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

[Blamo]

I miss the days when consoles were really simple. Sure it wouldn't be popular or even possible to make a spiritual successor to the PS2, but it certainly would be a fun thought.

 

[Stasi]

I miss the days when consoles were really simple. Sure it wouldn't be popular or even possible to make a spiritual successor to the PS2, but it certainly would be a fun thought.

The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing gaymers their gimped PC is a console.

 

[Blamo]

The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing gaymers their gimped PC is a console.

You get all the downsides and none of the benefits!

 

[Darksy DePhil]

The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing gaymers their gimped PC is a console

And how all consoles besides XBOX/Playstation are Android boxes. Don't they understand why the OUYA was really a failure?

 

[stupidpieceofshit]

Putting a car in a garage feels more and more like docking a space shuttle these days, I guess it's not just my imagination.

There is a stretch of road on my commute, where the road is slimmer then the rest of the road its still 4 lanes but its a tight fit with a lots of near misses of side swipes. I never noticed it in my 2000 Wrangler but in my 2017 car I notice it a hell of a lot.

 

[Picklechu]

I was talking to an acquaintance today, and was reminded that YikYak existed. That was fun for awhile, especially as a college student. Can't have anything like that, though, because cyberbullying.

I also hate how every single company wants you to store all of your shit in the cloud.

I've been browsing around for a replacement for the laptop I use when I'm traveling, and everything new has a shitty little trackpad without buttons that gets confused as to whether you're trying to move the cursor, scroll, or click. (I could just bring a mouse with me, but that's more bullshit I have to haul around.) Between that and prices for something that I'm just going to use to browse the internet and stream, I've pretty much just decided to get a tablet. The tablet has the added benefit of being letting me comfortably watch Netflix/Hulu/etc in bed.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

Tablets have really declined though, most people just use big phones. Many apps aren't designed for them and will force you into portrait mode (which I find harder to use if you have a decent sized tablet, ie 9-10 inches), and Android itself seems to have shittier support for them after about Android 7. Only a couple of big makers still do them, Samsung and Lenovo (which is what mine is), maybe some others I didn't notice when I was tablet searching last year. I have the tablet only for bed usage, having to hold up a phone in the same way doesn't work as well.

 

[Blamo]

Yes. This.

Cars today are ridiculously fat. I don't mean long like the landyachts of the 1960s or the pimpmobiles of the 1970s or the Chelsea Tractors of the 2000s. I mean fat as in even normal sized hatchbacks and saloons are unnecessarily wide. They're also taller for no good reason as well. And heavier. This makes them orders of magnitude more sluggish to drive.

Fatness of cars over the years

While some of the regulations were really needed and having a good gas mileage is necessary, I do miss a ton of design elements from older cars. Not to mention how sleek they have been.

It would be so nice to see something like for example the Renault 5, with sameish design just with modern tech.
I wonder if it would be even possible from an engineering standpoint.

 

[Pinochet Was Right]

Going back to microwave ovens, do they still have a popcorn button?

 

[seri0us]

Going back to microwave ovens, do they still have a popcorn button?

Nope

 

[Enig]

I miss the days when consoles were really simple. Sure it wouldn't be popular or even possible to make a spiritual successor to the PS2, but it certainly would be a fun thought.

Trust me, you do NOT want another PS2. The hardware in that thing was ultimately a Nintendo 64 with a dedicated sound processor, newer MIPS instructions and RAM taped onto every end of the pipeline all the way to the video encoder. Its jank shit schizo structure is why middleware ever became a thing, because making unique engines for such a batshit layout is the realm of CBT enthusiasts and John Carmack.

 

[Blamo]

Trust me, you do NOT want another PS2. The hardware in that thing was ultimately a Nintendo 64 with a dedicated sound processor, newer MIPS instructions and RAM taped onto every end of the pipeline all the way to the video encoder. Its jank shit schizo structure is why middleware ever became a thing, because making unique engines for such a batshit layout is the realm of CBT enthusiasts and John Carmack.

You understand what I mean. Something simple and basic for the end user.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I miss the days when consoles were really simple.

1990s: put in cartridge, turn on, vidya starts.

Current Year: Load console OS, have internet connection, run DLC from cloud?

(so how much of a rigamarole is it now?)

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Yes. This.

Cars today are ridiculously fat. I don't mean long like the landyachts of the 1960s or the pimpmobiles of the 1970s or the Chelsea Tractors of the 2000s. I mean fat as in even normal sized hatchbacks and saloons are unnecessarily wide. They're also taller for no good reason as well. And heavier. This makes them orders of magnitude more sluggish to drive.

Fatness of cars over the years

You can thank safety regulations for that increase in size and weight. On the flip side modern engines are pretty damn powerful and efficient compared to their predecessors. Just don't get a base model unless it's a fast car to begin with like the BMW M3 or Porsche Panamera (yes I'd argue the V6 in that is still plenty).

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Trust me, you do NOT want another PS2. The hardware in that thing was ultimately a Nintendo 64 with a dedicated sound processor, newer MIPS instructions and RAM taped onto every end of the pipeline all the way to the video encoder. Its jank shit schizo structure is why middleware ever became a thing, because making unique engines for such a batshit layout is the realm of CBT enthusiasts and John Carmack.

That's what makes the PS2 such a nice platypus, it had the ability to be a mad king. The PS3 doesn't really compare, if the PS2 was CBT then PS3 was getting stuck in the zipper while at work. It can't be done anymore, now everything is same:ish. I understand why but I still enjoyed seeing the fireworks of shit that worked and things that fell flat.

 

[seri0us]

if the PS2 was CBT

cognitive behavioral therapy?

Search results​

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

cognitive behavioral therapy?

Search results​

Too old, too tired.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

They've made them into black boxes even more, actually. I've checked with several manufacturers and most of the consumer grade routers are like this now: you can only access the router through a smartphone app through some cloud bullshit. You cannot access the router with a computer, there's no way to get into it. That's why it also requires an internet connection. You cannot set them up as an offline LAN because then the app won't connect through it because you can't access their cloud servers. It's a total regression of functionality because where you used to be able to access the router through any device connected to the router with a web browser, now you can only do it through a smartphone, and only through whatever remote bullshit they let you access it through. As soon as those servers go offline, your router is bricked.

A different company that tried to do this recently was Sonos. They make speakers that communicate over wifi instead of traditional stereo cables and similarly are only functional through an app. In the most brazen act I've yet seen from smart device manufacturers, one day they announced that they were releasing new speakers, and that service to old Sonos speakers would end in 5 months. Old devices would cease to function and could be put into 'recycling mode' (meaning, erase the firmware and brick all of your devices) and be traded in for a rebate on new speakers. They really thought they could get away with this. As it turns out it doesn't work to say "let's try to screw over literally every single customer we have simultaneously" and then they announced that old devices would continue to work, because shutting down old speakers was actually not necessary after all.

Sonos is a cautionary tale about any smart device you have whose functionality is tied to a server somewhere else. This will only happen more and more in the future. It didn't work for Sonos because they weren't big enough, but eventually, someone will get away with it. Routers are an especially obnoxious one because no one was asking for them to be 'smart' devices in the first place.

That's some suck.

Netgear Nighthawk series routers are still easily managed via a PC. You can also install 3rd party firmware still.

Dear current year Lenovo:
Fuck you for turning Thinkpads into your normal shitty business laptops but with a clit mouse. Some of us enjoy things like having more than 40GB of RAM max because the RAM isn't soldered, external batteries, not needing a ton of breakout boxes and cables because of USB-C fetishism, being able to use the WWAN slot for spare drives without needing autistic auction hawking for a newer NVMe type, and so on. Also fuck you for taking until last year to give people screens brighting than 300nits (if even that). Thinkpads are meant to be beater machines, not Applel for office workers (who just buy Applel anyway).

All that said, thank GOD there are still vendors who sell things like Tongfang chassis under 3-5 different brands that are wonderful to tinker with.

Amusingly, Lenovo's latest upper end consumer grade laptops have never been better

 

[Pissmaster]

Tablets have really declined though, most people just use big phones. Many apps aren't designed for them and will force you into portrait mode (which I find harder to use if you have a decent sized tablet, ie 9-10 inches), and Android itself seems to have shittier support for them after about Android 7. Only a couple of big makers still do them, Samsung and Lenovo (which is what mine is), maybe some others I didn't notice when I was tablet searching last year. I have the tablet only for bed usage, having to hold up a phone in the same way doesn't work as well.

Meanwhile, the iPad's trying to sell itself as a semi-laptop replacement that looks great in advertising, but functionally isn't at all. As massive as the app store is, there just isn't much in the way of good quality apps for various tasks, as it's a nu-tech wasteland of apps with minimalist UIs and monthly subscription fees to unlock the other 95% of what the app can do. You can search all around and try to find the right app for the job, but you'll find just endless reviews and Reddit posts that all read like "I'm a professional fadsljfsadjklf and I love using Buttfuckr because it really speeds up my work and makes all my tasks so easy and I highly recommend it". Notice how that doesn't actually say any details about what it even does? And God help you if you're trying to use an iOS productivity app in tandem with a desktop application. Nothing's cross compatible, and if it somehow is, you'll probably have to pay up to export your shit.

Other than that, the iPad's stagnant. The iPad 2 was a fantastic tablet computer for reading, watching YouTube, and casual web browsing. It also came out in 2012. Every single iPad since can pretty much do all of that, but not much more. I'd still be fine with my iPad 2 if it weren't for planned obsolescence more or less shitting up the thing. The jailbreak scene isn't worth much, either, since it seems to just be focused largely on superficial shit, like making all your app icons look uniform. You know, things Android does well, but for people who don't want to migrate to Android. It's kinda weird that there's just no push for workarounds on cracking in-app purchases anymore, or maybe I just haven't found the right Cydia repos.

Also, they sell a cover for the iPad Air 4 that doesn't work with any other model of iPad with a keyboard and a trackpad for like $350. Knowing how Apple is, it probably won't work on the iPad Air 5 or the 9th Generation or Pro 3 or whatever they call the next one. And considering the Air 4 is already a $600 tablet, it costs about as much as a standard Ultrabook anyway, which would be better for anyone.

Hell, the iPad even has a side-by-side window mode that they gleefully advertise, but it only works for apps that specifically support it - so therefore, only a smattering of Apple's own apps. Even Android can scale any app in their own windows, and it amuses me greatly to scale apps that weren't designed for it and laugh as their UIs get all fucky.

So in summary, Apple tablets are stagnant at being tablets, so they're trying to be really really shitty laptops. They're fine for stuff that tablets are good at, but tablets aren't good at doing much.

 

[Stasi]

1990s: put in cartridge, turn on, vidya starts.

Current Year: Load console OS, have internet connection, run DLC from cloud?

(so how much of a rigamarole is it now?)

Its honestly insane. Was visiting a buddy last year and we got Diablo 3 for PS4 to pass the time. Put in game disk - sorry, patch is require, now downloading 20gb. Bro what the actual fuck?

At least he had a good internet connection, if this was at my place we'd be waiting two fucking days.