Technology for me means many different things. However the more I use it the more I realize how flawed it could be. For example when I first started to write this entry I couldn’t for the life of me get my speech recognition to work. All I did was close the program and reopen it and all of a sudden even the stuff I say a little rough comes through beautifully. Sometimes I wish that I just didn’t use as much of this technology is ideal. It’s frustrating when you know how well it can work and all of a sudden it stopped working. 95% of the time Dragon NaturallySpeaking works so well for me that I don’t even have to think about or struggle with my writing. Other times like I just spoke about I wonder why I ever started using it.
Everywhere I go today some form of technology needs to be used. A machine to buy a ticket for a train of thought and to push for an elevator or the little pad the waitress carries that wirelessly sends your order to the kitchen. I am a long-time reader of science fiction enough to know that many of the things science fiction predicts may never come true. However more and more of them do every day. For me I consider this to be one of the most exciting times to be alive. At the same time I still think that I don’t belong here in any way. As a blind person all these wonderful new technologies inevitably have the kicker. That little thing called called site means most of these new inventions won’t work out of the box for me. Just a year ago I remember going out to hunt for a new stove for our kitchen. Even a simple gas stove with only one feature take your temperature had a digital display and non-tactile buttons. What on earth were they thinking what was wrong with the old dials that you could turn to a certain point and it would always be 350°. Instead even the still has a computer and an accessible computer at that. After all if they didn’t have these computers manufacturing of stoves has come so far that if they made in the same way they used to improving on the original design they might never break we all know that things that never break yet exist otherwise the market for new items would disappear. Maybe I’m just a little bitter but all I really want is a computer that works consistently and is still that I can always be assured me my bread and roasted my chicken.