Cella,

I was talking to my friend Tiffi on my phone. I was riding on a bus, ya know the one with the cute doggie on the outside, when the driver kept interrupting me with “would the person on the cell phone please lower your voice or end the conversation.” How rude was that?

Chatty Kathy

Kathy,

Some people are just self-involved. Maybe he thought that maneuvering a 5-ton vehicle at 65 mph with 60 or 70 people on board was more important than hearing about Tiffi’s trip to the mall. Some people just can’t multitask.

Cella

Dear Cella,

Like a lot of New Yorkers, I’m used to would be Lance Armstrongs weaving through traffic and blowing through red lights. Recently, I was almost run down by a cyclist going the wrong way on a one way street, running the red light, and was TALKING on his  cell phone. I wanted to clothesline the SOB. Would that have been wrong?

Mad in Manhattan

Dear Mad,

It would be wrong because clotheslining is a 15-yard penalty.

Cella

Dear Cella,

My parents believe that it is bad manners to text during dinner. Are they right?

I’m divided on this issue. It is rude to be texting during dinner. But as a parent, I’d be thrilled that you’re home for dinner.

Cella

Welcome to The Future Was Yesterday. While we will cover tech news and new products, we’ll also be focusing on how technology affects society for good or ill.

What will make this blog different is that I’ve not only spent 30 years covering technology, but I also had to make it work for reporters in the mountains of Afghanistan to rural areas in Zimbabwe.

I bring a skeptical but not cynical eye to technology. I love gadgets and love to geek out with them but experience has taught me that not everything works as advertised. Even more pleasing to me is that real users often find startling and innovative ways to use products that designers never conceived.

As with technology, TFWY is evolving. Change  happens,

Join in and make this your home for lively and stimulating discussion of technology in the real world.

Stephen C. Miller

Editor

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I like to wait until a product or service is released and I’ve had a chance to bang on it. But the announcement of Google’s Chrome OS (Operating System) is causing me to bend my rules. It’s the concept behind Chrome OS that has me intrigued.

Not too long ago, I was lecturing a group of college students about adapting writing styles for different media. The discussion morphed into whether the writing instrument had an additional effect. I write differently when using pen and paper or a typewriter or which word processor I use.  I tried to make a joke about how my muscle memory occasionally tried to move the cursor using WordStar commands. The silence that followed made it clear that most of the kids had grown up knowing no other program except Microsoft Word. There was a time when there was real competition for the hearts and fingers of writers as to which was the best word processor.

Just a phone

Hi, I’m Stephen and I’m an infohollic. I started a chapter of BA – Blackberry Anonymous. The Treo makes me twitch. I had a severe case of QDS – Quick Draw Syndrome, the pain caused by reaching for your hip and whipping the phone to your ear. The Mobile is now the shortest measure of time. It’s the interval between the first ring and you saying “Hello?”