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Everything's broken and nobody's upset

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411–418 of 418 posts

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I read it, you did seem to draw a line in the sand - that people should have stopped implementing new features a few years back. My point isn't an attempt at a gotcha - it's a comment that if this is how you really feel, then the only way that companies are going to take any notice is by putting your money where your mouth is and buying the more robust and optimised versions of those things that do the basics…

Don't get hung up on "years". I didn't mean that I wish all feature advance had stopped years ago, I meant that for several years now I have been thinking about perfecting one thing before moving on to the next. Every company is different, every product is different, every user is different. Attempting to speak in absolutes like you are simply doesn't work. As for your suggestion I forgoe a decade of advance in phone…

I spoke in absolutes because I was replying to the absolute of "I've been thinking for some years now, I wish everyone would stop implementing features and perfect the ones that are already there.".

If that's not what you meant, and instead you were trying to say "I've been thinking for some years now, that a little bit more time was spent on fixing existing features rather than always focusing on new features", then I'd probably agree. Although I would say that most companies are, in reality, already doing this and their doing it to the level that they believe the market is really prepared to pay for.

> A moderately buggy phone from 2012 is still a thousand times better than your puritan "calls and texts only" ideal phone.

Indeed it is - but that is far from the message you seemed to be saying in your first comment.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get hung up on "years". I didn't mean that I wish all feature advance had stopped years ago, I meant that for several years now I have been thinking about perfecting one thing before moving on to the next. Every company is different, every product is different, every user is different. Attempting to speak in absolutes like you are simply doesn't work. As for your suggestion I forgoe a decade of advance in phone…

I spoke in absolutes because I was replying to the absolute of "I've been thinking for some years now, I wish everyone would stop implementing features and perfect the ones that are already there.". If that's not what you meant, and instead you were trying to say "I've been thinking for some years now, that a little bit more time was spent on fixing existing features rather than always focusing on new features", then…

Your insistence on saying this goes one way or the other without being able to imagine a million shades of grey means this conversation is going nowhere.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spoke in absolutes because I was replying to the absolute of "I've been thinking for some years now, I wish everyone would stop implementing features and perfect the ones that are already there.". If that's not what you meant, and instead you were trying to say "I've been thinking for some years now, that a little bit more time was spent on fixing existing features rather than always focusing on new features", then…

Your insistence on saying this goes one way or the other without being able to imagine a million shades of grey means this conversation is going nowhere.

Hmm.

Despite me pointing out that I was simply replying to your black and white statement ("I wish everyone would stop implementing features and perfect the ones that are already there"), and pointing out that I would agree with a far more nuanced position, you're continuing to pretend that that I'm the one who was trying to make it black and white.

I'm guessing from this that you're not actually massively interested in having an adult discussion on the fact that despite continual complaints from consumers about too much complexity, not enough focus on quality etc, the actual purchasing behaviour of those same consumers is driving companies to focus far more on new features than on perfecting their existing ones.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "the energy-star hoax"? (Curious.)

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…

The goal was actually "Get a sticker on your product, for marketing reasons."

It's worse than that, companies save on Federal taxes by making these progressively worse appliances. Whirlpool is infamous for not just paying no taxes but getting "tax benefits" (credits they can carry forward) for 2008-10.

And my GE washer rations hot water quite fiercely. If there was enough commonality in the various model's firmware I'd sure like to join a group that reprograms them in a sane way.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#416
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 keepi…

My moves since I was a teenager were, by distance— 150mi, 10mi, 2mi, 3mi, 2mi, 400mi, 800mi, 2400mi. My nearest family member (other than my partner) lives 2500 miles away. Perhaps when you're a bit older you'll know that such condescension usually just makes you look silly? :P

Facebook is not endowed with some unique magical distance busting power. Telephone, Email, IM, public websites, and postal mail all work over long distances just as well.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#417
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Right— it was a gonzo commentary on the kind of justify-anything fallacious reasoning that comes imposing a mix of arbitrary constraints.

"My helo-elephant is the _only_ peanut powered mode of transportation with automatic mouse avoidance!" True, perhaps, but when someone asks why you need a helo-elephant it's often not informative to just say what it does with more words... they're often looking for you to justify why you need to do those things (or do those things at once).

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#418
post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 keepi…

My moves since I was a teenager were, by distance— 150mi, 10mi, 2mi, 3mi, 2mi, 400mi, 800mi, 2400mi. My nearest family member (other than my partner) lives 2500 miles away. Perhaps when you're a bit older you'll know that such condescension usually just makes you look silly? :P Facebook is not endowed with some unique magical distance busting power. Telephone, Email, IM, public websites, and postal mail all work over…

Facebook is not endowed with some unique magical distance busting power. Telephone, Email, IM, public websites, and postal mail all work over long distances just as well.

No, what Facebook does have is broadcasting capabilities. Rather than going through 13 tedious phone calls, I can post one status update. Unlike email, I don't have to specifically include or exclude various relations from the list of people I'm writing to. It contains its own IM service (though my fiancee and I use Skype together). It's far faster than postal mail (like everything else electronic). It costs far less than a personal website with forum software running.

It's a local optimum. Not supremely perfect, not magical, but good at what it does.

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