Everything's broken and nobody's upset • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#281

Post by eclipxe » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

yesbabyyes wrote: post #82

batista wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every computer environment is layer upon layer of kludges. There is shit all the way down. You missed the AMAZING INGENUITY and BRILLIANCE that is also all the way down.

batista, I often find myself nodding in agreement when reading your posts on HN -- especially when you take a contrarian position. I do agree with you in this, also -- the hardware and software combination of a single PC or smartphone is, I guess, among the most complex systems humanity has built, and in such a short time frame. While my post was mostly me venting (bad Monday, frustration with people/clients/spouse/s…

Check google play - there are apps that will handle the ICS files for you

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#282

Post by darkstalker » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 5:44 PM UTC

There is a common pattern in all the stuff mentioned there: closed source proprietary software. The companies who wrote them are the ones to blame. You can report bugs/problems, then sit there and wait, but as said in the article, they don't care and nothing will happen. You're already trapped in the closed ecosystem, your data in some proprietary format, and (un)happily living inside the walled garden. If everything is broken, is because you chosen broken software.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#283

Post by thebigshane » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

julien_c wrote: post #213

drivingmenuts wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No dishwasher here, either. It takes 10 minutes, start to finish, to wash and put the dishes in the rack, if I've neglected to do them for a day or two. 15 total if I towel dry them. Yeah, the dishwasher would be more convenient, maybe, but doing it by hand is just plain faster and I don't have to multitask. Probably cheaper, too.

Using a dishwasher actually saves water.

I have a feeling this is the case as well. Can you cite any references?

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#284

Post by redthrowaway » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

thebigshane wrote: post #200

ganley wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. Like the grandparent commenter, I don't use any technology that frustrates or annoys me, which means that I don't use a whole lot of technology. The Kindle, however, has been great and fairly frustration-free - definitely a net positive. Related aside: The world seems to be making it more and more difficult not to have a smart phone (or, almost equivalently, to have a dumb phone). This sucks.

Has the Kindle become the new Kleenex and Google? Are the alternatives so insignificant that they aren't worth mentioning? I'm not talking about the Nook, I'm talking about a $50 Alturek e-reader that you can read text files and PDFs on. I think it's fantastic (but small).

.txt and .pdf are the absolute wrong formats for e-books. .pdf formatting is usually broken for eReaders, and .txt has no formatting whatsoever. Also, you'll really only ever get those formats if you're pirating, which usually entails transcription errors.

I used to pirate all my books, but it got to the point where I realized paying $6 for the pleasure of a properly-formatted, error-free book was a better deal than pirating and ripping them.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#285

Post by eli_gottlieb » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:02 PM UTC

nullc wrote: post #163

jmduke wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things in particular I'll attack here: > - No Kindle You're definitely not alone in this -- a lot of my friends still prefer hard copies over eBooks -- but as someone used to literally lugging three-four textbooks to class, plus periodicals, plus personal reading, there's a clear and definitive value add from the Kindle. (That being said, just because you don't have a Kindle doesn't mean you don't, say, read eBoo…

> There's no other site where I can talk and keep up with my grandparents, my college roommate, and my girlfriend simultaneously. 'Necrophiliac bestiality, of course! How else am I to screw my food while I eat it?' If these people mean something to you, then you should be able to find the time to have adequate direct person to person communication with them instead of broadcasting to them and your closest 600 best bu…

If these people mean something to you, then you should be able to find the time to have adequate direct person to person communication with them instead of broadcasting to them and your closest 600 best buds. If they don't— then why care?

How many times in your life have you moved house to somewhere far away? What you wrote here makes it sound like it probably wasn't very much.

My whole family uses Facebook for keeping up with people we don't live near anymore. I use it for keeping up with college friends whom I don't live near anymore (moving across the state will do that, let alone moving halfway across the world).

You might ask, why am I keeping up with college friends? The answer is: because I'm 23, so they're still a large fraction of all the friends I have.

As I recall, there was a rather frightening New York Times article once posted to HN on how even decades after college, most people still haven't made that many new friends to replace their friends from adolescence.

Scary stuff, hence: Facebook.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#286

Post by eli_gottlieb » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:03 PM UTC

jmduke wrote: post #92

edw519 wrote: post #73

My sentiments exactly. I got so tired of being upset with the horrendous human design in modern technology that I took action. What I've done: - Buy 2 $350 laptops every year. Move all data. Give away old ones. - All contacts in one .txt document. - Memorize most frequently used contacts. - No smart phone. - No tablet. - No Kindle. - No palm pilot. - No Facebook. - New car ('12 Hyandai) with minimal technology. - Was…

Two things in particular I'll attack here: > - No Kindle You're definitely not alone in this -- a lot of my friends still prefer hard copies over eBooks -- but as someone used to literally lugging three-four textbooks to class, plus periodicals, plus personal reading, there's a clear and definitive value add from the Kindle. (That being said, just because you don't have a Kindle doesn't mean you don't, say, read eBoo…

You're definitely not alone in this -- a lot of my friends still prefer hard copies over eBooks -- but as someone used to literally lugging three-four textbooks to class, plus periodicals, plus personal reading, there's a clear and definitive value add from the Kindle. (That being said, just because you don't have a Kindle doesn't mean you don't, say, read eBooks on your laptop.)

As someone used to moving around a lot, I carry around much of my book collection and a selection of important research papers on my Kindle. It's damned useful to lug one Kindle instead of 20 kg of physical paper.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#287

Post by bicknergseng » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:03 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #73

My sentiments exactly. I got so tired of being upset with the horrendous human design in modern technology that I took action. What I've done: - Buy 2 $350 laptops every year. Move all data. Give away old ones. - All contacts in one .txt document. - Memorize most frequently used contacts. - No smart phone. - No tablet. - No Kindle. - No palm pilot. - No Facebook. - New car ('12 Hyandai) with minimal technology. - Was…

I can understand the frustration when things aren't intuitive (to you), but at what point does your attitude become counterproductive? The obvious points being the dishwasher, laptops, and smartphones (there are many kinds of dishwashers without 48 buttons [I've never seen one that has 48 buttons], what could possibly be the reason for buying new laptops every year, my grandma has managed to use her iPhone for pictures and contact management quite efficiently, even if there are small bugs). It seems to me you've adopted a "I don't understand this particular item, so I'm against using anything of the type." At what point do you become a luddite?

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#288

Post by Too » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:04 PM UTC

thebigshane wrote: post #283

julien_c wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a dishwasher actually saves water.

I have a feeling this is the case as well. Can you cite any references?

Last spec i saw of a dishwasher was 10 liters / wash. But i think that's pretty low because they were bragging with it.

Estimate how much you need by hand. Filling up the sink, 5-10L? And then rinsing it all afterwards, another 5 at least. Keep in mind that a dishwasher does about 4 meals while you usually do one at a time when you do by hand.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#289

Post by JoeAltmaier » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:12 PM UTC

luser001 wrote: post #279

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To qualify for 'Energy Star' in the US, you have to use 10% less energy/resources (water) as last year. No standard; no other goal. Result: clothes washers that don't wash (my washer at least has a button to override Energy Star, obliquely named Extra Rinse or Heavy Duty), dishwashers that don't get dishes clean; water heaters that deliver luke-warm water. The goal cannot have been "Use less energy, even if it means…

What clothes washer are you talking about? Do you have a top-load washer? Those are notorious water wasters that probably can't wash well without huge amounts of water. As a counter point, I have a front-load 2011 Samsung washer and dryer. I even got some money from the Big Evil Government water district for the washer and IIRC from the Big Evil Power Company for the dryer. I am 200% satisfied with the wash and dryin…

Ok, I won't spend effort trying to convince you. Good luck with that washer; not sure if it was Energy Star since you didn't mention it (1 of 3 2011 Samsung frontloaders was EnergyStar).

The guy at the applicance store was completely sympathetic; he hears it all the time. The washers are a widespread disappointment.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#290

Post by waterlesscloud » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

hfsktr wrote: post #245

thebigshane wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Necrophiliac bestiality Umm, what? It appears to be a quote from... a movie or something but I am not at all prepared to google it.

I googled directly what he said and necrophilia(c) bestiality (google corrected the necro part). I didn't really find anything relevant on the first page. There was one site with jokes but I didn't read into it since only a word from each sentence got picked up. Hope he comes back because I want to know what he is talking about too.

Basically he's saying "ur doing it wrong". You're doing something weird because you're combining things it doesn't make sense to combine.

Not my personal opinion, just a translation of what I think he's saying.

As an aside, there's the famous line from Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lilly? : "I'd call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse."