Some of this isn't new, like the printer example. However I recently bought a Canon inkjet printer because it purportedly had good linux support (spoiler: it's actually ok!).
Even though MacOS drivers and software were available, all of the online instructions were strictly for Windows. So I set the printer up with the Mac software. Knowing what I know now, I could have done all of the printer setup with the printer control panel.
As far as I can tell, all the printer really required on a reasonably modern copy of SuSE Linux was a PPD. I haven't done pcaps, but taking it at "interface value" it looks like it ingests ghostscript-generated PDFs just fine. I haven't tried to get the scanner working on Linux.
A couldn't agree with the article more. Technology is increasingly being leveraged against us and is making daily life a greater pain in the butt than is necessary, and a greater pain than before the technology came around.
Every day I feel a little more disgusted that this is the field I dedicated my career to. I ignored warnings for 25 years because things seemed fine and then suddenly everything started to turn so fast.
These days you can't even warn people about things that are already happening.
just bought a $170 phone (android) to transfer from another bargain basement <$99 phone. All it required was being on the same wifi and scanning a QR code.
An illustrated collection of ordinary systems that have gradually become harder to navigate over time. Not catastrophic failures, but layers of process, abstraction, and complexity that steadily accumulate
As so often, a thinkpiece exemplifies the problem.
You include a bunch of random AI-generated images to go with your AI-generated prose. The images are cluttered and filled with pointless, fictional detail which convey nothing beyond the prose and which anyone could vaguely predict, and yet take up something like 2/3rds of the vertical space of the article body. And that is generous, because your items are padded by LLM writing, that is to say, verbosely filled with needlessly superfluously repetitive redundant redundancy. And that's where it's not filled with crowdpleasing but dubious rhetoric and assertions (all present, of course, without any sources or backing).
Consider with a critical mind a random assertion like
> For many people, the first experience of healthcare is no longer treatment but paperwork. Intake forms, insurance verification, privacy acknowledgments, and consent agreements often precede any human interaction related to care. The administrative system introduces itself before the clinical one. This changes the shape of the experience. What should begin with care often begins with bureaucracy, shifting attention away from the person and toward the process.
Really? Recently, peoples' first experience of healthcare was treatment? What wondrous era was this? How could 'intake forms' not, by definition, 'precede any human interaction related to care'? Why should it begin with care? 'Ready, fire, aim!' etc. When did all this happen, exactly?
And it's all like this. Engagement farming - that OP is worthless won't stop people from falling for it and chiming in with whatever pet peeve they have, no matter how many other people have commented about it or how tiresomely predictable some complaint about, say, smartphones will be.
Is this a big city thing or maybe a European thing? I have never seen this but maybe I escaped California just in time. People on HN have mentioned it a few times. I'm in a rural area and I often leave my cell phone at home. My goal is to eventually get rid of my phone all together and I think that is doable.
A bunch of lots in downtown Denver have this "feature". I suppose it's good for the lot owners, they don't have to buy and maintain receipt vending machines.
Some of this isn't new, like the printer example. However I recently bought a Canon inkjet printer because it purportedly had good linux support (spoiler: it's actually ok!).
Even though MacOS drivers and software were available, all of the online instructions were strictly for Windows. So I set the printer up with the Mac software. Knowing what I know now, I could have done all of the printer setup with the printer control panel.
As far as I can tell, all the printer really required on a reasonably modern copy of SuSE Linux was a PPD. I haven't done pcaps, but taking it at "interface value" it looks like it ingests ghostscript-generated PDFs just fine. I haven't tried to get the scanner working on Linux.
A couldn't agree with the article more. Technology is increasingly being leveraged against us and is making daily life a greater pain in the butt than is necessary, and a greater pain than before the technology came around.
Every day I feel a little more disgusted that this is the field I dedicated my career to. I ignored warnings for 25 years because things seemed fine and then suddenly everything started to turn so fast.
These days you can't even warn people about things that are already happening.
Restaurants that don't have physical menus, and only QR codes. The solution when you don't bring a phone is they bring you their tablet. Why?
So they can raise prices without reprinting the menu?
Finally! The real explanation for why we need 5G mmwave and 120+ Hz phone displays..
Buying a new phone and transferring the apps over is a complete nightmare with login issues, unrecognized device, two factor authentication etc
just bought a $170 phone (android) to transfer from another bargain basement <$99 phone. All it required was being on the same wifi and scanning a QR code.
/anecdote
An illustrated collection of ordinary systems that have gradually become harder to navigate over time. Not catastrophic failures, but layers of process, abstraction, and complexity that steadily accumulate
As so often, a thinkpiece exemplifies the problem.
You include a bunch of random AI-generated images to go with your AI-generated prose. The images are cluttered and filled with pointless, fictional detail which convey nothing beyond the prose and which anyone could vaguely predict, and yet take up something like 2/3rds of the vertical space of the article body. And that is generous, because your items are padded by LLM writing, that is to say, verbosely filled with needlessly superfluously repetitive redundant redundancy. And that's where it's not filled with crowdpleasing but dubious rhetoric and assertions (all present, of course, without any sources or backing).
Consider with a critical mind a random assertion like
> For many people, the first experience of healthcare is no longer treatment but paperwork. Intake forms, insurance verification, privacy acknowledgments, and consent agreements often precede any human interaction related to care. The administrative system introduces itself before the clinical one. This changes the shape of the experience. What should begin with care often begins with bureaucracy, shifting attention away from the person and toward the process.
Really? Recently, peoples' first experience of healthcare was treatment? What wondrous era was this? How could 'intake forms' not, by definition, 'precede any human interaction related to care'? Why should it begin with care? 'Ready, fire, aim!' etc. When did all this happen, exactly?
And it's all like this. Engagement farming - that OP is worthless won't stop people from falling for it and chiming in with whatever pet peeve they have, no matter how many other people have commented about it or how tiresomely predictable some complaint about, say, smartphones will be.
Parking by App Only
Is this a big city thing or maybe a European thing? I have never seen this but maybe I escaped California just in time. People on HN have mentioned it a few times. I'm in a rural area and I often leave my cell phone at home. My goal is to eventually get rid of my phone all together and I think that is doable.
A bunch of lots in downtown Denver have this "feature". I suppose it's good for the lot owners, they don't have to buy and maintain receipt vending machines.
Makes sense. I just can not foresee myself participating in anything that places a hard dependency on a fondle slab.