High-tech gadgets not always a plus

DALLAS – I was amused by news stories about people standing in line so they could be first to own the new high-tech iPhone. I avoided cellphones for years after they became popular. When my employer issued me a cellphone, I accepted it grudgingly then kept the power off unless I wanted to make a call.

For business reasons, some folks feel like they have to stay in touch 24-7.

I know people who take their cellphones to the deer blind and send text messages while awaiting a deer. They sometimes text other hunters, just to ask if they’re seeing anything.

If you plan to take a cellphone on a deer hunt, make sure the phone is set to vibrate.

And don’t worry about calling me.

I like blackberries just fine. I eat them on my cereal at breakfast. I don’t really want an electronic BlackBerry. I prefer being less connected rather than more connected. I’ve never considered myself so important that I couldn’t drop off the grid for a few hours.

My family gave me a handheld GPS for Christmas last year. I plan to use it for navigation in the mountains, should I ever get drawn for an elusive Nevada mule deer permit. So far, I know how to log a waypoint into my GPS and return to that waypoint.

With the GPS, I should be able to find my camp, my vehicle and, if I’m lucky enough to bag a big mule deer, I should be able to figure the closest route for packing him off the mountain.

In the Gulf of Mexico, I’ve watched skippers skilled in electronics unerringly navigate the featureless sea to hotspots hidden by 100 feet of water. GPS is pretty cool for fishing or finding your way in the field. I don’t much want one in my vehicle.

I’ve used navigational aids in cars and trucks for many years. They’re called road maps. Using them does not require an engineering degree, though refolding a map neatly can be a real challenge.

My SUV has an electronic compass built into the rearview mirror. That compass and a simple road map is all I really need as navigational aids, and I did without the compass for the first million or so miles I drove.

Not that technology is all bad. In Africa’s Selous Game Reserve, where I hunted last year, there were few roads in our 500,000-acre concession. We got out of the hunting car to track a group of buffalo bulls one day and followed them nearly 15 miles.

With the sun setting, our professional hunter plotted our position on his GPS and saw we were only about a mile from a different road than the one we’d left. He used a satellite phone to call the driver, who’d stayed with the hunting truck, and had him pick us up on the close-by road. Otherwise, we would have had a long hike back in the dark, and the Selous is not a safe place to be hiking at night.

Since I first earned a driver’s license, I’ve progressed through a seemingly endless series of music technologies to ease the pain of marathon drives. First there was AM radio, followed by AM-FM, then eight-track tapes, cassette tapes, CDs and now iPods.

My family gave me an iPod Nano for Father’s Day. It’s the small version that holds 500 songs.

I’m a pretty harsh music critic. So far, my play list is about 300 songs. My tech support system goes to college next month, so I’m scrambling to pad out the play list before he leaves. Otherwise, I’ll never figure out how to download the music.

Technology? Don’t call us, we’ll call you