Tech you miss/ new tech trends you hate - ok boomers

[Phalanges Mycologist]

People buying smart home things with no context for security, privacy, or network stability. Everyone is so used to plug n play that they don't consider security or redundancy measures until something goes wrong. I offer networking services locally and I don't know how many homes and businesses I've gone into where I've had to fix messes that wouldn't happen if they thought about keeping their home network safe and all of their devices not having one singular point of failure.

A good friend of mine has 40 individual "smart" devices in and around his home, and after he did something to his router I had to reset everything from scratch. That took two hours because he's just added on continually and never saved his passwords anywhere for each device's portal so I had to reset them as well. I feel like anyone selling smart home things should be responsible enough to recommend a place where they can learn to set everything up securely (like I did when I used to sell them).

As far as privacy, I want to set up my own open source smart home network with internet connectivity only when required. I used to have three Alexa Echo Dots some years ago and then I did some reading... Decided I didn't want that shit in my house and I'd just design my own voice assistants with transparent software and hardware.

Tech consumers are retarded.

I've got visually impared family and having something Like Alexa has been a god send for them, when I was getting them up I gave them a private wireless network for them and locked them down as best I can but some people just buy them plug them in and let them rip, I am worried about whats going to happen when Amazon, Google, Apple etc finally get's popped and people use it to spread a botnet or something and the backlash thats going to happen for a while.

Interestingly I know that there is a bug in some Samsung Smart TV's that lets you control the Mic and Camera using a default usename and password that every samsung service enginner knows and there is no way to change them they are viewing as a low risk as you have to be on the same network for it to work according to them.

the worst tech trend currently is faggots and women starting to take up more roles as programmers and whatnot, quality of software has noticeably dropped

The sad part is, these hiring trends will continue even long after some major power or region of the world begins to outcompete the West in terms of technological innovation. The West will continue to double down on hiring underqualified devs on the basis of skin color or pronouns until the money dries up and investors begin to divert their money into foreign markets. The US hasn’t gotten to that point yet, but it could get to a much worse place in less than a decade given our current trajectory.

On the plus side though, from what I can gather about the nature of the software development industry, it’s not a monolith. Aggressive identity politics shitting up the Silicon Valley pool has caused the (debatably) more sane developers to branch out to other cities and not have to be beholden to the hiring practices enforced by California state law.

This ideology has started filtering into the trades, not the small shops or the really serious stuff but anything related to Consumer products has become a victim for diversity hires over skill you likely wont see this in small shops where your expected to be multi skilled and the women who end up in those places tend to be amazingly skilled and wont put up with shit or cry discrimination when they are not promoted to department or team lead in under 6 months.

There is a wider problem here though, and that's the fact the west has divested it's self of it's manufacturing and took up resedance in it's enemy's pockets, and we've let standards slide and not just with the associated products and with what we expect from them, but in education and areas like art, science and culture etc.

I think this is whats lead to a lot of the social problems we are having today because people don't feel invested in society or it's progression, it used to be that you'd turn the lights on and know that I made the bearings the turbine generating that electricity runs on, I work in the plant that made the paint my neighbour is using to decorate his living room, I work for the city keeping the streets clean it's because of me people are not waiding through mud and stepping in shit, etc, etc, etc.

People used to take pride in themselfs, there culture and society because they felt they where responsible for a little bit of it, now they dont have that so they are starting to seek out what little things they do feel they can have pride in, even if they are highly abstract concepts and devote more and more of there free time obsessing about it.

 

[ShortBusDriver]

 

[AmpleApricots]

The modern trend toward unreplaceable batteries: annoying for phones and laptops, horrifying for medical devices.
View attachment 3157918
fig 1. a short-sighted reviewer celebrating his own doom

The joke is also that micro-USB ports are terrible, especially if surface mounted. I made myself quite popular in my circle of peers just by being able to replace broken off micro USB ports.

Devices made to medical standards are often seen as something else entirely engineering wise but it usually it is reduced to not having the remote chance (in a reasonable margin) to kill somebody outright by malfunctioning. (Which is also a quite reasonable requirement for something like a Dishwasher, or a smartphone really) That is sometimes a surprisingly low bar to pass if you're not told to shave a 1/2 cent part off your design.

But yes, how long intentionally or unintentionally such a device is actually meant to last, nothing about that. There's an interesting and quite horrifying article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

tl;dr artifical eyesight stopped being supported by the company that made it. Enjoy being blind again and potentially stranded with an Implant in your skull that won't be maintained. Keeping technology like this proprietary is criminal.

 

[Aunt Carol]

tl;dr artifical eyesight stopped being supported by the company that made it. Enjoy being blind again and potentially stranded with an Implant in your skull that won't be maintained. Keeping technology like this proprietary is criminal.

There is a dude out there who's designed his own insulin pump (using a smartphone for the controller) and made the plans available for free: https://theotherpancreas.org/

I said it in the A+H thread: blind people are at a big disadvantage if they have to jury-rig their own tech. It's like the handful of people still dependent on iron lungs: you need someone else who's willing and able to fix it.

"No-longer-supported implants" is such a scary concept. Maybe as tech evolves, consumers will demand a guarantee of perpetual tech support, separately funded, like how you put money into a trust fund for your grave's upkeep when you buy it (in the US).

Or it'll just continue to be a literal cyberpunk hellscape, which is probably more likely.

 

[Boom Boss]

The modern trend toward unreplaceable batteries: annoying for phones and laptops, horrifying for medical devices.
View attachment 3157918
fig 1. a short-sighted reviewer celebrating his own doom

I heard the EU is trying to pass a law, forcing electronics to have replaceable batteries.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

There is a dude out there who's designed his own insulin pump (using a smartphone for the controller) and made the plans available for free: https://theotherpancreas.org/

I said it in the A+H thread: blind people are at a big disadvantage if they have to jury-rig their own tech. It's like the handful of people still dependent on iron lungs: you need someone else who's willing and able to fix it.

"No-longer-supported implants" is such a scary concept. Maybe as tech evolves, consumers will demand a guarantee of perpetual tech support, separately funded, like how you put money into a trust fund for your grave's upkeep when you buy it (in the US).

Or it'll just continue to be a literal cyberpunk hellscape, which is probably more likely.

There is a few things like this I've been watching one of them is Open Pharmacology, where they tell you how to make expsensive perscription drugs under gheto conditions, but it's really risky to do so, this isn't like a 3D printed leg or hand this is chemical compunds that can fuck you up if you get them a tiny bit wrong, although they are trying to minimise that and have some vetting process before giving you the step by step.

I heard the EU is trying to pass a law, forcing electronics to have replaceable batteries.

Replaceable isnt the same as user replaceable, a Electric Car battery is theoretically replaceable but it requires a certain level of skill and knowledge to replace it, it should be specified that it should be end user replaceable with no special tools for it to be effective, I have a Battery backup on my workshops security alarm and the battery isnt supposed to be replaceable by a end user - it was made artificcially this way and to replace it all you need to do it move the panel key to the unmarked 5th position and disconnect the clips from the battery and replace the new one, turn the key back enter the pin and replace the pannel.

The unmarked position is literately just that a 5th position unmarked position that removed the battery circut from the control panel from the alarm box, but they want to charge £100 for the battery and £150 for someone to come out and replace it, and you can do it with the key in any position from 2 onwards.

If that was in the base user manual it wouldnt be a issue but it was only in the service manual I found a PDF of online when I worked out what the borad was really called and not the rebadge it was given (not hard) but most people dont have that skill or the time to do it. Electronics used to be serviceable look at the old manuals for TV's compared to new ones there was circuit diagrams included so you or a repar shop could maintain it.

 

[AmpleApricots]

Electronics used to be serviceable look at the old manuals for TV's compared to new ones there was circuit diagrams included so you or a repar shop could maintain it.

Same with computers. My Amiga 2000 came with two thick books, one had the schematics of the entire system and chapters on how to design expansion hardware.

 

[The Last Stand]

What the hell is TeamSpeak?

 

[AnOminous]

Absolutely anything where you can't control an object without some kind of remote control is garbage. It literally makes me freak out to have some shitty TV monitor's control batteries run out and now I can't turn down the volume, or even turn it the fuck off because FUCK YOU LG why did you think not even having a FUCKING POWER BUTTON was a GOOD IDEA I want to motherfucking kill whoever had that idea because FUCK YOU YOU GODDAMN BASTARD and, you know, a bunch of profanities in that general direction.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Absolutely anything where you can't control an object without some kind of remote control is garbage.

I have an analog to VGA converter where most of the functions need a remote to control.

It was made awhile ago, so it's like a "transitional fossil" between before remotes needed for everything and how it is now.

 

[Xanen]

Liquid cooling will never not cause me to panic a little at the thought. Also I don't think most modern PC towers have the charm of late 90's towers. I know newer cases have better airflow, but they just look like they're trying to be hard to be "sleek" and "modern".

 

[umami's milk]

Liquid cooling will never not cause me to panic a little at the thought. Also I don't think most modern PC towers have the charm of late 90's towers. I know newer cases have better airflow, but they just look like they're trying to be hard to be "sleek" and "modern".

bring back chunky ass laptops that last.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

Liquid cooling will never not cause me to panic a little at the thought. Also I don't think most modern PC towers have the charm of late 90's towers. I know newer cases have better airflow, but they just look like they're trying to be hard to be "sleek" and "modern".

You'd be mad to buy one. Even Apple screwed that up on the first try (but got it right on the Quad-Core (but dual processor) G5).

And jerry rigging something yourself? Hmm

 

[Boom Boss]

Mobile ads for those dating games and sex games. I'm just trying to play my non sexual puzzle games and card games. Stop being a coomer, Google!

 

[Butter]

Mobile ads for those dating games and sex games. I'm just trying to play my non sexual puzzle games and card games. Stop being a coomer, Google!

If you have a rooted android phone there are a few good options for ad blocking. If not rooted, there's blokada. If nothing else, there's always airplane mode.

I dont know anything for the iPhone as I've never owned one.

There's some games that won't run if they cant call the ad servers though. I'd consider deleting them.

 

[LustrousMelons]

not sure if the correct thread but FUCK INFOTAINMENT SYSTEMS in cars. give me a simple single/double din head unit and 3 dials for hvac controls. I don't need a federally mandated backup camera and I dont need to mash my finger against a screen to change basic controls. just let me go 10 minutes without my eyes being raped by an lcd display

 

[Moths]

Every fucking app I use asking for a rate

I just rate them all 1 star now go fuck yourselves

 

[moocow]

Absolutely anything where you can't control an object without some kind of remote control is garbage. It literally makes me freak out to have some shitty TV monitor's control batteries run out and now I can't turn down the volume, or even turn it the fuck off because FUCK YOU LG why did you think not even having a FUCKING POWER BUTTON was a GOOD IDEA I want to motherfucking kill whoever had that idea because FUCK YOU YOU GODDAMN BASTARD and, you know, a bunch of profanities in that general direction.

Thank god they haven't decided to start doing this with PC monitors. If they ever do, we're fucked because there's no such thing as "well I'll just keep/rely on my older displays then!" since modern displays are, well, manufactured to modern specifications and "quality" standards ... meaning they will fail within a few years and will be tough (or impossible) to repair.

Liquid cooling will never not cause me to panic a little at the thought. Also I don't think most modern PC towers have the charm of late 90's towers. I know newer cases have better airflow, but they just look like they're trying to be hard to be "sleek" and "modern".

I've reached the conclusion in recent years that liquid cooling has moved into ricer territory. The promise of "quieter, better cooling" is a lie. Liquid cooling systems still use fans and they still crank up to max speed when the system starts heating up (so there goes the noise advantage) and it's actually not any better at cooling the gear down anyway (water may take longer to warm up than air, but it also takes longer to cool back down; if the cooling loop gets too hot for the gear it's protecting, the gear is stuck glued to a surface that's going to keep it hot longer even if it shuts itself down).

Between that and fans getting better in general (quieter and better/more airflow even at lower RPMs), I don't think liquid cooling is worth it in desktops anymore. Air cooling is cheaper, easier to install, can be quieter and can often achieve better overall cooling efficiency.

And no risk of leaks either.

 

[AmpleApricots]

In all the usual connector standards there's also support for a communication protocol with which you can basically remote control the screen via the connector, if both signal source and screen support it. A surprising amount of screen these days do support it (probably because it's just the same IP block copy/pasted between controller designs) it's just somehow rarely used. In some screens you have to toggle it on via the OSD. So if ever that day comes where screens have no buttons, you can probably just turn it on/off/adjust brightness/set signal source etc. via the computer, which frankly, isn't too bad. (and also allows e.g. scripting) I even used to have such a screen with no controls, a 19" 1280x1024 Samsung LCD from 2008, so that tech isn't exactly new either. (but let me tell you it was a PITA with 2008 Linux; iirc the standards are from the 90s)

I also honestly never had an LCD break these days. Especially since LED backlights these things don't really have a lot that can break anymore, except the power supply which is usually repairable. There's quite a few screens these days that have external power supplies, so getting a new one would just be a matter of buying a new power supply. Older LCDs where all the processing was chopped up between 7 different custom ICs (which all got amazingly hot) and CCFL backlights which just die eventually, (and their often considerably more complex power infrastructure) yes, their days are limited.

I really dislike capacitance touch buttons, but usually "business" versions of screens still have proper, pressable buttons and often even a power switch that physically cuts the power. (and also come in colors other than "black") Yes, another premium price tag on something that should be standard but what you're gonna do.

Liquid cooling these days is IMO a complete waste of money, if it ever wasn't that is. Invest into good PWM fans and buy a case/heatsinks where the fans can be physically as big as possible (the bigger the fan, the less RPM to move the same amount of air - simple physics) and you probably have to press your ear to the case to even hear the fans in normal operation.

 

[The Last Stand]

What's the point of buying physical games if you STILL have to connect online to even USE the software? Online only games I can understand, but I shouldn't have to authenticate the product I've purchased that I tangibly own.