201–210 of 443 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My work coffee maker has a touch screen and the interface is so laggy it's insane. The manufacturer controls every aspect of the hardware and software so it makes no sense -- either make the hardware more powerful or make the software simpler!
This is where NLP would excel or even some nice regex. It doesn’t have to be this hard.
I wanted to love the touch bar, but the current implementation is a failure -- it needs to be pressure sensitive. A light brushing of a physical key doesn't register and a good implementation of the touch bar would behave the same way. In the meantime, I would pay extra to the replace the touch bar with the physical buttons we used to have. I've gotten so tired of accidentally hitting the touch bar that I have disabl…
The bigger problem, though, is that modern web browsers put website developers before users. It's a user agent. It should allow the user to control everything. I honestly wish they asked for permission per-domain before a website is allowed to use and tags.
I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?
My rented apartment has switches that presumably use radio to turn on and off the lights. There is no further integration, or smart app etc. I can't see which light switch is on or off, so even after years living here I mix up some of the switches. Sometimes the radio pulse doesn't register, so I have to go back to the switch and press it again. After pressing the switch, there's a perceivable, variable delay for the…
Normalization (especially the real-time case) is an interesting topic. I've experimented with crude algorithms in the past to take all audio samples in a fixed window and then normalize them all to the same level [0]. But it's harder than you'd think. First there is a difference for humans in how loud they perceive the same sound to be at different frequencies. So any measurement function needs to take that into account. ReplayGain does this btw [1]. Then, there is the problem that if you make this window too short, you turn the audio into a garbled mess. If you make the window too long, you increase latency. This is a big deal for streaming settings. And last, you have the problem that silent periods aren't silent. E.g. if the person takes a breath, the level is increased to amplify the muffled sounds of the road nearby to levels to make you think they stand in the middle of a highway :). It's an interesting problem and while I doubt that it'll be solvable by simple hardcoded algorithms, ML might solve it. Then we can finally enjoy audio without having to manually press +++ and --- all the time :). But you know maybe we'll have different problems similar to the inability of phones to photograph the orange sky over SF.
[0]: https://github.com/est31/js-audio-normalizer
[1]: http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=ReplayGain_specif...
I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?
I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off. It is incredibly hard to find this. I have one somewhere, but the knob was a little silly: https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX I think a better design would be a ring around the circumference that you twist. But I agree - when it came to putting a good stereo in my car (when you used to be able to do such a thing) I always kept looking until I foun…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My work coffee maker has a touch screen and the interface is so laggy it's insane. The manufacturer controls every aspect of the hardware and software so it makes no sense -- either make the hardware more powerful or make the software simpler!
This is where NLP would excel or even some nice regex. It doesn’t have to be this hard.
I'm not sure I get this article - if you want a physical kill switch for audio, get a volume controller and set that directly under your monitor? Now you have a physical kill switch in the form of a GIANT near-zero-friction volume knob as well as dedicated hardware true-instant-mute button. No reason computers should come with that out of the box, in the same way there's no reason they should come with a DVD drive or…
To summarize, you shouldn't have to use peripheral equipment to achieve what he believes should be standard functionality in hardware that emits audio signals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess the takeaway is that everyday utility instruments should not require time invested in studying manuals to operate them. Imagine that every screwdriver you buy requires you to read 20 page document that tells you how to operate it. As a user all I want is "a cup of coffee". Why do I need to read that manual? What if I'm just a visitor, and was told that "the coffee machine is over there". Do I really want to r…
Somebody buys you a $5,000 screwdriver. Do you just use it wrong, not take care of it, and ruin it to make a point about how all you wanted was to turn a screw?
The real problem he has is different levels of audio and missing normalization of audio levels. You shouldn't get into the situation of wanting to quickly adjust audio levels in the first place (although I agree that any latency in adjusting the volume is inacceptable). Normalization (especially the real-time case) is an interesting topic. I've experimented with crude algorithms in the past to take all audio samples…
Everything mastered (or "remastered") since the late '90s has been destroyed with dynamic compression to make it "louder." It's the biggest crime against art in our times, but is poorly understood even by musicians who complain about it. Interestingly it's the older ones, like Neil Young and Bob Dylan who have been the most vocal about it, but incorrectly attribute it to data compression or sampling rates.
I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?
My rented apartment has switches that presumably use radio to turn on and off the lights. There is no further integration, or smart app etc. I can't see which light switch is on or off, so even after years living here I mix up some of the switches. Sometimes the radio pulse doesn't register, so I have to go back to the switch and press it again. After pressing the switch, there's a perceivable, variable delay for the…
The big advantage is that it provides separate fan and light controls without needing to run new electrical wires through the wall and ceiling.