- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Tech you miss/ new tech trends you hate - ok boomers
- Thread starter Kenobi
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2019
I recently needed a new bedroom TV for watching the local news OTA and and playing games on and I was so relieved when Wal-Mart was still selling little 20" 720P non-smart TVs for around $60. The sound is terrible, and the internal speakers are poorly grounded and let out a high pitch whine, but it has a headphone jack and I plugged in some extrenal speakers and all was OK. I just want a TV that's a fucking TV and not a giant Android tablet.
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2013
You can actually get around this with some clever uBlock filtering, at least last time I checked.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
Another way to block it is to put "-pinterest" after whatever you search for.
And yeah, Pinterest blows.
It's Current Year, so "everything has to be smart" because hipster technophiles.
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2020
Mother fuck those web pages that try to override OS keyboard shortcuts.
The most common ones are Ctrl+F hijacks that open up some custom made search function that never works.
News sites are particularly fond of the Ctrl+C hijack that puts in 20 lines of "please visit our website" text in the clipboard before the one line I actually tried to copy from the page.
Thankfully, this strikes me as an annoying web design trend that will go away like 90s splash pages.
The one thing I really miss is being able to download a trial version of some software, and then roll the bones on some sketchy freeserialzzzzz.net type of website hoping to snag a key and unlock the full version. Macromedia had this hole and was a key reason why newgrounds was a web giant in the early 2000's.
The most common ones are Ctrl+F hijacks that open up some custom made search function that never works.
News sites are particularly fond of the Ctrl+C hijack that puts in 20 lines of "please visit our website" text in the clipboard before the one line I actually tried to copy from the page.
Thankfully, this strikes me as an annoying web design trend that will go away like 90s splash pages.
The one thing I really miss is being able to download a trial version of some software, and then roll the bones on some sketchy freeserialzzzzz.net type of website hoping to snag a key and unlock the full version. Macromedia had this hole and was a key reason why newgrounds was a web giant in the early 2000's.
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- Joined
- Mar 29, 2014
I also hate it when devices need a smartphone with a downloaded app to work. If you lose the app and can't get it back - or you lose your smartphone - the device becomes a fancy paperweight.
Of course it's Current Year, and it seems everything new is built like crap, so said device could break before that happens anyway.
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- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
Depends on the OS, Roku yes, FireOS (at least on the Stick and box top units) nope, it just says "I NEED INTERNET" and you can only go to network settings to try and get it back on the internet.
Fucking hell Amazon.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2018
Why would a browser even allow this. What the fuck.
To social media: You know, you can always choose not to use it. I did. Fighting with idiots over shit on social media is a huge waste of time that will get you nowhere.
To screens: I "downgraded" over the years from a really expensive HiDPI 4k everything-and-the-kitchen-sink screen to a 19" 1280x1024 Eizo that's about 3 years old. (yes, they still make them and you can still buy them new with modern panels and LED backlight and everything, they're also more expensive than you think right now reading this) I barely play games and I have a workflow in my customized setup I'm very used to and although I do admit that the higher DPI screens are better for aliased fonts and game graphics, they simply barely offered me any additional value in my use case. Lots of old programs and games I usually run either looked like shit or were downright unusuable on the 4k screen and there was always some other problem (this is in Linux) or things just generally looked like crap. Websites take also no advantage of the additional screen real estate whatsoever and if you don't want your browser window to be the size of a matchbox get used to wide one-colored spaces. Monospaced Bitmap fonts I've been using for a long time needed weird scaling up to be readable and just ended up looking too big. It was kinda odd going the other way like a ghost driver when everyone else bought into every new trend that was released five minutes ago and I always half expected myself over the years to admit to myself that this was some weird mistake but I can't really say that it was. The screens' size and resolution is perfect for my needs and I cannot really honestly say that I feel that I'm missing out on anything.
What I'd ideally like is some eink screen for terminal work, I used to have a 13" one for a short time and it was amazing the few minutes here and there it worked properly and I've given up hope that eink is ever going to have something competitive because it's weighted down by patent bullshit a lot. There are also tiny 1080p screens you can buy that are basically tablet screens glued to a monitor controller board which I was thinking about as a second screen. Might as well get a tablet for some use cases tho. There's still a wide selection of "dumb" screens and I'd never get a smart-anything if it can be avoided.
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2019
There's a tool for that
Allowing overrides of the right-mouse button was a slippery slope.
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- Joined
- Sep 26, 2019
I've really wondered about what the impact of all that's gonna be like in 100 years. Didn't we grow up hearing all about how we need to save the environment, only for shitloads upon shitloads of tech to be reliant on apps that just won't work sooner or later?
I have one of these:
It was really cheap at Toys R Us - originally I think $80, but clearanced out for like $12. Before iOS 7, there was no standard for game controllers, so the iCade standard was the defacto one you'd see in some games. It'd just emulate a Bluetooth keyboard, and each button press, and button release, acted as a different keypress. It worked reasonably well, but had a little input lag. Nothing too dire, though.
But at iOS 7, the Made for iPhone (MFi) standard came about, and out went the iCade standard immediately. Of course, any controllers designed around that standard became instantly obsolete. Some did have different modes where you could use them as, like, DirectInput controllers for Android, but anything officially iCade was iCade only, with no updates. If you don't have an old iPad that still works, with old, unupdated games you installed years ago, your iCade's not really gonna work with anything.
Though, the saving grace is that it just uses standard arcade buttons plugged into its own board, so you can just unplug those and plug them into a USB fightstick adapter. No input lag that way, either.
So I guess all this junk is gonna be great for the DIY community. Anything that uses off-the-shelf parts, anyway.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2020
This part reminded me of an article about how games that have demos sell a lot less copies than ones without them. But now at least we can buy into early access beta tests for 80-90% of retail price, replace a QA team, and then get bored of it most of the time before said game even "comes out". oh wow.
I especially like bullshit where a game that has horrible reception gets rebranded as an early access game to save face (there was one really big title from a few years ago but can't find any articles about it since I cant remember the name) or how some games stay in early access for years: Space Engineers for example was in early access from 2013 to 2019 and barring sales the early access price was higher than the post-early access one (25 and 20 Freedombucks to be exact according to steam db).
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
Roller Coaster Tycoon World? It was EA and being sold in brick and mortar stores at the same time.
As far as EA games being EA for years, as long as they keep getting updates and the devs are good with communication I don't really care (e.g. Prison Architect when it was in EA). I've been selective in what EA games I buy and outside of DayZ (which I bought more so I could play with some friends) I don't think I've been burned by EA
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2020
When used in good faith you can give the user a better experience, for example with Ctrl-C - when your UI looks like a spreadsheet, you can identify what the user selected and format it so it's easy to paste into Excel, instead of being a giant fucking mess.
Similarly with Ctrl-V - you can parse the user's input and figure out what sort of thing they're trying to paste, for example if it's tab separated you can put it right back into your spreadsheet cells and rows instead of putting it all in once cell.
I think the real reason this came in though was because Google had a vision of an office suite on the browser but browsers weren't evolving quickly enough to allow them to do this so they ended up making their own.
However, this allows shitty websites to do shitty things - for example, some sites won't let you paste from a password manager, and you can use the "don't fuck with paste" extension to prevent this. This extension used to work on a whitelist but it now works on a blacklist because actually so many websites got broken due to it as this is something genuinely very useful to web developers.
I really hate the anti password manager trend that came out about 5 years ago and thankfully seeems to be ending. I once had this flagged up on a pen test - they scared the shit out of me by inviting me to a secure data room for privileged information disclosure (I assumed it was apocalyptically bad news) and told me that you could use a password manager with the login screen and that was literally the only thing they could find wrong.
Unfortunately in today's politically correct age you can't call someone a "fucking retard" but I did make my displeasure known and they added a footnote to the report saying that it was agreed that we accept the risk.
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2019
Given as this is the main 'old fart' thread, there's an interesting archive of old Usenet postings that has a less bad interface than the grotesquery Google Groups has degraded into. Has some messages back to the early 1980s. Could be worth a browse.
Ya know what I miss? Old school headphones.
Go to just about any physical location and it's nearly impossible to find anything that isn't some plastic piece of shit with the price marked up.
I don't give a damn about the wireless capability. That just means there's another battery gauge that's gonna screw me over later. I'm sitting within 5' of the computer. The hell I need wireless for?
I don't care that the plastic pos collapses up into itself for some kinda storage bs. Give me something heavy because it has a strong frame, not because there's some weights set inside the hollow area.
Why are there no more decent ear-muffs? This cushion shit just pressing up against the ear feels like it's cutting off circulation. I want something that cups around the whole damn ear and blocks out the sound of everything else in the house.
The fuck is all of this faux-leather bs? Shit lasts about a month before it starts flaking off and getting everywhere. Rather get real leather or some kinda kevlar mesh. I'll buy the stuff to keep it clean and conditioned if it means I don't have to keep buying replacements all the damn time.
And we know this shit only costs about 15usd to make. I know damn well those Beats are just selling brand recognition. Same thing with that Turtle Beach bs.
What I'm saying is we need to bring back headphones that aren't just some disposable pos. Have half a mind to try and just build a damn pair.
Go to just about any physical location and it's nearly impossible to find anything that isn't some plastic piece of shit with the price marked up.
I don't give a damn about the wireless capability. That just means there's another battery gauge that's gonna screw me over later. I'm sitting within 5' of the computer. The hell I need wireless for?
I don't care that the plastic pos collapses up into itself for some kinda storage bs. Give me something heavy because it has a strong frame, not because there's some weights set inside the hollow area.
Why are there no more decent ear-muffs? This cushion shit just pressing up against the ear feels like it's cutting off circulation. I want something that cups around the whole damn ear and blocks out the sound of everything else in the house.
The fuck is all of this faux-leather bs? Shit lasts about a month before it starts flaking off and getting everywhere. Rather get real leather or some kinda kevlar mesh. I'll buy the stuff to keep it clean and conditioned if it means I don't have to keep buying replacements all the damn time.
And we know this shit only costs about 15usd to make. I know damn well those Beats are just selling brand recognition. Same thing with that Turtle Beach bs.
What I'm saying is we need to bring back headphones that aren't just some disposable pos. Have half a mind to try and just build a damn pair.
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
If you are not a audiophile and not concerned about soundstages and frequency balancing shit, Steelseries Serbia v2 (or what ever they are calling them now) are solid (it was the first pair of headsets that didn't break with in 6 months for me)
If you want more in to the audiophile rem, (mass)drop x AKG 7xx (if they are still selling it) and (mass)Drop x Meze 99 are solid IIRC the AKG ones are more balanced where the Meze have a bass boost. The AKGs and Meze have detachable cables (which for me is normally the point of failure for most of the cheap headsets I have had before I knew that you could get good ones) and replaceable earmuffs (so if you don't like stock you can replace them with ones you want), AKG is velour and Meze is PU 'leather' (In the 2+ years I have owned them I have had no flaking).
The Meze is closed backed so you get less outside noises from them, but not total noise isolation.
Grand Fucktard
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2020
I miss chrysler door latched from the 70s - they were shaped so they worked lke a beer bottle opener
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2019
Sony still makes some pretty decent plain jane wired headphones. I've found their ZX110 headphones pretty good. They've got a nice heft to them and seem industructable. They're only like $20 too. I only use them to listen to the radio and podcasts though. Maybe if you're an audiophile you'll find them shitty.
Sony actually makes a lot of great stuff for people still into boomer tech. I still like to have a seperate MP3 player because I'm a autistic weirdo, and that little black Walkman MP3 player they still make is great.
Stasi
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2019
I don't know how prevalent this is because I don't go out of my way to read tech articles but fake articles stitched together by bots are a thing now?
Was looking up some info for a CPU and saw a bunch of articles that didn't look like they were written by a human. They pulled info from one of these benchmarking sites and used canned language "Should you use this in your rig? Those on a budget should look into this for their gaming rig. The performance of XYZ is comparable to this other processor which is $ more expensive".
All well and good except the CPU I was looking up was never sold on its own, only comes in pre-built business machines as far as I know so nobody is putting this thing in any "rig" they are planning to build.
Are bots replacing underpaid Indians in the online tech journalism space? I'm honestly not sure which is worse.
Was looking up some info for a CPU and saw a bunch of articles that didn't look like they were written by a human. They pulled info from one of these benchmarking sites and used canned language "Should you use this in your rig? Those on a budget should look into this for their gaming rig. The performance of XYZ is comparable to this other processor which is $ more expensive".
All well and good except the CPU I was looking up was never sold on its own, only comes in pre-built business machines as far as I know so nobody is putting this thing in any "rig" they are planning to build.
Are bots replacing underpaid Indians in the online tech journalism space? I'm honestly not sure which is worse.