[hoffspot]

I think there are shades of gray to be recognized between obstreperously "Retro" and obstreperously Luddite. There are still a significant cohort of people alive that grew up in the era where the rotary phone interface was the only phone interface. Using this device in public could be merely a nod and a wink to others in the same cohort and a nice conversation starter rather than a position against the advancement of technology. You will pry my smartphone out of my cold, dead hands but I think it would be fun to have this device around to occasionally sport out in public for the laughs. And in a nod to yourself and the other comment, thank you for teaching me a new word (obstreperously).

[NikolaNovak]

Curious - Why "obstreperously "?

I would've assumed something like "Ostentatiously" would've been the word; but I've seen "obstreperously" couple of times in this thread now, and had to look it up (it's a new word to me:) - seems to be "noisy and difficult to control", and that gives it a whole different, perhaps more negative slant?

P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives :-)

[Syonyk]

> P.S. FWIW, in my limited experience, it is typically the most technologically savvy amongst us that go through incredible effort to discover, purchase, setup, own, operate and integrate retro/Luddite devices in their lives

Oh, absolutely! Part of it is the enjoyment and skill to make something like that work (it's a non-trivial bit of programming to interface modern electronics with a rotary dialer, cell modem, audio codec, etc, and to have it all more or less work reliably).

The other part, though, I think is that people in those spaces see just how wrong everything has gone - the piles of complexity that never quite work, the constant data leaks, the invasion of privacy for surveillance profits, the fight for attention based on what's good for the company and not good for the users, etc. And a lot of us, myself included, want no part of that.

My wife and I spent last night on the couch listening through a wonderful recording of Handel's Messiah, on 4 quite heavy vinyl LPs. It was a great evening!

[NikolaNovak]

Thx; I suppose that's also why my fridge, microwave, tv and door lock are as dumb and unconnected as I can make them :->

I found a quote a while back - don't know the source - which sums up how many IT experts view IT:

"Non-magic users: collect crystals, call their pet a familiar, draw pentagrams.

Magic users:the most magical things I keep in my house are rocks, and I keep a hammer next to them in case they act up"

[Syonyk]

I've seen the more directly tech version of that:

Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is Bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via Alexa! I love the future!

Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

I'm definitely on the second half. We still have a Nest, but only because I've not convinced myself that the HestiaPi will actually run our system properly... and I can't get parts for it.

[JasonFruit]

I started the "obstreperously" thing in this thread, so I guess I'm honor-bound to explain. You've exactly pegged what I meant to communicate: loud, obnoxious, over-the-top obvious, like ostentatious, but no chance of being taken as non-annoying.