It used to be that when you had downloaded software, and it gave you popups asking if you wanted to download the new version, you could say "No", and THAT WAS THE END OF IT, at least until they came up with an even newer version and asked you again.
Now I am getting popups that DO NOT GIVE ME ANY WAY TO SAY NO, just "Do you want to download the new version now, or later? Those are your two choices, because I will ask again next time you open the program...and again, and again, and again, and eventually you will either make a mistake and hit 'download', or you will get so sick of having to press the 'cancel' button that you will download the new version, which you won't know how to use." This is happening with both Acrobat and Last.fm.
Or the disabled features of cellphones. The trivial disabled features are the most aggravating, like the one that keeps a running total of your minutes for the month.
I work for a quite small software company that competes against many, much larger companies. Our CEO (I guess you'd call him) one day was talking to one of these large companies that we're co-operating with, and asked the executive from this large company something about whether the high quality of our software counts for anything, and the executive said "We have a lot of money. We don't need to make good software."
1: I still have acrobat 6 installed for this very reason.
And you can't get a new velocipede with a cow-catcher anymore!
Or the disabled features of cellphones
Grrrr. I got a RAZR only to find that Verizon had locked pretty much all the features I wanted it for. So I put it through the wash, just out of spite.
On preview, 5 is funny.
You know what annoys me about cell phones? They don't come with games anymore, except those games that add $15 a month to your bill. You know, I would probably pay $.25 a month for one of those games.
My mother-in-law swears that her very first washing machine, acquired around 1950 was a combined washer-dryer: put dirty clothes in, take clean and dry clothes out. Allegedly that feature was discontinued shortly thereafter in favor of the two machine systen, AND IT STILL HASN'T COME BACK.
I had a phone that let me beam names and numbers from the infrared port on my laptop or a handheld or another phone into my phone
My boss did that as a party trick in a meeting like 5 years ago, and I was suitably impressed. I was wondering if they still did that.
IR technology for computers somehow never added up to much. I wonder if it was never going to be all that, or if no one came up with a killer app during the 5-10 years before WiFi when it would've been useful as hell.
No, wait, I'm almost positive I recently saw a combined washer/dryer for sale. If you don't google it, I will.
I think bluetooth is supposed to have taken the place of IR, but it still don't work right for data transfer. In my case, my old phone has IR but my new laptop doesn't. Of course, the best example of this phenomenon is phone call quality; we've gone from landlines that sounded great to cell phones where you often can't have a decent conversation.
Washer/dryer combos exist. An irregular's mother-in-law is banned.
But! They usually work by drying your clothes on mega-heat, instead of having a full venting system. Which is bad for your adorable vintage dresses.
Combined washer driers are fairly common. Where do you people live?
The general thing about technology going backwards sometimes is right, though.
re: 13
Yeah, my adorable vintage dresses were ruined just that way!
There's been an entropy reversal. I hear that we'll be using the old 5" floppies again within 10 years.
Where do you people live?
In the greatest country on earth, where these things are pretty rare, because why would someone sell you one thing when he could sell you two?
re: 13
if only there were a way of cleaning fragile vintage clothes that didn't involve getting them wet! I even have a name for such a process if and when it is invented - "Ready Brek"
So I'll be using my Mac Plus again in a few years? Good thing I didn't turn it into an aquarium.
18: Ow, my feelings!
Actually, dry-cleaners have ruined/broken/torn two pieces I dearly loved, and I resent them for it.
11: Cell phones aren't actually for having decent conversations. You know.
In high school people used the IR ports on TI calculators to pass around games written in calculator language. We called such transfers calculator sex.
20: You should consider taking legal action.
My phone, a Samsung e105 from about 4 years ago, is a replacement my wife bought on ebay for me, because she knew how much I'd appreciate a new copy of something I've developed.
Samsung, not T-Mobile, of course, had a modem feature and a file manager downloadable at its website, both employing the IR port on the computer. I'd probably use a cable for the modem feature rather than risk losing connections, but the ir sync-ing of the phone and computer has saved me a lot of money T-Mobile would have liked to charge me. When I made my "Let the Eagle Soar..." ringtone from an mp3, I was able to upload it w/o difficulty.
I could tell valuable–discontinued–features stories all day.
If SP had any self-respect, that comment would have been posted under presidential pseud.
One of my worst breakups was due to a fight about calculator sex, but then we had breakup calculator sex. She tried to get her TI-85 pregnant, but fortuantely nothing happened.
Robert J. Samuelson, in one of his few worthwhile contributions to humanity, coined the phrase "retarded technology" to describe that which "creates new and expensive ways of doing things that were once done simply and inexpensively"
#20: why do you resent them? As I understand the American legal system (ie from television and blogs) this means that you get 20 million dollars! Lend us a score till wednesday.
I'm too big of a lazy sissy to take legal action. I just got the zipper fixed elsewhere on the dress, and pinned a big fake flower on the torn lapel of the trenchcoat.
People actually used the IR ports? I remember playing with a Newton (or something like it) someone had dragged in on a wagon behind them, when I worked for a tech publisher a really long time ago, and we were sitting there across the conference table trying to beam a virtual business card to one another and we kept edging them closer and closer and finally I was like, "I've got a card on my desk, fuck this," and that was that. The Future! was clearly not quite ready for a dress rehearsal.
My tests have shown that Samsung beats Motorola hands-down in the going-through-the-wash category. After I killed the RAZR, I re-activated my old Samsung, which had gone through the wash twice and still works. I have to kind of yell into it, though.
31: Tell people your reception is poor because you're underwater. It's almost true!
Of course, sometimes this is just technological nostalgia. I was inspired by the various reviews to try the vintage Sony D-25 diskman.
I have to say that the sound is quite good, but not quite as exceptional as those reviews make it out to be. But, I must be the target audience, because I do get a kick out of using a nineteen year old portable CD player. Pure technological nostalgia.
OTOH, I believe all the reseach about good industrial design and user interfaces doing more to contribute to a satisfying experience than features, and a big reason why products become sought after "classics" is good design.
I apparently comment from a nearby but distinct universe. I use a RAZR, love it, use Bluetooth all the time, have a file browser that turns my phone into a miniature FTP server, made ringtones out of MP3s and uploaded them without paying anyone a single penny, etc.
RMcMP, do you have Verizon? And which model of RAZR?
30 -- I was recently working a tech show and people's badges had a bar-like code on them which we were supposed to zap with our little scanner to get their contact details imported into our database and jeez, but that scanner was a pain in the ass to get working. I couldn't figure out why they didn't go with normal bar codes which are pretty simple to scan, or alternately with high-tech! RFID chips.
I always buy my vintage dresses new, because new ones are better quality and less moldy. Also, the old vintage dresses were made by abusive, environment-unfriendly methods.
You do look lovely in those vintage styles, John.
34: ayuh. On the other hand, I paid more than I should have for a phone you can't get in the US. Still, the lack of locked features and DRM is wicked rad.
IR really wasn't all that great -- it didn't work in sunlight, it was slow, and for tasks requiring long connections its tendency to drop off was a real nuisance. I remember using a cellphone as a modem via IR while I was overseas. It was pretty sucky.
It's really just Bluetooth's amazing badness that makes us wistful for infrared.
What's wrong with technological nostalgia? I carry a fountain pen (ca 1930) and a pocket watch (ca 1910). I must admit, however, that I traded in my pony on a pickup truck. Now I hear they have trucks with air conditioning. I'm thinking of trying one.
14: In a land where all washers and dryers are humungous, to match our humungous suburban tract houses. Unless you live in a house from before 1960 or so, in which case you'll scour every appliance store within a 30-mile radius for something small and still have it just barely fit your laundry room.
Come to look at it, my phone has an IR port too, I just never use it. Bluetooth, while shitty, is better. Using my phone as a bluetooth remote I find endlessly hilarious. What a stupid feature! My phone also has an FM radio, so hooray! That technology has apparently not been innovated away entirely.
40: Nope, T-Mobile. It's the RAZR V3, right?
35: I have Cingular/AT&T and a RAZR v3xx. With my old RAZR which I guess had fewer x's in its name and was just called a RAZR (traded in only because I cracked the screen in a minor car accident) I could do all the same things. I'm trying to remember the name of the MP3 editor I used to generate ringtones and can't but I could check when I get home; however, it was free/OSS and is for OS X.
In the interests of full disclosure, Rah does not like his cosmetically-different RAZR as much as I do mine.
39: Greets, woot! I feel liberated in our universe. I do believe our grass is greener. All this talk of unreliable Bluetooth is confusing to me. It's Bluetooth, it just works. Maybe they mean gravity?
46: That's the thing. Verizon locks features that other carriers don't, and they seem pretty dedicated about it -- I have a V3m, which can't do things that previous V3s can do on the same network. Supposedly you can try installing earlier firmware, but it invalidates the warranty and can fuck up the phone. So anyway, in this case the technology is fine; it's just the business side that has regressed. Poo on you, Verizon.
Yeah, I was pretty heartbroken when I realized I couldn't get MP3s into ringtones for my verizon/lg8600.
I use very few of the features of my Treo because I am a loser and I found it all much clunkier than I wanted to bother with. Getting my damn ringtone on there was enough of a pain in the ass as it was. (I don't even remember anymore how it pained me, but it did.) I'm sure Bluetooth just works for, like, your cyborg ear implant thing, but transferring files definitely feels awkward and unintuitive to me.
Yeah, the reason Americans don't have combined washer/dryers is because we have BIG HOUSES with laundry rooms the size of a studio apartment. Same reason we don't have in-kitchen washer/dryers, or the little wall-mounted gas water heaters that only go on when you turn on the hot water tap.
(And yes, I know one can actually get those things, but it takes a ridiculous amount of effort and you pay a premium for being so! cutting! edge!)
I was pretty heartbroken when I realized I couldn't get MP3s into ringtones for my verizon/lg8600
Tell me about it. I really, really wanted to make this my ringtone.
I think my ease-of-use with Bluetooth transfers may have to do with neither the phone nor the carrier given that I'm just using the Bluetooth file browser native to OS X. Still, it works every time. I just offloaded about 30 pictures from my phone the other night by pairing up to my desktop, opening the browser, selecting all of them and clicking a couple of buttons. It took maybe 90 seconds from start to finish and they were ready to go straight into iPhoto and from there straight into my Gallery installation.
My parents have Verizon and though obviously they're nowhere near wherever you are (unless the world just got a whole lot smaller) they have always had problems with phones and service. I'm trying to get them to try any non-Verizon carrier available in their area when their contract is done in a few months.
Jesus, you can unlock the Verizon crippleware without swapping firmware. See hacktherazr.com or razrmods.com.
How is it all you techno-savvy people can't manage bluetooth? I can do it, and I'm an idiot.
I think my ease-of-use with Bluetooth transfers may have to do with neither the phone nor the carrier given that I'm just using the Bluetooth file browser native to OS X.
Nope, that's what I use too.
Thanks, shpx, I did try both of those when I first got the phone last year, but I should check again.
60: I have a friend who's getting a PhD in computer science and I had to show him how to do it. Maybe only idiots can figure it out.
Songs shouldn't be used as ringtones. Your phones are trying to protect you from your own poor taste.
62: also, textiles should be woven by hand in villager's cottages. Looms are the work of the devil.
True: all songs that I use as ringtones are somewhat obscure and thus might satisfy Indy Rock Pete as to their good taste. I am desperate for a non-obnoxious MP3 of Agent Cooper recording something for Diane, however, as I have a friend who has specifically requested that for herself.
Songs shouldn't be ringtones, but GW Bush asking us to embrace jihad? That's telephony gold.
I have only ever not had my phone on vibrate when I was expecting a call, but also wanted to take a nap.
I composed my own ringtone. Still cheesy? Probably.
Screw cheesy, it's awesome. Shit, I have a whole CD of stuff from a friend of mine that I could turn into ringtones. Why have I not done this? Yeah, it's got the potential to be obnoxious but if the rest of the world is going to make me listen to whatever their crap ringtones are then fair is fair.
My ringtone is the sound QBert makes when he jumps from cube to cube.
Mine is a recording of mice singing, lowered in pitch to be audible to the human ear.
My ringtone is me saying the words "Brrring! BRrrrring!"
I had an annoying boss' boss at Ma Bell whose ringtone was himself shouting, "Your phone is ringing! Your phone is ringing!" We hated him. He was a little high-strung.
Oh, Heebie's is excellent. I occasionally think of changing mine to the sound of someone clearing his or her throat.
My phone hasn't rung in four years. It's always on vibrate. I envy you people living in your world of sounds and colors.
My cousin's ringtone used to be (still is?) him yelling "Pick up the fucking phone!"
Needless to say, he's in high school.
That boingboing entry misreports the lyrics though. Of course it's "for the duration." Honestly.
Hella? Welcome to California, Ben!
52: The house I just bought has the washer and dryer in the kitchen. I'd never seen that before.
82 continued: I'd never seen that before, probably it's the first house I've lived in that was built between WWI and Iraq I.
The Wilhelm Scream would be a good ringtone.
The house I just bought has the washer and dryer in the kitchen.
I think this is a nice feature. More counter space, less clausterphobic.
70: Funny.
71: I was going to record myself doing that for a new ringtone thise weekend. Maybe I still will.
I don't get all you Bluetooth haters. I finally have both a phone and a computer with Bluetooth and it works great.
If I had the washer dryer in the kitchen, the counter would always be full of dirty clothes as well as dirty dishes. Ew.
I fear my counters would have surprise grease spots, which would make me a little anxious about the kitchen laundry folding.
So I just went to try to "browse files" on my phone using the OS X Bluetooth client and got the message "Device does not have the necessary services." So either my Treo is lame or I am a complete dip, but either way, it was not an instant success.
rfts it might be your carrier. Sprint disables bluetooth file browsing on the Treo.
But you can use the washer and dryers for counter space for when you're cooking. As for clothes, just put them all on, one on top of the other, and walk them into the bedroom. That's what I do.
It IS my carrier! Thank you for the enlightenment. Why do they do that?
I'm not sure PK wants his mom wearing his clothes.
91: because they're jerks, and they want to sell you the data cable.
92: I don't think he'd care. But you people clearly underestimate the constant state of mess that is my kitchen.
I want the beginning of "Strawberry Letter 23" for my ringtone. But have Verizon RAZR. I will look at the hacks, but last time I tried I gave up.
You know what I really want? One of those multi-cable laundry lines you string over the bathtub. Where can I find one of those?
Oooh, get one that you can run to the apartment in the next building over! Do people still use those? How do they get them up in the first place? And wear your hair in curlers and sweep at the cats and pigeons with a broom, please, while muttering in your mother tongue.
I'm learning all sorts of new things today. The latest? Ten Politically Incorrect Truths. It's far and away the most thoughtful and intellectually honest piece I've read since the webpage I read before it.
93 gets it exactly right.
99: Boy howdy. Also note that you DO come from a different cell-phone universe than I do, explaining much.
Heebie, dude, you've just described my downstairs neighbor, except that she's given up on doing her hair. I can't run a line from my window because I don't have anything to tie it to, and there's a giant diseased tree in the way.
95: Ever since polyphonic ringtones became a reality, I thought the Orbital song "Monday" would make a great ring tone. The first minute is just one sample of a few synth notes playing for a few bars, then a little synth hi-hat is layered over it, then a bit of drum machine and another synth, and so on. It's a great build that could be reproduced very well on cellphones (Orbital tended to use pretty lo-fi synths, if I remember correctly), you would just need to shorten down the time between introduction of new samples by half or so.
Orbital used analog synths, goofball. Being that they are creating a signal, not reproducing it, calling them anything-fi doesn't really make sense.
To hop on the bandwagon (though I had never heard anyone do this before now), my ringtone is myself saying "Sir? Excuse me, sir? Your phone is ringing." in an obnoxious waiter kind of voice.
"Strawberry Letter 23"
Wow. I thought I was the last person alive who remembered that song.
Technology going backwards is annoying; so are things that are obviously technically possible but not in the interests of the correct parties, like combining all of your bank/credit/library/whatever cards onto one object. I am enjoying this, however.
I can't run a line from my window because I don't have anything to tie it to, and there's a giant diseased tree in the way.
So tie it to the tree?
So tie it to the tree?
Nu! The actual trunk of the tree is way too far away, the branches move around too much, and, as I suggested, the leaves are all mottled and insect-infested. I mean, sure, I could tie a line to the tree, but I'd sure as hell never put my clean clothes on it.
Trees are surprisingly evil, if you're JM. At night their shadows make strange, threatening shapes, and the wind howling through their branches sounds like the voices of the damned.
You should see my tree-pruning technique, John. No tools, just my bare hands and wrath.
My ringtone is the sound QBert makes when he jumps from cube to cube.
Cool! I might tell my dad that, the thought of having QBert ever with him might tip him over into buying a phone.
(He's off tomorrow morning to the WJF convention in Hartford CT - any unfoggeders juggle?)
95 and 105:
The Brothers Johnson version? Or the original (and therefore more l33t) Shuggie Otis version?
A guy at work has a piece of Ennio Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack on his phone. It's totally cheesy, but every time his phone rings it still makes me laugh.
Mine was Bjork's "Triumph of the Heart" for ages, but the opening always made me jump. So it's back to plain 'rring rrring'.
The best ringtone I ever heard was that of an old man in a not great part of Barcelona: circus music. Doo-doo-deedle-ee,etc, followed by annoyed catalan. It was pretty special.
Incidentally, Shuggie Otis' Inspiration Information album is just a brilliant brilliant piece of work. Made in 1974 and full of drum machines, and loops with psychedelic guitar, Philly soul harmonies, etc. It's great.
The Luaka Bop reissue of it has 'Strawberry Letter 23' on it, too.
http://www.soultracks.com/shuggie_otis.htm
I believe I got my QBert sound from here:
www.basementarcade.com/arcade/sounds/sounds.html
and I suppose I probably converted the .wav file to mp3 in iTunes.
113: I've got "The Ride of the Valkyries" for my daughter, the "Lone Ranger" part of "William Tell" for my son, and Morricone's theme from "The Good, Bad, and Ugly" for everyone else.
I've got an annoying electric beeping/trilling sound, repeated at length.
Thanks, rfts. My current ringtone is Franz Ferdinand's "40 ft", but my text message ringtone is the "Item Get" sound from "Zelda: Ocarina of Time." ("You got the text message!")
I've had my current phone for six months, and I don't even know what the ringtone is. Besides being profoundly unpoplular, I guess I pretty much never have the sound on.
My mom's (whose name is Elise) ring tone is Für Elise, which while clever, is to my ears an annoying little melody.
Deedle-deedle-deedle, deedle, dee.