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Mysteries of the Tech Traveler's Universe
The Travel Technologist · February 1, 2001

In technology, as in life, there are things that just don't make sense - issues that defy logic or explanation. Unraveling these mysteries seems to be about as easy as clearing up those lingering questions about black holes or the fate of the dinosaurs.

So why try?

Because travel tech enigmas are so infrequently articulated that we're resigned to accepting them. Maybe we shouldn't be.

MYSTERY #1: WHY IS MORE LESS?

Last week I struggled to contain a monster that I unwittingly unleashed on my PC. No, I didn't download a new speech-recognition program or one of those memory-hogging computer games. Instead, I installed Norton Internet Security 2001 and Norton SystemWorks - two programs that I thought would improve my system.

Yeah, right. The first thing the applications did was take up a lot of time. I spent the better part of an hour installing, rebooting and registering the Norton package. Then, after all of the virtual dust settled, I noticed that my PC's operating speed had slowed to a crawl. Wait a second - wasn't this software supposed to optimize my system performance, remove clutter and protect me from viruses? Why do I feel like I just downloaded the beta version of any Microsoft product onto my computer? (A look at all of the "invisible" applications now running on my computer made me uninstall the program tout suite.)

Next time I'll save the $59.95 it would have cost SystemWorks and the $79.95 that the security program would have set me back, and just leave my computer alone. Because sometimes, less is actually more.

MYSTERY #2: WHAT DOES DSL REALLY STAND FOR?

I know - Damned Slow Line. Take it from me, someone who's been a Verizon DSL subscriber for the better part of a year, this kind of high-speed connection is a joke. Makes me wonder, in fact, why hotels, airports and conference centers are bothering to install them. I pay roughly $100 a month for the privilege of having a line that runs at half the speed it's supposed to (when it works at all) and is backed up by the most incompetent and unhelpful tech support that I 've ever encountered. For the last three months, my dialup connection has been more reliable than the DSL. That's ridiculous.

Years from now, when historians are looking for an example of how technology needlessly complicated our lives, they ought interview the DSL subscribers who were naïve enough to believe the promises made by the bumbling telecom providers. There are plenty of suckers out there. A recent Cahners In-Stat Group survey found that Digital Subscriber Line modem sales - yeah, that's what DSL is supposed to stand for - continued to grow at a 50 percent pace, quarter over quarter. In the meantime, all I can do is warn anyone who will listen to stay the hell away from DSL.

MYSTERY #3: WHY DO WE NEED AN EPIC MANUAL TO USE THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY?

Here's the thing about the Leica Digilux 4.3: once you learn how to use it, it's a great little gadget that's worth every penny of the $699 it costs. But getting to that point isn't exactly what I'd call an intuitive process. Since I am a guy, I never refer to an instruction manual, so when I received the digital camera, I immediately did my best "trial-and-error" on it. Big mistake. If you don't read the Leica's 126-page manual cover-to-cover, you will probably never figure out how to use it. Which would be a shame, because this little contraption can take just about any kind of picture you can imagine and holds a generous amount of photos (I can take more than 400 snapshots at a resolution that' s suitable to the Web).

By contrast, the ixla Digital SuperPro 640, which costs about $600 less than the Leica, requires no instruction manual - at least not for this guy. I figured out how to use the point-and-click device in about 15 minutes. If only the very talented engineers at Leica could take some pointers from the ixla people, then we might save a few trees.

MYSTERY #4: WHY ISN'T A STANDARD A STANDARD?

I don't consider myself a tech idiot, except maybe when it comes to digital cameras. But what's with all of these competing standards? In order to get one device to communicate with another, a techno-traveler now has a dizzying array of connectivity choices, including USB, FireWire, and a choice of serial ports. Same with cellular phones, where even the heaviest users can't seem to keep all the acronyms apart, from CDMA to AMPS to PCS to GSM. And don't even get me started on operating systems. Please, don't. I'd really love to know why the technologists out there call these "standards" when they're actually doing the very opposite - forcing users to buy yet another gadget or set of connection cables until our carryons are bulging with spaghetti wires and extra batteries.

MYSTERY #5: IF TECHNOLOGY IS SUPPOSED TO SAVE TIME, WHY ARE WE SPENDING MORE TIME WITH TECHNOLOGY?

Could someone explain this to me? Ten years ago, while I was reporting for the Los Angeles Times, it wasn't unusual for me to spend less than four hours a day in front of a computer screen. Today, four hours is average … on weekends. My point is this: gadgets were supposed to free us up to do the things we wanted to, presumably to interact with less technology and with more people. Instead, they've thrown us into a virtual vortex of never-ending e-mail, finicky connections and erratic operating systems, and they've actually taken us away from other humans. And it's not just me. PCData reports that 61 percent of households are now equipped with a computer, a number that's steadily rising. This is quite possibly the most perplexing of the technology mysteries. God only knows how much time we'll be spending with our technology in another decade.

Next week: tech answers for which there are no questions.

> Listen to Elliott's audio commentary.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Annapolis, Md. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. The Travel Technologist appears weekly on this site. This story was also published on Biztravel.com.