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Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

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Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#101

Post by magduf »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #79
magduf wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I also don't need to spend an entire weekend setting up a PC and a printer for my mom anymore either. You still have to waste a lot of time doing this crap. Last time I set up a printer for my mom, it was a PITA: I had to download drivers, install some giant pile of crap software, go through a bunch of screens of garbage, etc. Needless to say, her computer runs Windows 10. By contrast, when I wanted to print to…

Last printer I had to configure on my Linux machine required finding a downloading a hidden mystery bash script from the manufacturer's website and running it with root permissions. Not exactly "plug and play" or "safe"

Then you got the wrong printer. Some manufacturers do a good job of supporting Linux (HP is probably the best actually; their drivers all ship standard in most distros), others don't bother.

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#102

Post by [deleted] »

magduf wrote: post #62
hoorayimhelping wrote: post #35

This post again with its ridiculous ranting examples. "This text searching program that searches text against text is way faster and simpler than a fully rendered, interactive map of the entire world with accurate roads and precision at the foot / meter level." No. Shit, really? Get out of town. Yes, some very popular apps have bad UX. But some apps have incredible UX. Cherry picking the bad ones while ignoring the g…

>But I also don't need to spend an entire weekend setting up a PC and a printer for my mom anymore either. You still have to waste a lot of time doing this crap. Last time I set up a printer for my mom, it was a PITA: I had to download drivers, install some giant pile of crap software, go through a bunch of screens of garbage, etc. Needless to say, her computer runs Windows 10. By contrast, when I wanted to print to…

[deleted]

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#103

Post by wazanator »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #65
dayvid wrote: post #12

I remember turning on the computer and waiting for the motherboard company logo to finish flashing. After that was the Windows logo. I also remember waiting for the dial-up modem to connect to the internet and waiting hours for a video to download. Heck, last week I played a game streaming on GeForceNow and I was surprised by how seamless the whole experience was. Maybe some web apps are inconvenient, but you can eas…

...I'm a little confused. My computer still flashes the motherboard manufacturer until the fans are all assessed and then the windows logo. And while my connection is fast, it's a lot less reliable than the one I had 20 years ago, with about three 15-minute disconnects per day on average (although that has more to do with the general shit-quality of the Comcast monopoly than anything else).

Check bios settings a lot of them let you configure that time. Worth keeping for a few seconds so you can hit the appropriate key to access bios again but can certainly turn it down.

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#104

Post by nvesp »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #19
mfer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can easily setup a command line interface or Linux system and move blazing fast. Maybe the HN crowd can but not your average or median computer users > I remember turning on the computer and waiting for the motherboard company logo to finish flashing I still have computers that take some time to boot. Issue is, I just rarely power off/on. Instead the computers go to sleep which if much faster to come out of. Of…

Nah, I still can't set up a linux that's both graphical and feels snappy to this day.

Try Manjaro w/ cinnamon. I think it looks pretty good graphically out of the box and the latest stable release is still blazing fast on my old hp 8440p laptop with an old dual core i5 from the early 2010s. I dont know but cinnamon on Manjaro feels pretty damn snappy to me even on older hardware.

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#105

Post by TeMPOraL »

Arnt wrote: post #98
TeMPOraL wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I'd say the examples are perfectly good and on-point. While dealing with autoexec.bat and random BSODs wasn't fun, it's entirely orthogonal to the fact that a DOS-era POS still offers orders of magnitude better UX than current-era browser POSes, or than most web apps for that matter. It also doesn't change the fact that Google Maps is very bad at being a map . It's entire UI flow is oriented for giving turn-by-t…

What makes Google Maps bad? My computer in 1983 didn't have a map application at all, how can Google Maps possibly be bad compared to that? And if I had had a map application (I'm sure they existed) it would have taken several minutes to load from cassette tape. That's not faster than Google Maps, either perceptually or objectively.

The article explains all the ways that make Google Maps' UI bad. Your paper map or driver's atlas in 1983 offered better xref functionality. As they do in 2020, if you can still find them.

Sure, hardware progressed in the past 40 years. CPUs are faster, storage is larger, we have a global network. But it's all irrelevant to the point that Google Maps UI is optimized for being a point-by-point nav/ad delivery tool, not a map. That's an absolute statement, not relative to last century's technology.

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#106

Post by icelancer »

wang_li wrote: post #84
phren0logy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are examples, but it's no longer the de facto experience. I have put PCs together from parts since about the 386 era, and there's absolutely no question that it's far smoother now than it ever was before.

Things were getting pretty good for a bit with HDMI, but the USB-C, DisplayPort, HDMI mess is a real shitshow. Sure, I don't have to set IRQs on my ISA attached serial cards, but there are still plenty of things that are really unstable/broken.

Don't forget that there is a sub-shitshow inside USB-C cabling all of their own, as well as DisplayPort enabled USB-C, docks that do some modes but not others, monitors that run 30hz on HDMI but 59hz on DisplayPort....

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#107

Post by tasogare »

wazanator wrote: post #93
magduf wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But I also don't need to spend an entire weekend setting up a PC and a printer for my mom anymore either. You still have to waste a lot of time doing this crap. Last time I set up a printer for my mom, it was a PITA: I had to download drivers, install some giant pile of crap software, go through a bunch of screens of garbage, etc. Needless to say, her computer runs Windows 10. By contrast, when I wanted to print to…

Personally I would recommend Brother every time for a printer. They're not fancy but they are well built and don't require you to install a software suite. Roommate and I are still using the same laser printer from college. It's not wireless but if we really wanted to we could attach a pi and setup a printer pool but for now a long cable serves us just fine for the few times we need to print.

I recommended it as well. I had no issue in 10 years with mine at home, and the ones at work are reliable too.

Re: Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)

#108

Post by geocrasher »

I just wish the author used actual paragraphs. I find a string of 1-2 sentence "paragraphs" to be difficult to read. I glanced through it, thought "he's got a good point here and there but its not THAT big of a deal" and then closed it.
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