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

"you can't even see the car's engine anymore, all these new-fangled doodads and bells & whistles, harumph"

Having just had to change the battery on my truck, this complaint is accurate. If I hadn't found a video of a tech showing all the steps (there are five steps required to remove the positive terminal connector) I would have broken pieces trying to figure it out.

Just read that you can search the model of the washer/dryer and buy a key for it online, bypassing the coin lock

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, October 5, 2021 3:14 PM (twelve minutes ago)

there is a set of keys in the maintenance closet next to the washer/dryer, which contains keys to both washer and dryer. I don't want to risk getting evicted over hacking the laundry machines when I can afford to go get quarters. I've been here almost 24 years and have rent control.

I do wonder about the actual long term savings of increased efficiency versus having to buy a new washer every 4-5 years instead of every 15-20.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, October 5, 2021 3:27 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

you mean you don't upgrade to the latest washer and dryer models every year? what are you, poor?

i just wanted to say that i still support my drones falling from the sky tweet-post, even if it isn't truly a step that we all accept now. it's a step we all will appreciate over the next 10 years, and it's too late for us to prevent it...therefore most people will accept it (because not accepting the inevitable is hard, way too hard for almost everyone)

but i understand there's a cool conversation happening about chips in my balls

I will support the intent and thrust of the post if you will agree to a stay on it being sent out to all recipients by rhonda for say five years or so

In the meantime we can settle the matter of chipped balls so the path is clear

this is a hard bargain, but i agree to all of that. rhonda will be a hero in 5 years, mark my words

5-10 let's say

"years"

*didn't say which planetary years!!!*

I trust u implicitly, work with rh. directly and I'll sign off on whatever outcome

Now look you said chips is that like crisps, are we talking crispy balls here

my connections to radiohead are fragile but real. i started my career as a poster at radiohead.com/msgboard. i made over 100,000 posts there and still hold a place on the all-time top posters (by volume) list, as "feedback". during that time, between 1-2 of my yelled frantic questions at the "blues" (the members of radiohead, + like stanley donwood and a few people like that, the only ones who could post in blue) were answered. so they totally know me. i will reach out to them with my our demands, letting them know that Rhonda holds personal responsibility and financial liability for anything i may say or do that is incorrect. regarding radiohead, that is - just want to let you know i have crossed the i's and dotted t's, we're looking at unending growth for at least 6 quarters now

6 quarters ain't enough to both wash and dry.

looooool godammit

…don’t leave me dry

exceptional quarter-sourcing hack sarahell!

I will support the intent and thrust of the post if you will agree to a stay on it being sent out to all recipients by rhonda for say five years or so

In the meantime we can settle the matter of chipped balls so the path is clear

― fix up luke shawp (darraghmac), Tuesday, October 5, 2021 5:11 PM (three hours ago)

you asked, we answered.

Chips in Your Balls

put your washing machine in a bag of rice

This lunchtime I couldn't go swimming because the pool's booking app is offline for improvements and I can't just show up and pay, bcs what is this, the 20th century? So I walk to the library, which is closed bcs the automatic door is broken and they can't just leave it open, bcs what is this...etc

That's a horrifying double.

isn't it? body AND mind.

hey so when you have to present a barcode on your phone and you just dropped your phone yesterday so the entire screen is cracked so you have to temporarily use an old phone to present the barcode but what would you have done if you didn't have that phone HUH HUH??

vax passports start here tomorrow. QR codes. They're pushing an app of course. You have to show your ID card any time you use it. So of course i just printed the code, which is an option (which they need to have, a lot of the island doesn't have reliable cell service)... that few people seem to be into.

Are many places using changing QR codes or something? what's with the gosh darned APPZ

maffew selling fake QR codes , shame

holla!

> i just printed the code, which is an option

and if you don't have a printer?

(would they accept a hand-drawn one using graph paper, i wonder?)

There's a number to call to have a print sent out.

Seems like a pretty good job for what it is. Downtown parking meters that are app only now ... don't get me started

xpost lol I'm the "go to FedEx Office to print one page of a ticket" guy. and I *have* a printer that I"m just lazy about refilling ink on

course outside the US idk how prevalent those types of places are.

Portuguese govt so app-obsessed that at one point there was a plan to make the covid app *mandatory*, the govt having seemingly forgotten that it's an aging population and tons of ppl don't actually have a smartphone

ran into that same bullshit at work recently, which I posted in the stupid annoying co-workers thread, where the new "unplanned absences" line is actually a smart phone app where you can request your absence by phone.

a few people complained they didn't have smart phones and were told they needed to just "tell their manager they were out", which definitely created a less equal environment for them, so I reported it to HR.

apparently the compromise was...

...now the people who use the app also have to tell their manager they're going to be absent in addition to using the app.

Yes, because that was the smart solution, not, idk, making it possible to do on your work assigned laptop, which is equipment the company KNOWS you have, that you could sign into surreptitiously without anybody knowing you're online. No, the solution is now, we make everybody tell their manager they're going to be out, somewhat negating the purpose of the app to begin with.

which is an option (which they need to have, a lot of the island doesn't have reliable cell service)

I don't know how it is where you are, but here (Quebec) the app just shows an image of the QR code and doesn't require any online access. Having the the PDF with the QR code downloaded and showing that works just as well (just a bit less convenient).

Anyway, I need to get around to printing my QR code as I'm the type of person who will occasionally either forget to charge my phone or forget my phone at home.

also Ticketmaster right now has no live support available. they claim this is due to the pandemic and "being short-staffed", which is of course code for "we can't figure out why nobody wants to work 60 hour weeks for $9/hour".

so if you for some reason have an issue with a ticket to an event that is coming up within the next few days, getting in touch with people = sending them an email, or a DM via Twitter. Usually if you send it by 9 am, you get a reply at like 5 pm.

if you have a PHYSICAL ticket that was destroyed or lost, they will overnight it to you, but because of how compartmentalized the communication process is, the mail room may or may not leave your apartment number off and the overnight delivery fails as a result.

xp Yes same. They say the code app and the app that scans them don't need to be online. I threw the PDFs on my phone just in case. And i spose I've made a petty good argument now for there being an app cuz who's manually putting a PDF on their phone.

There was chatter of an optional step of uploading your, like, driver's license to the app, that went away. Probably realized what a honeypot they'd be creating for no good reason.

stop hiding sudafed behind the window you cowards

my fat arthritic fingers simply cannot type on a phone screen keyboard without many mistakes and autocorrect doesn't help, but there is apparently no solution available for this. mechanical keyboards on phones worked great for me. if I could just type a space without it being a full stop or an 'a' without it giving me a 'q' that would be something.

between autosuggest and the voice to text thing, people regularly end up sending additional texts or emails to correct or clarify things from their first message

stop hiding sudafed behind the window you cowards

― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Sunday, October 24, 2021 11:24 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Meth is a hell of a drug. Even one less tweaker is enough to justify keeping the sudafed behind glass.

The Kennedy Center has ditched printed programs and now we have to look at our phones all through a concert now if we want to know what is being played or to read the libretto translation.

lol that’s such a hilariously bad idea

Them programmes earn a fortune, don’t they?

between autosuggest and the voice to text thing, people regularly end up sending additional texts or emails to correct or clarify things from their first message

― sarahell, Sunday, 24 October 2021 18:54 (two days ago) link

This drives me nuts - when I do afterschool pickup of my kids I'm supposed to text the counselors to bring my kids out. I like to text as I'm first approaching the school campus, because it takes them a while to come out. But voice to text cannot get my kids' names right.

Sometimes it doesn't even hear them as two names and just runs them together into some other name.

Them programmes earn a fortune, don’t they?

? At KenCen particularly, they're chock-full of ads for pre- and post-theater dining. Appeals for donations. etc.

Paper and printing aren't that expensive, really, compared to the ad revenue.

I figured it was a COVID measure: fewer face-to-face contacts for ushers handing out programs.

I did theater publicity in a past life, and have been a regular theatergoer forever - programs are a pet peeve of mine. Mainly because they tend to hold very little information relevant to that night's performance, and huge amounts of information about other productions, upcoming productions, past productions, lists of benefactors, and advertising. When it's been my job I dutifully did layout, editing, and managed print production, but generally I only keep the cover as a keepsake and jettison the rest.

Streamlining it to just what one wants to know is a great idea: What pieces are they playing? How many movements? When do I clap? What are the fucking words to this song in a foreign language? How long till intermission so I can pee and get a chardonnay? Who is the oboe soloist? Where have I seen that actor before?

Unfortunately, that seems like a great thing to just have a QR code for - rather than killing a half-forest of trees and generating tons of paper waste to impart small amounts of essential information.

But the downside is as Boring MD notes: it's distracting as fuck to have a concert hall full of people looking down at glowing rectangles in their laps. Kills the mood. And it must be SO TEMPTING if you're already looking at your phone to just, y'know, respond to a text or an email during the boring (no pun intended) slog of the dumb Mahler thing when you just them to get to the Brahms.

From there, it's a short hop to people playing Candy Crush during Carmen. Which is kinda the opposite of what KenCen presumably wants.

Sorry, I am still working out my thoughts here. Again, like 90% of programs are glanced at for a few minutes, then tossed. An environmental nightmare.

An online restaurant menu makes some sense in COVID time. They don't need to continually revise and print paper menus that are handled briefly then tossed. Most people make up their minds quickly and order and move on.

But a concert program, hmmm. Some people very much want to have them as souvenirs. Some people really want to browse through the Playbill capsule bios or read the interview with the sound designer or whatever. Most people don't. So why print up one per theatergoer? Maybe make them request-only? Print-on-demand if you start to run out?

mention of Candy Crush unearths an oddly clear-as-a-bell memory of my very endearing undergrad Music Appreciation teacher, on a mild tangent about the small annoyances of concertgoing, and how "there's always someone opening a bit of candy during a quiet passage."

i would argue the online restaurant menus are worse, because you actually need the menu to order food, so you're SOL if your phone doesn't support the technology, or your phone is dead, or you can't get reception, or (shock) you deliberately chose to leave the house without your phone attached to your body. see previous griping starting at this permalink. that was back in march! i think we're all ready to have paper menus back, please.

fuck a QR code in any situation

i used one today, first time in ages, to set up 2fa login with google authenticator.