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

[Orange Rhymer]

At least I don't see much of this trend any more. I honestly think the absolute joke of a product that was Juicero may have finally finished it off. This was a lolcow product that literally squeezed juice from a bag but also for absolutely no reason connected to the Internet, refused to squeeze any bags that didn't have the company ID on them, and was otherwise utterly worthless.

AvE did a great mechanical & electronic engineering review of the Juicero

punchline: WAY overengineered, yet with completely shitty security and a secret camera that snaps pics of you while you juice.

Like everything else these days - suspect manufacturing choices, bordering on venture capital fraud.

 

[AnOminous]

Like everything else these days - suspect manufacturing choices, bordering on venture capital fraud.

I'm not sure about actual fraud, though. It's not like it was some secret that this was just a bag squeezer. It's just that somehow, nobody in this whole development cycle actually just said "hey why would people want to buy a fucking bag squeezing machine for hundreds of dollars?" Then suddenly that Bloomberg story came out mocking this piece of shit and it was obvious what an utterly dumb idea this was.

Internet of (really dumb) Things in general is a trend I'd gladly see die.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I don't miss the AOL browser. I vaguely remember using it once on someone else's laptop back in the day for something. Also remember when American TV ads would say a website and an "AOL keyword"? Also AOL floppy disks and CDs were everywhere...

 

[AnOminous]

I don't miss the AOL browser. I vaguely remember using it once on someone else's laptop back in the day for something. Also remember when American TV ads would say a website and an "AOL keyword"? Also AOL floppy disks and CDs were everywhere...

Something I really don't miss is WebTV. That, even more than AOL, was at its time the source of the dumbest people on the Internet.

 

[The Mat Harris]

i hate the fact that every interface now tries to be a tablet interface.
i use unity7(yes still it is kinda maintained) and it somehow manages to work better as a tablet interface without ever aiming to be one.

 

[Stasi]

Not played multiplayer games in a long time but is matchmaking still the default for most games?

Remember in late 2000s every game was pushing matchmaking and getting rid of traditional server/room browsers. Its fine for 1 on 1 games or if you are too lazy to browse but should not be the default with no alternative for things like shooter. Man that really pissed me off back in the day (crack, sipp)

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Something I really don't miss is WebTV. That, even more than AOL, was at its time the source of the dumbest people on the Internet.

I don't know if it only existed in europe, but internet via teletext was the dumbest shit ever. Someone called a number and used the keypad on a landline phone to type and the "browser" was something like teletext page 834 on channel 5. It could be compared to a much crappier lynx in a much, much lower resolution running on a Spectrum and instead of a keyboard the input is T9. And no security/privacy. Watching unknown people struggle to use the internet or trying to hit on girls in a chatroom had some charm.

On the topic of spying, I knew some people that all had a particular Nokia satellite tv decoder, it had a SCSI port that a HDD could be hooked up to and the decoder itself could be used to "record" internet traffic sent via satellite because it wasn't encrypted. So many pictures of fat swingers.
That kind of old weirdness is something I miss.

 

[AnOminous]

I don't know if it only existed in europe, but internet via teletext was the dumbest shit ever.

I have heard of but never seen this. I think France's Minitel was the most successful of these kinds of services.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I have heard of but never seen this. I think France's Minitel was the most successful of these kinds of services.

Teletext in general was really good, open it up and the first page was that channels news/headlines with the number of the page where the story could be read, much like Google/Bing news but actually less shitty(no pay walls, no analytics to push stories they think you are interested in and so on). Very convenient, I always turned on the TV in the morning just to quickly read the news on teletext.

edit: it also functioned as subtitles for programs or the hearing impaired. It was worth turning on during live political debates to see someone constantly fucking up in realtime trying to transcribe heated arguments.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

I really liked Sony MiniDisc players when they were released. I think they could have gone far since they could have better audio than most MP3 players and phones. Only thing you needed to work on was the storage capacity. MiniDisc recorders were also pretty good.

Tech I hate today. Cellphones. I don't like using them Give me a landline any day of the week as I don't have to worry about reception or extra fees.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Cellphones. I don't like using them Give me a landline any day of the week as I don't have to worry about reception or extra fees.

holy crap are you me

But really, it's good to see I'm not the only one. It's annoying when I'm told I "have to use one" because "they're a necessity."

You know what? I'm sick of mobile phone culture period -- and the social media culture with it.

 

[MrJokerRager]

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

holy crap are you me

But really, it's good to see I'm not the only one. It's annoying when I'm told I "have to use one" because "they're a necessity."

If I need to use a portable phone for anything I have a satellite phone, but mines an older briefcase model. My fiancee always tells me I need one when I'm out in case I'm ever out. Usually if I'm out it's because I'm going to school. In which case there's this thing called Discord people can use to contact me on, or my business Skype (fuck that program too by the way. It's been shit ever since Microsoft bought it), or I'm out getting groceries which takes me maybe an hour to do.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Echoes are obnoxious little eavesdroppers that cut into conversations just because someone kind of said the power word. At least smart TVs quietly eavesdrop.

 

[no_mad_johnny]

I like this thread

I miss physical gizmos: DVD rental, book stores, computer games being sold at any store, product manuals and portable CD players.

Many of these things still exist (well, except for the physical copies of PC games) but there is very real incentive to buy CDs nowadays, for example or burn your own “CD mixtape”.

I used to literally copy (scanning and copying) articles and keep them so I could read them later.

RSS feeds everywhere, less resource intensive web pages, a YouTube website that wasn't completely rubbish (they screwed up the design so much), forums (most are dead nowadays) and unique blogs...

Videogames and games that didn't require internet connection —nowadays even a mostly offline game obligates you to turn to the web for patches and updates.

Old OS —I really liked Windows 98 and XP. Nowadays I can't stand Windows. Limewire and eMule. That one phone that had a keyboard on its side.

Smartphones are neat and all so is digital books and music but I genuinely think that their popularity has caused more trouble than it's worthy.

The web is incredibly more accessible now (and full of interesting content) but this accessibility destroyed a lot of what made the online world unique.

I still have this desire to collect old tech and buy one of those Japanese phones with a T9 and a non-Googlified Android.

The only new tech that I genuinely enjoy are streaming services. Smart TVs aren't necessarily bad but I wish that slimmer CRTs had lived for a little while longer.

Maybe with versions containing HDMI and USB connections tho.

I second the mention of mini discs btw

 

[ToroidalBoat]

At least smart TVs quietly eavesdrop.

"In Soviet Russia Clown World, TV watches YOU!"

 

[BroccoliBrain]

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?

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Zoom is about 4 years old. The reason it's so popular right now is the ease of use. Last time I used Skype was before Microsoft bought it, so no idea how much easier Zoom is compared to that.

 

[XYZpdq]

Related to that. It is annoying to send a message saying that you will come by at a certain time and get an "ok, see you then" reply that can be read at a glance without clicking the text message, which needs to be clicked to get rid of the notification balloon and the blinking light on the phone. A text like "I'll be there at 14:30" doesn't need a reply if the reply is just a variant of "ok" because the ok is already implicit. It's like a letter, no one replies to a letter with a doctors appointment unless there's something they need to know, like "I need to reschedule" or "I don't even live in that city, you better not bill me for this". That's how it is supposed to work!
I have converted a couple of people to this line of thinking, no one actually likes to send or get the "ok" type of messages.

If someone sends a text message that requires scrolling to read it all THEN "ok" is an appropriate response because wtf.

I like to confirm that I received info. It's not like it's 2003 and you pay for each text or something.

 

[GHTD]

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

Looking at you, Windows 10.