Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

A lot of fast fashion type stuff bugs me, like having to actually look for cotton underwear.

as someone who lives in a country where you wear gloves several months out of the year, i daily cursed the engineer who introduced thumbprint unlock as the default on the iPhone

the default of ‘pick up your phone and look at it before we reveal the content of a text’ on the iPhone ten also a v stupid idea

A black and white laserjet that couldn’t scan shit would cost you an arm but you could be sure that sucker would turn out pages for ages, iirc.

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 5:02 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Brother still makes products of this caliber and they aren't disturbingly expensive.

at a pettier level, all the changes in shaving since idk the 1960s or 70s.

― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, August 13, 2019 4:26 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

development of laser hair removal is a big improvement tbh

Color printer/scanners are a now an everyday cheapish appliance but their rate of malfunction makes them barely worth the trouble.

Not to be a commercial but after years of having problems with inkjet printers and generally feeling like they were the most unreliable piece of technology in existence, I bought an Epson Eco-tank and it has been life-changing. I actually love my printer now and wouldn’t trade it for anything. 100% reliable, scans and prints great, I haven’t had to refill it yet and I’ve had it for... 2 years? No more of the seemingly constant cartridge replacements. /commercial

Of course, that’s the opposite of what this thread is about.

I just had a 1958 Grundig tube radio repaired, it sounds amazing; finding someone who could work on it was the hard part

it wasn't really so long ago that devices like radios, TVs, stereo components, and even personal computers were designed to be repaired and kept in service for many years; now the same kinds of devices go directly to the landfill as soon as they fail, if not sooner; the fact that the replacement devices are cheaper and more capable than the junked ones is not a particularly impressive sign of progress

The loss of institutional knowledge about how to build heavy-duty, reliable liquid propellant rocket systems has had a massive impact on space programs around the world.

Now somebody tell me they have a way to get to the moon just fine.

I’m gonna be really anxious when the time comes to buy a new TV because the one I have has been so good for so long *raps on wooden table*

i was curious about buying a new tv - i haven't had one since the mid 90s, a portable black-and-white model from the 80s passed on to me from my parents - and the enormous variations in crazy features and too-good-to-be-credible prices just made me give up

I started with the knowledge that I wanted a Sony of a certain size with a certain number of HDMI inputs and went with that, I think?

i recently had ceiling fans installed, and we got the ones with lights built in

too late i realised that to turn the lights on and off we now need to fumble around with a dinky battery powered remote

curse a society that no longer understands that light switches should be easy to find in the dark

(also every button press is accompanied by an annoying beeping sound that can't be muted)

that everything has a remote is ridiculous.

Wait, I've never turned lights on or off with a battery-powered remote. That is not a backward step I accept!

Landlines, though. Still had one until 2011. I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person who finds it physically difficult to converse satisfyingly on a smartphone.

i hate talking on the phone now, it makes me antsy and eager to get off the phone. but i don't know if that is something abt the phone itself, or how my expectations and practices around phones have changed, esp thru texting taking the place of calls for almost all the things i used to make calls for. and the ppl on the other end feeling the same way and distracted and eager to get off the phone too.

everyone hates talking on the phone now.
it's social anxiety and because we have so many job related activities where one is on the phone all the time.

although my mom still chats away like she is teenager of the year.

It used to be that after CRT and plasma declined, televisions were a forced compromise: backlit LCD or nothing, which suck for watching films (bad shadow levels, motion smoothing, etc etc). I white-knuckled the gap between plasma and OLED by self-repairing my plasma when the power supply failed, and then buying a used plasma which got me through (barely, with lines on the screen and driver failures) just until the OLEDs came down enough for me to consider an end-of-line clearance price.
Now of course I have the best TV of my life - it's kind of ironic because my film library is worth probably 5-10 times as much as the screen I watch them on.

Landlines were easier to have a conversation on because it was in real time. Cellphones have gotten better, but they're still bouncing audio off of metal towers like a pinball machine. Landlines were the technological final product of an evolution that began with two cans and a piece of string, and worked just fine.

I have the same tv remote problem with my microwave.

Are there really cars out there that combat drowsiness by not letting itself drift over any white or yellow line unless the blinker is on?] Because I will lose my shit, that's all there is to it.

things have gotten a bit better, but even as the early playstation era was happening i remember thinking "wow it sucks that i have to wait 15 seconds for every other screen to load". that was in stark contrast to the near-instant load times of the cartridge based systems at the time and of the recent past.

of course, we were all more than willing to wait as long as it took to gedda load of them polygams

https://i.imgur.com/KKf0O1X.jpg

When you buy a new video game and it has to spend an assload of time downloading "updates" before you can play the fucking thing.

Also Denny's getting rid of the Breakfast Dagwood

“like, just trying to see what the hourly weather forecast for tomorrow is involves a lot more clicking and waiting than it did a few years ago”

(since you’re not opposed to using google:) google “(city) weather” once, ctrl+h “wea” for every instance after

P much any form of watching tv now.

Are you guys saying landlines don't sound as good as they used to, or that cellphones don't sound as good as landlines? I agree with the latter, but as for the former, my landline still sounds great. I would never have a conversation on my cellphone unless I was away from home.

We have a landline so we can put the number on paperwork, and for “just in case.” I think we turned the ringer off two years ago. It sits behind the dehumidifier in our master bedroom.

xp saying that cellphones don't sound as good as landlines.

Coca Cola Freestyle machines. Ok...i love em. But...

Soda fountains in the past, usually your biggest problem was the soda came out flat because the bag needed to be changed. So maybe your number one choice isn't available, but other stuff is. Also, multiple people can fill their shit at the same time.

But with these fuckin machines, if you are unlucky enough to go to a store with only one machine, you gotta wait behind the dummy who can't figure it out.

Then when you get there, sometimes they're out of like every diet product, but you don't find out until you click on it and try to pour it, it stops, and greys out.

And then sometimes the shit just malfunctions and nobody in the restaurant knows how to fix it because they gotta call some help line. And if none of the machines work, you gotta wait in kine and get someone at the counter to pour you a drink

iPod clickwheel RIP

Oh and inspired by Neanderthal’s post just now! Automated airport bag drops - just an awful scourge and take far more time than having someone check the suitcase and slap the sticker on it for you. Goes double if you’re stuck behind people who are confused by this (naturally). Waited fifteen minutes behind a family checking in three suitcases the other day - there should have been staff to help them.

I am terrible at affixing the tag that prints out to my own bag. They always have to redo it.

Neanderthal otm re soda machines. I hate those things to the point where I won’t eat at places that use them. Or if I do then def pass on a drink. I think they change the flavor of the drinks too.

I will never forget the day I dropped a newly fully loaded 256gb ipod classic between a Montreal subway car and platform, instantly assuring its doom

Flat screen TVs all sound terrible and require a sound bar or audio system

The smartphone/battery issue annoys me so much (especially as an IPhone user).
If you’re out for meetings/conferences etc a half day, you’re basically done.
I like their design and all (although I don’t like the big ass big screens, circa iPhone 5 it was fine for me) but it requires to also carry a power plug/alt battery at all time so not really an improvement ...

I really miss those trackballs that bolted onto the side of a laptop and which you controlled with your thumb. I am hopeless at pointing and clicking with a trackpad.

Also, trains with doors that can only be opened when the driver releases them and windows that can't be opened at all.

Flat screen TVs all sound terrible and require a sound bar or audio system

Also, trains with doors that can only be opened when the driver releases them and windows that can't be opened at all.

There is a positive side to that second one...

https://metro.co.uk/2016/08/07/man-decapitated-after-sticking-head-out-of-train-window-6053666/

do landlines really not work during power outages now? because that's the main reason I still pay for one.

We drove to Cardiff to buy the last decent plasma TV before they all went LED. don't ask me but my husband Knows About These Things. So yeah, no idea what we'll do when it goes kaput.

* also in general, laptops replacing desktops for a computer that remains at a desk at all times --- massively worse ergonomically and less computer for your money

(xpost to self: lcd not LED; don't emit the crystals)

and yes the classic ipod was great. had one of the first editions - so sleek! so futuristic! it lasted ages although perhaps not 18 years later.

Automated airport bag drops - just an awful scourge and take far more time than having someone check the suitcase and slap the sticker on it for you.

It's also crappy for the staff who have to work these now. They used to sit behind a desk, close to their other colleagues, where they could keep a glass of water or tissues or whatever they needed. Now they have to stand in the middle of the machines and only speak to people who are already annoyed. It is a major inconvenience, and one of the many reasons I cba to fly very much anymore.

Also, maybe it's just the televisions my family buys, but you can no longer see the screen properly unless you are sitting right in front of it.

I will never forget the day I dropped a newly fully loaded 256gb ipod classic between a Montreal subway car and platform, instantly assuring its doom

On that note, the continuing erosion of anonymous/pseudonymous space online. This is bad and people will realise how bad when it’s eventually gone.

― gyac

i mean this was doomed when the internet got taken over by nazis, right? i find a great deal of value in having places to talk about personal stuff that doesn't instantly notify every single person i have ever met, but a large percentage of people who also find a great deal of value in it are nazis and pedophiles. i can't think of any way to protect me without also protecting them.

thru texting taking the place of calls for almost all the things i used to make calls for

I don't find texting comfortable either! It wasn't as bad when my phone's keyboard looked like this: https://www.lg.com/ca_en/images/cell-phones/lg260/gallery/medium02.jpg . (Admittedly, switching languages is easier now.)

those touchscreen menu-based coke machines suuuuuuck and are increasingly common at multiplex theaters, places where you are usually there trying to make a specific time of something and really don't want to wait behind someone figuring out a machine

re: weather: my issue is that any given page I bookmark for weather is filled with all kinds of junked-up shit, OR is way too basic. the absent functional midlde may be a running theme for this thread idk.

agreed about most low-end flatscreen TVs and their built-in speakers - every apartment i've been to to watch a movie in the last couple years, it's been constant "too quiet during dialogue, too loud during explosions" volume adjustment. you can turn on some kind of curve-flattening normalize function on some of them. couldn't say how they compare versus the days of big clunky cabinet TVs with *basically* functional speakers built in, it's been too long and i don't remember how they really sounded.

yeah i bought a blackberry two years ago because my last, clinging-to-life slider phone from like 2011 finally gave up the ghost and thank god, someone extended this slim hope for the physical keyboard.

DC a lot of it is down to how these shows get mixed. a lot of times they're sitting in million dollar rooms and mixing for 5.1 and in that setting it sounds amazing.

I was a late adopter of the smart phone (like maybe 2015?) and I honestly think my life was better back then... now I'll start flipping though instagram or youtube and an hour will just vanish into the ether, nothing to show for it

someone made the right decision at my gym and i could actually get a new plastic keychain tab with my member number barcode printed on it last year.

i see people stopping outside, pulling out their phone and presumably waiting for the app to load just so they can get in all the time. i walk past them.

I don't know why they can't introduce some code into smartphones which accepts that I clearly meant to tap the thing that was there 0.5 seconds ago, not the thing which suddenly appeared / moved under my finger 0.1 seconds ago.

I was at a grocery store last week and this young woman (teen actually) was trying to pay with her phone and it was a big fucking ordeal... like she had to call her mom to get the PIN or something? it was definitely not making MY life faster or more convenient

nothing makes my heart skip a beat like tapping on my banking app and seeing the 'app loading' graphic. is the install going to fail on my old-ass iphone? that's what happened with venmo a few months ago. i just need to keep depositing checks. why do they have to upgrade everything every 3 months. apparently i need to dish out for a new phone just to be functional at a basic level. christ. you have to tend to your own daily lobotomy to think this is progress.

the new Amoeba location in Hollywood is worse than the old one, not just because of this but *mainly* because of this -- unlike the previous spot, which had a parking garage plus a back lot for free and unlimited time, their new location has a parking garage with 75 min free validation with purchase. when you check out, they ask for your number and text you a URL, you open it in your browser, it leads to a QR code, which you hold up to a camera as you're exiting, and out you go.

You should be able to validate parking at Amoeba simply by ranking your top five Fela Kuti albums in the correct order.

ha my buddy works at the Berkeley store, I'll pass along your valid criticism

Marc Maron saying the new Hollywood Amoeba is better than the old one is the funniest thing he's ever said

Your Amoeba buddy isn’t Raymond, is it?

No

> Why does everything have to be a screen

so you can update things and not have to get everything reprinted. they are even using epaper price tags in stores now.

the No Digital Id stickers stuck everywhere around here (probably by the same people who littered the place with anti-vax stickers a few years ago) contain a QR code which feels very digital and contradictory

i tried to message a friend about "Duck Amuck" and autocorrect changed "duck" to "fuck"

I MEANT TO SAY DUCK

less benign, it used to be when i mistyped "like" (the "k" key is next to the "l" key, if you've never made the typo i'm talking about i envy you) autocorrect USED to fix it. now it actually _recommends_ that slur to me. that slur is not a word in my vocabulary.

so you can update things and not have to get everything reprinted.

a lot of bullshit in the name of saving paper.

I wake up and I look at my modem
One of the lights is orange instead of green
A light is flashing blue when it should be solid blue
It started doing this yesterday
I have to call some company and spend half an hour laboriously going through the diagnostic process
Doing the routine tests to figure out if there is a problem on my end
It's unlikely that the problem is on my end
Before anybody will do anything, though, they always have to make sure the problem isn't on my end

There are things I was supposed to do yesterday
I didn't do them because the light was orange
I know my life isn't going to get any better if I don't keep doing those things
I know whenever the light turns orange I need to stop what I'm doing and talk to someone and figure out why it is orange and not green
I'm so tired
I'm so tired proving to them that the problem isn't the nut behind the keyboard
I'm so tired of explaining the same things to people over and over and over again

I feel like every time I open my mouth I'm _explaining_ something. When I talk, I talk a lot. I talk infrequently. I'm not sure if people feel like I talk infrequently. When I open my mouth I often talk for quite some time. The internet, these days, is a "high-context" medium, which is difficult because I don't have the same context as most other people these days. Unless I provide reams of exposition, very few people will understand what I'm saying. Infodumping bores me. I'm tired of hearing the sound of my own voice. I guess the "right people" will understand without needing things explained to them at length, but who the fuck are _they_? Where the fuck are _they_?

There are a lot of things I want to say, important things, that I don't ever seem to quite get around to saying.

there's a special place in hell for the person who invented the printer that will not print in simple black ink (even if the black ink cartridge is full) if one of the color cartridges has run out.

may I offer you an ink “subscription “????

ha I worked one day in a toner pirate call center in the early 90s, I quit right before they fired me

https://i.postimg.cc/Mn6kvKqT/2ZA4sv-C.jpg

ha I worked one day in a toner pirate call center in the early 90s, I quit right before they fired me

oh shit the kind that would send spam faxes?

can’t believe people still send spam faxes in 2026

Spam Faxes are a m/f synth duo operating out of...etc

I might have said it before, quite possibly in this life, but the organisation I work for moved from old-fashioned telephones to new, internet-enabled voice-over-IP phones a year or so ago.

At first it was fine! Then the phone messages started to have a peculiar autotuned quality, as if they were being compressed to high heck and back. And then last week our internet connection completely broke, which meant that we basically had to cancel everything and go home. We couldn't phone anybody because the phones didn't work. We couldn't have lunch because the cafe only accepted digital payments, which weren't working because the phones were down. We had no faith that anything we uploaded to our computer system would stick. Our email client wouldn't send or received anything.

We tried using old-fashioned pen and paper, but our motor skills had deteriorated so thoroughly that the only thing we could write was disjointed, meaningless squiggles. I found a calculator in one of the store cupboards, but despite entering several numbers and pressing the equals sign nothing happened. One of my co-workers remembered that she had once been happy, but that was long ago and she couldn't remember what it was like to have an emotion.

It was like the end of Threads. I turned to one of my co-workers and said "like and subscribe" and she said "hi guys" and I said "like and subscribe" but nothing happened. As we looked at the torn paper and meaningless squiggles I began to feel an emotion, except that I didn't know how to do that any more so there was just sadness. Then the IT people fixed it and it was okay. But for a moment there I felt the cold chill of not being on the internet.

oh shit the kind that would send spam faxes?

the place was unbelievably primitive... a vacant store front, a longhair/skinny tie manager named 'Wolf', shabby cubicles... we would grab yellow pages and just cold call random businesses: "Just wanted to let you know that we're expecting a price hike on toner, you've been a great customer and wanted to do a courtesy call to... " and they would generally hang up. But I got an old guy that said "Well, I guess I better order some" so I hung up on him instead and quit. Total racket, seven bucks an hour or something like that

amazing

reminds me of the Telemarketers documentary

I did some legit political survey calling in Sydney but that was a walk in the park... they weren't trying to trick anyone or sell anything, and I remember most of the people I reached were almost pleased to be called ("Your opinion counts!")... I'm sure those halcyon days are long gone

My husband manages a call center team for a civil rights non-profit. They get paid $18/hr and he makes a decent enough salary, for where we live.

In fall 1993 I made cold calls from the phone book for an insurance salesman who paid me and my friend per appointment we set.

The only thing that made him memorable was that he gave us CDs for a Xmas present and that was our introduction to Uncle Tupelo. I got Buffalo Tom and was disappointed.

After that I worked at the Santa booth taking Polaroids!

One of my odder jobs was when Australia licensed a second telecommunications company alongside the government Telecom/Telstra in the early 90s - I answered a newspaper ad for short term work requiring a home PC (I had something like a 386 DX that I'd put together from components). The job was calling from my home (using their network) to numbers in each of the exchanges across the country - a few hundred I think - and listening to a recording, to rate quality, speed of connection etc. A selection of overseas numbers too, generally hotels where I'd just call the front desk and say hello. It was both interesting and boring, paid pretty well, and I felt an odd sense of ownership when Optus debuted in 1991.