Reconfigure

The cool thing about being an engineer is that if something you use doesn't work in the way you want it to, you can either figure out a way to change it or just build something that does.

Justine Haupt of Brookhaven National Laboratory did this when she became frustrated with some of the glitchier features of a touchscreen smart phone, like the way that it can start random functions when you hold it against your face and accidentally touch them with your cheek or ear.

She didn't go back to what's often called a "dumb phone," or a cell phone with pushbuttons. She built a phone that runs with a rotary dial. Pictures and a description of what the phone does are at the link.

The next step is obviously to recruit Sarah from The Andy Griffith Show and put her to work. When we are mistakenly accused by the government of a crime because they say we were inciting terrorist activity, she will be able to vouch for the fact that we were just talking about buying Jeff Dunham tickets because she will have listened in on the conversation herself.