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

interface guidelines used to be more pushy about the types of programs that ought to do it, too.

ah ok, im only a part-time mac user and its always been red button just closes the window when ive bothered to take notice

If you only need b/w get a brother hl-2350 or 2360 from Craigslist for like 40$. Duplex laser printer. WiFi works. Fast enough for the home. Replacement no brand toner is $10.

caek i just want to say - i did this and i now feel like a total don.

welcome to the brother club, brother

printing from my phone feels genuinely futuristic

it's the complete opposite experience this thread is about! it just works for me! somehow it blows my mind every time I'm at home and I can hit print on my phone and it finds the printer, there are no drivers or whatever, and a few seconds later I hear the printer whirr to life

I still want phones to have changeable batteries, especially for travelling.

Sleeper trains in general are a technology going backwards — you'd think with flygskam etc this would be a good time to introduce more, but a number of big routes have closed in the last few years.

If you claim to prefer manual transmissions for any rationale besides “fun” you are a moron.

uh, can we go back to this challop -- I live where there are steep hills and traffic, and being able to brake + downshift (vs. just brake) can be really really crucial

honestly, i feel like the increase in automatic transmission cars in the U.S. has to do with the public school system's changes to driver's ed -- teaching someone to drive an automatic is way easier.

"fun" would be the moronic reasons to like manual transmission. it's just a better way of controlling a car vs an easier way.

steep hills + traffic going uphill is far easier in an automatic though surely, so doesn't that just cancel out?

tbf I couldn't get the hang of manual gears at all, I'd still be learning to drive now if I hadn't switched to automatic

steep hills + traffic going uphill is far easier in an automatic though surely, so doesn't that just cancel out?

easier to not pay attention to one's surroundings, yes! ... which is why having a stick shift car is crucial for me.

I learned and passed my test in an automatic with start-stop and honestly love it, wouldn't have it any other way.

i also am fond of my Mr. Coffee coffeemaker

Locally, manual transmissions are theft prevention.

The appeal was much greater on my past snickity snick manual Miata than on my current FWD Hyundai.

I had my new work macbook for about 30 minutes today before I did something (resetting keychain) that required it to be completely re-imaged.

reimaging is pretty fast these days!

I remember immediately breaking a Windows 98 installation in the first few hours and trying everything I could to avoid reinstalling because it'd be too damn painful

steep hills + traffic going uphill is far easier in an automatic though surely, so doesn't that just cancel out?

My car is underpowered, so man trans is big benefit. There's hills+rocky dirt roads which I see huge trucks with V8s struggle with but I have no problem with cause I can really rev the engine in 1st gear and keep the revs up for the whole climb. Also helps a great deal w/merging & overtaking. Plus for my car one of the few negative criticisms of it was its auto trans (actually it's a Subaru so it's a CVT not traditional automatic) so I avoided that drawback.

honestly, i feel like the increase in automatic transmission cars in the U.S. has to do with the public school system's changes to driver's ed

it's cause US was 1st to make really good & reliable automatics

whos challop was that about transmission/automatics?

ridiculous statement obv

I can't believe this thread sold me a printer

ILX is Influencers Low-key Xchanging

they replaced the once ubiquitous printer ads with "friends" that have "recommendations"

I can't believe this thread sold me a printer

― maffew12, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 9:49 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

new board descrip

s'alll good man

lol

Global 5G wireless networks threaten weather forecasts

that is just an opportunity to start a company that sells filters with high roll-off between 23.8 and 24.25 GHz to whomever makes these satellites.

probably needed to recognize the coming issue and start it years ago, though.

5G is literally going to be a step backwards for every average person, mark my words

It has no clear use case at all, it’s designed for everyone and no one

What are the issues with it? I don't really have a clear understanding of what it means.

* much more bandwidth, but on freqs that can be easily blocked by plywood doors
* any device can bounce traffic from any other local device, just what you wanted your phone battery to be used for
* intercept/spoofing is moderately harder for spies and criminals - but only if implemented correctly (governments still have free reign per local rules)

I’ve had the opportunity to be around a lot of 5G nerds in the last year or two and “the bandwidth” is all they talk about despite the fact that it doesn’t work inside, you know, buildings

Huge capital expense to buy new backhaul equipment to accommodate “the bandwidth” while almost no end users are going to be able to benefit /GAF

I already can't use my phone at home except for one corner, 5G is going to be awesome.

10 yrs ago I thought we'd be reaching the point about now where we could look back and laugh/cringe at the horrors of spotty cell coverage...

5G is WiMAX 2.0

5G has been great for streaming for me (I think), but it blocks my laptop's connection to the printer, I have to connect the two directly to print anything out

different 5G

confirms I really don't understand it

5G - everything has to be an antenna to get coverage

LiFi indoors

CryFi in our hearts

main end users who’ll see value are probably businesses. unlike 4G which made a huge difference to the media streaming industry, the drivers for 5G are not personal mobile/laptop use. some teleco infrastructure companies did think it might be HD live media, but that only really meant appointment to view sporting events which still tend to be watched collectively on televisions.

the ability to network slice and provide virtualised networks with allocated resources for specific purposes and avoid contention means a level of resilience that industry can rely on for day to day use.

when you actually try and dig down into use cases tho it’s quite hard to find things that *necessitate* 5G - looks at times like a technology looking for use cases.

that’s not true tho - one aspect of this is future proofing expected usage. we are going to be using mobile and IoT devices to transfer data to a massive degree in densely populated urban areas. you need a way of ensuring that set of consumer and business services.

IIoT (industrial IoT) will be the revolutionary use - things like orchestration across supply chains, management of machines in factories, and ultra low latency data transfer across data intensive enviroments like hospitals and factories. In theory businesses could replace expensive LAN infrastructure (a huge amount of spend goes on LANs and WANs) with dedicated, scalable 5g networks. it also allows a lot more cloud technology data transaction to mobile devices, bringing the two together in a way that hasn’t been possible, easy or cheap before.

anything which requires manually assisted remote handling of precise machinery, whether remote surgery or drone construction, needs an ultra low latency highly reliable data connection, as the time loop between you doing something and it being accomplished and fed back to you is a key constrain in remote management of precision tools. (think the virtual desktops of eight years ago).

signalling systems which also may need to carry voice communication - like mass transit will be able to operate more easily using 5g.

power supply management, crucial for the efficient use of energy. what power do you need when? (when the answer may be *i need it right now*)

there’s a load of guff talked about self driving cars, but where they *will* be useful and manageable is robot vehicles to move round controlled industrial sites with their own private network.

vr mmo rpgs if that’s your thing.

So i think it will be transformative, and perhaps more importantly will maintain an ability to use mobile devices of all sorts. but there’s a lot of work to do to get there. a lot of the industrial use cases are quite specific and need specific deployments. and although new use cases will emerge with the new technology, right now there are technologies, like low-powered wide area networks for low bitrate sensors (think pollution measurement across a city) that kind of meet similar requirements. there’s a large amount of capital investment and standardisation work needs to be done to get this off the ground.

i imagine there will also be a lot of use cases that make our lives look like a kakatopian nightmare future.

this blog post by nick hunn is a very good example of how shit greedy commercial management and deployment of an essentially useful idea really fucks things up - in this case the area of smart meters and energy management.

Don’t get me started on digital meters (don’t call them smart because they aren’t). They serve one purpose and one purpose only and that is to bill someone without sending a guy in a truck to read the damn thing and most of them don’t seem to be able to do that right. You can’t get real time info from them most of the time and forget doing anything that benefits the customer. Guess what you have to do if you install a battery or want to monitor someone’s solar; you have to install another meter because you can’t tap into the feed from the one that is already there.

It is incredibly dumb.

They are beginning to roll out meters that are provider agnostic, not before time - I refuse to get one until they can guarantee it will be one of the new breed.

To be fair, I think smart meters are a very good idea, but this part of the blog post explains the problem with how it's been done in the UK (and Spain):

That dichotomy between smart grid and accurate bills is key to understanding the GB smart metering programme and why it’s gone wrong. The key reason for installing smart meters should be to provide data to make the grid more efficient. To make the grid efficient, you need to be able to react to demand, which means real-time information and the knowledge of how to use it. However, in Britain, we have let the meter design be driven by the energy suppliers. They have no real interest in real-time data; as for billing they only need it on a monthly basis. Instead, they compromised and designed meters which upload data once a day. The whole of the rest of the smart metering infrastructure, from the DCC through to the cellular contracts for uploading the meter data, has been designed and costed on the same basis, which means that the £20 billion or so we’re spending on the program will not help us get a smarter, more efficient energy grid

that's also a good one for 'market driven innovation' not automatically bringing about best outcomes.

excellent posts, Fizzles

all of the things 5G sounds great for are definitely industrial/corporate and trying to hang a consumer hat on it as a marketing force is insanely clumsy

WiFi 6 (formerly 802.11ax) looks decent and I'm wondering how much support both standards are going to get from the next round of consumer devices