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The Nightmare Bicycle

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Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#51

Post by mkl »

aqueueaqueue wrote: post #20
IshKebab wrote: post #12

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!

No. Fortran (1957) uses 1-based indexing by default. Probably because matrix and vector indexing in maths is usually 1-based.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#52

Post by IamTC »

dsego wrote: post #33
kqr wrote: post #26

I question the degree to which even numbered gears matter on bicycles. I have two bicycles, none of them have numbered gears. One has modern integrated brake-shifters with two separate parts that can be clicked inwards to shift up and down. There's no feedback on which gear it's on, but I know which part to click to make pedaling harder, and which part to click to make it lighter. At the stops, the shifter just won't…

The old style friction shifters should also be much easier to maintain and repair. Modern indexed shifters are more likely to have issues where due to cable and housing stretch the indexing gets unaligned and you have to adjust it periodically. This might not be an issue any more with electronic shifting components. On the other hand, those are expensive and require battery power, so you need to remember to recharge.…

After >16000km mileage, my Shimano Saint shifter gave up on me 50km into a 200km audax. It is easier to shift gears with an indexed shifter. However, audax riding requires higher reliability. My 35-349 wheels (I'm riding a Brompton clone) makes it hard for me to install modern electronic shifting, except maybe Ltwoo's AE.

I've since switched to a Microshift 12S mountain bike friction shifter. Quite happy so far. It has click mode and pure friction. With my Shimano Saint derailleur (10s), due to the clutch, it took me some getting used to due to the hand strength needed. A spare friction shifter is also lighter to carry. An unintentional plus point is the ability to move to an 11s (jockey wheels on the Saint derailleurs seems to be able to work with 11s chain) the next time my cassette and chain needs replacing. 11s will give me less dead zone in between each shift.

Vis-a-vis an index shifter, I like it that I now have a way (apart from cadence, gradient and speed data from my bike comp) to know approximately which gear I'm at by just feeling the lever position. With the time I've had with this setup, I'm almost always able to shift whatever gear by muscle memory.

In reality, for my city's (Saigon) traffic, I find myself shifting gears more and hence my hands does get a bit sore. The bumps and uneven drain holes can also cause the friction shifter to shift unintentionally. I could tighten it but it'd at the expense of my hand comfort.

However, in an ultra distance ride (>=200km), there's less gear shifts and hence less of an issue. I'm also able to use both hands to take turns shifting gears which is more important on a super long ride.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#53

Post by makeitdouble »

pxndx wrote: post #37
makeitdouble wrote: post #25

The author is advocating for simpler single-purpose products I guess. The microwave example just doesn't make sense when what you have isn't a single "just push the power button" machine, but a combined microwave/oven for instance. You'll want clear mode management, temperature management when defrosting meat, pre-heating and convection when cooking a whole chicken etc. Anecdotally, a lot of people don't really under…

No, the author is advocating for the simple two dial (power and time) microwaves, which give you all the control at the cost of having to understand how it works. The author is saying that in the effort to "simplify" stuff, microwaves now add a potato button and a chicken button, but then you want to cook an eggplant and don't know how.

I think we're in agreement. To me the two dial microwave is the single purpose tool.

As a user I just happen to have very little kitchen space, so I ended up with a microwave/oven combination by necessity, and as it does exponentially a lot more than the two dial microwave, it also requires more complex modes and buttons and dials and I'm fine with it, as that's exactly why I paid for it. The "chicken" mode isn't some dumb time/power setting, as mine does the pre-heating, accepts additional watering, and adjusts the temperature curve so it's crisp at the end of the cycle.

Advocating for simple tools is fine IMHO, as long as we understand not everything needs to be overly simple.

PS: perhaps the part I'm missing is that while researching before buying my microwave/oven, I never saw a "dumb" machine that had useless buttons that could be exchanged for just a time/power setting. Each special modes usually have specific tweaks, and going through the manual it was made abundantly clear.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#54

Post by russdill »

Phlogistique wrote: post #29
russdill wrote: post #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 mi…

I have an actual oven where I can select "programs". As far as I can tell, they control three parameters: * Where the heat comes from (top, bottom, or both) * Whether or not ventilation is activated * The temperature There is also a dial for temperature, but not for the other two parameters. I am not sure whether every combination is covered by the "program" dial. I am not sure whether or not my understanding is even…

Settings like "Bake", "Roast", etc are quite frustrating. They do have meanings, but pretty much no user knows what they mean. A selector that lets the user choose which heating elements they want to use might be useful, but this seems like it might be a case where if the user doesn't know the difference between "Bake" and "Roast" they may also not be in a position to decide if they want heat from the bottom, top, or both anyway.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#55

Post by Gigachad »

black_puppydog wrote: post #24
minebreaker wrote: post #5

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.

Apple's hate for the concept of files has me up in arms ever since I realized this is why my parents are so confused anytime anything on their iPhone doesn't work.

They did bring a file manager to iOS a while back and it does work pretty well with all the apps.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#56

Post by aredox »

makeitdouble wrote: post #25

The author is advocating for simpler single-purpose products I guess. The microwave example just doesn't make sense when what you have isn't a single "just push the power button" machine, but a combined microwave/oven for instance. You'll want clear mode management, temperature management when defrosting meat, pre-heating and convection when cooking a whole chicken etc. Anecdotally, a lot of people don't really under…

>Anecdotally, a lot of people don't really understand/care about bicycle gears, and stick it to the heaviest and call it a day (on city bikes it's not that heavy, they can dance when it's tougher, and just get off and push the bike when it's really hard). We've seen the same cycle for cars, where people only caring about going from A to B will enjoy automatic transmissions better.

...Where do you live? This is completely foreign to most of Europe, where I havent seen anyone stuck to one gear (except hipsters on fixies, making a fashion statement), and almost everyone drive manual.

How can it be possible that "lot of people" where you live aren't able to do those very basic things? To the point of being unable to bike correctly (ever tried to start a bike in the highest gear)?

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#57

Post by robertlagrant »

cycomanic wrote: post #22
russdill wrote: post #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 mi…

You must be one of the few people who use the "program" buttons on a microwave then. I personally don't know anyone and all the people I talk to really just want a two wheel microwave. Even if I tried the programs they almost never worked accurately anyway. Admittedly newer inverter microwaves are the exception, the defrost mode actually does work (and is the one program I use on these microwaves).

I also don't use the program buttons often, although I occasionally go mad and try one. They never seem to work particularly well.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#58

Post by robertlagrant »

IshKebab wrote: post #47
aqueueaqueue wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but why wasn't that converted to human 1 based indexing at the machine code level or assembly in early machines? Maybe because they didn't want to "hide the bicycle gears"?

No, it's because it doesn't make any sense to do that. It would add a ton of complexity for no benefit.

It does make some sense: if I have some apples, and I ask a child to count them, they'll address each one starting with the number 1, not the number 0.

Re: The Nightmare Bicycle

#60

Post by atoav »

russdill wrote: post #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 mi…

I teach media technology and electronics at an Art University. The people I teach vary wildly in how interested they are in technology.

Yet one truth that emerged over the years is: The more people understand the underlying principles the easier it is for them to make the technology do what they want.

Good equipment empowers users to understand the underlying principles by using simple abstractions, bad technology tries to obscure underlying principle by using bad abstractions.

If the abstraction made mistakenly tries to simplify a thing more than is reasonably possible, it not only takes agency away from people new to that technology — it can also make it hard or impossible to for people who know the technology on an expert level.

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