Blathr Wayne Lorentz

I guess Chinese spammers have gotten so lazy that theyʼre not even bothering to hide their caller ID anymore.

Today, Apple released a software update for my iPhone 6, which came out in September of 2014. That means this latest software update is for a phone that came out 100 months ago.

I also pulled out my Samsung Galaxy S7 to see if it had a software update. Nope. It stopped getting software updates in January of 2021. That means it only got software updates for 57 months — about half as long as the iPhone.

Sounds like a good reason to avoid Samsung phones.

“This call is being recorded for quality assurance.”

Really? Me, too. Same reason.

I found a pay phone!

Using a pay phone requires three things that are increasingly scarce:

1. A public payphone
2. Coins
3. Knowing the number of someone to call

There are still lots of payphones in the world, but theyʼre generally not on the streets where they can be easily noticed. Coins are so scarce that even banks have a hard time getting them. And while it used to be the case that most people knew a dozen or two phone numbers by heart, today they use a gadget to remember for them.

I understand why these things happen, but it seems like there should still be some kind of “infrastructure of last resort” for emergencies, misfortune, and those on the margins of society. New technology is great, but it still breaks too easily for us to rely on it enough in many situations.

You know your California town is small when the phone service comes from Nevada.