this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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When you connect a new device to a 'smart' tv, you must pay homage to the manufacturer with a ritualistic dance. Plugging and unplugging the device. Turning them on and off in the correct sequence like entering a konami code.

Every time you want to switch devices, the tv must scan for them. And god forbid you lose power, or unplug something. You are granted the delight experience of doing it all over again.

I have fond memories of the days of just plugging something in, and pressing the input button. Instant gratification. It was a simpler time.

What is some other tech that used to be better?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (10 children)

XMPP > Matrix | Slack | Telegram

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[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

Anything with asbestos in it. It's just a truly amazing material, with the one catch that it happens to dangerously irritate lung tissues. Relevant XKCD.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

Connectivity or rather the lack of it...

I have a Samsung TV and recently got a new cooling fan and now when I start the fan when my TV is on, it says it detected a new device. I don't know what my TV would want with a fan maybe control the speed for more immersion?

But there is also no way for me to disable that. I also got regular requests of my neighbor's to connect to my TV until I disabled the notification for it. No, I couldn't disable that my TV doesn't even allow it to be seen, I had to enable to not automatically connect devices and disable that notifications are being shown. That thing isn't even connected to the internet.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Just don't connect your TV to the internet and plug in a raspi. All the "smart" you could ever want without the bloat

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Video games. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great games, but the entire experience has degraded on average.

  • The inclusion of obnoxiously long, often unskippable, intro sequences with studio credits and such. There used to be maybe a logo, maybe a very short sequence at worst, and almost always skippable.
  • Most of the big budget games are intended to be a grindy slog, often to get you to spend more money on micro transactions. Fun takes a back seat to intentionally addictive but objectively less enjoyable experiences.
  • Others are intended to be cinematic experience. Some of that can be fun, but sometimes I just want something like the old Sonic or Mario games that I can just pick up, play for a bit, and put down.
  • Enjoy a game? You could talk to friends about it at school, or buy a magazine that talks about it. The experience now is largely an unregulated online wasteland... If you find a community, it may quickly be beset by people that you really don't want to associate with, posting crap that no magazine ever would have published. Except for some of the funnier magazines, which may have published it just to rightfully mock the person.

The graphics have improved. In some cases the gameplay has improved. I don't want to downplay those. I'm just annoyed with how the overall experience has gotten worse on average.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Funny, I think video games, on the whole, are approaching a real golden age. Sure (like you said) if you stick to the $70 titles produced by big studios you're going to have an increasingly bad time. But the quality of ""Indie"" (but not even really since Indie studios are legit full companies now) games is rising damn-near exponentially. I personally haven't felt a need to choose an ""AAA"" title over an indie title in years and not only am I saving money but I'm enjoying my time with video games more than I ever have (including childhood!) in my life.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Smart TVs and cae infotainnent systems, for sinilar reasons. Full of bloat, so many bugs and unreliable functioning.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I have fond memories of the days of just plugging something in, and pressing the input button. Instant gratification. It was a simpler time.

Dunno what kind of TVs you're using, but my Sony OLED pretty much behaves exactly like this. The Smart TV features are laggy and shit as usual, but those are still features that didn't exist in the old days so it's not a 1 to 1 comparison.

But with regards to just plugging in a blu ray or PS5 and hitting the input button, that's exactly how my modern TV works.

In fact, I don't even need to turn it on or hit the input button... Since they're both Sony, all I need to do is press the button on my PS5 controller and it turns on my TV and PS5 and switches to the correct input, without having to touch the remote. And vice versa (can turn on/off and control PS5 menus with the TV remote).

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

One wheel

The original

  • easy to replace batteries,

  • easy maintenance,

  • most important: highly customizable

(I mean, yes, you could blow yourself up with the gigantic lithium pack in your garage, but the community around one wheel has a lot of rich guidance to prevent you from doing that)

Entered version 2

  • batteries are now locked to the device.

  • hey! Ride carefully! Battery pack unplugging (even by accident) bricks the device ๐Ÿ˜†

  • uuuh, I bricked the device. What now? Send the device across Atlantic ocean to HQ in the US to plug it back in ๐Ÿคฃ ๐Ÿคฃ

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I have a smart TV and, while I hate that fact with every fiber of my being, I've never been through any of the particular bullshit you're describing. I absolutely can just plug a thing into it and it works when I switch to that input.

I'm going to go with video game console disk trays. Back on the PS1 and GameCube, you just hit a button to release a lock and then a spring popped the lid open. Now, I'll admit these newfangled interior conveyor belts we've had for checks calendar almost two decades have never actually broken on me, I resent the fact that if they were to break then I'd have no actual ability to get disks in and out of the machine.

That is, of course, assuming your console has an option for physical media at all, which is a very troubling direction in itself.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Most electric appliances in the second version. Always some lock-in anti repair bullship.

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