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

My child barfed on my Roku remote. I got a harmony. It has a mute button. But most of the time I use Alexa to mute the tv.

@maffew12 - Standalone Rokus in USB stick form.

one of the annoying things about my USB stick Roku which I mostly think is great is that my old Logitech Harmony remote isn't compatible with it since this roku doesn't use infrared for communicating with the Roku (since it's behind the TV).

I've programmed the Roku remote to control the volume of the soundbar, but this means I can't use the remote for turning the TV on or off, so I need the TV remote just to turn the TV on or off. I feel like it should be possible to have the power button on the Roku remote be associated with one device and the volume button with another (this is hardly an uncommon setup), but as far as I can tell there's no way to configure the Roku remote this way.

i have a new LG TV and a new Roku stick and i wasn't expecting this but the LG remote actually controls the Roku..... and the other way around! so it doesn't matter which remote i pick up. i did nothing specific to make it behave this way

My child barfed on my Roku remote

what were you watching, Human Centipede II?

Cannibal Holocaust: The Musical

what were you watching, _Human Centipede II_?

These days roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious ! But I miss the days of roasting them 'round the hearth with good company, my neighboors the Hawthornes - we have lost such fateful camaraderie though we have gained that word. I blame the Whig party!

I am fucking furious that Google is forcing 2-step authentication on my email accounts, a feature I didn’t ask for nor want. My passwords are unique and nigh impossible to figure out, even for me at times, and I never use keychain or other such things to “remember” them— that’s the point of a password. Fucking ludicrous.

i have gotten to a point where I almost have the 5 digit numbers memorized for the various companies that have forced 2FA ... i have some sad says where the first screen of recent calls on my phone are all 2FA messages

It's all bloat that needn't exist afaic.

get rid of your google account iirc

speaking of bloat that needn't exist!

I am pondering it, tbh!

at some point i set up 2fa for facebook, which i log into like once a year

for whatever reason, fb won't accept the secret google time code anymore, and wants me to send them my passport or something similarly insane to unlock it. oh well!

Windows key + shift + s for a snip is the greatest keyboard shortcut I know.

woah thx Chinaski, that's certainly a forward step for me!

Really not loving the current US trend of requiring ID for alcohol purchases across the board.

I have grey hair and bifocals and two children. I am standing here coming home from work and wearing a suit and buying pork tenderloin, a pound of french-cut green beans, a dozen diapers, some cat food, and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I just want to get home and cook dinner and fall asleep in the middle of a Law & Order episode that I've already seen.

I am really obviously not a high-schooler trying to get some beers illegally. And yet someone needs to scan my driver's license and enter the date (which, for those keeping track, ends in 197ntyfucking1).

As a former retail cashier myself, I understand that they are beholden to their management and their employers and they don't make the rules. They don't need the hassle of making judgment calls.

But giving them the ability to exercise some little bits of uncontroverisal judgment would be welcome. It would save everyone time.

I think it sometimes depends on how the store has their point of sale systems configured tbh. I went through this a while back w/Walgreens and cigarettes. For many years they just had to type in the date of birth in order for the computer to allow them to charge me for cigarettes. This was better because they would often just type in whatever birthday that satisfied the age requirement. Sometimes they'd ask and I'd have to say xxxxx xxxx 197ntyfuckingxxx. In the past couple years, some of the stores switched to having to scan or swipe the ID.

whenever I hear about pointless rigmarole around a retail transaction I assume it’s related to metadata/purchase habit tracking

i tend to think fraud or theft prevention -- but you are probably right

funny how a law intended to identify adults has ended up infantilising everyone

I feel insulted when there’s a sign that says “we id anyone under the age of X” where X is usually 35 or 40

you better id me!! why didn’t you?

i tend to think fraud or theft prevention -- but you are probably right

Along those lines when I'm asked to enter my ZIP code at the gas station down the street... From the name on the card, this would be the easiest thing to figure out.

Even without the name, a pretty good guess would probably work too.

Nobody cards me cos I look like I died already

Even without the name, a pretty good guess would probably work too.

― pplains, Saturday, November 19, 2022 4:21 PM (two days ago)

the likelihood that it's the same ZIP as that of the gas station is fairly high

though I always feel absurdly "safe" because my go-to gas station is in an adjacent ZIP code ... sad lol

I stopped being carded around 45-46. (I'm 52 now.)

Nobody cards me cos I look like I died already

Same, no one cards the undead

8 years in Quebec and have never once been carded for alcohol—I'm not sure how other provinces are.

Sort of like YMP's post but fancier, the funniest thing in the US is getting carded buying a single nice bottle of port for my dad or splurging on a pricey bottle of scotch or whatever

Catherine Irwin (of Freakwater) had some great between-song banter about getting carded in middle-age; she was like "If I look like this and I'm under 21, then you should just GIVE me the alcohol".
I was hosting two British musicians once (in their 60s/70s) in the U.S. and they got carded during dinner, and one said that was the first time he had been carded IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE.

I've worked the door at a friend's bar as backup, and generally card everyone that comes in. Once in awhile, I'll get the exasperated 50-something: "Really? Really? You really want to see my ID?" And in the back of my mind, I'm like "Don't flatter yourself, pops - just show me the ID."

It's really just a legal thing - should the bar get raided (unlikely), they get fined for anybody without one.

not carding everyone is communist iirc

"Is this your only I.D.?"

https://www.kcet.org/sites/kl/files/atoms/article_atoms/www.kcet.org/socal/departures/landofsunshine/assets_c/2013/03/RalphsLebowskiClubCard-thumb-600x365-47571.jpg

drinking age should be 8 IMO

UK drinking age is 5. at 16 you can drink with a meal and an adult, and 18 you can buy your own but actually drinking it is 5.

https://www.gov.uk/alcohol-young-people-law

I learned about the age 16 part from the In-Betweeners

UK drinking age is 5. at 16 you can drink with a meal and an adult, and 18 you can buy your own but actually drinking it is 5.

Yes, this is why I did Jaeger shots with my 5-year-old son. Gotta get him acclimated before kindergarten.

at least give him Jamesson

US drinking age is for possession, not consumption.

Germany has children's low alcohol beers I believe

we're really get off topic here btw

*getting*

ok then. supermarkets have stopped putting use-by dates on tomatoes. "to reduce waste". but what has happened is that *i* am throwing them away as unusable rather than the supermarkets (and they are a lot more expensive to me than to them)

(not sure that counts as technological but...)

fresh tomatoes?

Why are you buying tomatoes and then not eating them?

yeah. cherry tomatoes. takes me 5 days to eat them. and I've no idea how long they've been on the shelf now.

I'm not eating them because they are sometimes mush by the time i get to them

xps Samsung Sound Assistant, and I'm guessing similar, has an option for allowing any apps to play sounds at the same time (and control the volume for each, like you would on a computer pretty much). Might be sort of a backwards step mess on its own, but I prefer it to interruptions.

― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 16:17 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Except it doesn't work on newer Samsungs? Would love an app that could do this again. Truly a backwards step on a backwards step.

A common failing of the newer Sanyos