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The UX on this small child is terrible

mcsweeneys.net

341–350 of 366 posts

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#341

I do not recommend VMs or Containers, Small Child requires direct hardware access.

Containerization is actually a valid strategy to help induce the sleep states necessary for both parent and child process functionality, especially since prolonged operations outside the containerized environment may result in the parent process(es) not passing even the simplest sanity testing.

You really cannot use Containers all the time. When Small Child has been containerized too much you'll run into debugging hell.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#342

I have a slightly ageing model (my co-developer is adamant there will be no upgrades, please do not suggest) and my problem is that it appears to have defaulted to ICT time (we are at GMT +11). I hear it performing operations well into the early morning, but booting from a cold start any earlier than 9am leads to all sorts of unexpected behaviour and system errors.

If you're still in warranty contact the manufacturer and see if you can RMA it.

She has repeatedly refused the RMA request.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#343
post #203

My partner and I are expecting to launch any day now. Anyone have any advice on which operating system has the best support for sleep states?

Doesn't matter if you use BeOS or roll your own Linux distro - the hardware isn't mature enough for distributions that supports sleep states.

Good news is, you might be lucky and get decent hardware setup with a functional sleep-module from start. If it does not, get a comfortable couch.

(And congrats to the addition! Best of luck and PM me if you need someone to listen to your parental suffering or joys).

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#344
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My model keeps downloading things for offline and even electricity free use. It’s a serious problem, I’m not sure how to patch it.

Run down your model's battery during the day? Tire them out enough to make them want to sleep?

I've found that, while the smaller model's battery life seems boundless, what really drives the appearance is their remarkable ability to recharge quickly. I can wipe out the battery of both of of the smaller models I'm currently in charge of and within 2 hours they have resumed normal levels of activity.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#346
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Run down your model's battery during the day? Tire them out enough to make them want to sleep?

For all of its UX problems, I must say I am very impressed with Small Childs battery life. The low power shutdown does tend to be very noisy though.

Yeah the low battery warning is extremely obnoxious and not dismissable at all. I don't know who thought this was a good decision!

What's even more crazy is that often when I attempt to silence the low battery warning by placing the Small Child in the charger, it often refuses to begin charging until the battery has been entirely depleted, so along with not being dismissable, even attempting to charge the Small Child does not stop the low battery warning consistently! I believe this is likely a bug, but I haven't yet been able to consistently replicate it to file a bug report despite experimenting with various charging and usage schedules.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#347

How do I get new features added to the roadmap? I’ve been asking for an “eat vegetables” interface without the “offer dessert in exchange” workaround for over a year, no response, yet in the same time frame I’ve seen things like “climb top-heavy bookshelf” and “unfurl entire toilet paper roll” deployed… who is asking for these features??

Ah, the main "eat vegetables" interface is actually emergent behavior driven by three different interfaces: the "parental mimicry" interface, the "repeated exposure" interface, and the fuel sampling system's feedback to the main processor. If the first two systems are repeatedly engaged with one particular desired food item, the third system will eventually acclimate to the new fuel source and learn to accept it. A word of caution, though - not all fuel samplers are the same, and some models will always reject particular inputs.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#348
This piece is funny but points to something important. Being human and caring for other humans is not intuitive. When we demand and receive products that are intuitive and comforting, we may, unbeknownst to ourselves, begin to assume that caring for ourselves and others should be intuitive too, creating painful demands on others and ourselves. We must develop something else — a reminder that life is complicated and confusing, but that we have the strength, and more importantly, the compassion to meet it and listen to it, we’ll probably be alright. It’s when we don’t want to listen and be compassionate and strong because we feel we shouldn’t have to be is when all seems to go wrong.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is honestly the most original take I've ever seen on handling picky kids, and despite it being sort of in jest I can't help but think there's some potential validity. Kids tend to be pretty easy to manipulate when it comes to food (e.g. "broccoli is tiny trees!"), as long as you can find the fulcrum point from which to pivot the presentation. I hadn't considered the choice/reinforcement aspect of this before, an…

I told mine that brussels sprouts were cabbages grown by fairies. They love them now.

I say that broccoli are little trees and then pretend I am a dinosaur eating the trees.

Re: The UX on this small child is terrible

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With that kind of cuisine how would they ever appreciate the finer taste of splinanetero and arnisia ameletita?

Splinantero so rare Google didn't even guess it from how you spelled it. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=AOa... Arnisia ameletita doesn't even have any non-Greek results at all. https://www.womenonly.gr/kreas/arthro/ameletita_aganaktismen...

Edge's translation of the Arnisia ameletita page is hilarious. I don't know Greek, so I have no idea how much of this is in the original—

"The composition of the recipe for negligentness is the product of deep study by the entire staff of pandespani, which dedicated its energy both to the symbolic significance of the proposal and to the gastronomic one.‎

‎ In order to enrich our indignant recipe with meanings and symbolism, members of our team, due to three days, rigged to Mani in order to find the most angry instruments from the well-known butcher shop of the Kourakos Brothers in Areopolis, but also to the popular one in Argos for potatoes, because of the slow salaries that the "castrated" taxpayers cover.‎

‎ With these and with them, yesterday we found all the pantespanic contributors and we pinched our neatness in two different ways"...

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