Re: [dev] Suckless Smartphone?

On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 5:20 PM, Guilherme Lino <guih.lino_AT_gmail.com> wrote:
> i would recomend a cheap phone, that make calls and sends smSs..
>
> whene you dont have your pc, read a book.. i think thats the most suckless
> way

A "smart phone" makes sense in certain circumstances. I have an old
mobile phone which just does voice/SMS, and normally the things I do
in my life fit with this, However, I'm currently looking to move to a
new area, which means I'm stuck with informal rentals websites that
insist on hiding people's details behind their web-based message
interfaces, wanting to look up an awful lot of stuff (maps, bus
routes, local taxis, train times, etc). It would make my life a lot
easier if I could rent a smartphone for just the one month I need it,
transferring my existing number temporarily. Unfortunately that's not
a supported business model in mobile phones.

I can imagine there are other people with lifestyles where a
smartphone makes sense constantly, eg, those people who genuinely
enjoy facebook and doing all that networking stuff while on the move.
(In general, I'm always a bit surprised how it seems to be perceived
to be suckless to proscribe the user-level tasks that are allowed. How
those are implemented yes, but saying that classes of activity are not
acceptable?) On the other hand, I'd certainly agree that many people
seem to have gone for smartphones because it's the cool new thing
rather than because their usage is best fitted by a smartphone.

-- 
cheers, dave tweed__________________________
computer vision reasearcher: david.tweed_AT_gmail.com
"while having code so boring anyone can maintain it, use Python." --
attempted insult seen on slashdot