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The first minute of every phone call is torture now

theatlantic.com

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Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#411

Post by sirmarksalot »

hericium wrote: post #319

Upon reading just the title, I thought this is going to be about prolonged, slowly spoken automatic pre-IVR messages, which appeared during COVID with "due to the current situation, we kindly ask you to be patient because we're understaffed and have more calls". Now it's just unspoken "you learned how to wait during COVID so fuck you and wait", often mentioning opening hours, even when you call during those hours, we…

I think it's more likely that they've bought more accessories than you and get bit by more incompatibilities. I think the issue is that there's nobody designing the entire end-to-end experience of what happens when you use every accessory with every feature turned on. I'm sure there's QA on all of it, but tickets don't magically create an architecture.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#412

Post by paultopia »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #406
paultopia wrote: post #323

The most interesting part of the linked article is this: Online, ad-riddled, search-engine-optimized webpages offer folk solutions: disconnect Bluetooth; reconnect Bluetooth; factory-reset the earbuds; reboot the phone; and so on. Like a finger trap, these desires for remedy plunge the user only further into the technological murk and its associated despair. How did this happen? It’s really bizarre and weird that it’…

I don't really know, but it seems like you could just short circuit all of that by just answering the fucking phone and not bothering with Bluetootha nd stuff.

I guess, but the whole rest of the way technology and galloping capitalism have transformed work makes that harder. For example, lots and lots of us have to take calls on the move (walking somewhere, driving somewhere, etc.) just because our schedules are so crammed. Try doing that without some kind of hands-free device.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#413

Post by puffoflogic »

zdragnar wrote: post #152
midoridensha wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that's Google and not your device manufacturer or your carrier? The dialer on my Android phone seems OK. I'm not going to claim it's the best UX ever, but it certainly doesn't interrupt me with dialogs about anything. Android phones are infamous for having carrier-required crap pre-loaded.

I switched from LG to a pixel. I don't regret the better hardware or more frequent updates, but so many tiny things were substantially better on the LG. Biggest peeve: on the LG phones I had, you could use the volume buttons / menu to silence or turn down individual applications. On the pixel, out of the box you only get a global media volume control. Also have experience with the stock phone dialler putting up promp…

Pixels are great as long as you don't need to call 911.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#414

Post by dr_dshiv »

daviross wrote: post #213
dr_dshiv wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Receiver anxiety” should crawl off into the forest. It’s a youth-millennial thing that inhibits waaaay too much authentic social action. People are just too scared to be human. Just call me! I might pick up I might not. For that matter, if I don’t respond to your email in a day, treat it like a phone call and just try again. Don’t assume I’m ignoring you. It’s just e-mail.

> if I don’t respond to your email in a day, treat it like a phone call and just try again. Don’t assume I’m ignoring you. I mean... aren't you ignoring them? It's an email. Where'd the first one go that the second one is going to be any different?

It isn’t visually present in the list of 50-100 emails in my inbox. Mail again and remind. It’s not rude. It’s rude to assume the other person is ignoring.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#415

Post by namaria »

walterbell wrote: post #409
namaria wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing not taken into account on this rant (and it is just a big rant) is the incredible increase in scale. Nearly everyone has a phone and can make phone calls now and we're almost 8 billion people. The old, understandable, analog system would have never scaled like this. Quality didn't degrade because of greed or degeneracy. It was a trade-off and I say the level of access we have now trumps whatever nostalgia p…

World population by late 1990s was 6 billion. Landline audio phone calls were reliable with fixed guaranteed bandwidth, albeit expensive. Today there are more people, but has there been a linear increase in 1:1 calls? More bridge/group/conferencing calls, yes.

Was penetration of phone services the same back then?

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#416

Post by namaria »

ghostpepper wrote: post #402
namaria wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing not taken into account on this rant (and it is just a big rant) is the incredible increase in scale. Nearly everyone has a phone and can make phone calls now and we're almost 8 billion people. The old, understandable, analog system would have never scaled like this. Quality didn't degrade because of greed or degeneracy. It was a trade-off and I say the level of access we have now trumps whatever nostalgia p…

You may be correct that we made the right choice with the tradeoff, but saying that the old system worked better (for those who could use it) is not nostalgia. Audio quality (and communication ability) on zoom is objectively far worse than it was over analog copper lines.

Why are you comparing zoom calls to analog phone calls? My transcontinental, zero marginal cost whatsapp phone calls are pretty good.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#417

Post by walterbell »

namaria wrote: post #415
walterbell wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

World population by late 1990s was 6 billion. Landline audio phone calls were reliable with fixed guaranteed bandwidth, albeit expensive. Today there are more people, but has there been a linear increase in 1:1 calls? More bridge/group/conferencing calls, yes.

Was penetration of phone services the same back then?

There wasn't a comparable 1:1 mapping/surveillance of device to human, but phones and public payphones were widely available in Western countries.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#418

Post by sirmarksalot »

dont__panic wrote: post #348
arnaudsm wrote: post #23

My golden rules to make videoconferencing more reliable : - Use ethernet. Wi-Fi isn't reliable, your neighbor's microwave can ruin everything. - Use wired headphones. 0 latency. 0 connection time. And disables the mic noise-cancelling algos. - Use classic phone calls when required. It's more robust and latency is even better.

Any tips on using ethernet when you're renting a house and unable to wire any infrastructure? My only hookup for internet is in a pretty poor spot for wireless connectivity to my office, but I don't have a good way to wire a cable instead since there's an entire living room, a staircase, a hallway, and multiple doors in the way.

Run cables along baseboards, under rugs, under doors, along the stair runners, etc. If the cable needs to cross an egress point, put a rug over it. If you can convince your landlord, drill a single hole to bridge the upstairs and downstairs. If you're in an older house that has straight cold air returns (not a heating duct), drop a cable through there, and pin it to the crown molding.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#419

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

ghostpepper wrote: post #402
namaria wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing not taken into account on this rant (and it is just a big rant) is the incredible increase in scale. Nearly everyone has a phone and can make phone calls now and we're almost 8 billion people. The old, understandable, analog system would have never scaled like this. Quality didn't degrade because of greed or degeneracy. It was a trade-off and I say the level of access we have now trumps whatever nostalgia p…

You may be correct that we made the right choice with the tradeoff, but saying that the old system worked better (for those who could use it) is not nostalgia. Audio quality (and communication ability) on zoom is objectively far worse than it was over analog copper lines.

And then there was (european) ISDN. That was peak voice.

Re: The first minute of every phone call is torture now

#420

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

3pt14159 wrote: post #191
kibwen wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key word there being analog phone lines. Cell phone lines, which account for 99.99999% of all phone communication these days, are IMO worse than VOIP for sound quality (though better at latency). It's weird that kids growing up in the post-landline era will never realize how clear and amazingly low-latency phone calls used to be. If two people were seated across a table talking on a landline, they'd hear the sign…

Low-latency for local calls, yes. High quality sound, also yes. But for long distance, no thank you. I will not go back to the 90s just for that one reason alone. It was hellish calling across the Atlantic. Like 15 cents a minute with a 1.5 (sometimes 2) second delay between speaking. And having to remember the dialling sequences and complexity around looking up foreign phone numbers, both of which are now just built…

In the 90ies I used 'calling cards' to 'dial in' to Frankfurt, and then via touch tone entry of the real number to Florida. Interestingly that wasn't only ridiculously cheap, but much better quality than dialed directly via my native Telco/ISP. Also no latency, sounded almost as good as native ISDN.
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