|
 Hidden
Agendas
By
Rick Marshall
Your
cellphones and iPods may have a lot more uses than you thought
I’ll admit it: I have a college degree in computer science
and I still haven’t figured out how to use all of the tools
and programs that come with my iPod.
I can do the basic stuff, like transferring music from album
to iPod and arranging groups of songs into playlists, but
these days, that’s like being able to use your high-speed
Internet connection only to check e-mail—simply put, it’s
a waste of technological potential. So now I’m learning how
to do some of those things not described in the user manual
that the iPod’s software makes possible: like making “smart
playlists” that shuffle only certain types of songs into the
rotation, or synchronizing the calendar tool in my iPod to
the calendar in my laptop computer. I’m even learning how
to make short stories available to read via the iPod’s “notes”
tool. Sure, some of the uses I’ve discovered probably wouldn’t
get Apple’s approval (and some, I suspect, are downright illegal),
but really, you’d be surprised what a few Google searches
can turn up.
That’s the thing about tech culture: Someone’s always finding
a use for new technology that its creators never envisioned.
As William Gibson, the “father” of cyberpunk literature (he
was writing Matrix-like stories when Keanu Reeves was
still using a See ’n Say), observed in a 1989 Rolling Stone
article, “the street finds its own use for things.”
Along those same lines, a friend of mine once described (in
his Weblog, of course) a discovery he made quite a few years
ago while waiting for a train. On a whim, he decided to see
if there were any wireless Internet signals in the station
that he could pick up on his handheld computer. Those being
the infant years of wireless Internet technology, he was surprised
to find a few signals out there—but he couldn’t figure out
where they were coming from. He asked one of the station security
guards about the signals, and ended up being interrogated
about his interest in the signals. It turns out that the signals
his computer located were broadcast by hidden cameras placed
around the station—a security measure that wasn’t supposed
to be public knowledge. Apparently, the technology for sniffing
out these signals had evolved beyond the initial scope of
the security system’s creators, and my friend, who managed
to convince the station’s security force of his innocence,
found a new use (now a “camera detector” of sorts) for his
handheld computer.
And that’s only scratching the surface of the unintended uses
people have found for new technology. Heard of those cell-phone
jammers that are illegal here in the United States? Well,
apparently they’re saving more than just movie-theater ambiance
for the American military now that cell-phone signals are
being used as remote detonators for roadside bombs. Yes, that
means that this trend has evolved to the point at which people
are putting technology to use in ways its creator never intended
in order to counteract other alternative uses.
But this isn’t a new phenomenon. In a 2002 essay by Cory Doctorow,
co-editor of the popular blog BoingBoing and a contributing
writer to Wired and The New York Times, the
jack-of-all-trades tech author theorized that “the measure
of a product’s success is how far it diverges from its creator’s
intentions.” Whether it’s soldiers at Normandy using condoms
to keep saltwater out of their rifles or someone using their
home computer to combine two different musicians’ albums and
create a new one, the spirit is the same, he argued.
“The
innovation only begins in earnest once a new invention leaves
the production line and falls into the hands of consumers,”
wrote Doctorow.
Although Doctorow’s essay was intended as a statement against
copyright-minded legislation that stifles innovation, it got
me thinking that maybe, just maybe, it’s actually a consumer’s
duty to test the potential uses of the technology he or she
owns. If people didn’t start making mix tapes years ago, would
we have the MP3 players of today? Essentially, companies saw
consumers “hacking” their products to make it fit their desires,
and these companies then made products to serve that desire—and,
without a doubt, make a buttload of money.
That’s why I’m so motivated to explore the potential uses
of my iPod these days: I feel like it’s something that, as
a consumer of this technology, I need to do if I ever want
to be offered anything better. And it seems to be paying off.
Where it once took six different computer programs and three
hours of work to create a disc that would play in my DVD player,
current models make it easy for anyone with a computer to
create a DVD-playable disc in a matter of minutes. And after
years of fiddling around with my old iPod in order to listen
to weekly news broadcasts, recent versions of the iPod come
with intuitive software that makes playing these audio files
easy.
So there it is, gadget owners, this is your call to action.
If you’re the sort of person who has been skipping over various
functions in your iPod, cell phone or handheld computer, you
owe it to yourself and the rest of the gadget-using world
to step up to the plate and explore the different purposes
your assorted geekery can serve. After all, there’s a world
of technology out there and it gets outdated pretty quickly.
If you don’t bother to learn how to use the tools you’re given,
you might find yourself getting outdated, too.
rmarshall@metroland.net
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