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.
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 00:45 (four years ago) link
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*
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 00:47 (four years ago) link
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
― j., Wednesday, 14 August 2019 00:53 (four years ago) link
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?
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 00:59 (four years ago) link
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)
― umsworth (emsworth), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 01:00 (four years ago) link
that everything has a remote is ridiculous.
― Yerac, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 01:02 (four years ago) link
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.
― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 01:08 (four years ago) link
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.
― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 01:24 (four years ago) link
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.
― Yerac, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 01:28 (four years ago) link
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.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 02:05 (four years ago) link
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.
― pplains, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 02:45 (four years ago) link
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
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 02:49 (four years ago) link
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
― i'd rather zing like a man, than FP like a coward (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:00 (four years ago) link
“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
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:04 (four years ago) link
P much any form of watching tv now.
― i'd rather zing like a man, than FP like a coward (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:23 (four years ago) link
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.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:30 (four years ago) link
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.
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:55 (four years ago) link
xp saying that cellphones don't sound as good as landlines.
― visiting, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 04:56 (four years ago) link
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
― i'd rather zing like a man, than FP like a coward (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 05:23 (four years ago) link
iPod clickwheel RIP
― gyac, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 05:26 (four years ago) link
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.
― gyac, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 05:29 (four years ago) link
I am terrible at affixing the tag that prints out to my own bag. They always have to redo it.
― i'd rather zing like a man, than FP like a coward (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 05:31 (four years ago) link
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.
― big city slam (Spottie), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 05:55 (four years ago) link
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
― Simon H., Wednesday, 14 August 2019 06:09 (four years ago) link
Flat screen TVs all sound terrible and require a sound bar or audio system
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 06:30 (four years ago) link
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 ...
― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 06:48 (four years ago) link
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.
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:08 (four years ago) link
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:25 (four years ago) link
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/
― The Pingularity (ledge), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:41 (four years ago) link
do landlines really not work during power outages now? because that's the main reason I still pay for one.
― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:44 (four years ago) link
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.
― kinder, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:45 (four years ago) link
* 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
― kinder, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:56 (four years ago) link
(xpost to self: lcd not LED; don't emit the crystals)
― kinder, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 07:59 (four years ago) link
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.
― kinder, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 08:04 (four years ago) link
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.
― trishyb, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 08:15 (four years ago) link
― (Appears only as a corpse) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 09:03 (four years ago) link
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.
― Abigail, Wife of Preserved Fish (rushomancy), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 11:17 (four years ago) link
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.)
― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 11:58 (four years ago) link
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 machinere: 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.
― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:00 (four years ago) link
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.
― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:01 (four years ago) link
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.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:06 (four years ago) link
sure but the point is everyone else has accepted it sounding like crap
― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:10 (four years ago) link
I had to use a cable between my seemingly good LG TV and the router just a few metres away because the...preload(?) compression would get so bad streaming Netflix. Even with the cable it was a problem watching shows on NOW TV for the first few seconds (particularly annoying with e.g. old Futuramas where you would literally not be able to read the joke message at the start. NOW 'solved' the problem by just removing the old Futuramas from their service...).
― nashwan, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:19 (four years ago) link
this post made me break into a cold sweat
― (Appears only as a corpse) (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 4:03 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Yes, I cling stubbornly to mine and freak every time my grip slips in the slightest (particularly since that one ridiculous time when I was getting out of a cab and my phone somehow fell out of my pocket and 'nothing but net'-ed directly into a storm drain). It's like walking around with a priceless relic I borrowed from a museum except that my life will basically be over once it's gone from my life.
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:19 (four years ago) link
I finally switched over to listening to podcasts on my phone, instead of taking my ipod classic with me every day.
It's great, except for when I want to listen to music. I was basically using my ipod as a repository for New Orleans music (much of which is not on Spotify), which is usually what I feel like listening to in the car.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:24 (four years ago) link
This may not count but:
Passport scanning at airports where people can't figure out which way to place them on the glass so it ends up taking the same or more time than a human person looking at it.
Boarding public transport by scanning/beeping your card at a reader taking the same or more time than having to show your ticket to a driver because your card is too close in your wallet to your debit card so the reader gets confused.
Also:
RACIST hand-driers etc.
― nashwan, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 12:50 (four years ago) link
There is an automatic paper towel dispenser at my daughter's gymnastics gym that will only give me one towel. And I mean I will stand there for up to a minute afterward trying to get a second towel to no avail.
― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 13:02 (four years ago) link
Shaving. Took me years of picking out the minuscule gaps in wilkinson sword 6-bladed monstrosities with a pin before I realised that safety razors were still available, about 10 times cheaper, and never clogged.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 13:03 (four years ago) link
― pplains, Wednesday, August 14, 2019 2:45 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
BRING THIS ON. I will stan for forcing EACH AND EVERY DRIVER to use turn signals EVERY TIME.
― There's more Italy than necessary. (in orbit), Wednesday, 14 August 2019 13:10 (four years ago) link
Also easier to impress people with the Criterion Collection titles on your shelf.
― henry s, Friday, 24 May 2024 13:36 (five days ago) link
I'm definitely tempted to go back to buying physical media for movies, but the one thing I dislike about physical media is that it takes up physical space.
― silverfish, Friday, 24 May 2024 14:50 (five days ago) link
Friends better appreciate my 4K of Tammy and the T-Rex or they're cut out of my life
― Nhex, Friday, 24 May 2024 15:19 (five days ago) link
I sometimes miss extras and outtakes / blooper reels. Don't miss unskippable anything.
Also using DVD chapters allowed one to watch Memento in forward sequence
― Millennium Falco (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 24 May 2024 15:54 (five days ago) link
physical media idgi
having drives full of the versions you want seems the best approach no?
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Friday, 24 May 2024 15:55 (five days ago) link
are drives not physical media?
― koogs, Friday, 24 May 2024 16:10 (five days ago) link
Does One Line Fix Google?
for whatever reason the "Web" option isn't available to me when i'm logged in, only when i'm logged out. what the fuck google?
― paul mccartney and wigs (diamonddave85), Friday, 24 May 2024 16:13 (five days ago) link
dealing with backing up drives is a pita
― brimstead, Friday, 24 May 2024 16:25 (five days ago) link
I guess it’s the more environmentally responsible approach
self-checkout lanes at stores are a problem, i've had so many instances where the scanner freaks out and freezes up because i supposedly didn't place an item in the bagging area (i always do, because it says PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA) and i stand there like a chump waiting for a store employee to come and fix it. it happened again the other day and i was told "it got confused because of the item's weight", and i have no idea what that meant.
― omar little, Friday, 24 May 2024 16:42 (five days ago) link
some very light things just don't register. it sometimes help to just press the bagging area with your hand briefly.
(you do realise the bagging area is scales, yes?)
― koogs, Friday, 24 May 2024 17:27 (five days ago) link
i think the confusing part is i'm not under the impression all bagging areas are scales, seems like several chains near me are just "areas" and others are scales. maybe i'll try the hand thing but what if i push too hard, or not hard enough?
https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/114/114236.gif
― omar little, Friday, 24 May 2024 17:36 (five days ago) link
Lol - I had a meltdown at a self-checkout recently where it was like "Choose One: A) Emailed Receipt B) Text Receipt C)Printed Receipt" and I didn't want ANY fucking receipt but that's not an option so the clerk had to come over and help me
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 24 May 2024 17:41 (five days ago) link
But I rarely deal with self-checkout as I'm invariably buying some form of booze
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 24 May 2024 17:42 (five days ago) link
option D) shove receipt up your AI-ass!
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Friday, 24 May 2024 17:45 (five days ago) link
Wait, the bagging area is SCALES
― just like Christopher Wray said (brownie), Saturday, 25 May 2024 01:12 (four days ago) link
Yea, Dorian
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Saturday, 25 May 2024 01:18 (four days ago) link
Would you like a receipt is functionally the "you've paid, you can go now" part of the experience, though?
― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, 25 May 2024 09:33 (four days ago) link
in Sainsbury's if you answer the "receipt?" question before packing it starts nagging you soon afterwards. if you leave it hanging you get more time.
― koogs, Saturday, 25 May 2024 11:58 (four days ago) link
keep reading stories about stores like walmart getting rid of self-checkout because people just steal and steal and steal. which is funny. they put them in so they wouldn't have to pay people to be cashiers.
― scott seward, Saturday, 25 May 2024 12:26 (four days ago) link
in my local sainsburys now you need to scan the code on the receipt to open the gate and leave.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 25 May 2024 12:35 (four days ago) link
― sarahell, Sunday, 26 May 2024 16:35 (three days ago) link