Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

I was watching a programme about Nokia which mentioned how Apple came along with its massive touchscreen, which sacrificed battery life and durability i.e. we all now accept that a phone battery will need charging at least every night and if we drop the phone the screen will shatter, which wasn't the case before. There must be tons of these?

My own personal bugbear is how you used to be able to change the TV channel with a remote instantaneously rather than having to wait a couple of seconds after pressing the button and now that's seemingly impossible.

On a larger scale it's probably a backwards step that everyone is expected to have a recent smartphone to conveniently do loads of things (show your boarding pass, or whatever) and shit stops being supported within a few versions. Music compression too. But I guess I'm thinking of specific annoyances that shouldn't even be problems.

I was only half-watching the Nokia programme so please feel free to correct my comprehensive history of Apple there.

the original gameboy lasted about eight years through new release support and actual durability of the hardware

Everybody's landline used to work in a blackout.

^^ good one, also you can no longer get DC power from landlines

taking the headphone jack away

Audio fidelity/quality was better with landlines too.

sez you, "Telecom"

:)

at my gym i have to log in on a giant touch screen to run on the fucking treadmill. the other day it asked me if i wanted to install updates. hl;kjalkjh;asgdhl;kasgd

My own personal bugbear is how you used to be able to change the TV channel with a remote instantaneously rather than having to wait a couple of seconds after pressing the button and now that's seemingly impossible.

― kinder, 14. august 2019 00:14 (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wait, what?

oh god please just go away

iPod clickwheel RIP

Audio fidelity/quality was better with landlines too

Right? It used to actually be enjoyable to talk on the phone (not to mention that handsets were much more ergonomic/comfortable/seemed less likely to induce brain cancer), no wonder phone calls seem like an intrusive nuisance now.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/08/the-us-navy-says-no-to-touchscreens-maybe-automakers-should-too/

I realized too when I got an iPhone for xmas how much it suffered from an absence of the trackball on my old phone.

The iPad was a bit of a stumble
-techno beaver

remote control thing is a great example. that drives me crazy any time i'm in a hotel or something and just want to enjoy the mindless zone-out of channel surfing. related: TVs coming with "motion smoothing" turned on by default and sometimes with no option to turn it off.

* many websites/apps/etc. have gotten slower and junkier as they've added features, loaded up with data-draining graphics and videos and scripts. like, just trying to see what the hourly weather forecast for tomorrow is involves a lot more clicking and waiting than it did a few years ago. google maps is another one that's gotten a lot shittier.

* new laptops with only USB-C ports so that to make this sleek, elegant thing fully functional and do basic things you need to buy an expensive dongle and have it hang awkwardly off the apple lust object.

* also in general, laptops replacing desktops for a computer that remains at a desk at all times --- massively worse ergonomically and less computer for your money.

* not to make this a physical media thread but def all the downsides of the streaming world belong here. but obv there are many tradeoffs.

* general trend of offloading labor onto unpaid customers (self check out, surveys, pressure from amazon to answer support questions for products you've bought, etc.).

* death of big-budget 2D animation (in hollywood anyway).

history is littered with these of course, cf. invention of agriculture and human health/life expectancy/society. or cars replacing transit networks, all of those stories. or at a pettier level, all the changes in shaving since idk the 1960s or 70s.

Audio fidelity/quality was better with landlines too.

i hung onto my landline for longer than most people and in the early days of cellphones it was infuriating talking to anyone on theirs because the audio quality was terrible. it's better now but still not as good as landlines were.

the substitution of plastics for paper, cloth, wood, and metal (not as acceptable as it used to be but never more pervasive)

Color printer/scanners are a now an everyday cheapish appliance but their rate of malfunction makes them barely worth the trouble.
A black and white laserjet that couldn’t scan shit would cost you an arm but you could be sure that sucker would turn out pages for ages, iirc.

A lot of fast fashion type stuff bugs me, like having to actually look for cotton underwear.

as someone who lives in a country where you wear gloves several months out of the year, i daily cursed the engineer who introduced thumbprint unlock as the default on the iPhone

the default of ‘pick up your phone and look at it before we reveal the content of a text’ on the iPhone ten also a v stupid idea

A black and white laserjet that couldn’t scan shit would cost you an arm but you could be sure that sucker would turn out pages for ages, iirc.

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, August 13, 2019 5:02 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Brother still makes products of this caliber and they aren't disturbingly expensive.

at a pettier level, all the changes in shaving since idk the 1960s or 70s.

― Good morning, how are you, I'm (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, August 13, 2019 4:26 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

development of laser hair removal is a big improvement tbh

Color printer/scanners are a now an everyday cheapish appliance but their rate of malfunction makes them barely worth the trouble.

Not to be a commercial but after years of having problems with inkjet printers and generally feeling like they were the most unreliable piece of technology in existence, I bought an Epson Eco-tank and it has been life-changing. I actually love my printer now and wouldn’t trade it for anything. 100% reliable, scans and prints great, I haven’t had to refill it yet and I’ve had it for... 2 years? No more of the seemingly constant cartridge replacements. /commercial

Of course, that’s the opposite of what this thread is about.

I just had a 1958 Grundig tube radio repaired, it sounds amazing; finding someone who could work on it was the hard part

it wasn't really so long ago that devices like radios, TVs, stereo components, and even personal computers were designed to be repaired and kept in service for many years; now the same kinds of devices go directly to the landfill as soon as they fail, if not sooner; the fact that the replacement devices are cheaper and more capable than the junked ones is not a particularly impressive sign of progress

The loss of institutional knowledge about how to build heavy-duty, reliable liquid propellant rocket systems has had a massive impact on space programs around the world.

Now somebody tell me they have a way to get to the moon just fine.

I’m gonna be really anxious when the time comes to buy a new TV because the one I have has been so good for so long *raps on wooden table*

i was curious about buying a new tv - i haven't had one since the mid 90s, a portable black-and-white model from the 80s passed on to me from my parents - and the enormous variations in crazy features and too-good-to-be-credible prices just made me give up

I started with the knowledge that I wanted a Sony of a certain size with a certain number of HDMI inputs and went with that, I think?

i recently had ceiling fans installed, and we got the ones with lights built in

too late i realised that to turn the lights on and off we now need to fumble around with a dinky battery powered remote

curse a society that no longer understands that light switches should be easy to find in the dark

(also every button press is accompanied by an annoying beeping sound that can't be muted)

that everything has a remote is ridiculous.

Wait, I've never turned lights on or off with a battery-powered remote. That is not a backward step I accept!

Landlines, though. Still had one until 2011. I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person who finds it physically difficult to converse satisfyingly on a smartphone.

i hate talking on the phone now, it makes me antsy and eager to get off the phone. but i don't know if that is something abt the phone itself, or how my expectations and practices around phones have changed, esp thru texting taking the place of calls for almost all the things i used to make calls for. and the ppl on the other end feeling the same way and distracted and eager to get off the phone too.

everyone hates talking on the phone now.
it's social anxiety and because we have so many job related activities where one is on the phone all the time.

although my mom still chats away like she is teenager of the year.

It used to be that after CRT and plasma declined, televisions were a forced compromise: backlit LCD or nothing, which suck for watching films (bad shadow levels, motion smoothing, etc etc). I white-knuckled the gap between plasma and OLED by self-repairing my plasma when the power supply failed, and then buying a used plasma which got me through (barely, with lines on the screen and driver failures) just until the OLEDs came down enough for me to consider an end-of-line clearance price.
Now of course I have the best TV of my life - it's kind of ironic because my film library is worth probably 5-10 times as much as the screen I watch them on.

Landlines were easier to have a conversation on because it was in real time. Cellphones have gotten better, but they're still bouncing audio off of metal towers like a pinball machine. Landlines were the technological final product of an evolution that began with two cans and a piece of string, and worked just fine.

I have the same tv remote problem with my microwave.

Are there really cars out there that combat drowsiness by not letting itself drift over any white or yellow line unless the blinker is on?] Because I will lose my shit, that's all there is to it.

things have gotten a bit better, but even as the early playstation era was happening i remember thinking "wow it sucks that i have to wait 15 seconds for every other screen to load". that was in stark contrast to the near-instant load times of the cartridge based systems at the time and of the recent past.

of course, we were all more than willing to wait as long as it took to gedda load of them polygams

https://i.imgur.com/KKf0O1X.jpg

When you buy a new video game and it has to spend an assload of time downloading "updates" before you can play the fucking thing.

Also Denny's getting rid of the Breakfast Dagwood

“like, just trying to see what the hourly weather forecast for tomorrow is involves a lot more clicking and waiting than it did a few years ago”

(since you’re not opposed to using google:) google “(city) weather” once, ctrl+h “wea” for every instance after

P much any form of watching tv now.

Are you guys saying landlines don't sound as good as they used to, or that cellphones don't sound as good as landlines? I agree with the latter, but as for the former, my landline still sounds great. I would never have a conversation on my cellphone unless I was away from home.

We have a landline so we can put the number on paperwork, and for “just in case.” I think we turned the ringer off two years ago. It sits behind the dehumidifier in our master bedroom.

xp saying that cellphones don't sound as good as landlines.

Coca Cola Freestyle machines. Ok...i love em. But...

Soda fountains in the past, usually your biggest problem was the soda came out flat because the bag needed to be changed. So maybe your number one choice isn't available, but other stuff is. Also, multiple people can fill their shit at the same time.

But with these fuckin machines, if you are unlucky enough to go to a store with only one machine, you gotta wait behind the dummy who can't figure it out.

Then when you get there, sometimes they're out of like every diet product, but you don't find out until you click on it and try to pour it, it stops, and greys out.

And then sometimes the shit just malfunctions and nobody in the restaurant knows how to fix it because they gotta call some help line. And if none of the machines work, you gotta wait in kine and get someone at the counter to pour you a drink

iPod clickwheel RIP

Oh and inspired by Neanderthal’s post just now! Automated airport bag drops - just an awful scourge and take far more time than having someone check the suitcase and slap the sticker on it for you. Goes double if you’re stuck behind people who are confused by this (naturally). Waited fifteen minutes behind a family checking in three suitcases the other day - there should have been staff to help them.

Tangential, I had a flight cancelled and was dutomatically put on the next flight leaving from that airport (Chaunbery) to my destination, the following evening. Good work you might say, but: not only were there several other airports within driving distance from my place of departure (Lyon, Geneva), there were also many flights into other London airports. So there were actually dozens of options that would get me home sooner...which a person would have taken into account, but for a machine there's just the two data points.

On the contrary, the more ham-handed targeting is, the better, from my perspective.

otm.
My friend recommended me a podcast that looks like an audio book of Normal Women by Philippa Gregory, a historical look at inequality. Next day Facebook is serving up ads for a 'darkly comic' novel, also called Normal Women. Like hey we saw you liked books called Normal Women, here's another one!!!

I got a ton of memes/groups about Big Bang Theory, Marvel and HIMYM in my facebook feed a while back - all things I have zero interest in and actively follow other groups about comedy shows I DO like.

Exactly; if I get recommended something about Big Bang Theory I can just blissfully scroll on, safe in knowing it will never command even a bit of my attention.

But if the internet ever came up with a way to bombard me with an impossibly exact cocktail of mid-career Elvis Costello, postmodern classicism, baked goods, midatlantic archeology and mandolin accessories... that would be deadly.

on Facebook, as an experiment, i have liked exactly 3 films, all over 6 hours long - Shoah, Satantango and The Human Condition - and it still recommends Fast and Furious

I regularly look up items and companies that are on clients’ credit card statements and receipts to categorize them for accounting purposes…

Koogs, clearly the Borg is concerned about you and is trying to help you lighten up.

I think of think in frogbs’s case it was probably just shotgun blasting “you like records? here is a new record” instead of specifically knowing about the video, but who knows.

I’m guessing transparency isn’t going to be as high going forward, but instagram still lets you see “why you’re seeing this ad” and it’s usually “you interacted with content about music and retail and you’re a male over age 21”

although for Buckcherry specially it is probably targeting specific ages, lol

much like it knows koogs loves cinema

the deeper themes of Fast & Furious can only be discerned when all 9 movies are watched consecutively in a single viewing with zero bathroom breaks, just like koogs' favorite films

Xp Right, all of which is like normal target marketing as she was practiced since the invention of dirt.

I worked in advertising and PR in the pre-internet 80s/90s and it felt quaint. A dull instrument.

The philosophy was summed up in a quote attributed to John Wanamaker: Half of the money you spend on advertising is wasted. Trouble is, you don't know which half.

No I agree it’s nice that the algorithms don’t really *know* me, I just find myself thinking of Buckcherry now more than what would be my personal preference, is all

(deletes Buckcherry reference)

the one marketing thing that I have to laugh at because it’s dumb was whatever was in Target’s marketing process that would know I just bought paper towels (yes, judge me for having their store card and letting them track my purchases to some extent) and an hour after getting home I’d get an email advertising me a great deal on paper towels

I like the way you Zuck me

i *have* also seen the first n fast 'n' furious movies, and worse, but *it* doesn't know that.

but, as others have mentioned, i like that it's clueless

(Algorithm next recommends Clueless as a movie for you to watch)

I just said I'm clueless and I got an ad for Clue

https://bsky.app/profile/theonion.com/post/3lh5chfblmm2w

https://theonion.com/forward-thinking-ceo-hoping-company-can-capture-new-aud-1846058985/

trying to buy dvds online...

visa debit card? is that visa or is it debit? don't know. it failed anyway.

try another card. it doesn't say 'mastercard' on it but there are two mastercard-coloured circles on it. and it gets further, but i need to login to my app to approve the transfer. only the app insists on being updated and the oversubscribed 4g around here means that took an age and worldpay's 80s-themed web-panel timed out and now doesn't like the second card either.

oh, this is after 4 attempts at the captcha that was asking which squares had the motorbikes in, and there was one motorbike, which covered 7, potentially 8 of the 9 squares.

paypal. just let me use paypal.

yeah I got stuck trying to place an IKEA order today until I gave up and switched to PayPal.

not really a backward step, but have we talked about the Internet's general failure to come to agreement on formatting for standard drop-down menus? that is --- am I at a site where typing "2" will give me "Feb," or should I have typed "F"? is this site gonna abbreviate states as "NY" or should I start typing "Ne..."? bearing in mind that hitting backspace will likely send me back from this page entirely. bad design!

PayPal not an option unfortunately. might end up using Amazon rather than buying from eureka direct. (i have 16 unwatched films in the pile, i don't really need another 5 just yet but...)

xp Also dropdowns when entering credit card expiry dates that list months by their name rather than—as is the case on every bank card I've owned—a number.

that is eminently sensible for any retailer that has customers in the US plus another country

let alone more than one

Not necessarily a "backwards step," but an incredibly insane thing involving PayPal.

From a friend:
'This morning I was contacted by a customer who purchased from me last week through Instagram a book called "Cuba en la Grafica" - a collection of posters. Che figures prominently on the front cover. PayPal contacted my customer to ask why he'd purchased the book, and to explain its nature. The payment has not gone through. On my end, it's listed as "pending while we review it."'

It turns out that PayPal flags the word "Cuba," which is objectively completely fucking bonkers.
https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba-usa/paypal-sanctions-the-word-cuba/

oh, this is after 4 attempts at the captcha that was asking which squares had the motorbikes in, and there was one motorbike, which covered 7, potentially 8 of the 9 squares.

This drives me bonkers. There will always be 1 square with an inch of a wheel in it from a bike or car in another square and I'm never clear whether that counts, and whatever choice I make it always seems to be wrong.

i recently learned that those captchas don’t actually have a “right” answer, they just measure your answers against other people’s. so if most people said the square contained a car, then your answer just has to match that

yes but most people just aren't as attuned to subtle evidence of cars in corners of images

re dropdowns : do i live in England, Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom, or the f&cking UK ?

and sometimes they helpfully pin it to the top of the list, but usually they don't - so that's another place you have to check.

"motorbikes"

The classic captcha example is traffic lights. Does that include the post? Is the post part of the traffic light? Shouldn't they say "signal head"? Etc.

Up the page I think I mentioned the tendency of some organisations to email you an electronic ticket that has to be uploaded to Google Wallet, or Apple Wallet, or whatever, rather than a simple PDF. I mention it because I've bought a ticket to see an exhibition at the Tate Modern called Electric Dreams - it has computers - and, yes, the ticket is actually a button that tries to upload a .PKPASS file to my Apple Wallet. And not actually a ticket itself.

The exhibition's subtitle is "art and technology before the internet" which is odd in all kinds of ways.

i recently learned that those captchas don’t actually have a “right” answer, they just measure your answers against other people’s. so if most people said the square contained a car, then your answer just has to match that

― Tracer Hand, Monday, February 17, 2025 3:42 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Did you know that working as a verification mechanism is only half their purpose? The real value for Google or whoever is that you're helping train image recognition programs

oof

Specifically, I thought those Captchas were being used to train self-driving cars, hence all the road imagery.

I liked it better when they were using us to help Google read old scanned books.

to view this page, please select all the squares that contain non-civilian drone targets

I don't think self-driving was the use case as much as it was adding metadata to Google Maps, but it'd definitely be useful for visual recognition in a variety of situations.

There's been some advancement, but generally, any time a computer can recognize something visually, it means someone has specifically provided many, many examples of that thing in a photo. So there are contractors out there either taking photos of specific things, or circling that thing in existing photos. Or a captcha accomplished.

sad lol, budo jeru

and sometimes they helpfully pin it to the top of the list, but usually they don't - so that's another place you have to check.

"United States Minor Outlying Islands"

"metadata to Google Maps" makes more sense.

Now that I think about it, the Captcha images probably come from Street View photos.

I mean, it's kind of both. The Google Maps cars are semi-autonomous

iirc the text captchas were to fix issues in Google Books OCR

worldpay: 10 different attempts now, 2 cards, 3 different devices, all rejected.

it has a drop-down for mm/yyyy when my cards only have mm/yy, i wonder if that's the problem? it also fills in my full name but the card only has initials. and do i need to include the MR? just so opaque.

and it's not my first order, it worked last year.

do i need to buy a ticket for the tate show? i was going to have a day off and just turn up...

which tate show

the one ashley mentioned upthread...

> I've bought a ticket to see an exhibition at the Tate Modern called Electric Dreams - it has computers - and, yes, the ticket is actually a button that tries to upload a .PKPASS file to my Apple Wallet. And not actually a ticket itself.

Ah!

If you go on the weekend it's helpful to get a ticket to the popular exhibitions otherwise just turn up

autofill from browser was useful last year and now its just a collection of "who told you that?" random wrong pieces of data

For Electric Dreams we booked on the day on Sunday and there were some slots left. Busier cause it's half term I guess