In Praise of the Dumbphone

It’s been a summer of mobile phone announcements. The Droid X. The iPhone 4. The Blackberry 9800 is expected to be announced on Tuesday. And there’s been a lot of talk: “Should I upgrade to the new iPhone 4?” “Should I switch to an Android?”

Strangely, there’s little talk of downgrading to a “dumbphone.” You know, a plain old cell phone that makes calls, sends texts, and not much else.

About six weeks ago, I sold my used iPhone 3G, and I’ve been living with just such a dumbphone: a Motorola L7. As it turns out, I’m not the only one living life without a data plan and full QWERTY keyboard. Only 15-17% of the world’s cell phones are classified as “smartphones,” which means the vast majority of cell phones are not smart.

Still, the smarties get all the press.

So, what’s life like with a dummy? After the initial shaking, tears, and denial, I was surprised at how easy it was to shed my data plan. And there have been noticeable benefits:

• I’m way less compulsive about checking email/Twitter/random trivia
• I’m way more observant about the world around me. I pay more attention, because I’m less distracted.
• My dumbphone is way cheaper to operate. My Fido bill for July was $15.63, compared to $80-85/month with the iPhone

For my CBC tech column this week, I’m talking about the virtues of the dumbphone: why regular old cell phones aren’t necessarily sexy, but are still a good choice for many people.

Do you have a dumbphone? Do you love it? I’d love to know why. Leave a comment or shoot me an email: dan@misener.org

What’s better than DRM? Guilt!

Apparently, Tumblr has chosen to use URL-based guilt trips to fight copyright infringement:

Please Rob Me

According to this CBC News story, if you post your vacation plans online, you might get robbed:

It’s now routine for police officers to ask robbery victims what information they put on Facebook and Twitter before the crime and if their online connections are true friends or potential suspects, according to [Cpl. Janis] Jean [of the Saanich Police Department, north of Victoria].

Sound familiar?

It should. Of course, earlier this year, there was all the ruckus surrounding PleaseRobMe.com.

But as Andy Baio pointed out back in February, back in 1983, the Montreal Gazette warned against outgoing answering machine messages that tell callers you’re not at home. And in 1977, another article suggested that you shouldn’t list family weddings or funerals in the newspaper, lest you tip off would-be robbers.

CBC Jobs RSS feed

Here’s the short version of this story: The CBC’s jobs website doesn’t have an RSS feed. So I made one:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/cbcjobs

This feed is completely unofficial, and comes with no guarantees. You can also follow @cbcjobs on Twitter if you’re into that sort of thing.

You’re welcome.

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Here’s the longer version of the story: The CBC’s jobs website (“Powered by Taleo“) is basically pretty terrible. And astonishingly, it doesn’t have an RSS feed. If you want new CBC job postings via RSS, you can get them from a couple of places, but these sources aren’t exactly what I was looking for:

• The Tea Makers HR Department (appears to be a human-powered cut/paste job, sometimes delayed by days)
• CBCJobsBC on Twitter (seemingly official, but only posts jobs in British Columbia)
• MediaJobSearchCanada’s main RSS feed (updated frequently – by a scraper, I suspect, but contains every media job in Canada, and links point back to MJSC, where you can’t directly apply for any jobs)

So, using Yahoo Pipes and Feedburner, I cobbled together a feed that I hope will be useful to some people. Basically, this pipe takes the frequently-updated MJSC feed, and then filters out postings that don’t have “CBC RADIO-CANADA” listed as the Company. Then, it grabs the 8-character CBC job number (e.g. EDM00183) from the title, and appends it to

https://cbc.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?job=

to create a permalink. Feedburner makes the feed pretty, and periodically sends new postings to @cbcjobs on Twitter.

Obviously, it would be much better if the CBC made official job RSS feeds available, but until then, I hope this helps some people out.

Accepting the things I cannot change

Rob Paterson:

My big lesson at NPR was that it is too hard to try and change an entire system.

Best to find one or two vectors for change. I have found that a few stations and people will get it and they will discover the new and then spread it.

Peter’s Cajun lives!

I’m a huge fan of Peter’s Cajun Creole Pizza. For many years, it was directly across the street from our apartment, and our go-to place when Jenna and I didn’t feel like cooking. Pete’s was tiny, adorned with old-timey jazz memorabilia, and usually packed. There were two small tables, one long table (with old theatre seats), and a bar with room for one (maybe two) people. In the summertime, the garage-door front window would open up and let the breeze in.

Peter is Serbian, and the apparent contradiction of Serbian Cajun Creole Pizza is just one of those things that makes me smile and feel lucky to live in Toronto.

In short, Pete’s Cajun was a gem.

Last summer, Peter expanded beyond pizza, opening Peter’s Corner in the former Mr. Tasty location on the northeast corner of Queen and Parliament. They erected the sign (promising “Hamburger, Panini, Steak, Coffee, Gelato”) on July 2nd, but didn’t open until the end of August. That’s a long time for a restaurant to sit empty. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the 2009 Toronto city workers strike had a lot to do with the delay. Then, earlier this year, both Peter’s Cajun and Peter’s Corner closed, with notes on the doors from the landlord.

I almost wept.

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But then, hope. A blog comment from Hunter:

well the good news is Peter is opening a new location in the same neighbourhood within the next few weeks. so you’ll get your panzerotti fix and i’ll get my estate pizza fix…

Well, it’s been a long couple of months of waiting, but today, based on a tip from neighbour Val, I stopped by Peter’s new location just north of Parliament and Gerrard, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they’re open for business. I talked to Peter and Roma, and let them know how much we miss them on the northwest edge of Corktown.

Can’t wait to get a panzerotti.

Microtrack 24/96 battery replacement

If you’re like me, and you own a (now discontinued) Microtrack 24/96 portable digital recorder, and your battery life is terrible, here’s a tip: buy a replacement iPhone battery. Reports on the M-Audio forums indicate good results:

Works even much longer: I’ve got 3 hours 45 minutes for the continuos record (mp3, to keep recording longer for test), Phantom power ON, headphones in, backlit off. After that time battery had 3.5 Volts, which is perfect (3V minimum supposed for Li-Pol batteries), and then device switched off itself.

There’s even a decent step-by-step instruction guide here.

Good things come in threes

Kottke on Dribbble:

triple letters are the new omit the vowels

I credit HoTTT TopiXXX.

Good advice

Alanna quotes Johanna Schneller’s advice to the producers of the Academy Awards:

Stop courting the audience that doesn’t care about you, and stop alienating the audience that does.

If you ask me, a whole lot of CBC programs would be smart to take the same advice.

What to do with your income tax refund

If you’re Jenna and me, you buy two Spanish domain names:

• ifmoneygrewontre.es (for showing off the things she wants to buy, but can’t/won’t/shouldn’t)
• ukulel.es (because I wanted an .es domain, too)

Aren’t we clever?