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

if we're talking Flintstones car there are steps forwards and backwards

they only work if you have a good pair of bongos

you know what's a technological step backward we all just accept now? the automobile 😎

I'm too traumatized by the parking app I tried to use in Leeds to post here. All I can say is that it took 45 minutes to get to the cruel "I'm sorry, but cannot add foreign credit cards or banks to your account" knifetwist at the end.

i mean the most prominent thread result on ilx for leeds does read, iirc, "that vile remnant of the north" so you ought to have been on notice imo

if it bleeds, it's Leeds

FWIW, I had been in the UK for ten days and may have let my guard down and/or was thrown off-axis by Scotland

when LOST was on, we all felt bad for the guy punching in meaningless numbers around the clock, but now I have to do the same every time I want to look at my bank balance or look at my paystubs

We had to take a step backward during Y2K, but I think it would be a safe bet for the bank to start putting 20__ on the date lines again.

again?

youknowwhatimean

if your power blinks for a split second due to a nearby lightning strike, you won't be able to serve soft drinks for 10+ minutes as the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines take that long to reboot

(at a Wendy's)

10+ minutes is a long time, but Freestyle machines are overall a net benefit for allowing me to add Cherry flavor to any type of soda.

oh yeah I love the machines as a customer for realz.

though I'm also the dude who worked at Steak 'n Shake as a kid and added vanilla to every soda I poured myself

Dutch electric bike brand's bankrupcy could render all their bikes unusable (the electric part only, I suppose, it's still a bike)

https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/07/15/233244/if-vanmoof-ebikes-locks-you-out-of-your-own-bike-a-rival-companys-app-could-help

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/003/194/001.jpg

> (the electric part only, I suppose, it's still a bike)

if they are anything like the ebikes that litter london streets then it'll lock the brakes on and make them impossible to ride. i often move badly parked disposable bikes out of the way of pedestrians / pushchairs / wheelchairs and you have to pick them up and roll them by the one unlocked wheel. and those things are heavy.

oh, i's those bikes, i saw someone riding one the other day

website says

Security:
Kick Lock with active-retract pin
Integrated Theft Defense
Automatic Rider Recognition
Manual disarm with backup code
Anti-theft nuts and bolts
GPS and Bluetooth location tracking

so i'm hoping the manual disarm works

Man, I hope my electric toothbrush company never goes bankrupt.

same for electric toilet paper

Seems like the way things are going, your toaster will stop working whenever it needs a firmware update, or if you fail to pay your monthly subscription for toast

The moral is, keep your old stuff

Stopped analog clock still has the right time twice a day.

A broken digital clock never does.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/rival-e-bike-maker-helps-vanmoof-owners-grab-bike-keys-while-company-struggles/

Less than a week after US outlets caught on to VanMoof's Dutch business troubles, Cowboy, another European e-bike maker, had released Bikey, an iOS app that does what it says in its description: "Save your VanMoof bike key." The app was developed "during a one-day hackathon," according to its description, as Cowboy "shares the belief that every single bike deserves to be on the road." The app supports S3 and X3 models at the moment.

Along with accessing keys, the app aims to provide basic functionality, like unlocking, changing assistance levels, and adjusting lights. Cowboy told TechCrunch that an Android version is forthcoming and that anyone with a VanMoof bike should grab their key soon, as it will be inaccessible if the company's servers are shuttered.

VanMoof's apparent mismanagement (how do you go bankrupt in an e-bike boom?) is pretty disappointing given what seemed like a festive approach to bike theft. (They made an upbeat youtube series where they tracked down and recovered stolen bikes without a lot of rage-spiking drama that you might think that would entail.)

Cowboy isn't the most healthy company either, they've needed investor money 5 times already and are still in the red. Proprietary batteries and other unique parts mean that repairs are hella expensive and can take months. They are now looking for normal bike shops that want to help service the Cowboy bikes.

a good mantra in these times is: wait for the second (generation/model/version) of everything before you buy.

don't connect your bike to the internet is my mantra tbh

great Peter Gabriel jam too

lol, that could just be the album title he's looking for

Sim trays

Giving up on my Sonos and going back to a cabled speaker.

what didn't you like about them?

I was a bit annoyed at the setup for the Sonos I had but figured it out

I wanna be

Your e-biker

Why don't you call my name

I'm your

E-biker

Neanderthal I mentioned it on the Spotify thread recently - playback frequently stops between tracks and somehow seems to be the speaker at fault.

oh that's weak

Qobuz seems to frequently stop between tracks too, but I’m not using a wireless speaker.

have found Sonos maddening lately using spotify/alexa but havent as yet tracked down the evil company specifically at fault

trying to deposit a check using my phone camera. out of six checks, two worked fine, two were accepted after half a dozen attempts, and two just wouldn't go through

my bank used to accept scans -- nice high def! -- but no longer

https://www.reddit.com/r/blackcats/comments/ut6if8/walked_in_on_my_husband_using_our_cat_as_a_mobile/

my cat's a calico : /

I use black t-shirts all of the time for scanning stuff.

This is probably more a business step than technological but: video game demos, or rather, the lack of them. I hear great things about a game like Elden Ring, but am on the fence because I am uncertain whether I will stand the difficulty, fantasy is not usually my thing, etc. In the past, I could play a demo and make a decision. These days, I have to just decide whether to give it a swing if it's on sale. Sure, Steam will offer a refund if I've played for less than two hours... but aside from having to still spend time up to 80GB, a lot of games have such extensive introductory cutscenes/hand-holding mode that you've barely got to the meat of the game two hours in.

I suppose now people just watch a Let's Play on Youtube, but that doesn't really tell me how the game feels to play.

why does my laptop think I'm in Nevada? All the targeted ads are like "100% Nevada Since Day 1"

are you on a vpn or work computer

I'm on a work computer, but I do sign into the VPN

A couple weeks ago it kept trying to give me weather info for Dallas, now it's convinced I'm in Las Vegas

Memory cards. The tiny ones that are now standard. I get that circuitry can always be made more complex for the size but theres just a point where its so small its unpractical to handle or store anywhere.

I opened a drawer the other day and clocked the number of memory cards that were in there.. two card readers.. haven't used any of them in years. What do people even use them for now? If you're a pro photographer I get having a few cards that you can pop in and out of your camera but otherwise?

I used to use them for portable music players, that's been several years ago now.