391–400 of 499 posts
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There would be alternative market for ads free for sure or open source alternatives where you could connect with your own selected LLMs.
And major brands would force you to pay a fee to disable advertising.
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I’d say if you’re a professional chef, that’s a little more understandable — it’s your livelihood. But this discussion is more around what average people are looking for (e.g. smart vs. dumb appliances), and not so much about commercial appliances that most people aren’t the target consumer for. Re: impressing people and the lack of labels, just looking at images of SZ refrigerators, these are clearly distinguishable…
Multiple from two different homes, the sub zeros were the age of the house and still going strong. I avoid LG/Samsung because of the countless articles here an other places were people complain about the quality of appliances, but yet the mass majority of [different] people still buy these crappy appliances with touch screens and glossy finishes. My point is that these appliances do exist, no feature, long lasting, e…
I definitely agree, but I also believe this applies to some products more than others, and I think there are also diminishing returns as you pay more.
For example, I can say I’ve probably owned 3 refrigerators over the past 20 years (two different homes), and probably paid less than $5000 total. The refrigerator in the last home is probably still going strong, and the one in this home will probably last another 5-10 years at least, and definitely longer than we’ll be in this home.
I think we may have had one repair call at the last home, and none yet on this one (though I’ll admit that the ice maker is currently out, and I’ve not taken the time to diagnose it, and may or may not need a repair call).
Would I pay 2x if I knew I was guaranteed not needing a repair call. Maybe, but not definitely. Would I pay 10x though? Definitely not (unless I was gaining other benefits).
But I also believe I did decent research before purchasing all of these, and that probably played more of a role vs. how much I paid.
But again, will agree that a lot of times you do get what you pay for. I’ve been bitten before by trying to save money.
I just also believe that people with money can tend to overpay for things with diminishing returns, and there’s a balance that can be struck between quality and cost. And I’ve also been bitten by overpaying for something that wasn’t worth the premiums cost in the end (e.g. upper end computer parts can definitely have diminishing returns).
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> Being able to do it is not the same as actually doing it. You could have smart devices similarly only react or go to active mode when you press a button on your watch etc. > The rest of your argument, sorry but I can not respond without feeling angry. It just feels like the rationalizations of a selfish, too-clever-by-half neomaniac. Okay, I agree that your words can describe me well, but what do you think the end…
Why did you go from one extreme (all new things are super exciting and should be desirable by anyone) to another (we are here to reproduce over and over again with no change) like this is a binary option? "Tech" is a means, not an end. What problems are we solving with this tech, and what problems are we creating with the introduction of new technology? These are the only questions that I have when talking about tech…
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> Being able to do it is not the same as actually doing it. You could have smart devices similarly only react or go to active mode when you press a button on your watch etc. > The rest of your argument, sorry but I can not respond without feeling angry. It just feels like the rationalizations of a selfish, too-clever-by-half neomaniac. Okay, I agree that your words can describe me well, but what do you think the end…
Not OP but, regardless of why we exist here, change is not always good. Change simply means that something becomes something else. It isn't inherently good. For example, now I walk with both legs, but if a car hits me, I might stay on a wheelchair for some time, which is change, but not a welcome one. Before you say "this is a strawman argument", think about technologies like "cloud seeding", which are supposed to en…
What do you think the goal is?
I just think that at some point we will find out anyway and why not quicker then? Why let 5 or 10 more generations of humans go on if at some point we might reach an answer or an endpoint of some sort.
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No but the impact (in terms of risk assessment) of a car crash is much worse than the impact of "hey, I forgot to completely close the fridge door"
There's a similar differencen in impact between picking up a second shirt in the morning and $100+ of food spoiling, but that didn't seem to bother you.
And you're ignoring the first example about falling from your bed which, if things go wrong, can cause bone fractures which, especially in the US, could cost a lot more than $100.
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> Yes but while you can install Linux on your own, or even build your own computer if you're interested, you don't get to build a fridge or its operating system, and you most likely don't even have a valid way to see how it's configured (you may be able to hack it somehow, but it would probably void any warranty). You could install open sourced things to that fridge. E.g. the fridge could either come with sensors imm…
>These basic things like light and other base features you make sure can work even if smart software fails. Even ignoring the potential privacy concerns, you're assuming too much in terms of reliability. When an AWS region went down a couple of years ago, a lot of smart fridges and lights didn't work properly ( https://financialpost.com/technology/personal-tech/pitfalls-... ).
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There would be alternative market for ads free for sure or open source alternatives where you could connect with your own selected LLMs.
Like how there's an alternative market for dumb tvs, except they're more expensive and have worse screens?
One of the happier things I’ve done for myself lately, at the advice of this forum, was to get a rock-solid, dumb, black-and-white Brother laser printer. It sits there and just does its job and I never have to think about it. Does anyone have any tips as to the white-goods equivalents? Fridge, freezer, laundry machines, that kind of thing?
When we upgraded our appliances, the "smart" or "wifi-enabled" ones were specifically avoided like the plague. "Dumb" appliances - especially fridges, for some reason - are becoming hard to come by, but they do exist. Electrolux, KitchenAid, even LG all make some no-frills models that can save both money and frustration. Hopefully those companies continue serving the "luddite techie" market.
Its only after I bought it (and the free trial expired) that I discovered that an additional subscription is required to use the integrated "cooking recipe" service that guides you through cooking various dishes - insanely cheeky given how much it cost!
To top it off, I'm constantly nagged to connect the thing to WiFi so it can update god-knows-what. Never. Again.
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Yes, I agree. I'm not a luddite per se - heck, I make a living out of making stuff talk to one another on a network. But I don't get the appeal, from a customer standpoint, of having all physical objects talk to you or to the Internet. Like, why? I get it when it comes to alarm systems. Being able to get a notification when someone breaks in is nice, because the alarm system is mostly doing its job when you're not at…
Even appliances that aren't internet connected are going down this terrible UX path. My old washing machine had nobs (dials) you turn. You put the clothes and soap in, close the door and press the button. My preference of type of wash and water temperature were all "saved" by the nob position. My current washing machine, nob is type of wash, capacitive touch buttons for everything else. Keeping the nob "on" keeps the…