Indeed it is.

Sometimes I wonder why it should be only 'for a bit' and not as an usual lifestyle to downgrade our own tech to a more 'on demand' logic instead of walking around with any possible tech attached like some astronaut or the house full of devices that seems the clone of the others we already owned. I'm convinced we usually make the error of thinking that we actually need all the existing consumer tech in our life (who knows maybe we might find ourself walking at 8000 meters on a top of a mountain where some digital maps might help) so the old lifestyle should be impossible. But as said other times I don't think the generic common people tech needs changed that much since the 2000 and at the end all I see are new tech that does what other tech already did (sometimes also better) much time ago.
I see people buying new TVs just cause a switch off of some old video/audio codecs is coming and choosing a new smart whatever TV instead of some 20 E/$ DVB-T2 decoder to connect to the perfectly functional old one. What's the point of this logic I can't understand it.
So if they'd still build some Pentium 1 or 2 machines would they really be "that useless"? If the sw would be optimized to work on those they would still 'just work' like a 70's calculator or a FM analog radio perfectly does in the 2021. 😉

386SX wrote on 2021-12-13, 09:23:

I see people buying new TVs just cause a switch off of some old video/audio codecs is coming and choosing a new smart whatever TV instead of some 20 E/$ DVB-T2 decoder to connect to the perfectly functional old one. What's the point of this logic I can't understand it.

Ah, yes. I abhor smart TVs. I just buy a big ass computer monitor and use other devices to cover the smart part. A game console or a thin client with the right software are perfect for that. Yes, I have to tinker with the latter, but it's much more feature proof with user experience tailored to my own needs.

I also had a period with fitness bracelets/smart watches. As someone who generally likes checking out statistics they are fascinated me looking at my activity level and my sleep patterns trying to figure out how to use my time more efficiently based on the data. But after a couple of months I just decided that all these gadgets do is raising my base stress level and provide nothing of value and as for as exchange they look ugly and grow obsolete fast and once their battery dies, they are e-waste in 5 or so years. In the meantime my first decent wristwatch I bought mid-highschool, a Casio Edifice EF-556 is still ticking while at this point it's close to 20 years old.

I often think that modern tech, IoT devices, the modern and user "friendly" (I honestly think it's more soft-hostility rather than friendliness) thing that the internet became in the past 15-17 years actually lowered my quality of life.

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-13, 10:24:

Ah, yes. I abhor smart TVs. I just buy a big ass computer monitor and use other devices to cover the smart part. A game console or a thin client with the right software are perfect for that. Yes, I have to tinker with the latter, but it's much more feature proof with user experience tailored to my own needs.

I also had a period with fitness bracelets/smart watches. As someone who generally likes checking out statistics they are fascinated me looking at my activity level and my sleep patterns trying to figure out how to use my time more efficiently based on the data. But after a couple of months I just decided that all these gadgets do is raising my base stress level and provide nothing of value and as for as exchange they look ugly and grow obsolete fast and once their battery dies, they are e-waste in 5 or so years. In the meantime my first decent wristwatch I bought mid-highschool, a Casio Edifice EF-556 is still ticking while at this point it's close to 20 years old.

I often think that modern tech, IoT devices, the modern and user "friendly" (I honestly think it's more soft-hostility rather than friendliness) thing that the internet became in the past 15-17 years actually lowered my quality of life.

I understand that. In the past I liked the mobile technlology evolution in the early 2000's and it might have helped to have digital devices trying to simulate the heavy desktop computers. Like with old digital watches in the 90's where any new added features were like living the future and they were great as basic mobile technology. But instead after a decade I found what might have been obvious that those devices became too easy an everyday distraction from real life/job, spending too much on new devices, not focusing even on basic tasks (like walking straight or looking around for cars crossing the street) and at the end for the same everyday home/office tasks any old PC were still more than enough when nowdays I don't care anymore about modern or mobile pc or console gaming.

As already thought imho the whole concept of the devices changed from closed box devices that might last forever to a new 'time based services concept devices' with that 'less friendly' idea. Probably more than the quality of life itself I think to the lost knowledges to do even basic tasks. I see people driving in a range of few kilometers/miles with the gps/map always on like they might not find the road to the stores or to their house. Then the lost logic of just not caring about full time phone/messages/notifications/answering like it's impossible to take some time without even hearing digital sounds or being simply alone with the silence on a train or a bus or walking. Nowdays it's impossible to see people just sitting or simply doing nothing. Everyone's moving, I'd say running, even when without a real reason to. I don't say old lifestyle was always better having its problems, but still thinking to how much real free time existed before some devices promised to free even more time instead of taking it, it might make a good reason to think more about the subject.

CraigAB69 wrote on 2021-12-13, 06:22:

Hi,

So with all the BS going on in the world, I am very happy to have a Pentium 3 running Windows 95/VS6.0/MASM.
Just need MP4's and MP3's sorted and it should be just that little bit better.

MP4 on a pentium 3 ? mmh as long as they're not too high in bitrate, I guess it 's possible.

Life today is too noisy. I hate push notices and constant reminders that grass is perhaps greener on the other side. I want less choices and this is my reason for retro computer interest.

386SX wrote on 2021-12-13, 09:23:

instead of walking around with any possible tech attached like some astronaut or the house full of devices that seems the clone of the others we already owned. I'm convinced we usually make the error of thinking that we actually need all the existing consumer tech in our life (who knows maybe we might find ourself walking at 8000 meters on a top of a mountain where some digital maps might help) so the old lifestyle should be impossible. But as said other times I don't think the generic common people tech needs changed that much since the 2000 and at the end all I see are new tech that does what other tech already did (sometimes also better) much time ago.

Even that is retro though, hello Mr Connected 1993....

"..mirrorshade sunglasses (last seen on CHiPs) never went out of fashion.." 😁

They were "out" for a lot of the 90s, but got back "in" again when raybans and similar brands went from being $20 shades to $200 shades.

Yeah I've seen them in stores at high prices but considering others sunglasses designs I'm not surprised some came back with that style. It's difficult to even see a modern sunglasses design that it's worth half the money they usually ask for, at least IMHO. Anyway the 70's TV serie name quote was unexpected.. those sunglasses and the motorcycles were something like the Knight Rider TV serie. 😁

386SX wrote on 2021-12-13, 17:37:

It's difficult to even see a modern sunglasses design that it's worth half the money they usually ask for, at least IMHO.

It's actually a problem, prescription glasses are also costing way more than a free market should allow, meet the villain.... https://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/ … sh=6d8481fb6b66

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-12-13, 17:45:

It's actually a problem, prescription glasses are also costing way more than a free market should allow, meet the villain.... https://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/ … sh=6d8481fb6b66

How much do you pay for prescription glasses & frame ?

Lenses and frames (high quality) are expensive even with great insurance.

Allowance is usually $200 for frames and I think $100 for lenses.

Frames are only covered every other year.

Single vision with auto darkening and anti-glare and a good frame (flexion) usually runs about $300-$350 after insurance.

I can't do cheap frames or lenses as they end up getting trashed in a few months if that.

If you go super cheap, you can generally get some crap frames and crap lenses that will be fully covered by insurance.

This is in the USA.

I'm not entirely sure that most other sectors anyway becoming cheaper and better let's look at technology.. beside the problems that might explain why modern tech is so expensive in the last years, even before the pandemic problem tech were becoming more and more expensive. Lately mostly anything even cheapest 2000's quality webcams costs probably more than what they should be expected like some with VGA/XGA sensors not much different from like decades ago or PC speakers with supposed 15W RMS sold like "high end" professional speakers, adapters, cables, anything seems expensive nowdays. And alternative brands seems to walk that road too with basically similar prices even when cheaper quality.
Maybe it's just this future and people actually might just decide what they really need or not. I was doing the TV example where people spend n times more for something they already own and an external decoder is more than enough but I'm sure many was waiting the opportunity to change TV anyway just to have a new model. 😉

Joakim wrote on 2021-12-13, 16:31:

Life today is too noisy. I hate push notices and constant reminders that grass is perhaps greener on the other side. I want less choices and this is my reason for retro computer interest.

Yes, indeed, there is far, far too much background noise in our lives, and it is slowly destroying us, I think. For my part, I refuse to own a smartphone, eschew "modern" systems (with no bare metal DOS support, see my other thread in the DOS games forum), and abhor the awfully-named Internet of things. When I see "smart" on any gadget I run away, for "smart" is a euphemism for "external control" and "Big Six companies are coming after you for datamining!" For many of us, there is no "other side", and I've never, in all my decades of living wanted to "keep up with the Jonses" and always thought that was about the most counterproductive thing one could aspire to.

The Simpsons gets all the glory for prophecy, but check out this zinger from Buffy Season 4 Episode 22 ... https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments/llid9 … domination_the/

edit: and this seems to be the best/only clip of it on teh interwebs, more of the scene for context would have been nice https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/4521dbb0-07ae-4e … 94-05cba9f51740

Hmm, I hope the still working Mr Coffee units in
the world never become self aware and form a mesh network .

Imagine if the T800 was made of of intelligent coffee grinds and if the T1000 was made of liquid coffee...

Ok, it's past my bedtime, I will see myself out . 😉

Lots of rambling here, sorry, skip as desired.

I drive an old car because I like it's simplicity. To me the complexity of modern cars is discouraging and repressive. They are jammed full of nonsense that isn't necessary.
I'm fortunate that I lived in California so I was able to buy an old car in good structural condition. A lot of people live in places where old cars don't last, so they have much less of a choice. Nearly every detail of the modern car is mandated by law now so we don't have the choice to buy something simple as new anymore.

I believe that it's more practical and fulfilling to own something simple that you can understand, troubleshoot, service and maintain yourself. I don't want a car that I can only drive and have to take to an "expert professional" every time a blinkenlight turns on. That doesn't feel much like ownership to me.
Modern cars are fast, but after you've gotten past the initial thrill, I don't think a faster car is inherently more fun. If that were true then we wouldn't be seeing people today show less interest in their cars than they ever have.
I have fun driving my car not in competition with some new model, but just driving by myself. And since I'm actually the one driving it - not a computer - it actually feels like I'm doing something.

... which leads to my tiresome experience with my cell phone and it's insurance "app". Yeah, I signed up for one of those "Snapshot" things that's supposed to give you a discount if you submit to having your cell phone spy on your driving habits for 6mos. Weird choice for somebody like me to make, but I thought I could tolerate it and ace it, thereby saving money for the next few years. I regret it.
Now that I'm "connected", driving has gone from a relaxing activity to a source of stress.
Every time you touch the brake pedal you have to be careful not to perpetrate a "hard braking" offense, which means you braked hard enough to spill a glass of wine. I can't tell if it's supposed to be an actual risk assessment, or an admissions test for chauffeurs.
Every time I approach a green light at speed, wondering if it might turn yellow, I start sweating over the fear of "hard braking".
I used to stop at stop signs. I've learned to roll them now.

When I need to stop for something unexpectedly, I have to drag it out as far as possible to avoid triggering the app, to the point that I'm intruding on people's space and being a nuisance.

I got two "fast acceleration" strikes within the same week when turning onto a cross street. It wasn't even remotely fast, I'm convinced it just reacts to any initial "lurch" that the phone feels when you first open the throttle. In other words, I spilled the hypothetical glass of wine going from 0-5mph. I've been stuck on a "B+" grade for a month since.

The whole experience has been frustrating and hardly resembles anything that would rationally affect safety. Every day I have to drive like a half asleep elderly robot because the trigger thresholds are so stupid and arbitrary.

I was stubborn about cell phones and only got mine last year. The main reason was pressure from family and the world that almost requires you to have one, but I also thought having it would be a good idea for navigation (since I was moving), and maybe it would be more flexible for listening to podcasts and such in the car. I can't do any of that though because I might get dinged for "cell phone use".
So basically it just spies on me.

I don't like social media because I don't need an update on every opinion held by my most outspoken relatives and associates, and I don't enjoy the feeling that I can't respond in a self respecting manner because my opinions aren't the correct ones to be welcome.
In today's highly connected mob mentality it's safe to stay with the herd, not so safe to be seen outside of it. That being the case, I also don't feel the need to create a permanent public record by which I can be forever scrutinized.
I think the whole social media phenomenon is disturbing. It was a nice idea to think we'd use it to chat about the weather with our aunts and uncles, but that was naive. It is a monster that is turning us into the Borg.

I don't like TV, because I don't need to be constantly reminded of everything in the world that I'm depressed or agitated about, or supposed to be.
Most of what I watch nowadays are youtube channels that I like, or old movies mostly from the last century.

The more I "unplug" from the modern world the happier I am. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but it's just the truth.
For all of it's technology, the modern world is not a happy place. Sometimes I think we hit a peak at some point, and now the technology has advanced too far for our own good.

shamino wrote on 2021-12-14, 09:16:

Modern cars are fast, but after you've gotten past the initial thrill, I don't think a faster car is inherently more fun.

Err... modern city cars are abysmal. They have a small, often less than 1000cc low power engine with a lot of tech to compensate. At the same times they are sometimes one and a half times heavier than cars up until the mid noughties. Hot hatches and other "worker class' sports cars" are dying out. It's starting to get less and less common to have something new with manual transmission even in Europe.

A couple of years ago you could buy a 1 ton car with a 2 liter 150HP naturally aspirated engine, now you can buy a 1.2 ton car with a 1.1 liter 100HP turbo engine. It meets the emission and safety standards, but it's more expensive and boring and it's more difficult and expensive to fix.