Bill McNeal wrote:I read that article on deadspin as well and the first thing I'd say is that the guy who wrote it is kind of a huge douche. He tries to be like Magary and be angry about things with a humorous angle, but he's not funny at all so he just yells about stuff constantly. I get it, it's annoying when you get a new game system or piece of tech and you have to update and patch it before you can really use it, but the alternative is having something that is what it is when it ships and you can't change it, I'll take the trade off of spending a couple hours getting it setup when I buy it (a onetime activity) in order to have the ability to patch, update, or add content to my games and other things it offers.

TenuredVulture wrote:

Bill McNeal wrote:I read that article on deadspin as well and the first thing I'd say is that the guy who wrote it is kind of a huge douche. He tries to be like Magary and be angry about things with a humorous angle, but he's not funny at all so he just yells about stuff constantly. I get it, it's annoying when you get a new game system or piece of tech and you have to update and patch it before you can really use it, but the alternative is having something that is what it is when it ships and you can't change it, I'll take the trade off of spending a couple hours getting it setup when I buy it (a onetime activity) in order to have the ability to patch, update, or add content to my games and other things it offers.

You're right about the article, but I still think there's value in just being able to buy something, plugging it in, turning it on, and having it work. If you want to have updates and such, those should be as unobtrusive as possible, and not interfere with the actual usage of the device. And, of course, you shouldn't ship the damn thing if it needs updates as soon as it's purchased.

I just think we've reached a kind of limit when it comes to technology bringing us convenience.

(Though my wife seems to really be enjoying her cordless phone charger, so yeah, I might just be wrong.)

Bill McNeal wrote:I read that article on deadspin as well and the first thing I'd say is that the guy who wrote it is kind of a huge douche. He tries to be like Magary and be angry about things with a humorous angle, but he's not funny at all so he just yells about stuff constantly. I get it, it's annoying when you get a new game system or piece of tech and you have to update and patch it before you can really use it, but the alternative is having something that is what it is when it ships and you can't change it, I'll take the trade off of spending a couple hours getting it setup when I buy it (a onetime activity) in order to have the ability to patch, update, or add content to my games and other things it offers.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I hate when a tv show or movie has this construction where someone drops some innuendo by casually referring to a conversation from hours ago like that's a normal thing to do. was watching an episode of the Knick and it goes like this:

Man: We delivered a baby here.

::all kinds of crazy shit happens, violence, suspense, etc.; at least 8 hours pass::

Man: Welp, I guess that's it.
Woman: What was the sex?
Man: W-wuh?
Woman: Ha ha, of the babies you delivered, silly. What was the SEX of the babies?
Man: Oh, I see.

::Man and Woman have sex::

no one does that!

TenuredVulture wrote:I think that we have past the point where new technologies have made our lives easier and better, and now are at the point where new technologies are primarily intrusive and in fact don't work as well as old technologies. I read something in deadspin or somewhere that compared the XBOX 1 very unfavorably with previous gaming consoles--it takes hours to set up, games take hours to install and update, and so forth. Indeed, it seems using any piece of software or new technology these days requires hours of tedious set up, remembering passwords and usernames, and on and on. All this limits whatever utility the cloud might have had. I just want to plug in my VCR, slap a tape in, and watch a movie. Furthermore, with this new model, you don't really own anything. Instead, you pay for a license to access content, which means that content can go away at any time.

Computer printers are another constant technological annoyance. True, they're practically free, but ink runs out, and ink cartridges seem to frequently not work well, rendering the entire device inoperable. (If I'm ever tempted to vote for Carly Fiorina...)

Amazon Dash is the wave of the future--is the tiny bit of convenience it offers really worth anything? It seems almost all the benefits accrue to amazon and Tide or whoever, as using the device locks you into their services. This is where the internet of things takes us--it's not designed for consumer convenience or value at all, but for the benefit of corporate overlords.

The internet is basically a giant time suck, the small nuggets of useful or interesting information is buried in a sea of utter shit.

Finally, much of the promise of all this connectivity has been nothing but unmet potential. Netflix was supposed to get beyond the business of mailing DVDs to everyone--instant view was the future. But almost nothing you want to watch is available on instant these days.

In short--new technology is expensive, difficult to use, and doesn't work very well.

Now I'm going to go yell at clouds.

Bill McNeal wrote:I read that article on deadspin as well and the first thing I'd say is that the guy who wrote it is kind of a huge douche. He tries to be like Magary and be angry about things with a humorous angle, but he's not funny at all so he just yells about stuff constantly. I get it, it's annoying when you get a new game system or piece of tech and you have to update and patch it before you can really use it, but the alternative is having something that is what it is when it ships and you can't change it, I'll take the trade off of spending a couple hours getting it setup when I buy it (a onetime activity) in order to have the ability to patch, update, or add content to my games and other things it offers.

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I hate when a tv show or movie has this construction where someone drops some innuendo by casually referring to a conversation from hours ago like that's a normal thing to do. was watching an episode of the Knick and it goes like this:

Man: We delivered a baby here.

::all kinds of crazy #$!&@ happens, violence, suspense, etc.; at least 8 hours pass::

Man: Welp, I guess that's it.
Woman: What was the sex?
Man: W-wuh?
Woman: Ha ha, of the babies you delivered, silly. What was the SEX of the babies?
Man: Oh, I see.

::Man and Woman have sex::

no one does that!

The Dude wrote:Gonna be hard t disagree more with this. A couple of the points are just incorrect, like with the owning of digital content.

TenuredVulture wrote:I just think we've reached a kind of limit when it comes to technology bringing us convenience.