Hate these damned things and the weenies who now depend on them.

Yeah, Technology is TERRIBLE.

It sucks to not have to be in your office to receive emails and attchments.

I hate productivity.

I don't use a Blackberry, but do love my PDA. Depend on them? I'm not sure how one becomes 'dependent' on one, but I like it cuz it helps keep me organized and maintains my MUSIC TO BUY list.

No one is being productive on those things. It's nouveau-techno-office-chic of the worst kind. No one's being productive in a restaurant, nor on the bus. You can't use it on a plane. You can't manage sizeable files. There's nothing so ridiculously important that it can't wait until you get home. If you're expecting something important, check your voice mail if you're on the road or dial in with your laptop.

I don't have a problem with them. In fact, I'm probably going to be getting some for myself and my drivers. What I do find annoying are those little bluetooth earpieces with the blue blinking LED. They make you look like a douchebag.

Wow. I wish I could be more wrong or delusional.

But, I guess you've never worked a job where you don't really have an office, and don't want to find a wireless hotspot. And that whole "wait until you get home" line is beyond wrong. In my business timing can be DEADLY. It's a pretty cool thing when you can approve copy for a mail piece or approve language for an automated call sitting in an airport, or wherever you happen to be.

You're pretty anti-competition for a libertarian

Because Blackberry infringed on someone else's rights?

yes, because everything that the USPTO does these days is good policy.

I'm against technology of any kind. In fact, I didn't even type this post. I wrote it on a piece of bark and had my carrier pigeon deliver it to someone with a computer.

I thought this thread was gonna be about a rumor of Kevin Federline's death.

But imagine if you could do that from your car.

this is personally upsetting to me, as someone who coordinates the wireless devices in our company. We've moved a LOT of people onto Blackberrys in the last 2 years, and I shudder to think how we're going to get them on a reliable, comparable device without headaches. We've got users in Abu Dhabi right now, and email is the most reliable method of communication, as voice service is government-controlled there, and is 1.99 per minute.

I'm still getting used to the fact that Abu Dhabi is a real place.

Ever since watching Garfield cartoons as a kid and seeing Nermal constantly being mailed to Abu Dhabi, I assumed it was a made up place.

You could always talk via VOIP for cheap. For instance, I use Broadvoice for my service, which uses my internet connection to make calls. My wifes family in Sweden can get a device and also use Broadvoice, which means they will get a local US number, and my calls to them would then be "local."

I'mnot sure how it would work for a set of office lines, and the downside is when someone is downloading stuff the connection gets messed up, but it just might be my provider.