Technology trauma

    I was lucky to have a month long vacation in the land of the Maple leaf (Canada). It was here that I noticed, that technology is omnipresent—it’s on the streets, the subway, the library, residential buildings, on old trams, it’s everywhere. While the people there take technology for granted, I must confess that there were times when I felt helpless with certain devices and gadgets, some of which I had never encountered before.

When I arrived and moved into my brother’s condominium, I noticed that the house had various appliances. Initially, I tried to avoid these for a few days. Later, I decided to brave it all. My six year old nephew explained all the settings. Why, he had even memorized TV channel numbers and was instantly switching to the tech and news channels of my interest.

My brother encountered a problem with his home theatre system. The mammoth 46-inch LCD TV wasn’t receiving a signal from the DVD player; the cable TV worked fine. The back end of the TV panel had plenty of sockets. Common sense and pure logic took a backseat for the moment. I knew that I had to connect the video-out of the DVD player to some video-in port on the TV. But there were multiple sets of ports: PC Link (D-sub connector), Wiselink (USB), S-video, RF-in (cable), RCA type audio-in (2 sets), HDMI (2 sets), composite video (2 sets), and component video (2 sets). Luckily, an HDMI cable, compatible with the DVD player simplified it all. We were soon watching DVD movies.

The building had security cameras all over. To enter, one had to punch in a buzz code to the apartment. There was a day when I encountered a problem with the buzzer system. On dialing the code to my brother’s apartment, it diverted the call elsewhere. Software bug? Whatever the case, an engineer fixed it the very next day.

When I ventured out into the streets, I encountered new technology. I waited for what seemed like forever to get a walk light. Since this was the suburbs, people were rarely seen on the streets. So the lights take longer to change. The next day, my nephew explained that all I had to do was press a button on the street lamp post to change the signals.

On the bus, the driver had all kinds of fancy devices. But the one that caught my eye was the high-tech ticket dispenser and cash register. I later hopped on to an old tram. The doors didn’t open at all stops unless one had to alight. While the buses have a button to request for a stop, the old tram has none. So, when it was my turn to step off I couldn’t figure out how to unlock the door. I looked at a fellow passenger helplessly who indicated that I simply had to stand on the step.

Another embarrassing incident—in the community library. After selecting a few books, I had them registered and walked through the door, that’s when an alarm went off and everyone looked in my direction. I then learnt that every book and magazine had an RFID tag. There were sensors at the checkout counter to monitor thefts, so registered books had to be passed around the counter. Alas, I had made the mistake of walking through, books in hand.

Automation in public spaces is quite impressive over there. Gas stations have no attendants; one uses a credit card at the self service fuel dispenser, and the same goes for trolleys at the airport.

So, a bit of advice for the first time traveller abroad: get a credit card with international validity and an infant nephew, niece or cousin for those technology orientation sessions.