---
layout: post
title: Not Doing
categories:
 - personal
 - technology
published: false
---
My new phone is an [E72].

I'm using it to type this post in vim, which is inside a screen session, which
resides on SDF, which I'm connected to using [PuTTY for Symbian OS][s2putty].
The fact that I can do this comfortably makes the phone a nice piece of
technology, but I'm not writing to sing its praises.  I'm writing to help me
make some mindful choices about what I want this tool to be.

When I was in college and very new to this thing called the internet, [Steve
Talbott's NetFuture essays][netfuture] spoke strongly to me about examining the
technologies we use to solve our problems.  I didn't do much about it back then
besides taking philosophy electives, but I suppose it paved the way for today
by exposing my mind to the questions in the first place.  It's unfortunately
still true that [I don't ask "why" often enough][netfuture-114].  The only
difference is that I know a bit more about the world, and I can bring this
better experience to bear.

I've had my phone less than two days but I already have ideas on the things
that it will not be doing.

1. *It will not be syncing with my work email account.*  I might make an
exception for the calendar, if I can figure out how to do it, but I don't have
a good reason to regularly check work email outside of work.  Did I choose the
right phone, if I'm not going to use its business connectivity features?  I
don't know anymore, but what's done is done.  I wasn't in this contemplative
mood when I was choosing a new phone.
1. *It will not contain a Twitter client, a Facebook client, or any client for
any similar social web service.*  Easy sharing easily leads to oversharing.  I
don't have a good reason to give or receive such painfully real-time updates,
except for the [MMDA Twitter account][mmda].  I'll have to find an alternate
source for that traffic data or make a exception for following this one
account.
1. *It will not contain games.*  The last thing I need my phone to do is to
provide some potential time sinks.

Now I need to come up with a list of do's that would make this thing mindfully useful.

[e72]: http://www.nokia.com.ph/find-products/products/nokia-e72-products
[s2putty]: http://s2putty.sourceforge.net/
[netfuture]: http://www.netfuture.org/
[netfuture-114]: http://www.netfuture.org/2000/Nov3000_114.html#3a
[mmda]: http://www.twitter.com/mmda

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