Species of commuter.

[elfs]

Remember a few posts ago when I said "if I don't do any more writing today"? I didn't. On my commute home, the guy sitting next to me brought a freaking eight-inch television with him, on which he proceeded to watch some DVD. I developed such a massive headache from trying to interrupt the instinctual portion of my brain that wanted to hone in on the high-speed flickering glow just to the edge of my sight that I finally had to just give up, close the laptop, and close my eyes. I don't watch video on my laptop on the commute for the same reason: it's freaking rude, okay? I've sat next to other geeks and not developed that kind of reaction, so it had to be something intrinsic to the action flick he was watching.

I've been taking the 6:30am bus instead of the 7:00am bus. This morning, a woman got on and looked around, and there was one seat left, the one next to me. She eyed it considerably before deciding that her double-wide ass wasn't going to fit there. Blessed be! No, I'm not enough of a gentleman to give up my seat as well.

And finally, this morning I witnessed a new variety of commuter that I can only call "the human turnstile." This is a commuter wearing a heavy coat and a backpack who stands at the front of the bus and is too stupid to get out of the way as people are trying to exit. Because he's wearing the backpack he blocks the aisle and has to rotate a full 360 each time someone wants to get past him. I hope he's at least keeping a running tally.

Comments

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

When I wear a backpack and wind up standing in the front of the bus, I take it off and keep it between my legs, so as to be able to squeeze out of the way of people getting off. And then take the first available seat and put the damned thing on my lap, or under the seat.

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I want virtual gloves and compact virtual goggles so I can have the ability to keyboard in mid-air and have a large screen no-one else can see, damn it. Then if I want I can watch movies without being rude, and I can write on the bus even though it's bouncing around so much I can't possibly write.

Oh well. One day dream at a time, I guess. :p

How about this?

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what the delay is, there is a virtual projection (myvu)system (http://www.myvu.com/details.html) from MicroOptical and even a video service from OrangeSA (http://www.gizmag.com/go/4252/) if you live in France, that is.

Granted the keyboarding is more difficult but I remember one years ago that was a binary keyboard that only used four keys (plus one for the thumb) on a stick, but there is also projection keyboard (http://www.gizmag.com/go/2864/).

...and while I am at it, you might want to take a look at this totally unrelated but really interesting iPod accessory, or "acsexory" (http://www.gizmag.com/search/acsexory/) as the company describes it.

Re: How about this?

[woggie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that looks a lot better than than the big virtual reality helmet I've seen, and I could certainly cope with a projected keyboard.

The iBod is not likely to be something I'd be interested in, tho. :)

What really got my attention was this wireless computing interface. Shadowrun, here we come? :)

Re: How about this?

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

Wireless interface... that's cool.

So, how do you feel towards terpanation (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=trepanation)? I would think that part might limit the overall popularity of such things.

Re: How about this?

[woggie.livejournal.com]

It's not the same thing. Cranial surgery happens all the time and holes aren't left in someone's skull afterward. I don't know the specifics of that procedure, but if that can be accepted in the world, then this procedure can.

Not that I'd be interested in such a capability, myself. I'll stick with VR goggles and gloves, thank you. :)

The point being, in the world of Shadowrun, people undertake that surgery because they want to get ahead in business, and people already do weird things for money.

[davidlevine]

it had to be something intrinsic to the action flick he was watching

We're predators, hardwired to glom onto any rapid movement. This is why we find watching television, even a blow-'em-up action flick, calming -- it focuses our attention and lowers the blood pressure in a prepare-to-spring reflex.

I remember one time I was sitting in my living room, reading a book, but my eye kept getting drawn to the television across the street. We're talking a tiny flickering image, seen through two wavy panes of 1920s glass, that I could easily cover with the tip of my pinky, but I just couldn't stop myself from looking at it.

[grum]

And that is a big part of why I don't have a television. I can't bring myself to cease paying attention to the flickering box. Sometimes even the flicker pattern in a darkened room I'm passing by is enough to completely capture my attention.
I don't like them, I don't like how much time I wind up giving them without even noticing I'm doing it. It's worse than stress eating.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

I have the same response, as does ssatva. It drives valasia crazy, because we'll walk into her room and try to talk to her, and then get mesmerized by her TV, which for whatever reason totally fails to capture her attention. But ssatva can barely think when there's a TV in our field of vision.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

That's my theory, too. valasia has the silly thing on all the time, and she seems to tune it out very easily. I basically never watch TV, and I cannot block it out.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Same here. I watch maybe a half hour a week. I cannot tune out TVs. If we go to a restaurant with one, I get the chair with my back to it.

better living through technology

[happy-hacker.livejournal.com]

http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

I use one to turn off TVs that are too annoying. The one in the locker room at the gym that was invariably tuned to Fox news, for example.

Same here

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

But I find I also have to sit far enough away I can't hear it either. Else I pull the signal out of the noise and end up leaving my dining companions with an automaton.

[grum]

I recently spent a couple years living in a house with the everpresent television. I didn't learn to tune it out.
But then my eyes don't work quite right either, I can't use a standard computer monitor if the refresh rate is too low, the flicker catches my attention and gives me a headache. (I need to make myself a bead string to do some of my eye exercises again, the doubling's getting worse as I spend entire days reading textbooks and laptop screens)

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Me, too. My roommate keeps her TV on constantly, and I never watch television (we recently took the one out of our bedroom because we hadn't watched a movie on it in two years and in was in the way, and the one in the den is for the kids... who haven't turned it on in 8 months), but whenever I go in there, I just can't keep from looking at it, no matter what's on, and it's a constant distraction/irritant. Yet, she never seems to notice it at all, and would be greatly disturbed to have to function without her 'background noise'. And in recent years, I've noticed the same thing at my mother's house, even though when I was growing up, television was never a big deal to her/us -- now it is, and she leaves it on all the time. It drives me nuts. I used to just be indifferent to television, now I'm starting to actively dislike it.