Incorrect predictions and apps
I wrote a blog a fortnight ago, about a predicted drought. The article I had quoted from, was stating that we were to expect extremely high temperatures from as early as the end of this month, as hot air rolled off the Australian desert towards us. Instead, we have been super cold with lots of rain and biting winds. In fairness, we did receive a couple of clear, hot days, but that was all.
I remember how risky it was to write a weather story when I was a journalist, as invariably after weeks of dry, for example, if someone dared to call it a drought, it would start pouring the very next day, almost as if the weather was taunting one. Or even worse, the rain would start as people were receiving their morning paper.
Although we had forecasts back then, we didn’t have access to the myriad of weather apps that are available to us these days. Then, we had to rely on what we were told, whereas now a days, one can look for themselves to see what is approaching. Perhaps I should have used the app myself when I wrote that blog, rather than quoting the paper article, although the app wouldn’t have given me the longer prediction.
It was only 14 years ago that I stopped journalism, but look how much the world has changed, even since then. Here, I am talking about the number of apps available to us. It was just as I was finishing journalism that I acquired my first smart phone. I remember asking my photographer friend what an app was. He had only got his phone the year before and used to talk about how good the apps were. I found his explanation difficult to comprehend. And it was that time that I was trying to teach my mother how to text, a task that was too difficult for her to master. It just seems absurd today, that there could have been a time when someone didn’t know what these things were or how to use them. I didn’t learn to text myself, until 2006. I had gone to Outback Australia and my friend back in New Zealand insisted on communicating with me via text, so I had to learn the hard way. That was only 17 years ago.
As I look through my phone, I have a rugby world cup app, keeping me up-to-date with the latest scores and news, a Squarespace app, allowing me phone access to my website, a weather app, my social media apps, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, my Yahoo Mail app, Netflix and TV1 and 3 on demand, BBC News, Stuff and the Herald for my news, Top Energy where I can monitor power outages, The Warehouse, Farmers and a few other retailers, my two bank apps, Trade Me, a Spark app, Google and U Tube, plus a few games and other various apps. Wow. And I already take all of these for granted.
I would be lost without my Google App. I use this one constantly, especially when I am writing. Checking facts or spelling, has never been easier. And if we are watching something on tv, it is easy to find out more about it or even having a conversation and querying something.
And these are just the apps. We have cameras at our phone’s finger tips, calculators, date reminders (I never know what the date is these days), voice and video recorders, maps and GPS. Whew.
It is ironic that so many people these days are venturing to the furtherest corners of the world both to explore and to live and they are bringing these experiences back to us in our sitting rooms. They want to live off-grid for all the benefits that this lifestyle provides yet their technology is not left behind. I guess it is the best of both worlds for them, with we the viewers, being the beneficiaries. And then we can watch overgrown sections being mowed, weed-eaten, and blown clean. My son thought we were winding him up when we put one of these programmes on, but Stephen and I actually enjoy watching the transformation taking place. Sure beats the real thing anyway. Mowing the lawn with our lawnmower is damn hard work.
On that note, it is time to finish this and perhaps check one of my apps out.