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People expect technology to suck because it sucks

tonsky.me

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Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#371

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #353
titzer wrote: post #343

For most people, technology is a haunted house riddled with unpleasant surprises. With no agency, they are at the mercy of other people's bad ideas that keep changing. Everything needs to be updated because everything else needs to be updated, because everything needs to be updated. Duh! Software updates! Guess what! Here's a new UI for ya. We moved all the stuff! It's like someone threw you a surprise birthday party…

The thing is, I do not really hate tech, if UNIX, and UNIX alone (no GUI), is considered "tech". Most of the programs in the freely available open-source UNIX OS I use do NOT need to be updated. They just keep working and are quite reliable (at least compared to their GUI alternatives). I do sometimes wish that there could be alternative (not "replacement") ways to do things we use "tech" to do today, where the alter…

Remember that "alternative" is not the same as "replacement". This is similar to the idea of "more than one way to do it" in computer languages. Users have freedom to choose. Here, one of the ways is without GUI, using UNIX. Only applies where the task does not inherently require graphics.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#372

Post by cblum »

Waterluvian wrote: post #352
titzer wrote: post #343

For most people, technology is a haunted house riddled with unpleasant surprises. With no agency, they are at the mercy of other people's bad ideas that keep changing. Everything needs to be updated because everything else needs to be updated, because everything needs to be updated. Duh! Software updates! Guess what! Here's a new UI for ya. We moved all the stuff! It's like someone threw you a surprise birthday party…

Hot damn is this the most concise description of how I feel. I’ve always described it as “the design team justifying their own existence after the job is done.” Let software get stable and boring.

> I’ve always described it as “the design team justifying their own existence after the job is done.”

I actually think that's really what is going on. Wish I had first hand evidence though.

I do know of a tangential phenomenon at a friend's work place. Her org has a dedicated build tools team. So every 6 months every project's build infrastructure needs to change to something entirely new, because the build tools team keeps having to justify its existence.

I don't know why a company would let this sort of thing happen. It's a massive waste of time for every team.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#373

Post by d3nj4l »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #353
titzer wrote: post #343

For most people, technology is a haunted house riddled with unpleasant surprises. With no agency, they are at the mercy of other people's bad ideas that keep changing. Everything needs to be updated because everything else needs to be updated, because everything needs to be updated. Duh! Software updates! Guess what! Here's a new UI for ya. We moved all the stuff! It's like someone threw you a surprise birthday party…

The thing is, I do not really hate tech, if UNIX, and UNIX alone (no GUI), is considered "tech". Most of the programs in the freely available open-source UNIX OS I use do NOT need to be updated. They just keep working and are quite reliable (at least compared to their GUI alternatives). I do sometimes wish that there could be alternative (not "replacement") ways to do things we use "tech" to do today, where the alter…

> To me, the people who would be very opposed to this idea are not users, they are developers. Having been raised on computers in the 1980's I can attest that computer users never cared about "UI" or "UX", they just did what they needed to do to use the computer. It is developers, especially contemporarary, who are actually care about "UI" and "UX", not computer users.

... what? Are you suggesting computer users in 2020 - which includes everyone from your nana on her iPhone to a toddler watching YouTube on a tablet - want to use CLIs, and are being forced by baddie developers into using apps?

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#374

Post by ashtonkem »

rightbyte wrote: post #266
ashtonkem wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you’re talking about. Car engines are vastly improved in both reliability, cleanliness, and efficiency by the introduction of computers into them. You might not like that when it goes wrong, but we all appreciate not breathing in pre-computerized car engine exhaust. And that’s the rub. While shoddily written software shoehorned into cheap consumer goods obviously degrades the experience, there are ton…

Yes but at the same time the auto makers let another team make Electron apps for the dashboard. Engine ECUs are nice and decoupled. Maybe the hard realtime requirements is what saves them and keep all the novell crap out?

And that’s why this is hard. There are cases where software drastically improves the objective quality of things (car engines), cases where well done software makes items significantly more enjoyable (some car infotainment), and cases where software makes things worse (everything in the kitchen). Separating them out is hard.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#375

Post by darksaints »

mdavidn wrote: post #223
elboru wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for mentioning AirPods! I was so excited to buy them after a ton of reviews saying they just worked. They said the days of fighting with Bluetooth audio were gone. I believed them, then reality showed up. My Mac sometimes unpairs them and worst it doesn’t find them. Some times while my baby is sleeping I put my AirPods and play a loud video just to realize they were not connected. My wife’s right side AirPo…

I use my AirPods with multiple devices, and that process is also fraught with problems. Switching to another device takes an absurdly long time. About once per month, switching will make bluetoothaudiod peg a core and ultimately hard crash the entire computer. Yes, the kernel panics if it doesn't hear from this userspace process frequently enough. Surprisingly, iCloud syncing works fine. If I pair my AirPods with one…

I accidentally coughed whiskey through my nose when I read that.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#377

Post by Aeolun »

mikewarot wrote: post #284
hrktb wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t reality suck the same ? My gas car stinks, destroys the planet, needs yearly maintenance, crashes in everything the second I stop paying attention. My house decays days after day. Floors need constant cleaning, wall have holes from small impacts, paint contains inedible fragments and disperse nocive gas. Bees are building nests on my balcony and it’s definitely not what it was built for, nor where they should…

When is the last time leaving your keys in the car caused your house to suddenly slide 10 foot southwest? When is the last time you flipped a light switch, and suddenly your pool disappeared? Have you ever had French doors appear in your dining room because of a "Windows Update" on Wednesday morning? Have you ever had to wait for half an hour for your house to boot later on that same Wednesday? When is the last time…

I don’t know where you got these examples, but they were fantastic.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#378

Post by Aeolun »

hrktb wrote: post #318
mikewarot wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When is the last time leaving your keys in the car caused your house to suddenly slide 10 foot southwest? When is the last time you flipped a light switch, and suddenly your pool disappeared? Have you ever had French doors appear in your dining room because of a "Windows Update" on Wednesday morning? Have you ever had to wait for half an hour for your house to boot later on that same Wednesday? When is the last time…

I’d argue computer programs failing mode are often less gruesome that real life’s gas and electric failures. As a kid we had a gas range, and it was pretty easy turn on a burner and just leave it open without lighting it. Or just start cooking something and forget about it, depending on your situation your house is gone.

Normally the gas has quite a distinctive odor just for these kinds of situations. Sucks if you leave your house and enter it again lighting a cigarette though.

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#379

Post by Aeolun »

jschwartzi wrote: post #283
TwelveNights wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While nobody expected books to have variable font sizes, the fact that ebooks do allow it to be adjusted means that people with deteriorating vision may still read them.

A magnifying glass was the original solution to this problem. They never run out of battery.

And you can use any glass with any book!

Re: People expect technology to suck because it sucks

#380

Post by Aeolun »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #169
julianlam wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my life I’ve never had a problem with a refrigerator, had maybe two problems with washer/dryer I think blaming software for this is a little naive. Take a look at consumer reports for any modern fridge, stovetop/oven, washer/dryer, etc, and you will see complaints about fridge motors dying, touch panels going on the fritz, etc. -- none of which involve anything more than low level firmware. If you want to put a…

> If you want to put a tinfoil hat on, you can consider that it may be planned obsolescence, but to put the blame squarely on software, I would disagree with. You don't need tin foil hat when facing the truth :). Also, while things you mentioned aren't software-related, they're modern tech-related . Like, last 20 years. Fridge motors dry out because they're being made cheaper, with not enough lubricant put into them…

Why do we have a touch panel on a fridge in the first place? The only thing we need to be able to specify is desired temperature...
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