism is used in other areas, for example in data-leakage-prevention systems: They are completely useless against anybody competent, but they serve to scare people into thinking they would get caught. That the are frequently set far to
Could I? I'd LOVE to. (Score:2)
I "went without a smartphone" for 35 years of my life, I think I could cope for a year for $100k.
Would a 1996 cell phone even work in 2018? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It may work, but there wont be coverage. My 2004 era motorola i had to finally give up because of all the deadspots and declining coverage areas. They are not maintaining the old networks anymore it seems.
in 1996 most people didnt have cell phones, they had pagers.
Easy (Score:2)
Easy as cake.
Yes (Score:2)
My smart[hone sits unused on my desk most of the time
I use my desktop computer for all computing and my wired telephone for voice
I only use the smartphone when on road trips
I rarely take road trips
Already Doing It (Score:3)
I have never owned any kind of mobile phone. My wife has a dumb phone, which we used while we were evacuated from southern California's Woolsey Fire.
Our land-line phone at home (copper line, POTS) is self-powered by AT&T. When Southern California Edison (SoCalEd) goes down -- which happens several times a year -- VoIP (voice over Internet phone) dies as do those cell-phone antennas whose backup power systems have not been recently serviced. AT&T, however, remains available for me to call SoCalEd to report their outage.
Our land-line phone gave us assurance that our house was still standing during the Woolsey Fire. We were able to call our house. The answering machine on the second floor answered, which meant that our house was okay and we even still had electricity. We know that Internet service (including VoIP) through Spectrum and some cell antennas were lost during the fire. In our community, however, the copper phone lines are all underground.
No, I am not a Luddite. My entire career was in computer software. I just like to get away from the phone when I leave my house.
Pedantic, but... (Score:2)
IP = Internet Protocol not Internet Phone.
But the handle is ringing a bell.
Easily! (Score:2)
I'd be a prime target for such a test since I make very heavy use of my smartphone.
But the thing is, a smartphone is simply a tiny, limited computer. It can be trivially substituted by any other computer in any circumstance where size is not a complete deal breaker.
For instance I have my lunch in a bar, where I watch videos on youtube. Doing the same with a laptop might be a bit quirky, but there's no reason why I couldn't do that.
Reading in the underground without a tablet would be inconvenient, as one nee
COULD I? Did that, been there (Score:2)
I lived without a cellphone for at least 50 years, and I didn't have a palmtop, laptop, fliptop or any of that. I did have a "home phone" but it was a definitely a "dumb phone". I used a home phone as a data link, acoustically coupled @ 300 baud, but that didn't actually make it smart, even if capable of downloading porn at several minutes per still picture. 50 years, don't know how I managed. Sitting here in 2018 I wonder how I was able to find anything without GPS, but for 100K I bet I could remember.
This is silly (Score:2)
The funny part is... (Score:2)
I'd do it for 1% of that 'prize'.
Hah! (Score:3)
I've managed to live quite well without a mobile phone, let alone a 'smart' one. When I see the ridiculous expense, and all the absurdly insecure apps, and all of the problems people have with them ... including tensions and dependency ... I don't see how the word 'smart' applies.
It's a fucking telephone. It's also a computer with no keyboard and a 'monitor' like a game-boy. REtarded.
It's like high-sugar cereal. And then people bitch when their teeth fall out.
Not as easy as some folks think (Score:2)
Giving it up for daily texting / talking would be easy ( am an introvert and don't talk to anyone anyway ), not so much on the utility side of things though.
For example:
I use mine mostly as a music player. ( Both my active and inactive Smartphones have headphone jacks still :D )
I can't log into many websites without a " code " they feel they need to send to my phone as pseudo-2fa.
Some games ( think Steam and Blizzard ) both utilize 2fa via a Smartphone app. ( assuming anyone games anymore )
My phone receiv
Sure, no problem (Score:1)
I've already been living without one for a little over 53 years. Didn't get my first mobile phone until a couple years ago, and it's a cheap $15 flip Tracfone. Mainly bought it in case something comes up when away from the house. Rarely use it. Since the minutes roll over, I have over 1200 minutes accumulated so far.
Wow really? Fucking snowflakes (Score:2)
I haven't had a smartphone in a decade.
Where's my million dollars?
I'll pass...not enough money (Score:2)
My job requires me to have a smart phone. I make significantly more than $100K per year. I'll keep my job and let somebody else have the prize, thank you!
Without mobile (Score:1)
Re: Which BSD is the worst? (Score:1)
NetBSD will never be SystemD ready.
Re:Good PR (Score:4, Informative)
for only 100K (they are only going to pay 1 person, not *every* person that does it)
It's even worse. They are going to offer just one person a chance to win up to $100,000.
First, you have to "win" a competition to become that one by sending a tweet and instagram outlining how that year would be. They will pick the "best" from all the entries (but they still retain the right to refuse you, should you be less than ideal for marketing purposes).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
what he said "most linux distros now default DNS as default resolver"
What I said was not what you claim I said. Go back and check it.
There's a big difference between many and most.
The rationale is that Linux installations are often used in corporate contexts, where there may both be dynamic host name resolution, split horizons, wildcard processing and internal security blocking or monitoring access. Administrators often do not want the individual hosts to override what's in the corporate name server, but do want to be able to add entries for what the name server returns no
Re: (Score:2)
Who's right here,
That is a stupid question. "What is right" is a good one, and people can judge for themselves, without you telling them.
NOTICED YOU & swillden LIKE DOWNMOD HIDING YOUR FAILS vs. ME TOO
No, that is your paranoia talking. Really, I have only one slashdot account, and cannot downmod or upmod anyone where I post. And no interest in doing so.
Others upmod and downmod depending on what they read, and if what they read is crazy talk, chances are probably higher it will be modded down.
Really, no one is out to get you. You're not that important.
Some seem to like to jerk your c
Re: (Score:2)