Ehh.. I don't know, it's just not the same without logging onto an IRC server full of interesting strangers and ICQ connected. Sometimes I get a great kick out of this hobby. Sometimes it just feels so lonely..

I wish someone would run IRC servers or a new ICQ server for everyone to connect to. I don't know man. It's just not the same without that mysterious, anonymous and janky online interaction.

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

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.

I would say we peaked around 1995 with technology. DVDs had just come out, MPEG2 was out, so was MP3. CDs provided great quality digital, lossless PCM audio. HDTVs were just coming out. The was no "smart"-anything yet (hooray!). Before cell phones were mainstream. The internet was around, but it was a pleasure to navigate because you didn't have all the intrusions (ads, captcha, paywalls, spam, rampant Javascript, huge images, etc). It was *fast*, because it was mostly text-based. Broadband internet had just been released, finally it was possible to connect from home in the mbps range instead of 56k. As you mentioned, cars were at their peak. Before all the bullshit and regulations of modern cars. You could still get an excellent, basic, reliable car for about $15,000 that would run for 200,000 miles with simple maintenance.

Since 1995 or so, it's all been needless bells and whistles with newly-released technology. For me, it's just been ridiculous "background noise" since then. Nothing really new and revolutionary has come out. The smartphone doesn't count. It has caused more harm than good... it has become an evil, controlling influence on most people's lives, making them MORE complicated rather than saving any actual time or sanity.

zyzzle wrote on 2021-12-14, 11:59:

Since 1995 or so, it's all been needless bells and whistles with newly-released technology. For me, it's just been ridiculous "background noise" since then. Nothing really new and revolutionary has come out. The smartphone doesn't count. It has caused more harm than good... it has become an evil, controlling influence on most people's lives, making them MORE complicated rather than saving any actual time or sanity.

I liked mid-2000s phones the most. The Nokia 5310 was one fine looking phone. All it was missing is an autofocus camera and maybe an end-to-end encrypted messenger instead of SMS. I'd say it's just smart enough for a phone. Sony Ericcson and Motorola also made some really good ones.

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-14, 13:17:

zyzzle wrote on 2021-12-14, 11:59:

Since 1995 or so, it's all been needless bells and whistles with newly-released technology. For me, it's just been ridiculous "background noise" since then. Nothing really new and revolutionary has come out. The smartphone doesn't count. It has caused more harm than good... it has become an evil, controlling influence on most people's lives, making them MORE complicated rather than saving any actual time or sanity.

I liked mid-2000s phones the most. The Nokia 5310 was one fine looking phone. All it was missing is an autofocus camera and maybe an end-to-end encrypted messenger instead of SMS. I'd say it's just smart enough for a phone. Sony Ericcson and Motorola also made some really good ones.

Yeah, mid 2000s were great (for mobile phones). My favorite mobiles ever were Siemens SX1 and SonyEricsson w810i.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-14, 13:22:

Yeah, mid 2000s were great (for mobile phones). My favorite mobiles ever were Siemens SX1 and SonyEricsson w810i.

Ah, the SX1. I used to have one of those. I had it until recently with it's original box. I gave it away to a co-worker who's a phone collector. Sadly it died on me in 2009. I bought a Nokia 5320 instead of a 5310 as a replacement. The build quality was worse, but had much larger built-in storage. It still works as if it was new. Last week I gave it to my father.

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

Hi, […]
Show full quote

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.
No social media, and I'm just about to turn off my Samsung S9, although I am considering running up one of my old phones with just the basics and maybe Snake.
It's great to disconnect for a bit, play and old game and program for a bit.

Cheers,
Craig

Normally i'd say that's a boomer opinion. But considering the state of the current world, no i actually kinda understand.

I try to curate the places i spend time online. I don't have any social media accounts. I don't read social media unless i absolutely need too. I don't follow any "influencers". I try to keep away all forms of formal politics or whatever spicy hot pepper takes people have these days. I just hang out in a few friendly discord communities. No negativity, no drama. Just chatting about games, memes, or whatever else comes our way.

Life's too short for me to be bombarded by the negativity of people online starting slapfights, and that seems to be a majority of social media.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-12-13, 18:35:

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

If we're going super cheap... you can get mass-produced glasses with corrective lenses for $15 online. I've seen them offered with -3 to +3 diopter.

Lots of stuff in this thread that I probably think about way too much.....

I like my old computers. No spyware, no malware, no adware, no nagware. I can do productive things and not have some notification of a forced reboot for an update (Windows 10), or find out the repository my favorite Linux software was hosted on went away and now I have to find it on something out. There 4 decades of games out there, a vast majority of them I can get for free legally. When something goes wrong most of them are pin-through-hole DIL or larger SMD components so i Can replace parts or band-aid them in no time. Everything is on cardhs so I don't need a new motherboard when a sound card dies or a ethernet adapter starts spitting garbage. They are all so old it's a new level of stupidity to get a virus. And even if one did, what is someone going to do? Steal software from my computer that I already can get for free off an Abandonware site with less trouble? Also, I don't get tickers from social media interrupting me.

I love my old cars because they are cheap, easy to fix, and at worst, maybe need to do the same electronic repairs to them that I do to my old computers. A ford EECIV PCM is easier to work on than a 486 DX4-100. And I still get to have most of the new goodies everyone else has on their new $540/mo. rides. In my 30 year old truck, I have bluetooth, I have USB, I have the ability to stream audio from my phone, and because of the placement of everything, answering calls while driving does not require more than a poke while holding onto the gearshift (the button to answer is right in line with the shifter, allowing me to not even have to look away from the road at all). I probably have a safer setup than these modern touch-screen atrocities. Backup camera? My neck still works thankyouverymuch. And when you have a vehicle with half-a-million miles on the clock with no leaks and hardly using any fluids while riding like a brand new vehicle, anyone with any sense would continue driving said vehicle till it finally does die....if it ever does. Plus, it's better for the environment, a factory generates as much pollution creating one new hybrid as a properly cared for gasoline powered car from the 90's does in 5 years. Also, nobody makes small 2-door, body-on frame SUV's and regular cab shortbed compact trucks anymore. My god, if someone did that with an EV, they would KILL in today's world. I don't have kids, I don't want kids, it's just me and my wife, and I don't need a 9 foot bed or a bench up front the size of a California King Size Bed. Bring back compact trucks dangit! Maybe I should start my own company.

I hate "smart" anything. I have 3 4K TV's, all of them "Smart TV's" all three of them have something that seriously bugs me about them. One lives in our bedroom closet, it's an $800 Samsung that runs like a 286 with 256K of RAM trying to run Crysis. The other two are Rokus that had remotes the size of a butterfinger bar. The Remote for the Samsung was slow as molasses in January to respond, but the Roku remotes were the size of a small candy bar and constantly got lost. Sure, there's an "app for that" but then we get to the next problem....Smartphones. See, I don't like touch screens, making a non-tactile-feedback surface to carry out vital machine functions on always seemed like a bad idea. It's made worse when you have to constantly tap and slide between windows as you're using the Roku app for a remote, answering text messages, and attempting to call your in-laws. So I get universal remotes. You have to hunt online for special code lists to find the codes for most of them to work, then you have to worry about them getting de-programmed either when the batteries die, or when your wife accidentally hits "Setup" trying to turn the TV off and inadvertently reprograms the remote. Now I have dymo labels with the codes on the back because I'm sick of hunting for them.

Sounds like somebody needs the handy dandy tiny remote lifehack.... https://imgur.com/gallery/SWawxcN

Before you get to be a dyed in the wool traitor to yesterday's tomorrow though, check this out, just as home and micro computing was starting to be a thing, July 5th 1976 Business Week published an article called "The Smart Machine Revolution" which outlined smart phones smart watches etc, and basically laid out a roadmap of the next 3-4 decades. Though I wonder if they hoped it would only take one or two back then.

In the 80s and 90s for a lot of that tech we might have been in the "Trough of Disillusionment" of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle as we were not seeing much progress on practical implementations of usefully smart devices. I guess now we've actually got the tech we might be on a superimposed hype cycle where it's capacity for life improvement and synergistic changes to our lives was overstated and we're in THAT trough...

All I'm saying is, we're living the wet dream geek future of 1976... our present is retro-futuristic.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-12-18, 19:37:

Before you get to be a dyed in the wool traitor to yesterday's tomorrow though, check this out, just as home and micro computing was starting to be a thing, July 5th 1976 Business Week published an article called "The Smart Machine Revolution" which outlined smart phones smart watches etc, and basically laid out a roadmap of the next 3-4 decades. Though I wonder if they hoped it would only take one or two back then.

In the 80s and 90s for a lot of that tech we might have been in the "Trough of Disillusionment" of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartner_hype_cycle as we were not seeing much progress on practical implementations of usefully smart devices. I guess now we've actually got the tech we might be on a superimposed hype cycle where it's capacity for life improvement and synergistic changes to our lives was overstated and we're in THAT trough...

All I'm saying is, we're living the wet dream geek future of 1976... our present is retro-futuristic.

It really begs the question, is the technology then truly better, or were people in general just truly better on an implementation. Can't really get away from the human element since we do design these things and choose to release them ready or not. I kind of see it as a catch 22 of sorts, where the older stuff suits me better in a lot of ways.

I think part of it is because through this older tech, I've been spoiled a bit. I've had better engineered interfaces, the same or similar capabilities on over-engineered hardware and highly optimized software. And due to the lack of complexity of something like DOS, I am able to be fully aware of what's going on on my PC at all times. I also can replace parts ala-carte, and sometimes the limitations force me to put my attention elsewhere where a "normal" person would just continue on even though annoyed.

I suppose that like any dreams the reality wasn't that great as they might have imagined/hoped in the 1976. Sure many things nowdays are common and futuristic but at the end people actually doesn't seems to choose but simply buy the tech it is said they will need and available. The modern device itself is 'less important' than the function that device is sold for and that function depends almost everytimes on server based services and not like a battery powered self functioning device would work, let's think to an old portable digital calculator. It's impressive how something like that after 40 years of lifetime still work as supposed to and might probably last "forever" for that single function. Nowdays it's difficult to imagine devices like these.