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

[ToroidalBoat]

trusts something even called "the cloud"

I couldn't get a signal in a subway train, so why the fuck would I stream music?

The internet may be accessible anywhere, but it's a very unreliable way to access stuff. It can go down at any time, even if it's just one's own connection.

Not to mention "cloud computing" hosting companies can go out of business or just delete data for whatever reason.

If that happened, or there was some disaster and the internet went down, can you imagine how SOL these "streaming is the future bro" hipsters would be?

 

[AnOminous]

When I asked him how much space they could hold, he said some insanely low amount like 8GB or something, and his reasoning was that modern Apple products barely have any hard drive space because they want you to use streaming services and the cloud.

That's fucking ludicrous for what they charge for this shit. My iPhone 4s has 64 GB. It is almost 10 years old. Fuck your cloud, Apple. Fuck your streaming.

 

[Jazz never died!]

I prefer to use flipphones over smartphone due to the small size and long battery life. Hell mine has a headphone jack fm radio reciever and a music player why would i want to buy a iphone when my small phone can play youtube through Bluetooth speakers.

Yep, I have a personal anecdote about this exact problem:

A few years back my iPod Classic finally died, and none of the Apple repair shops in my town would fix it. I decided to just fork the money over and get a new one, so I went to Best Buy. The teenage clerk didn't know what I was talking about, and instead kept coaxing me to buy an iPhone. I told him I specifically want a regular iPod, and he said they stopped selling them because iPhones are now the default MP3 players. When I asked him how much space they could hold, he said some insanely low amount like 8GB or something, and his reasoning was that modern Apple products barely have any hard drive space because they want you to use streaming services and the cloud. The whole fucking point of why I needed an iPod in the 1st place was for driving or riding on trains when I used to commute to work -- both of which give me shitty cell phone reception. I couldn't get a signal in a subway train, so why the fuck would I stream music? Just give me my damn iPod with 120 GB of storage, damnit.

They still sell them on used markets apple discontinued them due to low sales. Although with the low microsd card prices you can get a good sized card and a cheap phone with a built in headphone jack for less than 60 dollars or a genaric mp3 player for less than 20 with expandable memory.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

Not to mention "cloud computing" hosting companies can go out of business or just delete data for whatever reason.

No only that but the security is questionable at best (see also: The Fappening). Granted, people choose some easy to crack passwords, but there are some things people want to store but not on internet based storage that could be easily compromised, viewed, or otherwise manipulated.

I feel the same way about the Software as a Service model more companies are pushing. Pehaps it's because I believe end users deserve to have more say on what goes on their computers and not be subject to the whims of software and hardware vendors that want to wrest away that control and use the internet to exert their own control over hardware and software.

 

[Tard Repository]

In general, I REALLY just don't like how modern games (even single player) ones force you to have an internet connection to play them. You bought a single player game that has an optional multiplayer mode? Sorry, pal, you've gotta be connected.

Also, non-removable batteries in most modern smartphones. As far as I know there's no real benefit to them besides making phones seem slimmer. I miss how it was a few years back where you could buy a decent smartphone and have it last for years because if the battery took a shit you could just order a new one for $20 off the internet. Now if your battery dies you either buy a new phone or pay $100+ (and postage if you send it in to the manufacturer) to get the battery replaced.

Sorry if this has already been brought up before.

 

[Non-breath oblige]

Yep, I have a personal anecdote about this exact problem:

A few years back my iPod Classic finally died, and none of the Apple repair shops in my town would fix it. I decided to just fork the money over and get a new one, so I went to Best Buy. The teenage clerk didn't know what I was talking about, and instead kept coaxing me to buy an iPhone. I told him I specifically want a regular iPod, and he said they stopped selling them because iPhones are now the default MP3 players. When I asked him how much space they could hold, he said some insanely low amount like 8GB or something, and his reasoning was that modern Apple products barely have any hard drive space because they want you to use streaming services and the cloud. The whole fucking point of why I needed an iPod in the 1st place was for driving or riding on trains when I used to commute to work -- both of which give me shitty cell phone reception. I couldn't get a signal in a subway train, so why the fuck would I stream music? Just give me my damn iPod with 120 GB of storage, damnit.

Yeah, iPod Touches are the closest that you're going to get to an "iPod" now, and it's basically iPhones with the phone capability ripped out. I don't think they go 8GB low nowadays considering recent iOSes have gotten so big you wouldn't have any space left to install any apps. Default minimum are now probably like 32 or 64.

On a similar note, a few years ago I had to peruse the used marketplace sites like eBay and Swappa to get an 128GB+ iPhone model w/ a headphone jack cause every store stopped selling them a long time ago. Space on my old iPhone was starting to push its limits, but imo I like the phone + camera + music player + non-wireless headphones combo, just less things to carry in my pocket. (Also I've gotten too used to iOS and managing my MP3 library with iTunes. And as much as people absolutely hate iTunes with a passion, it's gotten the job done for me but ydy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) It was tough cause most reasonably priced ones were like ones with okay-ish battery levels, but man did it feel super satisfying snagging a like-new 128GB with a near 100% battery capacity and only minor scratches for less than 200.

Also MP3 till I die because I listen to too much niche weeb stuff and glorious Nippon is fucking ass backwards with catching onto streaming in the states due to contractual licensing BS.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think there's 3 main reasons for this "software as a service" bullshit:

1: it's meant to reduce "piracy"

2: they can get a lot more money from subscription fees than one time payments

3: more dependence on the company

No only that but the security is questionable at best (see also: The Fappening).

One thing Current Year has shown us is that leaks of online storage may be inevitable. Cyberpunk dystopia.

 

[Thiletonomics]

I think there's 3 main reasons for this "software as a service" bullshit:

1: it's meant to reduce "piracy"

2: they can get a lot more money from subscription fees than one time payments

3: more dependence on the company



One thing Current Year has shown us is that leaks of online storage may be inevitable. Cyberpunk dystopia.

Not to mention how media for games, i.e. games being on DVDs, are becoming less of a thing, with needing to download the games in full instead, which saves companies money by not needing to mass produce discs.

 

[Un Platano]

Also MP3 till I die because I listen to too much niche weeb stuff and glorious Nippon is fucking ass backwards with catching onto streaming in the states due to contractual licensing BS.

Everything about media in Japan is ass-backwards. Websites regularly put basic functionality behind a paywall, their intellectual property laws would make Disney in the US jealous, and it's the one developed country in the world where people are still buying CDs, even though they're being sold at vastly inflated prices. With how many confounding trends like these exist in Japanese media you'd think they haven't moved on from when they were the world's top electronics manufacturer 30 years ago.

 

[Never Scored]

Not to mention how media for games, i.e. games being on DVDs, are becoming less of a thing, with needing to download the games in full instead, which saves companies money by not needing to mass produce discs.

I don't know how much storage space you have, but I have a lot. Xbox 360s and PS3s and their games are super cheap now, at least they were last year. I stocked up on twenty or so physical 360 games I haven't played before that I wanted to try out and picked up an extra system to stick in the closet. Only spent like $200 or $250 total. Might all crap out in a decade or so, but at the glacial rate I work my way through games it's enough to keep me going until the early 2030s.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

their intellectual property laws would make Disney in the US jealous

You mean how there's no fair use for public use*, and one can go to prison for "normal" copyright infringement? Yeah, that's pretty messed up there.

*(which is why Japanese Wikipedia articles on copyrighted media lack pictures)

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Even more annoying is when soy technophile hipsters tell you "it's Current Year so everything is going to the cloud bro". Like other crap they say, it boils down to "you gotta accept the bullshit bro".

You will own nothing, and you WILL be happy.

I don't want to put everything in the cloud. Three reasons:

1. The Fappening - you have no real guarantee that your data is safe

2. Subscription fees - your data and files are held to ransom

3. Memory holing - your data can be tweaked or bowdlerised or baleeted whenever it becomes inconvenient to the powers that be

Also there's something comforting about having physical media. You have a CD or a cassette tape or a vinyl of an album, you have it. It is there. It is set in stone (or plastic, or rust, or aluminium foil) and immutable. It will always have that song that isn't considered PC any more, or which upset the Chicoms that one time, or that episode where Kyle explains Islamists' use of the hecklers' veto, or where Xena and Gabrielle rampantly culturally appropriate Indians, or where the Major explains the difference between wogs and niggers to Basil Fawlty, or where Uncle Albert won't get any credit from the Paki shop, etc. You have a subscription on a streaming service, you don't; you have a bit on a server somewhere that means that this user is permitted to listen to this album or watch that film. And if that song or film or episode is now wrongthinkful, welp, sucks to be you.

I am currently in the process of digging out as many spare drives as I have to fill with downloaded copies of media as proof against the inevitable Ministry of Truthing of history which will no doubt come in the streaming world. The pulling of "culturally insensitive" things further to the George Floyd protests is only the beginning, you mark my words.

 

[Non-breath oblige]

Everything about media in Japan is ass-backwards. Websites regularly put basic functionality behind a paywall, their intellectual property laws would make Disney in the US jealous, and it's the one developed country in the world where people are still buying CDs, even though they're being sold at vastly inflated prices. With how many confounding trends like these exist in Japanese media you'd think they haven't moved on from when they were the world's top electronics manufacturer 30 years ago.

Speaking of basic functionality, I like having lyrics in my music but usually always manually edit them myself instead of using Musixmatch or whatever lyrics service music players typically use because of formatting or grammar issues. I've noticed only on Japanese websites that they have some dumb scripting or custom HTML5 viewer crap that prevents me from copying the text (e.g. highlighting or right-click functionality is disabled). Like, I don't get it, people can still manually retype it anyway, so what purpose does this serve? Do the out of touch bald wigs think someone is going to "steal" the text (that they've technically already "stolen" I suppose) and sell it for profit or something?

 

[AnOminous]

the Major explains the difference between wogs and niggers to Basil Fawlty

One of the classic moments in all of comedy, now lost in time, like tears in rain. Never mind the absolutely hilarious episode with the Germans. You're not allowed to be funny any more!

 

[Instant_Pot_User]

Never mind the absolutely hilarious episode with the Germans.

Listen, don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it alright.

 

[AnOminous]

Honestly when I first watched this episode I literally fell out of my chair laughing. Where can you get comedy like this these days? It's apparently illegal.

And of course the humor depends on the context.

And yet, despite the fact that the comedy in Fawlty Towers comes from most of the characters being absolute, utter assholes, the mere fact that goose stepping is referenced, or that a known asshole, who you aren't supposed to approve of, is racist, fuck it, cancel it all, throw it in the bonfire.

Fuck the BBC.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

One of the classic moments in all of comedy, now lost in time, like tears in rain. Never mind the absolutely hilarious episode with the Germans. You're not allowed to be funny any more!

The wogs vs. niggers clip is from that episode. As is Basil asking if the black doctor is "a real one."

The joke was never on BIPOC but on Basil and/or the Major and his ridiculous small minded attitudes.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The pulling of "culturally insensitive" things further to the George Floyd protests is only the beginning, you mark my words.

Speaking of tech trends, I miss the optimism that regular manned spaceflight would be achieved by the early 21st century. I want off this shitty planet.

And yeah, none of the stuff I bought is "on the cloud". None of the vidya I have needs an internet connection to work. Some may call me a Luddite because I'm pretty much technologically still living in the '00s. But given how crazy things are going, is that really a bad thing?

 

[melty]

I really hate Microsoft Teams. My complaint actually isn't about it's video call software, it works well, it's all the other cloud-based collaboration shit that comes packaged with it.

 

[Un Platano]

You will own nothing, and you WILL be happy.

I don't want to put everything in the cloud. Three reasons:

1. The Fappening - you have no real guarantee that your data is safe

2. Subscription fees - your data and files are held to ransom

3. Memory holing - your data can be tweaked or bowdlerised or baleeted whenever it becomes inconvenient to the powers that be

Also there's something comforting about having physical media. You have a CD or a cassette tape or a vinyl of an album, you have it. It is there. It is set in stone (or plastic, or rust, or aluminium foil) and immutable. It will always have that song that isn't considered PC any more, or which upset the Chicoms that one time, or that episode where Kyle explains Islamists' use of the hecklers' veto, or where Xena and Gabrielle rampantly culturally appropriate Indians, or where the Major explains the difference between wogs and niggers to Basil Fawlty, or where Uncle Albert won't get any credit from the Paki shop, etc. You have a subscription on a streaming service, you don't; you have a bit on a server somewhere that means that this user is permitted to listen to this album or watch that film. And if that song or film or episode is now wrongthinkful, welp, sucks to be you.

I am currently in the process of digging out as many spare drives as I have to fill with downloaded copies of media as proof against the inevitable Ministry of Truthing of history which will no doubt come in the streaming world. The pulling of "culturally insensitive" things further to the George Floyd protests is only the beginning, you mark my words.

Those aren't issues inherent to digital media, they're specifically issues with streaming. Digital media where you can download the media files is better than physical media even. It takes far less physical storage space, and you can copy and back it up infinitely. Whereas physical media is certainly not set in stone, and can easily be rendered inaccessible by breaking it. Analog media is even worse because no matter how well you treat them they degrade through normal use. Magnetic tape is the worst offender of this- the signal on the tape will rot away just from sitting on a shelf for a long time.
That alone is damning in the case against analog media in the modern day- my streaming service might not be available in 20 years and I'll lose access to everything on it, but my tapes and records won't be available either because they'll have degraded into a recording of a blizzard. It's for that reason that digital media is the most immutable format of all- I can play them a million times, or a billion times, and let them sit on archival storage for a thousand years, and they'll never be any worse for wear.

Of course, that all comes with the caveat that the digital media can't have DRM. With how restrictive some of those systems are they might as well just be streaming the media, because as soon as those servers go offline the media is worthless. They make it far too easy to justify torrenting a cracked version when they run schemes like that.