New Technology Pisses Me Off Rant
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What's more, the technological singularity is approaching (I think). My 1080p crystal ball shows ugly vibrations for these fucking luddites. Here's what one of them wrote in 2001(!):dreamblade said:
Was Bill Gates on acid when he designed Win 95?
Well, hang on, all that you described at one point, WAS new technology.....johnnyone1 said:Yeh… life before New Technology, those were the days…jerking off to Playboy and Penthouse mags…trolling up and down Jarvis St. looking for a hooker…setting up the film projector for the grainy porno flick… Yeh those were the days alright.
Fuck New Technology!! Who needs it.
Playboy/Penthouse: colour printing process and scanning technology allowed pictures and text to be mass distributed.
Jarvis Street: Were you driving? A lot of technology went into bulding that car and for that matter, the pavement, untilities buried under the street etc.
Film Projector: again, electricity to run the machine, the film itself, the equipment to capture the images, etc etc
Now I feel the pain of anyone who is having trouble with technology these days, but something EVERYONE has to understand: no one is FORCING you to buy the latest and greatest.
For eg: Touch Tone phones from the 70's still work on bell landlines. You don't need a cellphone plan. You could just call from wherever you happen to be to pick up messages and return calls. There are still pay phones around. One doesn't NEED HDTV with surround sound, you can still use the brownie box camera, you don't NEED to go digital, and for that matter, you don't NEED a computer and a printer. You can still use a typewriter or, ahem, longhand with a pen, paper, stamp, and envelope.
See the reason many find technology so complicated is because, well, it IS complicated. Technology now does so many things that we used to have to do manually and the human brain is a pretty fucking powerful information processor. In fact, if the most powerful computer was 1 grain of sand on a beach, our noodle would be the equivalent of ALL the beaches in the world.
Now here's some ways to just get by with the basics:
TV: just buy a monitor with no tuner, buy basic cable and a basic cable box. This is NO different a setup than the late 70's.
Car: Buy a basic bottom of the line econo box car with no options. Get in, start it, put it in gear. Sure, even they come with a cd am/fm radio so if you want to listen to the radio you'll have to learn how to use it, or not turn it on.
Phone: go to any second hand store and pickup a basic push button phone from the 70's, order a land line basic service from bell, plug in the phone and use it.
Computer: throw the one you own now, out. NO ONE 100% NEEDS A PC. People all over the world function just fine thank you without one.
Washer/Dryer: just buy the basic bottom of the line GE NOT the top of the line Whirlpool duet that chimes when you push the buttons and has 7 different wash/water level/rinse/agitation/spin cycles. Put your clothes in, put the detergent in, set the wash cycle and you're done.
So again, if you don't like dealing with technology, DON'T (and stop whining about it if you do....)
Amiga? Okay. Commodore PET. With the chiclet keyboard. 8K of memory. Now THAT was advanced technology.cypherpunk said:
I just have to laugh at people who rant against new technology - on the INTERNET. Nothing personal, but there is something just a bit odd about it.
I was given a Garmin for Christmas. Next to no documentation in the box. But it took me all of 2 minutes to get the thing up an running.LateComer said:
I was perfectly happy with Mapquest/Google Maps and my Pearly, but I have to admit, the GPS really is helpful.
Now THAT is a perfect example of how people just expect TOO much intuition from technology.latecomer said:
The where am I is easy enough, just push a button to determine your present location.
The where do you want to go? Now THAT's quite a complicated situation. See, if you were talking to another supercomputer (human) you could verbally say: 26 Yonge St and that supercomputer would understand you. But with a simple device like a GPS M A C H I N E that speaks a totally different (digital) language than you, you have to input your thought (electrical impulses) via an analog device (keyboard) because YOU aren't digital, in order for the M A C H I N E to know what it is you want, then the M A C H I N E has to translate it's digital information into analog so YOU can understand it.
Remember the scenes in The Matrix where the controllers were looking at the waterfall/digital image of what the matrix really is? That's digital. Can you read that? No. Like some programmers can look at machine code and "see" what is going on, most humans can't.
So the reason many have trouble with technology is because we are analog machines, they are digital. The interface between us and them is what gives US problems.
The reason so many machines have so many buttons to do so many different things is because they have yet to invent a direct plugin link between our brain and the piece of equipment. When that happens you can simply "think" and the machine will do what you want it to do. But, that comes with a price: one has to have very ordered thoughts in order to control something that way. If you're thinking about what to make for dinner while trying to tune your TV to the playboy porn channel, you'll probably end up on the cooking channel (and can't blame the machine for THAT though some probably will).
Look at it this way: for you to move your arm, you just think: move arm and whoop, there you go. But really, a billion things happen all at the same time to make that movement happen. This involves your supercomputer brain, electrical impulses to your nerves to cause any number of muscles to expand and contract in perfect harmony. Ever wonder why they have so much trouble getting a robot just to walk?
Put it another way: look at how much trouble many men and women have communicating? Hell, that's hard enough and we're both the same SPECIES!! lol (well, for the most part anyways lol)
My personal pet peeve is still the Automated Receptionist.
There's a commercial on the radio right now that plays on how shitty voice recognition is. The guy says "Billing" but ends up somewhere completely different, all the while he keeps repeating "Billing" louder and louder.
I HATE voice recognition because it doesn't work and there's something about talking to a machine that just raises my blood pressure.
I've found that the best thing to do with those cocka mamie machines is to be silent. If you push 0, it tells you that you've made an invalid request and puts you back to square one or worse.
Say nothing and it thinks that there's a problem on its end and you get a human being.
There's a commercial on the radio right now that plays on how shitty voice recognition is. The guy says "Billing" but ends up somewhere completely different, all the while he keeps repeating "Billing" louder and louder.
I HATE voice recognition because it doesn't work and there's something about talking to a machine that just raises my blood pressure.
I've found that the best thing to do with those cocka mamie machines is to be silent. If you push 0, it tells you that you've made an invalid request and puts you back to square one or worse.
Say nothing and it thinks that there's a problem on its end and you get a human being.
Well James, I guess that has everything to do with how one speaks. I have yet to have a problem with it....what I do have problem with however is when the companies don't set up the "type in the first few digits of the person's last name..." properly. They may have smith, and smithsonian, but only gives you the number for smith......
But again, this is another example of the interface between a digital machine, and us analog humans not working. I tell you: we'll be a lot better off (for ease of use) when they develope a plug that connects directly to our brain......
But again, this is another example of the interface between a digital machine, and us analog humans not working. I tell you: we'll be a lot better off (for ease of use) when they develope a plug that connects directly to our brain......
I have a plug that connects directly to the pussy.Can also be inserted thru the mouth as well.tboy said:
Re: Fuck New Technology, who needs it?
I chose those three examples deliberately.
That is: It is so much easier to hobby today -- so much more choice, now that we have sites like TERB to help us; convenience of communication (cell phones, email, texting, etc.); the huge choice of 'free' internet porn; etc. etc.
I love most New Technology. If used intelligently, it can add hugely to ones quality of life.
As the 'smiley' indicated, I was being sarcastic.tboy said:
I chose those three examples deliberately.
That is: It is so much easier to hobby today -- so much more choice, now that we have sites like TERB to help us; convenience of communication (cell phones, email, texting, etc.); the huge choice of 'free' internet porn; etc. etc.
I love most New Technology. If used intelligently, it can add hugely to ones quality of life.
This is all fine a rant, but this is what happens when North Amaerican consumers only want the cheapest toys. People want to buy cheap, but expect VIP service. Get a reality check.skypilot said:
And don't I remember having to load the AmigaOS from a 3.5" floppy on every boot, because a HD was an optional extra? But it did have two floppy drives for easier disk-swapping. Even Gates thought hard drives were a 'frill' back then.Anynym said:
I think the essence of the anti-tech rant is that every step of progress seems to be bought w/ a step back in unintended consequences and broken/buggy/ill-considered features: How wonderful that my celphone stores phone numbers. How stupid that the 'system' can't just complete calls that are long distance, instead of prissily telling me I "must dial 1". How inexcusable that my phone adds the '1' to the tail end of the number when I select Prepend.
It would be nice for once, wouldn't it, if new technology arrived perfected when there's so much of it showing up everyday?
Don't get me wrong, I too find that many upgrades often cause more problems than they're worth and for the most part, unless I'm having trouble with a piece of software (for eg) I won't upgrade until I absolutely have to.oldjones said:
Now something many forget is (citing your phone number 1 for eg) is that while your fancy new phone can do 17,000 different things, as well as make a call, the technology it relies on STILL has to work with those 1970 push button phones I mentioned earlier and still relies on land line technology. Now if all phones were cellular in nature and all worked off the same system, then you could probably do away with dialing the 1.
But seriously, is it that difficult to push one extra button? Just be thankful you don't live in europe where they have to dial 2 digits when making long distance calls.....
For the record: if you're dialing the same long distance number, just pre-program the 1 in front of the number and assign it a speed dial button. Then you only have to push 1 button in total.
Now if you really want to rant, my favourite is why can't home phones come standard with the same features as cell phones? I mean they are bigger, have a constant power source, have been around much longer, but for the money, they are dinosaurs compared to cell phones.....
I think it's because the telecom manufacturers see a future only in wireless hence the R and D budget is being blown there.tboy said:
Really, you are right, there is so much more that they could do with home phones - like make them compatible with Microsoft Outlook so it could hold all your contacts, call to remind you of an appointment, be outfitted with cameras, link to your computer, your TV, etc.
Reminds me of the automobile where the north American manufacturers forgot about R and D for their automobiles and poured everything into pickup trucks and SUVs.
I know I don't do it, but has anyone tried always dialing the "1-areacode-number"? Or, for that matter, putting a "plus" in front of all of it (to indicate international dialling, from whatever jurisdiction you're in)?tboy said:
In theory, your cellphone provider should be able to strip off any unnecessary prefix and only charge you for a local call (if it is, in fact, a local call).
In practice, I don't know what any service provider actually does.
Well, anytime I've put the 1 in by mistake silicone sally comes on and tells me it isn't a long distance call.....now I don't remember if they actually connect me or not......Anynym said:
Hijacking into phone-tips territory: I still have a rotary phone, which the system still copes with. It knows—and snottily reminds me of—the difference between 'local' and long-distance numbers, no matter what I dial them on. So, if it knows so much, why doesn't the system intercept simply offer to connect my extra-cost call (the only rationale for the intercept in the first place IMO) for me, if I "Press 1 now"?tboy said:
Adopting your second tip would mean having to program both local and LD versions of way too many numbers just because Samsung designers had no idea what prepend means or how it's useful.
But I'm experimenting with putting the 1 in front of all my numbers, because I think—gotta drive back n' forth to test, and check my bills—Telus just completes the calls anyway.
The real problem is not the technology, but the design of the systems and interfaces we get stuck with; often they seem poory thought out and untested. Then the MarkII version comes along with fixes for some of the issues, and a whole lot more problems. But as long as there's a market for new, just because it's new, they'll keep dumping the untried onto the market. Oh well, makes for more choice in the second-hand market when the problems have been well-publicized.
OJ, you make some good points but to shut down the entire system to replace all aspects just isn't feasible. For eg: I was in San Fran a few years ago and get to the airport to see total chaos. I mean, PEOPLE everywhere...thousands of them just standing around.
So I finally get inside and there's an announcement saying to look at the flight detail screens for details. Well what happened was the powers that be shut down the air traffic control computers overnight to replace the software instead of just upgrades. Well the new software crashed just before flight operations began, shutting down air traffic control all the way from LA to Seattle and ALL flights through that airspace were being handled by other stations and NO flights were landing or taking off anywhere on the west coast.
That's what happens when they replace the whole system.
(btw: they eventually reloaded the old software and got it up and running about 5 hrs later. I was extremely lucky and got a direct flight right away.)
So I finally get inside and there's an announcement saying to look at the flight detail screens for details. Well what happened was the powers that be shut down the air traffic control computers overnight to replace the software instead of just upgrades. Well the new software crashed just before flight operations began, shutting down air traffic control all the way from LA to Seattle and ALL flights through that airspace were being handled by other stations and NO flights were landing or taking off anywhere on the west coast.
That's what happens when they replace the whole system.
(btw: they eventually reloaded the old software and got it up and running about 5 hrs later. I was extremely lucky and got a direct flight right away.)
