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Old man yells at cloud

jonandnic.com

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Re: Old man yells at cloud

#171

Post by brigade »

quanticle wrote: post #147
habitue wrote: post #21

These are all examples of tradeoffs that have been made, and just collecting examples of the downsides of those tradeoffs without mentioning the upsides. Touchscreens are objectively worse than dedicated buttons, but the ability to have more than 4-5 buttons is a huge benefit. additionally, the UI can be less confusing because the button text can change depending on what you're doing, vsm a single physical d-pad and…

but the ability to have more than 4-5 buttons is a huge benefit It is? For whom? A few years ago, I upgraded from a 2007 Hyundai Elantra to a 2019 Subaru Legacy. The new car is better in many ways (most notably, having all wheel drive) but the HVAC situation is an absolute regression. In the old Elantra, I have physical knobs. No, not physical buttons that send digital inputs, actual physical mechanical knobs connect…

> actual physical mechanical knobs connected directly to the HVAC mechanisms

I'll admit to not living in Phoenix or the like, and it did take me time to trust climate control after only having simple A/C, but I doubt I'm alone in preferring to only adjust target temperature and letting the car automatically control fan speed and vents. Dunno if Subaru is especially bad at that, but in any situation where the interior is hot enough that you're trying to get "max A/C", I know leaving it at my normal auto 72° will cause VW and Mercedes to choose max A/C and blow out of the top vents.

But yeah, designs that completely hide the still-occasionally-used buttons like defrost tend to suck. It sucked in the 2004 Prius, and still generally sucks now. If designers want more console space or minimalism, get rid of big gear shifters instead IMO.

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#172

Post by throwaway14356 »

I just spend an hour (that I will never get back) trying to find the right app and establish a bluetooth connection between my washing machine and my iphone. I don't actually see the point of it but given the claim of capability it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. What seemed to be the correct app wanted to connect to a TV, there was some kind of copy cat app, not sure what to call it, it had the same name and talked of making the home smart. The 3rd app, after getting a flash light and scannining the bar code hidden behind the door, making an account twice and validating my email twice didn't want to connect at first since I didn't know I had to keep the washer switched off until the phone (if we can call it that) was actively searching for a washing machine. It didn't have permission from the washer to do anything and pressing the button that should have made it so did nothing. I looked in the settings and it dropped the connection silently. After restarting the app the washer was grayed out. Clicking on it did nothing. I just added a second washer with the same barcode and it connected again. It was marked as connected in the phone settings but the granting permission button still did nothing.

The thing comes with countless programs but one should (so it is claimed) be able to download even more. I will certainly never use it but wanted to, you know, experience the experience. So now I have. It was everything I expected it to be and more. The exercise in stubbornness was truly in a league of its own well beyond my capabilities. Was I outsmarted? You tell me.

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#173

Post by winrid »

pastaguy1 wrote: post #60
kashkhan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

peak toyota/lexus was around 2006. After that all downhill.

I have an 08 corolla that seems indestructible. I sorta want to replace it, because I don't really like driving my children around in it, but new cars seem incredibly complex. I'm just trying to drive here, man.

That generation of corolla is pretty much indestructible.

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#174

Post by atmavatar »

agumonkey wrote: post #94
zug_zug wrote: post #73

Re: videogames - no. I had about 9 video-games for my NES. The majority were unplayable enough that I never beat them as a child (Zelda 2, Double-dragon 2, mario 1, mario 3, gauntlet). Zelda 2 would routinely delete all of my progress because there was a physical battery in the cartridge that was running out. I had to work all kinds of magic to get the system to even start (alcohol wipes, blowing, cramming stuff in t…

They weren't unplayable, they were hard. As a kid we routinely used to go far in the game with fun, as an adult I was shocked at how difficult they were and couldn't finish anything but we used to. Also some games had nice enough multiplayer modes that we spent all night on these with my cousin (bubble bobble, rc pro am). I wouldn't compare the 8bit era with the post ps3 era

> They weren't unplayable, they were hard.

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A Select Start was a life saver

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#175

Post by nunez »

Apocryphon wrote: post #9
mberning wrote: post #4

Man vehicles are a big one. All of the infotainment crap, the 200 control computers, electronic wastegate turbos, etc. etc. are going to age so poorly. There is a reason why cars with mininal BS are fetching such a premium on the used market.

So just how does one escape from a car through the window if the electrical mechanism is broken?

teslas front doors have a mechanical latch that opens the doors. the rear doors are out of luck :(

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#176

Post by grishka »

jonas21 wrote: post #32

If you showed someone from 30 years ago a modern video game, a Tesla, or even TikTok, it would absolutely blow their mind. So the author comes up with some nitpicks and declares "technology has gotten objectively worse". I guess the title checks out.

Modern technology is nice when it works. Except it doesn't always work.

Did old technology work flawlessly? No, it didn't. Memory protection in operating systems is relatively new and older computers came with dedicated reset buttons for a reason. But there was a point when it was balanced. Software was stable enough, built mostly by people who actually knew what they were doing, used the hardware more or less to the full extent, and was actually empowering users by being a useful tool, not doing everything to get some product manager a promotion.

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#177

Post by MikusR »

throw8383833jj wrote: post #56

It's so true: * I can't even install Netflix on my Iphone 7+ anymore (the phone practically brand new, it is less than 6 six years old!) * Screens in cars replacing usable buttons, are a disaster. give me buttons and knobs. * the TV takes 15 seconds to start up??? and takes 10+ seconds to select a youtube video to watch. back when I was a kid, tvs turned on right away and you could change the channel in less than a s…

You had youtube in your tv when you were a kid?

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#178

Post by somenameforme »

AJRF wrote: post #39

I tried playing Civ 6 the other day with my friend, here's what happened; - Game crashed on startup - after searching online for a bit apparently changing your Steam Download Region can fix it. As in not redownloading the game from another region, just changing the setting. This worked. - Start game, started in Windowed mode and changing resolution caused the mouse to move super slowly. Restart game. Fixed. - Try to…

I think there's a much simpler/happier issue in play - MBAs. Games from big studios are increasingly being directed and driven by people who have zero interest in games and just view it as a means to revenue. So games are being rushed out the door prematurely in an unimaginably buggy state, development rushed such that repairing the mess created (after launch of course) is an endless series of half-working duct tape and shoe strings, designed to coerce endless DLC purchases, and more.

And this is happening at the same time that game development tools have become richer than ever, asset stores have enough assets to feel effectively infinite, you can self publish to a market of hundreds of millions, and even if you do need/want funding there are options: crowd funding, Epic Mega Grants, etc. So for a skilled developer it's never been easier (or a better time) to go independent.

This is driving an endless brain drain of bigger game companies making the problems even worse, while at the same time small companies are starting to produce some amazing games. To give a relevant example here, a couple of guys left Ubisoft. They formed Amplitude Studios, and they then created Endless Legend [1], which I would highly recommend as an alternative to Civilization.

But the story doesn't end there. Because Endless Legend / Amplitude were so successful, they were bought by Sega. And Sega knew exactly what could make their games even better. Oh yeah, MBAs baby! So now Amplitude has turned into just another "big" studio, and their latest product Humankind, ostensibly in the exact same vein as Endless Legend/Civilization, is a mess. Now we just need a couple of Amplitude employees to leave and form Next Good Game Company Studios. Ah, the cycle of life!

[1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/289130/ENDLESS_Legend/

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#179

Post by renonce »

lumb63 wrote: post #160
wilsynet wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people responsible for Civ 6 are advertising multiplayer online play in an effort to take your money, while investing the least amount of money to say they delivered the feature. They are just milking the Civ franchise for all they can. Compare this to Amazon AWS, YouTube, the iPhone, Microsoft Excel. These products make a ton of money and the companies that own them invest heavily.

With the exception of AWS, do you believe that any of the examples you cited are not “just milking the franchise for all they can”? When was the last time YouTube, the iPhone, or Microsoft Excel added a meaningful (i.e. users wanted it) feature?

AWS is the worst offender. They don’t allow you to set hard limits on billing, claiming that is for your own good, while the fact is they are putting all your data on hostage so they could force sell you things at ridiculously high traffic price at the next unexpected traffic surge. Traffic price into AWS is free but traffic out is extremely expensive, preventing you from getting data out of it.

Re: Old man yells at cloud

#180

Post by enraged_camel »

somenameforme wrote: post #178
AJRF wrote: post #39

I tried playing Civ 6 the other day with my friend, here's what happened; - Game crashed on startup - after searching online for a bit apparently changing your Steam Download Region can fix it. As in not redownloading the game from another region, just changing the setting. This worked. - Start game, started in Windowed mode and changing resolution caused the mouse to move super slowly. Restart game. Fixed. - Try to…

I think there's a much simpler/happier issue in play - MBAs. Games from big studios are increasingly being directed and driven by people who have zero interest in games and just view it as a means to revenue. So games are being rushed out the door prematurely in an unimaginably buggy state, development rushed such that repairing the mess created (after launch of course) is an endless series of half-working duct tape…

I like Endless Legend but it has nowhere the depth of Civ games.
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