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

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

If a search engine can't find results, it should just say so, instead of trying to pass off "related" crap as results. That's how it used to be.

But this is Current Year, and "smart" searches with "algorithms" are in.

I especially hate it when I get results that has the phrase I typed in crossed out, which means the phrase is not included. I then have to specify that I want results with this specific phrase.

Motherfucker, if I'm searching for something then I'm searching for this specific phrase. Don't give me this unrelated shit. If you can't find anything then say you can't find anything.

 

[Falcos_Commisar]

The pouplarity of touchscreen HVAC controls has somewhat dialed back since its peak in 2013. The logic manufacturers went through boils down to two key points:

1. They could save money on soucring, assembling, and installing physical HVAC buttons, instead opting to lump them all into the existing touchscreen.
2. It was the style at the time.

Everyone once thought the glass-cockpit car interior was super slick, so intereiors were designed to meet that demand. It looks nice on promo shots that will draw people in, but now consumers realized that actually drilling down through on-screen menus just for defrost WILE DRIVING is an enormous dick chafe. To the manufacturers' credit, they recently picked up on this and gave you the HVAC basics (where do you want it? how hot do you want it? and how much do you want?) on physical buttons. Camaros in particular have a neat thing where the temperature dial is set into the bezel of the vent itself.

Now with all that being said, what really fucks me up about cars is how manufacturers deliberately fuck with maintainability by slowly including parts that are not serviceable by the owner. Tesla is probably the most severe offender seeing as how they go out of their way to seal off every part of the fucking car with glue, or use wild ass DRM measures to "marry" a digital screen to the car so it cannot be replaced by anyone else but the dealership. They're the Apple of the car world. Fuck 'em.

Even domestic brands are getting in on this with non-serviceable transmissions. What does this mean? Basically the manual tells you that the entire transmission is "sealed", and should last throughout the lifetime of the car. How long is that lifetime? 90k? 150k? fuck knows! You can't even run a dipstick into the tranny to check the fluid for levels and discoloration, which will give you important information that it will grenade soon.

I like to work on my own cars, so I dont generally like a lot of tech in them. Right now, its kind of a pain, but I can tolerate it. I can see my breaking point being hit as manufacturers keep tryin to fuck people like me over, and also as the sum of the parts becomes "the internet of things" within the vehicle.

Amusingly, GM and Ford are actually still pretty good at including physical buttons and knobs for climate and infotainment. Honda and Toyota are pretty good too. Tesla in car UI is HILARIOUSLY shit and they should be ashamed. Audi is actively getting worse, as is Volvo. BMW and MB have pretty mediocre in car UIs too.

And some of those modern-day car transmissions won't even make it part way to even 90k these days. Nissan's CVTs (continuously variable transmission), and Ford's infamous PowerShift Dual-Clutch Transmission, come to mind.

Speaking of CVTs, I don't like how they're becoming more and more commonplace with cars these days, because of how much cheaper it is for manufacturers to make one, compared to geared transmissions. Most of the Japanese automakers use them now, with Mazda thankfully not jumping on the CVT train yet (at least for their cars that they sell in the US), GM is guilty of using them as well, and even the Koreans are starting to put CVTs in their cars. And the stepped CVTs, where the transmission "fakes" gearshifts to make it feel like a regular automatic transmission, are even more pointless, as it defeats the whole purpose of having a CVT in the first place, to keep the engine at a certain RPM while accelerating.

And having a CVT in a luxury car (Lexus and Infiniti are guilty of this) is just a complete facepalm in terms of design.

Ehh gotta argue this one. The Ford DCT was a massive POS designed by Gertrag (lol German engineering) that only existed because Ford FREAKED OUT about fuel economy and thought their little 5 speed auto wouldn't cut it for the focus in 2012. They later developed a perfectly good little 6 speed auto inn2013 that went into the Escape and other fords based off the Focus.

As for CVTs..... The JATCO ones Nissan uses are HORRIFIC TRASH. Meanwhile Honda, Toyota, GM, and Subaru have all been happily using CVTs in multiple vehicles for 5+ years now without issues. Honda in particular makes a pretty damn good CVT. Thing is, they can't really handle more than about 220 hp and 230 ft/lb of torque. After that, most everyone uses 8/9/10 speed automatic transmissions. GM goes from a CVT in the Malibu to a 9 speed auto once you get the more powerful engine.

 

[Cope or Rope]

The tech i miss is unconnected stuff. I miss when you could just plug something in and it would work but now you need a phone and all kinds of other shit to use it. I don't really want the Government to be able to see what kinds of food i like to eat. Or for my phone to be able to look at pictures of me. i'm scared of my privacy being taken away from me.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I then have to specify that I want results with this specific phrase.

How do you do that with the search query?

(I run into that strikethrough BS too.)

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

How do you do that with the search query?

(I run into that strikethrough BS too.)

Usually there's a link right next to the strikethrough that says, "Must include this phrase," at least on Bing. Doesn't always happen though, and even if I click it my results still aren't what I want because modern search engines are garbage.

 

[Hoes Mad]

How do you do that with the search query?

(I run into that strikethrough BS too.)

Usually there's a link right next to the strikethrough that says, "Must include this phrase," at least on Bing. Doesn't always happen though, and even if I click it my results still aren't what I want because modern search engines are garbage.

You can also just add quotation marks without clicking on it, but its still shit lol

 

[stupidpieceofshit]

Ugh those cutesy little "error messages" are enraging. Probably some idiot liberal arts diversity hire with a nose ring has a "job" making those.

As for phones, the Fair phone concept is awesome.... Too bad it's basically EU ONLY. What ever happened to smartphones with sub 6 inch screen sizes, nice tough plastic bodies, microSD cards, and sub $1,000 prices? Samsung just dropped microSD cards on their flagship phones, and the Pixel series never had them. Makes me want to spec a while label phone and kickstart it.

Fucking hell Samsung did you not learn anything when you took SD cards out the first time with the 5 series..

 

[Thiletonomics]

Ehh gotta argue this one. The Ford DCT was a massive POS designed by Gertrag (lol German engineering) that only existed because Ford FREAKED OUT about fuel economy and thought their little 5 speed auto wouldn't cut it for the focus in 2012. They later developed a perfectly good little 6 speed auto inn2013 that went into the Escape and other fords based off the Focus.

As for CVTs..... The JATCO ones Nissan uses are HORRIFIC TRASH. Meanwhile Honda, Toyota, GM, and Subaru have all been happily using CVTs in multiple vehicles for 5+ years now without issues. Honda in particular makes a pretty damn good CVT. Thing is, they can't really handle more than about 220 hp and 230 ft/lb of torque. After that, most everyone uses 8/9/10 speed automatic transmissions. GM goes from a CVT in the Malibu to a 9 speed auto once you get the more powerful engine.

In regards to Ford's Powershift, I mean Powershudder, I mean Powershit, even the Ford exec's knew that the transmission would have issues in their cars, and yet they still went on and sold it to customers anyway. And isn't Gertrag (or was it Tremec?) a Chinese-based company now? I heard some horror stories about the manual transmissions in the Mustang.

Also, Subaru did also increase the warranty on their CVTs on some of their older cars, to 10 years/100k miles, although Subaru didn't recall the cars for that yet, as people have noticed issues with them. Heck, even the CVTs in Mitsubishi's cars, even though the brand is considered the dollar store of cars now, and the cars themselves, despite being outdated, are rock solid reliable. And in regards to the HP and torque limits on Nissan's CVTs, even their smaller cars in the Versa and Sentra would have CVT issues down the line, leading to the same nasty failures like in their bigger cars in the Altima and Rogue.

Heck, even Audi had CVTs in their cars at one point, but thankfully had a moment of clarity and did away with them.

Going back to cars though, I also don't like how LED headlights and other types of fancy lights are now common-place on cars, and halogens are slowly getting phased out. Yes, the LEDs could last longer, but they are a much bigger pain to replace once they fail, and at least halogen bulbs are straightforward to replace, for the most part.

 

[murdered meat bag]

Web links where the site always blocks the scrolling and asks if you want to view it in their special little app that is just a different browser(Twitter, Instagram and so on).

youd think by now theres a browser add on or a browser that can over come this... desktop mode works sometimes but not enough.

 

[Never Scored]

youd think by now theres a browser add on or a browser that can over come this... desktop mode works sometimes but not enough.

Disable JavaScript for sites that don't need it, like news sites, and you don't get them, you don't get ads, you don't get ad blocker detectors and you don't get those fucking "This site uses cookies" notices.

 

[AnOminous]

Web links where the site always blocks the scrolling and asks if you want to view it in their special little app that is just a different browser(Twitter, Instagram and so on).

I dislike any app that for no good reason has a full web browser in it. Particularly Electron apps.

Ugh those cutesy little "error messages" are enraging. Probably some idiot liberal arts diversity hire with a nose ring has a "job" making those.

Reddit's are particularly insufferable.

 

[AmpleApricots]

Retina-scorching blue LEDs. Lots of electronic devices have these and not only is it IMO an unpleasant color, they're usually also the wrong type and way too bright, illuminating the whole room when it's dark. They're usually clear LEDs that work at an narrow angle too so they can illuminate your bright walls in an extra-efficient way. Bonus points if it's a computer case and your mainboard makes your power LED blink in S3 sleep state so you can experience how it's like to live in a sketchy area with a blinking billboard out front at night.

Also when the plastic case is any other color than black and doesn't absorb the light well, these LEDs usually also leak everywhere through the case, making things look extra shitty and cheap.

I've taken to replace such LEDs (when I actually need the LED and covering up is impractical) with cheap diffuse, colored ones. My go-to is green for power and orange for things like HDD activity or anything else that might blink or pulse etc.. These also need slightly more current than a blue one, making them even dimmer leading to an LED that does it's job: indicating with a gentle shine without being distracting. When the plastic of the case that houses the LED is especially thin and/or there's leakage, I use some black shrink tubing that covers the head of the LED to wherever it's actually supposed to shine through, works pretty well. I just recently fixed my new computer case in this way and it was a 100% upgrade in looks (you now actually can recognize the fancy, laser-cut power symbol on the button and it's not only a bright blue, uneven blob) and I don't know why manufacturers don't bother, at least putting a more appropriate LED is neither difficult nor expensive.

 

[seri0us]

I work in a "nothing can listen or track you for security reasons" building, which means I can't have earbuds without a microphone built-in. Turns out finding the Ark of the Covenant is easier than getting ones without that shit nowadays!

Can't you just manually rip that crap out, though?

I built a desktop recently. [...] The case I got for it doesn't have the room for a CD drive. I hate this [...]

"I deliberately built a computer without something I want, and now I'm mad. How can this be happening to me???"

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

"I deliberately built a computer without something I want, and now I'm mad. How can this be happening to me???"

I was on a budget and couldn't afford one with the space.

 

[seri0us]

I was on a budget and couldn't afford one with the space.

Ah.

Optical mice can get fucked. One tiny bit of dust lands on my mousepad and bam, my cursor starts having a wild fucking seizure, dancing across the screen without me laying a hand on it.
What's that? There's a loose hair under your mouse? Well you're fucked now, buddy!

That has never happened to me

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

That has never happened to me

Some are worse than others. I have the Microsoft Wireless 5000 and the optical part is recessed about half an inch into the mouse. One time I thought it was either broken or some software was fucking up because it behaved really weird, but no, it was an eyelash in there that fluttered a bit when the mouse was moved.

I don't know why they designed it like that.

 

[The Real SVP]

VR is a gimmick for hyper coomers.

Fixed that for you. It's prety much the best invention since prostitution.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

In regards to Ford's Powershift, I mean Powershudder, I mean Powershit, even the Ford exec's knew that the transmission would have issues in their cars, and yet they still went on and sold it to customers anyway. And isn't Gertrag (or was it Tremec?) a Chinese-based company now? I heard some horror stories about the manual transmissions in the Mustang.

Also, Subaru did also increase the warranty on their CVTs on some of their older cars, to 10 years/100k miles, although Subaru didn't recall the cars for that yet, as people have noticed issues with them. Heck, even the CVTs in Mitsubishi's cars, even though the brand is considered the dollar store of cars now, and the cars themselves, despite being outdated, are rock solid reliable. And in regards to the HP and torque limits on Nissan's CVTs, even their smaller cars in the Versa and Sentra would have CVT issues down the line, leading to the same nasty failures like in their bigger cars in the Altima and Rogue.

Heck, even Audi had CVTs in their cars at one point, but thankfully had a moment of clarity and did away with them.

Going back to cars though, I also don't like how LED headlights and other types of fancy lights are now common-place on cars, and halogens are slowly getting phased out. Yes, the LEDs could last longer, but they are a much bigger pain to replace once they fail, and at least halogen bulbs are straightforward to replace, for the most part.

It's probably been said before, but fuck those LED headlights when night driving. Their retina scalding bullshit always manages to chew through my night vision when I get tagged by on-coming traffic and glares the fuck out of my periphery when they're behind me. I hate them almost as much as xenon lamp ricers and lightbar rednecks.

 

[longtimelurkerfirsttimepo]

It's probably been said before, but fuck those LED headlights when night driving. Their retina scalding bullshit always manages to chew through my night vision when I get tagged by on-coming traffic and glares the fuck out of my periphery when they're behind me. I hate them almost as much as xenon lamp ricers and lightbar rednecks.

Those things are ridiculous. The manufacturers can surely put either a filter on them to get them closer to what headlights are usually like, or at least pretend to restrict the light coming at a horizontal angle. Even driving around in a well-light city at dusk I have trouble keeping the beams of blinding light ruining my night vision. I have no desire to drive head-on into them during a dark night on the highways.

My night vision has plenty of time to get worse too, I can't imagine it's very pleasant for the actual boomers.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

I miss the satisfying bells of slamming a landline phone when hanging up on some arsehole.
pressing a red button on a touchscreen doesn’t give the same feeling