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

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

It's not that I hate it but is Zoom a new trend?
I've never fucking heard of it and it feels like it came out of nowhere in the past month. I'm really suspicious of it, I thought if people wanted video conferences for work/school they would shill Skype or some other thing from Microsoft or Google. But what the hell is Zoom?

I've had to use it for my classes after we transitioned to online-only. I have very limited experience with Skype and Zoom, but on the whole I thought it was easier to work with than Skype. At the very least I didn't have to fiddle with settings to get on the conference call.

That being said I did hear rumors that Zoom was leaking information to China so who the hell knows.

 

[AnOminous]

It's not that I hate it but is Zoom a new trend?
I've never fucking heard of it and it feels like it came out of nowhere in the past month. I'm really suspicious of it, I thought if people wanted video conferences for work/school they would shill Skype or some other thing from Microsoft or Google. But what the hell is Zoom?

It's Chinese malware to do industrial espionage to take advantage of the COVID-19 epidemic. At least that's my tinfoil hat speculation. It's so fucking horrible it's hard to believe it's produced in good faith.

I've had to use it for my classes after we transitioned to online-only. I have very limited experience with Skype and Zoom, but on the whole I thought it was easier to work with than Skype.

Skype is almost 20 years old.

Also another shit trend: digital assistants acting like SJWs when you call them cunts. Fuck off with that shit.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

Fucking excessive software telemetry, especially on software where it's not needed.

Looking at you, Windows 10.

Microsoft has nothing on Google.

It's Chinese malware to do industrial espionage to take advantage of the COVID-19 epidemic. At least that's my tinfoil hat speculation. It's so fucking horrible it's hard to believe it's produced in good faith.

There's a web option, although it needs to be enabled by those convening the meeting. You miss out on.. having fake backgrounds built into the application. Seems like a no-brainer.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I don't know why, but I don't like the idea of "ride sharing" services like "Lyft" and "Uber" -- they seem so "Current Year."

Are they really a bad idea though?

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Current hated trend: Sites that nag users for using a browser other than IE/Edge, Firefox, or Chrome.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I don't know why, but I don't like the idea of "ride sharing" services like "Lyft" and "Uber" -- they seem so "Current Year."

Are they really a bad idea though?

I found them convenient when I didn't want to wait for a bus and needed to get somewhere quick. They're better for short trips though; longer trips cost a little too much in my opinion.

 

[GHTD]

I fucking hate fingerprint sensors. Unless you place your fingerprint in such a minute, microscopic way, it's going to fail reading.

Could be that my phone's sensor is shit, whatever.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

Microsoft has nothing on Google.
View attachment 1252394

There's a web option, although it needs to be enabled by those convening the meeting. You miss out on.. having fake backgrounds built into the application. Seems like a no-brainer.

Do NOT. I repeat DO NOT use/install or even SAY the word "Zoom".

Crypto-Gram: April 15, 2020 - Schneier on Security

This article merely touches on the security and privacy issues. More are revealed every day.

 

[AnOminous]

Do NOT. I repeat DO NOT use/install or even SAY the word "Zoom".

Crypto-Gram: April 15, 2020 - Schneier on Security

This article merely touches on the security and privacy issues. More are revealed every day.

Lol it literally fucking sends your session keys to CHINA, but even if it didn't, the mode they're using is so broken it's effectively worthless.

 

[no_mad_johnny]

For the ones who can't avoid using Zoom: use the web version and sandbox the browser while using it.

 

[AnOminous]

For the ones who can't avoid using Zoom: use the web version and sandbox the browser while using it.

I'd suggest a virtual machine with absolutely no other personal information on it but a clean install of an OS. Actually I don't even think that would be good enough and would prefer installing a fresh OS on an empty drive, remove all other media, and turn off everything else in the house connected to the Internet while this malware was operating.

 

[⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛]

Lol it literally fucking sends your session keys to CHINA, but even if it didn't, the mode they're using is so broken it's effectively worthless.

They've reportedly improved the encryption situation with their latest release. Still untrustworthy to a certain extent as the company is based in the US, but other than that, not worse than other closed source options.

 

[AnOminous]

They've reportedly improved the encryption situation with their latest release. Still untrustworthy to a certain extent as the company is based in the US, but other than that, not worse than other closed source options.

I'm not going to trust their own estimation of how they have improved it since the fact they did it the way they did shows they are presumptively incompetent to judge their own performance.

 

[Maurice Caine]

I stuck with one until like 2013 or 2014 and loved the long battery life and relatively simple operation. The "smart phone" I upgraded to after that was slower in a lot of ways.

The Moto Razr looks like the most promising return for "modern" flip phones IMO. Apparently they designed it specifically to still have a satisfying feeling when closing it to hang up a call.

Tech trend I hate: Infantile or """funny""" error messages. "Woopsie doopsie, the program made a boo-boo!", "The gerbils running our server are struggling to keep up! Try again in a minute."

I miss the old Windows 7 BSOD because they actually had stop codes to help you diagnose the issue.

 

[Red Hood]

Vacuum tube tech. It runs hotter and is less reliable than transistor technology, but damned if it doesn't have a helping of charm.

 

[The Littlest Shitlord]

Vacuum tube tech. It runs hotter and is less reliable than transistor technology, but damned if it doesn't have a helping of charm.

I remember back in the 80s reading the April issue of EDN (Electrical Design News) magazine, where they'd print not only bogus "news" like an announcement of a Roman-numeral-based math coprocessor chip (in one second, does the work of LVIII scribes working for XXXII days, or something like that), but they'd also print their crank mail that they had received during the past year. Inevitably there would be someone demanding that we bring back vacuum tubes. "If you as much as sneeze at a transistor, it will declare chapter XI bankruptcy, but you could heat a good old 5U4 tube cherry red and it won't complain!"

 

[Red Hood]

I remember back in the 80s reading the April issue of EDN (Electrical Design News) magazine, where they'd print not only bogus "news" like an announcement of a Roman-numeral-based math coprocessor chip (in one second, does the work of LVIII scribes working for XXXII days, or something like that), but they'd also print their crank mail that they had received during the past year. Inevitably there would be someone demanding that we bring back vacuum tubes. "If you as much as sneeze at a transistor, it will declare chapter XI bankruptcy, but you could heat a good old 5U4 tube cherry red and it won't complain!"

Like operating and maintaining a carbureted car or bike, there's a certain satisfaction to replacing the tubes in an old radio or amplifier (tube amps are maybe the only place you'll find new tube-driven tech) knowing you're the only one keeping that hunk of junk running.

 

[Pissmaster]

It's Chinese malware to do industrial espionage to take advantage of the COVID-19 epidemic. At least that's my tinfoil hat speculation. It's so fucking horrible it's hard to believe it's produced in good faith.

Seriously. It's really telling that there are tons of us who basically live online and none of us had never heard of Zoom until just recently, and it's portrayed like it's just something everyone uses.

It's so insecure and buggy, too. Almost as if it was slapped together, and a shitload of institutions were paid to use it.

 

[Sammy]

I miss MacOS.
Not Mac OSX, I'm talking shitty old "OG HFS or HFS+ resource fork-data fork no memory management" classic MacOS 9.2.1 (we don't talk about 9.2.2).

Yes, it was shitty, I won't deny that, it's the kind of computer OS in the post "everything's fucking networked" age could never really work today because there weren't passwords or permissions on anything, but its naive simplicity was a dream for the computer user who didn't want to fucking fight his computer system in the 90s to make it work. Want to upgrade your OS version? Drop the updated OS System Folder onto the hard drive, delete the old one. BAM. DONE. Fuck off with all that registry bullshit, it just works. I've never really found a modern analogous equivalent, I wonder if one exists for anything.

 

[Orange Rhymer]

I remember back in the 80s reading the April issue of EDN (Electrical Design News) magazine, where they'd print not only bogus "news" like an announcement of a Roman-numeral-based math coprocessor chip (in one second, does the work of LVIII scribes working for XXXII days, or something like that), but they'd also print their crank mail that they had received during the past year. Inevitably there would be someone demanding that we bring back vacuum tubes. "If you as much as sneeze at a transistor, it will declare chapter XI bankruptcy, but you could heat a good old 5U4 tube cherry red and it won't complain!"

This is a good point. 'Back-in-the-day', people were allowed to dwell in their 'circles' without intrusion.
Professional magazines were an awesome 'circle'. Also, Medical Doctors had the edgiest content out there.
A couple times a year - the American Journal of Proctology would run an article 'Foreign Bodies in Rectums'.
Fucking HILARIOUS dry humor about what men (and VERY RARELY) women would jam up their asses. The annual conference would do a X-Ray slideshow and narrative. Fucking sell-out crowd, standing-room only.