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

every thread of this type devolves into an amalgamation of software support threads

Word is just fine. Y’all are crazy. It’s Excel and its complete inability to handle large workbooks that drives me crazy.

It's all been downhill since Tandy's Deskmate

What is that thing where newer model cars coming to a stop at an intersection have to restart the engine when it’s their turn to go? I’m not sure if that’s what actually happening or if that’s just what it sounds like is happening.

that is actually what's happening. it's to conserve fuel.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/automobiles/wheels/start-stop-technology-is-coming-to-cars-like-it-or-not.html

That is a genuinely good and on topic thing for this thread. Enough with the half measures! Get a car that plugs in!

Amazing

My old Escort used to have that feature but we called it "stalling"

lol my ford fiesta does this now

blame sic’s podcast post for turning this into the “complaining about commonplace tech we can’t be bothered to learn how to use” thread

I helpfully provided step-by-step instructions for ppl who need to learn how to use web pages, old dogs are as worthy of my street pats as bright-eyed shibe pups

That is a genuinely good and on topic thing for this thread. Enough with the half measures! Get a car that plugs in!

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 18 August 2019 5:40 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Electric is such a massive improvement on internal combustion engines that I fully expect this thread to be complaining about electric cars in a couple of years.

What is that thing where newer model cars coming to a stop at an intersection have to restart the engine when it’s their turn to go?

my car does this, it threw me off a bit at first, but it's actually fine. it just happens automatically. I can turn it off but iirc you have to turn it off every time you start the car, it doesn't stay off

Doesn't that wear out the starter?

I have absolutely no idea tbh but according to Wikipedia: The starter is reinforced and designed to withstand continuous use without wearing too fast or overheating.

this is my first car so I don't have a lot of basis for comparison, but it seems OK. it's quite smart, like if the car in front of me starts moving it auto-starts before I've even taken my foot off the brake

I have it too and agree that it mostly works fine. Apparently it’s not like a hard restart, more like some kind of suspension that just springs back to life when you take your foot off the gas. The amount of tech in the car overall is pretty boggling - I’ve had it six months, read the manuals front to back, watched hours of videos, and still don’t understand all of it. Absolutely love it right now, but it’s got definite “quirks” and I fear the day it brakes on its own in highway traffic or whatever because a sensor malfunctions.

Also Denny's getting rid of the Breakfast Dagwood

When did this happen! Why did it happen!! Fuck the entire world!!!

I been a loyal customer for like 25 years and this is the thanks I get. No heads up or anything. See if I ever go back to Dennys again. Loggin on to villageinn.com right NOW to locate my nearest new second home.

I got my Samsung Galaxy off craigslist for $240 but maybe they don't have used non-Apple products there, idk

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, August 15, 2019 4:29 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Be careful, those can go off at any moment

a bunch of electronic locks/keypads that are slower or less effective than just turning a key in a lock

So many different ways of washing hands belong in this thread. The mad variety of awful soap/water/dryer innovations in the last decade or two, and none of them beat just turning a fucking tap.

I'm pretty sure most automated bathroom amenities are produced by Rand Peltzer Inc.

We've been so trained already to accept the couple-seconds-wait for the labor-saving device to activate, that adding a gratuitous delay is becoming a favored design choice. I'm sure there are countless examples in software, where the window beautifully swoops into view when you request it, instead of arriving spot on demand, but I'm thinking of the expensive new fridge I bought.

Works great, so cold, makes ice, frost-free. Every time you open the door, the interior lights gradually fade up from darkness over the course of 4 seconds, theatrically, suspensefully, revealing the food you want to grab.

And then four seconds later it starts beeping obnoxiously to tell you you've left the door open

they send a push notification to your phone now

Oh yes. And then there are the decent innovations that aren't quite implemented right, what Auden called "good ideas which incompetence or impatience prevented from coming to much."

Like the convenient oven that I can set to roast my artichokes for precisely 30 minutes, then automatically shut itself off, saving me from having to watch the clock in the other room and leap up from what I'm doing. At the 30-minute mark, the oven shuts off and beeps to let me know I can retrieve my finished vegetable at my leisure. And keeps beep beeping with increasing insistence every 15 seconds forever until I go pay attention to it.

I had to learn the hard way the difference between the two timers on our newish oven (one of which is merely a timer, the other of which full-on stops the oven and, if cooking isn't complete, requires us to go through the excessively-long preheat process just to get back to square one, at which point I have no idea how much more cook time will be necessitated for the foodstuff that's either been sitting on the stovetop or in an oven of fluctuating temperature for the past ten minutes).

I kinda just want a semi-contained firepit in the middle of the kitchen tbh.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's not just a case of us all subjectively preferring the exact level of labor-saving we were raised with and no more. I think there's a discrete line the machines are crossing, where they're trying to do what they think we want, rather than doing what they're explicitly told. And that's where it becomes oh my god you guys just stop labor-saving me so much damn extra work!

shutting off the heat source won't bring the oven to room temperature for awhile. The oven needs to transfer its contents to a built in but thermally isolated vat of 160deg beurre monte when the timer goes off.

OH BOY, do I have one for this thread. What the fuck is the deal with Windows updates now? That thing where you can only defer them for so long until they're just like, 'yeah, whatever it is you're doing is going to stop now while we shut yr shit down for the next couple of hours'. Up your ass, Microsoft. All the way up your ass.

I mean and just updates in general that can't be averted/delayed. Life is too goddamn short for me to have to sit and watch a progress bar accomplish more than I'm able to.

You can 'adjust active hours to reduce disruptions' (which I never do, of course).

the poxy fule gave one time to reconsider

churning butter toned our biceps. besides, the time it took gave us time to think about all the beurre monte we were eating. was it really necessary?

All the way up your ass.

4 % up ass
About 56 minutes remaining

digital picture frames

is it really necessary to rotate our favorite pictures of butter?

the number of butter holders in new cars

digital picture frames

― triple-washed (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, August 20, 2019 9:10 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

On the contrary, I got one for my mom that allows people to upload photos and videos via an app and I think she really loves it.

should upload a pic of your country crock. 'just kidding, mom'

Oh, if it were anyone but my moms you best believe I'd be trolling the shit out of that digital frame.

how when you click the red "close window" button on a mac it doesn't actually shut down the programme any more

it has never done that afaicr

it used to do it more often but whether or not it does is at the discretion of the programmer. os-bundled apps in particular often used to do it and many now don't.

interface guidelines used to be more pushy about the types of programs that ought to do it, too.

ah ok, im only a part-time mac user and its always been red button just closes the window when ive bothered to take notice

If you only need b/w get a brother hl-2350 or 2360 from Craigslist for like 40$. Duplex laser printer. WiFi works. Fast enough for the home. Replacement no brand toner is $10.

caek i just want to say - i did this and i now feel like a total don.

welcome to the brother club, brother

printing from my phone feels genuinely futuristic

it's the complete opposite experience this thread is about! it just works for me! somehow it blows my mind every time I'm at home and I can hit print on my phone and it finds the printer, there are no drivers or whatever, and a few seconds later I hear the printer whirr to life