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

I use lynx to read nytimes

I generally do not connect to web sites from my own machine, aside from a few sites I have some special relationship with. I usually fetch web pages from other sites by sending mail to a program (see https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/womb/hacks.git) that fetches them, much like wget, and then mails them back to me. Then I look at them using a web browser, unless it is easy to see the text in the HTML page directly. I usually try lynx first, then a graphical browser if the page needs it (using konqueror, which won't fetch from other sites in such a situation).

Are those safety precautions? About readability? Something else?

ah, sorry, jokes bruv

https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

rms otm

i see he keeps that page up to date:

A friend once asked me to watch a video with her that she was going to display on her computer using Netflix. I declined, saying that Netflix was such a threat to freedom that I could not treat it as anything but an enemy.

my man

I think you are misunderstanding, It was a DVD that had just arrived in the mail and she popped it in her DVD-R drive.

My preferred joke with the future of "high tech, self driving transportation options" has been that you try to get on a toll road or cross a bridge into Canada and they're like ... this vehicle isn't compatible. You're gonna need a dongle. Pull over to that truck stop over there and you can buy a dongle, because your vehicle needs a dongle.

nabisco!!

that future is now and it's called brexit

it's also called the SF Bay Area, where they are probably going to completely eliminate the ability to pay cash on toll bridges (the Golden gate Bridge is already automated).

no dongles required

basically you just get a bill in the mail

don't be afraid

dongles are your friend

it's the price of freedom

In this dingle dongle morning
I'll come following you

lol

Hey @Tesla can you help me explain to my wife why I can't drive her to the dentist? I gotta tell you, if you can't drive it then it's not a car. On hold 25 minutes and counting. pic.twitter.com/qA52jABFHm

— Jon Johnson (@jrjohnson_) September 9, 2019

cars have never broken down til now

you'd think we'd have figured out this whole dentist thing by now

yeah actually otm

update on my new printer: prints great, slight odour of cigarettes

we found the place arcade fire sang about

Haiti?

magical place where dude's car does not go

I'd say you're romanticizing Haiti a bit though I'm no expert on the place

cars have never broken down til now

― theRZA the JZA and the NDB (darraghmac), Wednesday, September 11, 2019 9:00 AM (twenty-six minutes ago)

adding another thing that can go wrong to stop your car running beyond mechanical issues is dumb tho

well put, though I've heard a bit about these self driving cars having a camera or something to make sure the driver person's eyes are open... I think I'm with that

My car has some kind of immobilizer if it decides something is amiss. I accidentally activated a warning for it the other day when I left it running a moment while I got out with my keys. Nice for security, but also ominous.

ominous for your dentist's bottom line?

oh shit it's just like that arcade fire song

that other one about cars, Ready to Start

cars have never broken down til now

used to be unusual for a car manufacturer to remotely cause their product to break down, because they felt it was a good time for your car to break.

he doesn't even want his car to start. he wants tesla to "help (him) explain to (his) wife."

i don't know where this fits but there's a computer system in our Honda which needs to be calibrated exactly right for the car to pass a smog test, even though its emissions are very little. I went in for the test and it failed, and the guy told me "you need to drive your car up the 2 freeway to the 210 freeway and head west for a couple miles and then exit and get back on and come back here and then it should be good, you just need steady nonstop freeway driving for at least 25 miles and that's the only route that won't have traffic."

I did it and it worked but wtf.

Jon: I can't take you to the dentist because my car broke down,
wife: I don't understand. You can't drive it?
Jon: No
wife: Impossible. If you can't drive it, is it really a car that broke down?
Jon: I've been tricked.
wife: I don't understand.
*tweet*

i don't know where this fits but there's a computer system in our Honda which needs to be calibrated exactly right for the car to pass a smog test, even though its emissions are very little. I went in for the test and it failed, and the guy told me "you need to drive your car up the 2 freeway to the 210 freeway and head west for a couple miles and then exit and get back on and come back here and then it should be good, you just need steady nonstop freeway driving for at least 25 miles and that's the only route that won't have traffic."

I did it and it worked but wtf.

― omar little, Wednesday, September 11, 2019 12:52 PM (five minutes ago)

fuuuuuuuuck

xxp that sounds fishy, like the VW emissions cheating stuff.

there is widespread fraud in smog testing

just need the turbo or whatever to be heated enough to burn off that shit iirc

head down the n4 at 120 and throw her into 3rd is the common advice here

in these cases, I don't think the emissions are necessarily even out of bounds. it's a software issue. the sort of issue non-teslas aren't supposed to have.

A car's "Check Engine" light 99% of the time has nothing to do with the engine but rather the onboard cpu/diagnostics.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:06 AM (four weeks ago)

i get the "check tire pressure" light for no reason at all but it inevitably comes on while on the freeway and i have to pull over and do this other calibration thing so it goes off.

My wife's CRV has that shit too. Lame.

issue. the sort of issue non-teslas aren't supposed to have.

You’re working overtime to miss the point. Cars break down and have quirks, not working because they need a software update like it’s Windows 98 is new.

also the smog test isn't *not* checking emissions as much as it can't officially and legally pass the test until the dumb software gets its kinks worked out. i asked the guy if there was something wrong, he said the car seemed fine, but i had to literally drive 25-30 miles and then it would be ok and pass the test. he said it happens all the time and he tells people to take the same route and it always fixes it.

There was an article recently about people getting locked out of Zipcars because they were out of cellphone range, in a parking garage, etc. That’s not a problem people had to worry about in the old days of rental cars.

The software determines a lot about how the car drives now. Check out some car forums and you’ll find people hacking the codes to get higher performance. The potential performance is literally held in check to meet efficiency and emission standards.

You’re working overtime to miss the point. Cars break down and have quirks, not working because they need a software update like it’s Windows 98 is new.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Wednesday, September 11, 2019 1:41 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not missing the point. I just don't think the point, which overstates the difference between "needing a software update" and other car computer "quirks," is so profound.