Comments on: Will We Soon Pay to Remain Disconnected?

By: Rolanda

Rolanda — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:34:19 +0000

What can I say. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thank you for this and keep up the good work.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:41:07 +0000

It is my goal to retire to the countryside and grow tomatoes and other vegetables. I’ll have internet access and a land-line phone. However, the only way for non-immediate family to reach me is via the postal service.

That’s luxury.

By: by Tim

by Tim — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:44:19 +0000

Michael, thank you very much for weighing in on this subject. Validation by a real geek, especially one young enough to be my, er, very much younger brother, is very satisfying to this geek-wannabe-but-neverwillbe.

During my last stint in Japan (1999-2003) I carried and used Internet-enabled mobile telephones (and was peripherally involved as a beta user in the world’s first 3G service — you would have flipped over this stuff), so my view is informed by more than grumpiness and age (though age and grumpiness are certainly important).

By: Michael the Dumb Tech Geek

Michael the Dumb Tech Geek — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:22:20 +0000

I would find that disconnect a very useful feature. I’m 22 and have been an avid texter for a little over 3 years now, arriving later to the game than many of my younger acquaintances. But it was mostly that I KNEW texting would become predominant in my life. It starts with a ‘good morning’ text from my friend when he wakes up at 7am, and ends with a ‘good night, sweetheart’ from my girlfriend anywhere from 9pm to midnite.

But I’m rambling. Back to my agreeing: my entire household and I have had phones for the past decade that had internet capability and it was constantly something we fought against using. More often than not we’d accidentally activate something that would download a page or two, and we wouldn’t even notice until the bill came in. This led to more time on the phone with our service provider trying to get the extra removed. Finally I researched all our different models and put a pass code on all the applications that could access the web on our phone. And then I actually forgot the code… so that put a reasonable stop to it…. until we get new phones that is!