Sound & Communications October 20, 2008 Issue

The Electronic LeashI don’t need it…or do I?By Gary Kayye, CTSI remember the exact day I startedwearing my electronic leash. Backin my days at Extron, we launched24-hour technical support for ourdealers...something they still have.Well, we were a very small companyback then and I was the firstto wear the leash because we wereonly a handful in technical or salessupport. Feeling like a doctor on call,I wore my first pager home in late1989.For years after that, I was in therotation to wear the beeper home,on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, forone week at a time. What was coolwas that, 99% of the time, literally,you could simply solve the caller’safter-hours support problem/questionwith a simple non-technical answer. Ifelt like a hero, as do, I am sure, all ofthose who handle late-night calls fromdesperate techies who just need asolution to a perplexing problem.Then, in 1992, I graduated to a cellphone that was just on all the time.At Extron, we would simply forwardthe late-night calls to individual cellphones, depending on who was onduty. It was awesome because itmeant that I had a cell phone oneweek a month; remember, this wasthe early 1990s and not everyone hadone back then.I got my first PDA-phone (the PalmTreo) in 2003, and became addicted.I purchased my Treo and now myphone could do email, browse theweb (well, sort of) and carry all mycontacts wherever I went.But, I wanted more.I wanted better web browsing, morebattery life, a better phone, a lighterTreo, a better keyboard, a calculatorand much more. I kept upgrading myTreo, but it just never delivered all thatI wanted.Then came iPhone. In 2007, I waswowed by it. It did all the Treo did,but better. Better graphics, betterphone, better features. Everythingwas better. I am addicted to mobileweb browsing, reading news 24 hoursa day, checking my email every 15minutes or so, sending text messagesand I even found myself checking theweather all the time.But, I still wanted more.So, I got iPhone 2.0. I love it. Ithas everything the original iPhonehad, only it’s faster. And, now, for theiPhone 2.0, Apple offers thousandsof free applications that include stufflike expense tracking, a secret zerooutdirectory (a phone directory thattells you backdoor ways to get to humanswhen calling big companies thathave automated attendants) and evenan application that turns your phoneinto a flashlight!Wow!But, I am still not satisfied. I wantmore.Ridiculous, huh?Last week, I dropped my phone in aswimming pool and—poof—nothing.No contacts, no calendar, no iPod,no flashlight. Heck, all of a sudden,I didn’t even have a phone! Poof...orshould I say, splash.I was in a panic. I didn’t know whatto do. I knew there were still lines forthe iPhone, so just running out to geta new one wasn’t going to happen.Not to mention all the time it wouldtake me to re-initialize my phone so itis way more than a phone.So, what did I do?Nothing. That’s right, nothing. Itwas a Friday and I decided to wait itout and head over to Apple when Icouldn’t stand it anymore.And, you know what I found out?I don’t need to check my email every15 minutes. I didn’t need to knowthe weather for that day. I didn’t needto look up a phone number. Heck, Ididn’t even have a phone. And, I actuallyfound that refreshing, too.I was without an electronic leash forfour whole days...and you know what?No one seemed to notice. And, aftertwo days, I didn’t notice, either. I rodemy bike an extra 20 miles that weekend.Did a 10-mile run that Sundayinstead of my regular run, and hungout. Just hung out.I have decided to try this moreoften. So, don’t call me on the weekendsanymore. And, if you do, don’texpect me to answer the phonebecause I may choose not to.Got it? Good! I am serious! Seriously!!!Hang on a second; my editor justcalled asking where my column is. Ihave to finish this as quickly as possibleand email it to him before my (letme check my calendar) 3:00pm conferencecall….nGary Kayye, a member of Sound & Communications’ Technical Council, is principal of KayyeConsulting. He was InfoComm International’s 2003 Educator of the Year, and NSCA namedhim 2007 Instructor of the Year. Send comments to him at gkayye@testa.com.14 Sound & Communicationswww.soundandcommunications.com