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

*TV

Wait no it isn’t I read that backwards

guys how am i going to watch back episodes of what was on at the gas pumps

When I lived in the US in 2010, a lot of people around me were getting into weird films they got send by mail.

They still offer this service you know

I guess I haven't been super thorough in testing out this assertion, but it seems like these movies are still available, you just have to search for the channels that have them? Maybe you end up paying to watch a specific thing if you don't have a subscription or special plan, but like ... that's what you used to do at the video store so ...?

yeah i have no idea how to use any of the functions on my microwave besides, like, start and stop and "instant minute" or whatever

like, I can pay $8.99 to watch State of Siege ... before it was just not available.

We replaced the old microwave with the new microwave a few months ago.

Pretty much the same class and style, but on the old microwave, I could hit "1" and "30 SECONDS" in a fluid doot-doot motion to set the timer for 90 seconds.

On the new microwave, I can just about do the same thing except instead of a fluid doot-doot, it's more like doot-(pause)-doot since once I hit the "1", the new microwave feels the need to display the letters

E X P R E S S

up in the window before allowing me to hit the "30 SECONDS" button.

I can sort of get back my rhythm by typing "TIME COOK", "1", "30 SECONDS" in a fluid doot-doot-doot motion, but it still ain't the same like the old microwave.

Also, in typing that last sentence, I just noticed that the CEO of Apple Inc. very nearly has name on every microwave sold in North America.

― pplains, Tuesday, August 30, 2016 7:38 PM bookmarkflaglink

no easy way to view a big chunk of the movies made before the 21st century

― na (NA), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 12:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTM

i live in L.A. and there were several really excellent DVD rental spots within walking distance that have all closed now, i'm sure almost 100% due to streaming taking over. And it's all a trick, we get conned by those articles rhapsodizing about what movies are going to be available this month/which ones we have to watch because oh no they're expiring this month. and it's like The Whole Nine Yards or Red 2 or Another Stakeout. Maybe Deep Impact or High Fidelity, if they're feeling generous. and yeah LL also otm, then you have to sign up for niche premium services to see other films. Even if I want to pay to rent something from Amazon streaming, sometimes it's not available.

however we also have a very good library system in L.A. with a lot of movies, but sometimes they're not always available. I miss going down to the rental place and just browsing their foreign film section or classic noir collection or whatever.

i don't think it's impossible to see something you want to see but it's definitely that backwards step.

the owners manual isn't provided

if you can find a model number, a Google search will usually turn up a PDF manual

(PDF manuals might be a backward step we all just accept now)

movies I hear about and wanna see: check Netflix---> check library ----> check YouTube. There's only a couple in last 10 yrs that I couldn't find one of these 3 ways.

A lot of films are only available to stream in shitty versions which def feels like a step backward from dvd/br where you could be confident you’d get the right aspect ratio at least

Was pleasantly surprised by amount of movies available in my central AZ library system. Browse online, get notified when it's been shipped to my branch...v cool.

i tried to watch RONIN streaming awhile back and it was the goddamned pan n scan. decided to buy the recent blu-ray special edition instead,

pdf manuals are a fucking godsend

a lot of these, like the video store one, could be understood through the ruin-but-not-replace model, which i think i got from one of the canonical los angeles histories (fogelson?) describing the short boom of jitney bus service in the early 20th century, quashed by law because it was recognized that jitneys could skim off just enough cream of the business to ruin the streetcar network, but would not actually replace them in terms of what the public wanted the network to do.

i think this model's useful because it allows us to turn a critical eye even on developments that have many defenders and which do seem to solve some problems for some people. in LA, for many people the jitneys were a huge improvement and solved tons of problems. and that's true of streaming services, even ones with increasingly pathetic back catalogs. but their success ruined video stores which served all kinds of other needs and have not been replaced, full stop. countless articles about the death of the video store make clear how even middling ones in fact had far deeper catalogs than the major streaming services today, surprisingly deep to those of us who remember that era but have forgotten how many VHS tapes actually do fit on a shelf, and how once a store acquired, on release, a copy of Strange Days or Beyond Rangoon or My Dinner With Andre or Critters 2, it was there pretty much eternally. in a beat-up tape with pan-n-scanned picture, but, yknow, THERE! (obviously they would unload the surplus twenty copies of big new releases after their initial heyday.). bringing up the slim pickings for most indie or foreign directors at blockbuster doesn't refute this, because they're not on netflix either!

xxp netflix dvd subscriptions are not that expensive and they have a huge selection of films from the 20th Century!

and yes, libraries remain the greatest of resources to the film enthusiast

have you guys heard of torrentz

thing I love about Gas Station TV is that it has its own anchors and bumper music and it calls itself "GSTV" like a real channel that real people would really watch

pdf manuals are a fucking godsend

ITT ILX is crotchety old geezers

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

I had a dream about straight razors last night they had floral and paisley handles. I wonder if they actually exist.

The airport self check in thing really works for me. I have a rfid doodad on my case. I put the bag on the belt, scan my phone and the case gets whisked away, to reappear at my destination. I check my lugged a lot more because of this (free to check a bag in Australia). Of course people without the app and the doodad still have to struggle with the screen and self tagging.

A lot of this is the UX getting way ahead of a backend that has barely evolved since people were handwriting paper tickets on the red carbon paper stuff. (Or equivalents for other industries)

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

this is effed up and probably true. anything with any lead components is supposed to go to household hazardous waste disposal.

This may be an Australian thing too but cellphones have so much higher quality than landlines, particularly on a cell to cell call although even that lags behind FaceTime/WhatsApp/line/WeChat audio which I find myself using more and more.

To be fair I have no idea what our landline number is, or if the handset is still plugged in. I had to get it to get dsl my only interaction with people, presumably, on landlines is call centre workers who all sound like they are calling from a wind up field telephone at the bottom of a well.

Number None otm, pretty much every film you'd care to watch is available to download from private torrent sites like PtP and KG.

Every week, the library emails me a reminder that I've got five MP3s to download for free, and every week, I think "They don't have to do this."

stuntmen and papier mache >>> cgi

well yeah

pdf-only manuals are bullshit though. my continued inability to delve deeply into the workings of my one modern synthesizer/sequencer has a lot to do with not having a paper manual to thumb through

you know that you can PRINT THEM OUT right?

first i would need a laser printer

Or how about at the fucking gas pump? Starting to pump gas, and then a TV screen magically pops on and starts loudly playing commercials or cable news - just what the world needed

― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 3:26 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

not saying this is a solution for every instance, but (seemingly) more often than not, when I have pressed every button around the edge of one of these screens, one of those buttons (typically not labeled) mutes the sound

You can print anything you want at a UPS store or a Kinkos, sad lol

Fedex Office yo

an inkjet would work too

I’m too busy being told to insert the credit card, waiting forever while nothing happens, then being told not to remove the card as soon as I do, whether it’s been in there for 2 seconds or months, to worry about figuring out how off the advertisement screen

the only thing to do when a gas station tv starts blaring at you is to walk off to an awkward place in the middle distance where you can't hear or see anything imo

Don't they usually have mute buttons?

i haven't pumped gas in years. This is all fascinating.

Or how about at the fucking gas pump? Starting to pump gas, and then a TV screen magically pops on and starts loudly playing commercials or cable news - just what the world needed

― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open)

have managed to mostly avoid this plague by living in the one american state where under no circumstances is an ordinary person allowed to just pump their own gas

i'm cool with this, even if it means i have to actually socially interact with someone i wouldn't have to otherwise

the only thing to do when a gas station tv starts blaring at you is to walk off to an awkward place in the middle distance where you can't hear or see anything imo

― cheese canopy (map), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 7:23 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Don't they usually have mute buttons?

― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, August 14, 2019 7:25 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

second button from the top on the right side works for me. i was really happy when i found that out because that shit is basically assault

This sounds nightmarish, like rushomancy I am thankful to live in Oregon

I don't think I've ever been at a gas station with TVs at the pumps, unless I'm just really good at blocking them out.

I have to go to gas stations a lot, though.

We had to rejoin the car having masses this year and we got a Chevy Bolt. I plug my car into an outlet in front of the house. Then I go inside to watch Twitch on my laptop.

I usually find a mute button somewhere but I still resent being forced to go through the thought process: "time to punp some gas. Oh, a TV just came on! Let me see if I can find the mute button."

I always wonder what the monsters behind that stuff think about it. Like do they imagine there are people out there in the world who go home and say over dinner "honey, I saw something interesting on Gas Station TV today..."

no way, they imagine how much ad space they can fill it with, period

Automated phone systems where you have to speak your response ... if I wanted to actually speak responses, I would talk to a person, just let me press stupid buttons, ok.

― sarahell, Wednesday, August 14, 2019 7:05 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Usually get caught off-guard by these when I'm calling from someplace that requires silence, like my office or the bus, resulting in me having to whisper-shout my answers.

Phone: In a few words, please tell us what you're calling about!
Me: customerservice.
Phone: I'm sorry, I didn't get that! In a few words...
Me: cus! tom! er! ser! vice!

Oh yeah these vocal automated systems are awful. I don’t want to talk to a machine... and customer services in general are a kafkaian nightmare nowadays, even with humans (who are located half the world away and don’t have a clue what they talk about... ) so in the end you never reach a person in charge.

Just tying together the self-checkout and being assaulted by random nonsense themes, there was a brief period this year where Marks and Spencer self checkout machines started screaming at you in the voices of Ant and Dec mid-transaction

Also Virgin Trains have toilets that do a shit comedy routine about how anything that isn't piss, shit or toilet paper is bad for their digestion. I reckon that was better when it was just a sign that said "don't flush random stuff"

Poundland has been using the voices of dracula, father christmas and other seasonal characters on its check out machines, it doesn't seem to make the staff who supervise them very happy.