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The Nightmare Bicycle

geoffreylitt.com

11–20 of 75 posts

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#11
post #6

Tried to figure out what temperature my Ninja slow cooker cooks at. Not possible, only Hi and Lo. Internets say different models use different temperature.

Mine at least has a temperature setting. But it also has modes, Reheat, Air fry, Roast, etc. What do they mean? I have absolutely no idea. I would guess it's the fan speed but it sounds exactly the same in each mode...

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#13

I couldn't agree more. However the reason we have a Popcorn option on the microwave is because it makes the difference at the point of sale, not at the point of use. Most people when presented with two devices that essentially do the same thing, but one has more options will chose the one with more options because they have been lead to believe it's better. Design is so often polluted by marketing. The direction of p…

Good microwaves have a microphone to detect popping. Popcorn option on microwave is a real feature.

Just do not buy cheap Amazon junk!

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#14

One-based indexing is an example of this. It's always argued as being familiar, as if people learning to program couldn't deal with adding 1.

Meanwhile off-by-one errors are ludicrously common…

People can learn to deal with adding 1, but it’s still a cognitive encumbrance that loads us down and makes life harder.

Not that I’m advocating for one-based indexing. At this point consistency is more important than whatever the easier solution is.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#15
I get what the author is getting at, but I really think this is a poor comparison. Selecting a gear on a bike gives immediate feedback. Selecting a power level and cook time on a microwave...does not. Not needing to remember a formula for figuring out a cook time and power level based on the quantity of meat I'm defrosting is a really useful feature.

Plus, I can always select whatever levels I want manually on the microwave, and when using a pre-programmed function I can see what the microwave is doing.

I think an example that makes it clear that the author needs to more carefully work out their point is the Honeywell AllergenPlus line of airfilters. For a while, they had three settings, "Allergen", "General Clean" and "Germ" which are merely 3 fan speed settings. This method was so disjointed form reality, the eventually started shipping them with stickers covering it up with "Low", "Medium", and "High" (I forget what the actual order was...).

It's a real life nightmare bicycle, but of course there is no risk of losing intuitive understanding because of instant feedback. The user will quickly figure out which setting is low, which is medium, and which is high based on simply pressing the buttons. A similar thing will happen with the bicycle. People don't actually look at the numbers and select a number, they just shift gears until it "feels" right.

This really needs a better product example, perhaps just AI over search.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#16

Interesting that the tech these days is going in the opposite direction. These trends to hide technical details (e.g. files on iPhone) can get really frustrating when it doesn't work. Almost a mockery.

There's a similar trend in devtools that's absolutely frustrating.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#17

I like to consult the table that explains what every program really does for any washing machines that I use :) I want relatively short, more water than minimum, medium-gentle agitation, medium RPM spin dry. It has many names.

Same query, but for my dryer. Particularly the "Jeans" program. It is explicitly stated on every pair of jeans which I own that I should never attempt this.

And yet, the program exists. Did they find a workaround? Or are they selling an empty promise?

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#18

I couldn't agree more. However the reason we have a Popcorn option on the microwave is because it makes the difference at the point of sale, not at the point of use. Most people when presented with two devices that essentially do the same thing, but one has more options will chose the one with more options because they have been lead to believe it's better. Design is so often polluted by marketing. The direction of p…

Good microwaves have a microphone to detect popping. Popcorn option on microwave is a real feature. Just do not buy cheap Amazon junk!

It used to be a real feature, but so many microwave makers made fake ones that popcorn sellers have been printing “do not use the popcorn button ” on their instructions for a while.

About the popcorn button: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Limpr1L8Pss&pp=ygUYcG9wY29ybiB...

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good microwaves have a microphone to detect popping. Popcorn option on microwave is a real feature. Just do not buy cheap Amazon junk!

It used to be a real feature, but so many microwave makers made fake ones that popcorn sellers have been printing “do not use the popcorn button ” on their instructions for a while. About the popcorn button: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Limpr1L8Pss&pp=ygUYcG9wY29ybiB...

Then a microwave manufacturer says "do not worry about the warning saying do not use popcorn mode because our one works!"

But in seriousness don't rely on any auto turn off feature if it failing means a fire!

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#20

One-based indexing is an example of this. It's always argued as being familiar, as if people learning to program couldn't deal with adding 1.

I imagine zero based indexing is because resources were scarce and number of bits low in the bad old days. Why waste that zero index. From there is was backwards compatibility.

If machine code uses zero then assembly inherits that, them C and everything else. Even JS months!

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