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

Re: the traffic button above, there was a period in 2014-2015 along Mandela near 16th in West Oakland wherein if you pressed the button cross, it said, "Button Fault," and then repeated saying that in a robotic voice until the light changed.

the pelican near me now has sensors that'll turn the request to cross off if it detects the pedestrian has gone. unfortunately there's a blind spot and if you're too close to the pole then it won't see you and will just cancel the button press.

(do Americans have pelicans? PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossings. see also zebra and toucan crossings)

We don't allow pedestrians to control anything. You can hit a button as a gentle suggestion that you would like to cross the street at some point, please, sir.

They work the same in the US and the UK in my experience. You press the button and eventually you can walk, but depending on the crossing, don’t hold your breath waiting.

But then again, any crossing is slightly more terrifying in the US (in New York at least) because cars are still allowed to go even when the pedestrian light shows if they’re turning into the road you’re crossing. They’re meant to yield to you but …

even if we did have control of crossings no one would give a shit. i find it safer to jaywalk when there's a break in traffic than to go to the crosswalk and wait my turn because people just run red lights (faster than normal speed of course, because they stomped on the gas when they saw it go red) or honk at you if you aren't sprinting across. it's insane.

One of the most profound differences I had to adapt to in Washington State was people actually respecting pedestrians in crosswalks and stopping for them with some regularity, vs. Michigan where cars rule everything around me and drivers absolutely do not give a fuck about anyone on foot.

utah is one of the absolute worst places for this because most city streets are literally twice the width of streets anywhere else.

One of the most profound differences I had to adapt to in Washington State was people actually respecting pedestrians in crosswalks and stopping for them with some regularity

Not even crosswalks - many drivers stop and wave you across if you’re waiting at any point on a road.

One of the most profound differences I had to adapt to in Washington State was people actually respecting pedestrians in crosswalks and stopping for them with some regularity

This happened to me in Portland, Maine. There was no light at the crosswalk, so I was waiting for a break in traffic. Even though I "knew my rights," I wasn't just going to walk out into the middle of the street, crosswalk or no crosswalk.

But my companion said, "Just go!" and walked out there like Indiana Jones taking that first step in "The Last Crusade". And cars just .... .stopped!

It was wild, Portand's a wild town.

we've got both drivers that will stop and wave you across and drivers that'd probably mow you down for fun

as a pedestrian it's irritating because you end up waving on the driver who's trying to stop for you because the other lane of traffic isn't stopping and getting stuck in the middle of the road would suck

Rome is absolutely incredible for this. Cars do not stop or even slow down at crosswalks unless you take that leap of faith, in which case they slam on the brakes an inch from your calves

You often have to get through 4-6 lanes of traffic like this

Native Roman pedestrians don't even look up to see who's coming, they just set out and trust in God

ahah "Leap of faith", yeah it's the same in Hanoi... except there are 10 times more cars/motorcycles than in Roma !
It's an endless flow so when you don't have that "faith" you can wait forever on the side of the road... or just give up and find another way.

VHS was the best format for rewinding/fast forwarding while viewing, and everything since has been shitty to various degrees.

That’s so true. It’s just about OK on a computer but anything controlled with a remote is a horrorshow of unresponsiveness, guesswork, overshooting and unwanted returns to the start.

And like one frame per second of visual feedback if you’re lucky! With tape you saw everything as you went. On a good machine you could even zero in on a particular frame.

^^The 'Phoebe Cates effect', iirc.

Easy there, Elvis!

Have been watching DVR'ed sports through the xfinity Roku app lately and the ff/rew function doesn't show you ANY frames -- it is just 100% guesswork to skip the commercials.

I guess this is more of a technology-enabled/idiosyncracies of IP law-enabled backward step, but I was just thinking about how much more glorious Netflix was when it was a DVD by mail service and you could choose from a massive selection of films. Now it's dominated by mediocre original content and the non-original content is paltry because it's much more expensive to license a film for streaming than it is to rent it out on DVD.

Heavy agree— you can still do Netflix DVD plans, btw!

Hasn’t that catalog been gutted too though? I think I heard this from on ILX0r who still has such an account.

I kept the DVD service until a couple years back.... the film selection was awesome, way better than streaming; no idea what it's like now

I'm always surprised they keep that service alive - it must be pretty profitable for them to keep it going. They sure don't advertise it, though

xp That is what I say. Lately I'm finding it very hard to find even potentially good DVDs to put in my queue. I felt kind of like I was down to scraps in the past couple of years or so but now it's getting down to nothing. Others may disagree.

It depends. I've got a huge queue (around 480 titles) and there's only a wait for maybe 10% of those. They have reduced their overall amount of titles on offer, and sometimes you have to wait a bit for new releases, but IMHO forecasting their impending demise is a little premature.

Part of this too may be because I'm in Texas, and they've consolidated their area disc centers to a big one in suburban DFW.

Here was Josefa’s earlier post on this subject: What's the last thing netflix sent you, and what's next?

Although there was another slightly earlier post of his in that thread which is also relevant.

I guess a bank’s competitor could do the same to identify holes where there are no branches and then set up their own branches in those locations, but… there are other ways to figure out where bank branches are

do new banks still open in the US? in UK high street/'main street' banks are closing, which is probably its own backwards step

hammersmith has had a new Metro bank open within the last few years, but hammersmith is not short of banks (tsb, lloyds, nat west, nationwide, halifax, barclays, santander, hsbc and now a metro, maybe more)

that said, the nearest 3 hsbcs to me have all closed (although given i had 4 within 20 minutes walk it was a bit ridiculous)

do new banks still open in the US? in UK high street/'main street' banks are closing, which is probably its own backwards step

― salsa shark, Friday, April 22, 2022 12:56 AM (one week ago)

they definitely open when there is a new real estate development where there'd be a perceived need for a bank branch.

Corner spot that hosted, in succession, two branches of different banks has now given up and become a Pret.

IP telephony

fuck's sake, talking to a support number it's like communicating with a walkie talkie buried in a pile of socks

It's not technology exactly but I do not like that on pedestrian crossings in the UK you can no longer see whether the green man is lit by looking straight ahead across the road, which allowed you to keep an eye on the traffic, but instead have to look to the side, attempting to peer around people standing next to you, and that while you're crossing you then can't see it at all.

What the fuck?

that sounds maddening!

i'm here to double down on my earlier gripes about the new digital-interface machines for viewing microfilm. the last of the old machines at the city archives has seemingly given up the ghost, so now i am stuck with this much slower, more finicky and just kind of continuously friction-creating gadget. rrrrr.

It's not technology exactly but I do not like that on pedestrian crossings in the UK you can no longer see whether the green man is lit by looking straight ahead across the road, which allowed you to keep an eye on the traffic, but instead have to look to the side, attempting to peer around people standing next to you, and that while you're crossing you then can't see it at all.

What the fuck?

Absolutely fucking hate this – I thought it was just a Brighton thing and my attempts to explain my frustration to family met with shrugs. Half the time there's a different pedestrian crossing light in view across the road and more than once I've started to act on it. It's dangerous!

The idea behind them is that you meant to be looking at incoming traffic.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin_crossing

"If a pedestrian presses the button but then walks off, the PKD will cancel the request making the lights more efficient. "

or if they are stood too close to the pole ime. i have probably complained about this upthread.

Hey Chewshabadoo, careful; this is personal for me

u mad?

Puffins are notoriously irritable.

were you on that one Puff Daddy album

Haha, I’ve picked the wrong person to cross, obviously.

I’ve had an iPhone without a home button since 2020, and remain unconvinced that it’s an improvement.

I've had one since 2019. Same.

is the home action customizable? I like the Samsung "one hand operation" thing.. set Home to a diagonal swipe down from the right side.

yeah tho.

The idea behind them is that you meant to be looking at incoming traffic.

I guess. I'm not sure I get the logic - you don't need to be looking that way until you decide to cross, unless you're looking for a gap in the traffic in which case you don't need to see the signal.

But I find also that people won't just look right but will turn and look left, i.e. right at me if i'm to their left. My difficulty with this might very well be related to autism, it's hard to explain but I only have so much capacity to try and sort out and filter stimuli and I really don't need people staring towards my face or moving around in front of where I'm looking when already dealing with traffic movement in peripheral vision and the noise of the street. It's fucking hard work.