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We need physical audio kill switches

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Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#381

Post by hvidgaard »

beenBoutIT wrote: post #379
onion-soup wrote: post #11

Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.

The advent of touchscreen technology and its subsequent ubiquitous adoption replacing physical controls of all kinds across devices of all kinds is easily the single most ruinous thing to happen to UI in the modern history of design.

For many people, the convenience of touch controls outweigh the negatives. They're easier to clean and they can look nicer. Not that it's always a good idea to use them though.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#382

Post by hvidgaard »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #363
mindslight wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea these days, but it's clearly something that takes 100ms+ to process an input event (java? html? flash? all of the above?). Responsive encoders/buttons/displays were doable 15 years ago with 5 MIPS microcontrollers in C. Driving an HD44780 character LCD is easier than a full raster display, which explains the appeal of the bloat, but quick sprites etc should be completely doable after two decades of pro…

I have two thoughts. One is an overloaded CAN Bus. Some process is polling the switch every 100ms. The second is the process itself isn't allowed to run very often because it's sharing CPU time with a bunch of critical stuff.

Either way, a car ought to have two separate systems. One for critical functionality, and one for controlling the radio, climate controls, windows and the like.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#383

Post by whiskers »

seventhtiger wrote: post #370
pessimizer wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I've been able to learn that devices are off since the early 2000s is that the blindingly bright blue LED light is replaced by a blindingly bright red LED light.

I really hate those. When your house is dark and it's calm and all you see are little eyes of Sauron floating in the darkness. I've gone around my house with masking tape and covered every unnecessary visible light. Google Wifi is one of the worst offenders. They might as well market it as a wifi-repeating lamp.

You can adjust the brightness of the light ring from the Google Wifi app (all the way down to "off"!).

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#384

Post by rob74 »

skohan wrote: post #126

I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?

That's one of the reasons why I love my good old Bose QC 15 headphones: they have a physical switch that turns off the noise cancelling and also acts as a reliable no-delay audio kill switch. Some people would complain that you can't turn off the NC and keep listening to music, but I think the switch is actually more useful this way...

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#385

Post by uxcolumbo »

m463 wrote: post #360
slacka wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may be true, but /u/Judgmentality just described to a T the one self-described audiophile that I am friends with.

You know, one thing I learned from getting interested in stereo equipment was the concept of overengineering. I always thought... how can there be such a thing? maybe you let the non-recurring costs get a little high, but don't you end up with a better product in the end? Turns out overengineering is a thing. I had a friend who was a real sound engineer. You just need a good (not overpriced) set of earbuds.

In-ear headphones or over-head ones?

Any recommendation?

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#386

Post by WalterBright »

puranjay wrote: post #373
WalterBright wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did Steve Jobs really do that? Famously, using a trash can instead of "DELETE". A Mac evangelist came to my workplace shortly after the Mac was released. His entire presentation was about how icons were far better than words. He asserted the function of the icons was obvious, and so needed no explanation. He passed around a sheet of paper with a bunch of icons on it, and said isn't that right? This all fell apart w…

Words are better than icons - as long as you speak the language.

You don't need to speak the language. Learning O-I-L is not any harder than learning that squiggle is an ancient biblical oil lamp. It's easier, in fact, because everyone has an English=>YourLanguage translator in their pocket, and who has an icon decoder?

Is it really that hard to figure out what STOP on the international stop sign means?

I know from experience traveling in foreign countries. Even in Japan.

For another example, how long did it take you to figure out that that "hamburger" icon was really MENU?

I'm using Chrome Browser. To the right of the address bar there's a star icon. Sorry, I have no idea what that means and have to hover over it - "Bookmark this tab". I have no idea why anyone would associate a star with bookmark. I have no idea how anyone would look up a star icon on google. But I know how to look up "bookmark".

When I open up my Twitter page, there are 5 icons under my picture:

1. two triangles and a dot

2. GIF

3. three cantilevered beams

4. a happy face

5. a car battery with a clock attached

Sorry, I don't know what any of these do. Hovering over them provides no information. (Maybe GIF means add picture, but my pictures are JPGs, not GIFs. What does a happy face do? Inject me with heroin?) I can click on them and find out - but really, what kind of argument is that for "icons are better!"? It isn't any better than randomly turning controls hoping to turn the damned defroster on so I can see, and hoping I don't hit the ejector seat button.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#387

Post by jononor »

onion-soup wrote: post #11

Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.

Products are unfortunately designed to sell, not to be used.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#388

Post by cthalupa »

qppo wrote: post #63
formerly_proven wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a problem mostly caused by using passive log-taper circuits, instead of alternate active volume control circuits that use linear-taper pots, which have sufficiently good tolerance and ganging in low-cost dual units. But these circuits require 1-2 op amps per channel and those 20 cents are too much in three-figure hardware. Ganged log-taper pots have something like +-3 or +-6 dB ganging mismatch even for relati…

I've seen/heard this in $100 units from Schiit. Not to mention the poor hand soldering job that cost more money because a human did it in America.

Send 'em an email.

Their $100 units are some of the best testing amps/dacs in the price range, so even from a purely subjectivist standpoint they make stuff that generally works pretty well. If you're encountering issues, then they will usually make good on it.

The stereo imbalance is just something you're gonna see at basically every amp at that price point.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#389

Post by dandare »

After glancing over the title I first thought the topic is physical microphone kill switches. That being said

We need physical microphone kill switches.

Even if you are super careful about getting your laptop infected or hacked, you have probably tons of legit software installed on your laptop that can be hacked, or spy on you for purpose, there are OS and vendor backdoors, zero days, and many of us use laptops managed by our corporate overlords.

I wish that microphones (and cameras) in your private space that are connected to a network and a battery would be taken more seriously.

Re: We need physical audio kill switches

#390

Post by afiori »

sib wrote: post #234
dheera wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an induction stove and it is even more pleasurable than gas in terms of the speed of response of the pot. Response is literally instant because the pot is the source of heat, and not something external. They are also by far the safest since the hottest thing in the entire system is the bottom of the pot, which is usually at about 100-200 C depending on what you're cooking, which is usually not hot enough to sta…

I hate induction stoves (cooktops) because they seem to hit intermediate temperatures by cycling the power on and off rather than having a continuous intermediate setting. (It's possible I've only ever encountered crappy induction cooktops...)

I have no idea if this poses some safety risks, but it worked when I was a student with a cheap induction stove. You can simply put a pair of kitchen clots under your pan to "dampen" the induction and use higher levels that do not cycle between on and off.

Again, I don't know the safety characteristics of induction so maybe I did something really stupid...

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