Disqus
I'm a gonna fix it, yes I am.... gotta avoid the time vampire!
Whilst watching a video on the InterWeb the other day I came across the hugely amusing phrase “Time Vampire” – in case it’s not obvious, it’s a person or thing that literally seems to suck your (free/spare) time away!
The video I was watching referred to a configuration screen for a piece of CE (consumer equipment) – the point being that the config screen was overly-complex, and like many of us have experienced, sucks the time away you spend setting it up!
It got me thinking actually as to what have been the top Time Vampires from an IT/Mobile perspective for me over the last few years:
- Configuring early WAP handsets with their settings
- Setting up Windows to do pretty much anything – networking, for example!
- Getting some peripherals to work properly – printers and scanners!
- Configuring email settings in devices
- Backing up Hard disks
These have been just a few of the things that have literally eaten away at my time over the past few years, to the point of utter frustration. Having worked in the Mobile industry since before the inception of WAP, I remember the pain that setting up devices used to cause – notably I remember the Motorola Timeport as one of THE most-difficult-to-consider devices for data!
Windows has been a key player in vacuuming my time, in many situations – quite often because of it’s refusing to accept any config changes without a reboot – despite being IT supports teams’ favourite phrase, it’s an incredibly time-zapping process. But even simple config changes can sometimes result in locking-up of the O/S…
And let’s not forget the age-old favourite of putting your own email settings in to a mobile device – it did used to be incredibly difficult to do, since vendors seemed to consider email apps something that needed to be there, but would not really be used!
So what are your top time vampires – either now, or in the recent past? It could be something like the start-up times of PCs, or sync times between your mobile device and computer – let us know, we’d all like to share your pain 
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
