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

Interesting but like a lot of long NY Mag pieces that one feels like a lot of richly detailed complaining and not quite enough reporting. Couldn't this guy have found somebody from from the actual lightbulb industry, like I dunno Philips, to address one of the million complaints? "LEDs are not good or bad but more like weird" needs a little more unpacking.. Like maybe there is a reason why film shoots aren't lugging their own generators anymore for lighting that goes beyond just economics

yeah, this is kind of garbage

the short version is "I used to just buy the standard 60W/100W bulbs at the corner store and never worried about color temperature or anything and the new bulbs look different"

he also seems to have forgotten or completely skipped the period of CFL bulbs that you'd put in lamps and fixtures that were the prior lower-energy solution but sucked in predictable ways

the one bit that drove me nuts was "the dimmer switch wouldn't work with the new LED light fixture" because holy shit have you ever tried to install a dimmer with any sort of bulb without checking whether you had the right bulbs, the right dimmer, etc? it's actually gotten easier now! and I say this having used all three (traditional incandescent, CFL (not actually dimmable) and LED)

my anecdotal evidence is that I've had some nicer LEDs that have lasted over a decade right now

Bulbs that claim to be dimmable sometimes aren

Um, I meant to post:

Bulbs that claim to be dimmable sometimes aren't, or rather, "we are technically dimmable but we will emit a high-pitched whiny sound whenever we are dimmed."

So, get used to either having the lights all the way on/off, or wondering why there's a mosquito in your Kamp at all times.

tom scocca on why led lightbulbs suck

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/led-light-bulbs-investigation.html

oh haha i should have read the revive before posting

definitely team 'led lightbulbs suck' fwiw. going to order-horde a bunch of incandescents.

yeah why burn 4W when you could pump out 80

as a sometime lighting tech 1) there are still some tasks+vibes for which i want+use incandescents but 2) i suspect that these days this is often because i don't have nice enough LEDs.

i enjoyed the second half of the scocca article and learned stuff from it (liked the part about dollar-store kelvin levels-- indeed a telling detail-- and the part about tastes in lighting across climates) but the first half plays kinda fast+loose w its terms while trying to rationalize a faintly andyrooneyish sense of loss. it says led bulbs are "computers" with "diodes and drivers"-- okay well yes obviously they are diodes and they have things called drivers (which scocca is half-deliberately allowing the average reader to confuse w the software drivers they're familiar w having to roll back because an update broke them); unlike incandescent bulbs, they require direct current modulated+controlled by integrated circuits. is an integrated circuit a "computer"? it's a machine that performs binary logic, but the article says it can therefore "hang" or "crash": well not really. it's a carved rock electricity flows thru. it doesn't have any data to corrupt or memory to leak. it can break, or distort, but so can a filament, or a river.

some $20 bulbs indeed do have computers onboard, with software and bluetooth and "apps" and everything, but that is a different and admittedly maddening phenomenon bigger than bulbs (cf the entire consumer appliance sector) and at least in bulbs is still presented as an expensive Feature and not a fait accompli. and the theatrical LED fixtures i work with are computerized, because they need to talk to DMX controllers and respond to programming. but the LED itself is still just a thing you run power thru and it lights up.

most consumer Greenery (paper straws etc) strikes me as an attempt by genocidal entities to sell sad and guilty egotists on the idea that they might personally still reach heaven without having to blow up any pipelines; and this is how i felt about CFCs and thus also about LEDs at first; but idk they're pretty amazing. was interesting+amusing to read about the lighting problems at places like the met but (as the article eventually acknowledges) we're working this stuff out. again, found the stuff about unequal kelvin distribution compelling, but as i'm the kind of guy who thinks feeding everyone is a political problem presumably i'm also the kind who thinks giving everyone nice warm indoor lighting (if they're of scandinavian tastes) is a political problem.

(ALL THAT SAID while i think the article is trying to illegitimately transfer your irritation at your laptop and/or "smart fridge" to LED light bulbs, they are undeniably digital, including in a way the article never really gets at except when it complains about "flickering": they are only ever either on or off. i believe most LED "dimming" is really extremely rapid strobing: the light isn't half as dim but rather lit for half the time. if you were of a mind to i guess you could make some sad-modernist hay out of the replacement of a continuously perceived analog world with one chopped movielike into a trillion momentary silicon flashes divided by equally momentary subliminal blackouts. on the other hand, you can perform a similar flourish with alternating current. poor, perverse diode.)

*CFLs (lol)

good points

it does irritate me that in offices, manufacturers managed to create led replacements for tube cfls that,
while not really doing the fluorescent flicker anymore, are identical in every other way. maybe we could have taken a moment to decide whether offices need to look like that

someone at work posted: jump leads in boot. boot needs power to open.

that took me a second, but: oh no

it does irritate me that in offices, manufacturers managed to create led replacements for tube cfls that,
while not really doing the fluorescent flicker anymore, are identical in every other way. maybe we could have taken a moment to decide whether offices need to look like that

Ugh. I have actually seen art galleries use these by choice (as opposed to "the building came with these, and we can't afford to fix the lighting") and it makes the space look like a CVS.

It’s my unprofessional opinion that it’s not blue light that’s harmful, it’s the association with office spaces that melts your eyeballs

most of the led bulbs I've bought over the past 6 years have been shit, they last no longer than other bulbs. I have no idea if they are legitimately saving energy; I assume they are.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a LED bulb go bad.

The expensive ones I’ve got never seem to die, but when I’ve got the really cheap ones (£1) they seem to die or start turning into a strobe after a few months.

I have no idea if they are legitimately saving energy; I assume they are.

touch one for a clue

(that's rly the reason that in a world of toys and "backward steps" these retain the clarkeian magic for me: light without heat!)

yeah it’s insane

Werent tungsten bulbs phased out like 10+ years ago, I'm confused. Were they not, in the US?

Not until August of this year in the US

Huh, Youve not been able to buy them here in years and years. But like everyone said above there's been loads of inbetween, like those ugly twirly flurou bulbs that would take forever to turn on, and be dim and a horrid blue cast. And never fit into the lightshade because they were so big and weirdly sized.

the latest Google Chrome mobile, when you want to go to your bookmarks, now has an extra click where you have to choose between Reading List and Bookmarks.I know it's just 1 click but I'm going to install Firefox because of this.

(and no, you can't disable it this time)

the desktop version has had this for a while ... I just accept it now lol

Maybe not exactly the right thread but a v bad feature of modern tech is that thing where Bluetooth earphones are like 10 minutes away from dying & decide they need to let you know about this by interrupting your listening every 10 seconds with a very loud & annoying sound until the battery finally goes. Given that I’m usually out & about when I’ve got them in & can’t do anything about it anyway I’d much rather they just cut out with no warning & I don’t get those last 10 minutes of the thing I’m listening to ruined

Lol I got rid of my last pair as it would say "Please charging" over and over in the waning minutes.

I hate the ones that have on-ear detection that cannot be shut off, like my old JBLs. Having a great song going and hearing a beep then the music stop when the headphones are on my ear and have been the whole time is aggravating.

I got a new set cos I got tired of it.

I’ve never had a pair that didn’t do this, it seems common to all. Previous ones have cut in with a loud beep, my current (skullcandy) ones have a horrible voice that says LOW BATTERY — curiously the LOW BATTERY woman has an American accent whereas the woman who says “power on… connected” when I turn them on has a British accent

No matter what the sound is it will come in at max volume even if what you’re playing is a lower volume so it’s extra obnoxious

They're trying to kill their owners

Maybe not exactly the right thread

oh, this is precisely the thread for that ... I do not have these horrible things. I do not want them. There are those widgets that can connect via cable from the sadly headphone jack free devices we are cursed with now, and I will advocate for said things ftw

I can't wait for neural implants.

watching Captain Scarlet dvds and they've upgraded the sound to 5.1 but it means the classic seven bongs they use when changing scene are just wrong - the even numbered ones are quieter and/or positioned somewhere else

(luckily the original mono is still available as an option, but isn't the default)

There are those widgets that can connect via cable from the sadly headphone jack free devices we are cursed with now

this is a revelation to me in my current reluctantly-bluetooth-headphone-curious phase, ty

although, all the results i'm finding are widgets to do the opposite task: connecting your bluetooth headphones to something that only has an AUX jack

I think sara meant USB-C/Lightning to 3.5mm. They're handy.

A step back for sure, even if a pretty cheap one can sound better than most any phone that ever had a built in jack. Not as if that's relevant for most users/uses.

I so rarely see anyone with wired headphones on transit anymore. It’s like seeing someone with a discman.

I use buds that are wired to each other. My wife and daughter like airpods but I they're constantly getting lost or separated and you have to know where the case is all the time.

I know if I tried those I would constantly be looking for one of the four components - and if any one component is missing, the entire assemblage is useless.

I think sara meant USB-C/Lightning to 3.5mm. They're handy.

― maf you one two (maffew12), Sunday, May 14, 2023 5:07 AM (fifty-two minutes ago)

yes, exactly!

I’ve been using wired Etymotic er4sr’s for years. No interest in bluetooth although i’m sure it’s convenient at times.

I know if I tried those I would constantly be looking for one of the four components - and if any one component is missing, the entire assemblage is useless.

― coolgnoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, May 14, 2023 5:29 AM (thirty-two minutes ago)

this is my co-worker ... i swear, this guy has spent more on airpods in the past year (either losing a piece or something breaking) than I have spent on cell phones in my life ...

Approximately 73% of my life has been spent trying to get pieces of audio equipment to talk to each other. Let's review, shall we?

My stepsister had an 8-track player that required series of elaborate Radio Shack adapters to successfully play Olivia Newton-John in a car.

My first computer was a TRS-80 using magnetic tape as a storage medium.

Once on a long cross-country drive my uncle became obsessed with CBer lingo, like "got your ears on?" It took hours to badly get an antenna magnetically mounted to his station wagon and the project was abandoned.

To get an Atari 2600 console to work correctly required a spaghetti of cables and being on channel 2.

From there we go to dual-cassette boomboxes, helping my mother delete objectionable language from pop songs so that they could be played in the Catholic school where she worked, without messing up the beat.

From there we move on to using a Y-adapter to get two guitars to share a Roland Cube amp.

Later I had a boombox with the wrong tape speed, so that songs recorded on it could only be played back on that specific machine.

My first solo record was recorded on a 4-track cassette Portastudio and then, perversely, transferred to computer using the "mic in" jack and a 1/8" mono adapter.

Nowadays the equipment and interfaces are better - but I can still, even more perversely, be left dead in the water by not having a particular dongle or adapter or stupid watch battery or charging cable.

I was doing a recording session recently that required not one but three trips back home or to a convenience store before all the things would speak to the other things.

I have spent more hours untangling cables than I care to think about.

Still prefer all that to airpods

I have spent more hours untangling cables than I care to think about.

i probably have spent more hours untangling cables than you ... but yes. not that long ago really ... maybe 10 years ago, i still had an entirely analog "media system" ... i had a CRT TV (it was free; i didn't pay for this item) connected to a RCA-Coax converter, which connected to the output of a RCA switcher, the audio outputs of which were connected to some early 1990s home stereo receiver + speakers, and plugged into the switcher were a DVD player, a VCR, and a triple 1/8" cable that could connect to a video camera or laptop (via adapter)

lulz sarahell ok you win

i mean ... i used to get paid to untangle cables ... i had days where i spent 4+ hours untangling cables

You both win.

I could add how I used to "steal" music at work by downloading mp3's from Napster, playing them on whatever winamp was in the year 2000, with a YMP's 1/8" line going from my work computer's keyboard headphone jack to the mic jack on my Sony dual-cassette recorder sitting on the floor, where I probably unknowingly produced the final mixtapes I would ever make in my lifetime.

my work computer's keyboard headphone jack

that is dedication!

much of my system is still hardwired— stanton mixer running to two kali speakers, with ins from a cd player, vestax dj battle turntable, dual cassette deck, and one 1/8” aux connected to a little dongle so i can listen to music from my phone on occasion.

my computer in my office, tho, is bluetooth-bound to a soundbar/subwoofer combo.

i will never use bluetooth headphones.