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Today's Blog: Technology
bluefoxicy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am resistant to technology for technology's sake, at least I imagine that I am, but an electronic book is simply beyond the strength of my professed virtue. Gabriel is a technology slut, rutting with this or that portable whoozit, but for some reason is iron-clad when it comes to the Kindle.
I like this.
I use double-edge razors (and want a straight) because modern multi-blade razors and crap soap work off broken principles and discard things like softening the hair and making clean cuts (i.e. you get ingrown hairs); electric razors suck even worse (bad shave, destroy my face, woot). All this stuff is "shiny" or "easier to use" but results are hella bad.
I use cast iron cookwear because aluminum/teflon pots and pans don't hold heat, don't distribute it evenly, and break down over a few short years. You need to learn to use cast iron (yay grease fires!), and care for it; but you get better results if you put in the effort.
Cars bug me like hell. Automatic transmisison, anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic stability control, the whole thing is "PUSH A FOR GO" "PUSH B FOR STOP" and you can discard knowledge about actual driving conditions-- until you totally lose control of the vehicle, with no understanding of why, and just slam the brakes and turn the wheel ineffectively. Up to that point, the car works on slippage by hitting individual brakes, adjusting your steering a bit (ESC), and the like, all based on relative wheel spin speeds. Most of the people that shoot by you at 80mph on the highway don't know how to drive any more than you know how to operate a fork lift (I'm sure you could use it just fine, until you tipped over picking up a box that's way too heavy); driver's ed is a rain dance.
And of course we have the over-powered, highly-shiny graphics in games today. We're beyond polygon count now; we want ray tracing. We had Super NES graphics that took maybe 5% of the budget to actually implement-- having the artist draw concepts was probably more expensive. Now we spend 80% or more of the budget working out 3D models, trying to make Laura's breasts bounce just right, and coding rendering engines to create nifty effects. The shiny factor distracts you from the horrible game you're playing; many good games have limited actual content, and the best games are those like Smash Bros. where a massive expanse of content would detract from the overall playability of the game.
I like technology. Unfortunately technology falls into one of four categories:
- Easier to get mediocre results out of with less skill (lowering the bar)
- Cheaper to make (in China)
- Easier to market (shiny!)
- Actual improvement over previous iteration of technology
The last one there rarely occurs, and it usually occurs paired with one or more of the first three. The first three, conversely, rarely occur with the last one.
I've got to agree with Tycho here, Kindle is a useful thing. I don't like reading books myself; but the associated comic shows something that a lot of avid readers do get out of books: the feel of holding a book and turning the page.
For me, I'll stick to Final Fantasy and Tales of Whatever when I want a good story.
People call me Wood Man, 'cause I always got wood.
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With the Kindle specifically I haven't quite decided, I hate reading on my monitor (besides the forums) and am a member of the shrinking minority who enjoys reading the actual print version of the LA Times. But from what I've heard they've made some big strides as far as making the print look the way you want it to and actually think I could be converted to reading E-Books if I had the extra cash to spend on one.
I think I'm with the majority though, I'd need a decent test read with a Kindle before I'd make the switch
Mega Man 9! The developers were onto something!
It's not just "playing," but "developing" the games that suffers... "playing" is a side-effect of the development process.
I strongly prefer reading on non-physical medium. I have a first-generation XO and in B&W mode the print's higher resolution than the New York Times (!), clearer than physical paper man.
You're a huge snob, and I find your opinion worthless.
And I will enjoy watching your shiny 4WD SUV cruise through the snow at 40mph, as much as I'll enjoy seeing it totaled a mile up the road directly in front of a support post for a bridge.
(this happens so much...)
I never said I wasn't strange. I need something interactive to keep me bored. It's between having "read 5 books every year and 3 over the summer" hammered into my head during grade school; and dropping my ADHD medicine (voluntarily, against strong clinical recommendation) during high school. I just can't stay occupied reading.
The closest I've come is "reading" 1984 while driving and working, with an audiobook. Orwell was a masterful political scientist, I'll give him that; the segment that was basically a "transcription" of Goldstein's book was especially interesting.
Games bore me too though, in general, without a real progression. I play RPGs a lot because I can get absorbed into the storyline and follow the progression through the game, always wanting to know what happens next and fighting my way there....
How does it feel to be so good at everything?
I mean, really... you're talking in a lot of ways about making things easier so that more people can participate. Automatic transmissions are fine in most areas of the country. Up here? Not so much... everyone should be driving standards, just for the added control in the snow. But other things you mention in your cars section are retarded. Electronic traction? Stability control? Anti-lock brakes? You think these are bad things? You're an idiot. To turn down a system that makes sure all of the wheels spin at the same speed, or ensure that you don't go sliding off the road is asinine.
Newer games aren't less or more fun than older ones. Many of them are equally awesome, they just look nicer, and have far better sound quality.
Cast iron pots are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. Yea, they're much nicer, and I have a partial set myself, but they're not for everyone.
I just don't understand where you're going, aside from "why the fuck isn't my 8-track still working?!"
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
That would be the problem with automated self-checkouts and computers in general (software error is human error). If you have to do it yourself, and it doesn't simply stand up and tell you exactly what to do in your specialized scenario, it's broken and stupid. People don't want to think for themselves, they want technology to do it all for them; people want to be mindless idiots.
There's a lot of broken tech out there though. Think like aluminum siding houses in the midwest and east coast? Brick houses stand up to a lot more battering, tornadoes and hurricanes take the roof off; plywood aluminum siding houses are the house of sticks. My razor example is one of my favorite, because most modern razors (this is the simplest technology ever, right? ... you wish) are made to grab and lift the hair with one blade, then cut it with the next several, and then drop it back down below the skin; this usually results in a few ingrown hairs (painful red bumps) and some loss of surface skin, which burns a little.
I like technology. I like technology that goes forward. I don't like technology for technology's sake i.e. "it's new, it's shiny, it's cheaper, different, faster, easier, but doesn't really do the job as good as the last iteration of tech." Making armor out of thinner metal would be new technology in the middle ages-- it's lighter, and cheaper/easier to make-- but it wouldn't protect you nearly as much!
So you want technology that only a privileged few can obtain and then they will use that to oppress those who cannot afford it?
I concur. This is actually where I stopped reading the OP.
Pfftt... yeah... and water down the gene pool with their sucky driving genes
Most people I know have progressed from driving 15mph in the snow to driving 35mph in the snow, thanks to stability control. My dad was driving my mom's car in the snow and it was shaking and pulling at open road speeds (30-40), so he pushed the Traction Control button (it was off) and the car straightened right out. He continued at those speeds.
Does this sound safe to you?
Just some food for thought: there are many studies that have concluded that anti-lock brakes don't actually improve overall road safety. People tend to realize they can keep control while stopping (this is true), and so don't worry so much about if they can stop. ABS doesn't necessarily reduce stopping distance (it increases it a little for some drivers), so yeah... if they have nowhere to go, they're still screwed. I've threshold braked in horribly, icy conditions (I don't have ABS); it's still not fun, and I shouldn't have been going 20mph, I should have been going 10. If I'd have had ABS, I still should have been going 10. ABS does not bless me with the God-given right to drive faster in bad weather.
This was probably fairly misplaced, or at least a lot more complex than I'd like to go into. ABS and TC and ESC do what they're designed to do; but they take away road feel from the driver, so the driver makes worse decisions. Couple that with people that actually don't know how to drive (it's more complex than just hit the gas/brakes to go/stop, if you don't think so then try taking a highway on-ramp at a full 70mph once and have fun slamming into the guard rail and/or flipping your car). We should be improving driver's education (look at how Germany does it...), not trying to move (not duplicate, move) all understanding of how the vehicle and the road interact into the car's on-board computer.
Can philosophy majors really afford to eat out all the time?
Cooking is a good skill to have, and can be fun. Using cast-iron isn't some secret art only taught by a secretive clan of metallurgist-chefs, so I'm not sure why the OP is making out like its anything all that special.
Not to mention that the computers in ABS systems now brake more efficiently than a human driver ever would--making them not only easier to use, but strictly better than manual systems. So really, terrible example of whatever point the OP was trying to make.
So are thousands of other things. Oenophilia. Knitting. Practicing Tantric sex yoga.
Different people live different lives. That does not mean some misguided understanding of wisdom should be passed down univocally.
you're doing exactly what I said I hated in my post. just like people who hate text messaging because it kills language.
Most of the technologies you listed are fine, and a few are life-saving. You're an egotistical idiot.
This is bad because...? I mean, making what was once the privilege of the elite and aristocracy available to the masses tends to be a universal good. Unless you are part of the privileged aristocracy and disdain raising standards of living for everyone else because it makes your ultra-wealth seem less significant. Personally I prefer the printed word to the 20 seconds of experience I've had with a Kindle. Even if I were to appreciate the Kindle, the tactile sensation of hundreds of pages flapping by is something that I wouldn't give up lightly regardless. That being the case, why should I care about the Kindle or what other people think about it?
o_O
I don't know. I think that was my point. Let's try to get on the same page real quick...
In rough road conditions you have to pay attention, slow down, if the car starts to drift you have to let off the gas and reduce your speed to match it. You have to brake differently. You have to be mindful of what's going on around you more, and mindful of the car. Above a certain speed, no amount of super-leet-stunt-car-driver-skill will save you from the physical disconnection of the tires and the road.
Modern cars read the spin of the wheels to determine how the car's moving. If their spin is not equal, and doesn't make sense given how the steering wheel's pointed, the car will adjust the brakes and/or steering in various ways. Anti-lock brakes will back brakes off slow-spinning wheels; traction control will do the same, but also apply brakes to fast-spinning wheels, and while the car's moving; electronic stability control will also adjust your steering and use the brakes to match the car's calculated direction with the direction your steering wheel indicates.
Given the advancement in cars, we as a society see no reason to teach people anything about the first case, aside from "you should slow down in bad weather" (I've been told this about 100 times in driver's ed, but that's basically it, no elaboration). In effect, when you get in the car, you drive it. If it feels like it's losing control, you slow down. The new cars feel solid at higher speeds; they're also subject to the same limits as a driver in a totally manual/standard car, and when you go fast enough that the computer can't correct for any and all problems you suddenly lose all control. Nobody has ever taught you how to deal with this and you have no physical way of judging this by feel.
Effectively, this makes cars go/stop/turn. At least that's my perception of things, and looks to be how everyone else thinks too.
Why does everyone always go for the car discussion? Slashdot is so full of car analogies....
We must develop vehicles that require paying constant attention to every tiny variable in the road
Only in this fashion will our driving skills remain pure in the future
Your superiority complex is both staggering and staggeringly obnoxious. You think that because you shave with a straight razor you are better than the plebeians who submit themselves to disposables. I'm sorry, but that's retarded. There are plenty of reasons to prefer disposables, including not suffering from ingrown hairs, as you seem to think is inevitable, and not wanting to spend the time learning or using a straight razor.
Another fun fact: not everyone drives in the snow.
You're just giving a laundry list of pet peeves of yours. And your pet peeves are stupid.
Yeah, but a lot of those other things are required in order to survive, let alone survive on a much lower budget. Cooking does.
Touché.
Is it still valid to consider education a form of technology, and say we should at least educate drivers better on how the car and the road work? Or should we still just tell them to use turn signals and stop at traffic lights?
One of the reasons the car stuff probably got brought up was that the rest of it was so ridiculous. You said JRPGs are an acceptable substitute for great literature. This is a bizarre comment in and of itself, but coming after a neo-luddite tirade against intelligently designed brakes just made you look schizophrenic.
God I can't wait for completely automated transport. I hate driving so very much.
Edit: Oh right yes
JRPGs : Decent Literature :: Getting Hit Repeatedly In The Face With A Spiked Bat : Eating Delicious Ice Cream
Brick houses are very very very susceptible to tectonic forces that other building systems would easily resist. Are brick houses pieces of shit now? I'm not even sure what brick homes vs. stick framed homes has to do with technology, so let's set that aside.
I see where you're coming from. Some things that used to be commonplace are becoming lost arts. And frequently better results can be achieved with these old ways (straight blade shaving, manual transmissions, etc.) But making things easier, safer, faster, and thus more accessible to everyone seems like good goal for technology. It's not like manual transmissions have disappeared. You can still drive one if you want. Shit, it'll cost you less.
You know what really grinds my gears?