What’s on your mind?

[rm5]

Ugh, Joe Rogan discourse on MacRumors. Bleh. Some days I just shouldn't be logging on here...

Y'know, I'd have to agree. I just don't pay attention to any of the news articles. It's frustrating. Also, if I'm being perfectly honest, all the new threads I've seen in the past few months have been completely uninteresting and repetitive. "Should I get 8 or 16 GB of RAM?" I've had enough of that. "Should I get a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro?" Had enough of that. "Will doing X cause Y (catastrophic event) to happen?" Had enough of that, too.

EDIT: One thing has become clear as I've gotten older, and even more so recently: I've lost interest in big internet (and personal) drama and complex, obscure technological processes, too. I just want things to be simple and easy to follow.

 

[VisceralRealist]

Yeah, honestly, I think at this point I'm getting more out of posting here in the Community Discussion section. I'll still look forward to doing live commentary on the Apple events though.

 

[rumz]

Vision Pro comments earlier in the thread reminded me of a scene from the movie Inception, where you see a group of 12 people linked up sharing a dream-- they come to dream together daily for hours at a time:

"They come here every day to sleep?"

"No... they come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, sir?"

(Fantastic film... I pick up something new every time I watch it. Probably due for another viewing now...)

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Y'know, I'd have to agree. I just don't pay attention to any of the news articles. It's frustrating. Also, if I'm being perfectly honest, all the new threads I've seen in the past few months have been completely uninteresting and repetitive. "Should I get 8 or 16 GB of RAM?" I've had enough of that. "Should I get a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro?" Had enough of that. "Will doing X cause Y (catastrophic event) to happen?" Had enough of that, too.

EDIT: One thing has become clear as I've gotten older, and even more so recently: I've lost interest in big internet (and personal) drama and complex, obscure technological processes, too.

Well said and agree completely.

I just want things to be simple and easy to follow.

A heartfelt and passionate amen to this.

I couldn't agree more.

A few years ago, my brother, usually referred to here as Decent Brother (who was visiting) hired a car (a very nice, modern car, a Peugeot or Citroen, if memory serves), in order for us both to be able pay a visit to my (then) sole surviving aunt, (she died not quite under two years ago, aged 98), in her late 90s at the time, who had worked well into her 80s, who was still as sharp as a proverbial tack, and who adored Decent Brother, not least because he reminded her of my father, her brother, to whom she had been close, and whom she had loved dearly.

Anyway, we - neither of us - were able to work out how those touchscreen controls for the radio (once we found it) actually worked; neither of us - and the journey to visit my aunt wasn't short - could get it to work, at all.

I longed for the days when dealing with buttons, dials and switches was a pleasant tactile experience; more to the point, I longed for the days when you could simply turn on a car radio, and then tune and find the station (classical music, in my case) that you wanted to listen to.

Yeah, honestly, I think at this point I'm getting more out of posting here in the Community Discussion section. I'll still look forward to doing live commentary on the Apple events though.

I find myself in complete agreement with these two posts.

 

[bousozoku]

Y'know, I'd have to agree. I just don't pay attention to any of the news articles. It's frustrating. Also, if I'm being perfectly honest, all the new threads I've seen in the past few months have been completely uninteresting and repetitive. "Should I get 8 or 16 GB of RAM?" I've had enough of that. "Should I get a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro?" Had enough of that. "Will doing X cause Y (catastrophic event) to happen?" Had enough of that, too.

EDIT: One thing has become clear as I've gotten older, and even more so recently: I've lost interest in big internet (and personal) drama and complex, obscure technological processes, too. I just want things to be simple and easy to follow.

In my early days with technology, I used to say that I wanted to move to Thailand where there is no electricity, and to learn to weave baskets, so I wouldn't have to deal with the upcoming craziness.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Well said and agree completely.

A heartfelt and passionate amen to this.

I couldn't agree more.

A few years ago, my brother (who was visiting) hired a car ( a very nice, modern car, Peugeot or Citroen) in order for us both to pay a visit to my (then) sole surviving aunt, in her late 90s at the time, who had worked into her 80s, and was still as sharp as a proverbial tack.

Anyway, we - neither of us - were able to work out how that touchscreen controls for the radio (once we found it) actually worked; neither of us - and the journey to visit my aunt wasn't short - could get it to work, at all.

I longed for the days when dealing with buttons, dials and switches was a pleasant tactile experience; more to the point, I longed for the days when you could simply turn on a car radio, and then tune and find the station (classical music, in my case) that you wanted to listen to.

I find myself in complete agreement with these two posts.

My car still has physical buttons.
But I can usually work things out pretty quickly. Rarely do I consult a manual etc.
Probably from a lifetime of showing my parents how to use the video or car they have.

 

[Herdfan]

A few years ago, my brother (who was visiting) hired a car ( a very nice, modern car, Peugeot or Citroen) in order for us both to pay a visit to my (then) sole surviving aunt, in her late 90s at the time, who had worked into her 80s, and was still as sharp as a proverbial tack.

My car still has physical buttons.

My mom couldn't. Dad bought her an S550 in the late 00's (a W221) and it had the COMAND sytem and she could not operate it. She was never very good at understanding the concept of a menu system where a button could have more than one function, so this was too much.

No matter how many times I showed her how to change from Sirius to AM, she simply could not remember. Of course she was late 70's by this point.

Dad finally gave up and downgraded her to an E550 which still had physical buttons.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

My mom couldn't. Dad bought her an S550 in the late 00's (a W221) and it had the COMAND sytem and she could not operate it. She was never very good at understanding the concept of a menu system where a button could have more than one function, so this was too much.

My sympathes lie entirely with her.

Techbros need to learn that people need to be able to work these systems; there is no point in being too clever by half and dazzling people with technology, if they don't understand it and are unable to use it.

Actually, this is a strong argument for diversity - and the input of different life experiences - at the design and engineering stage.

Moreover, if you (by that, I mean "one" as in "one spends") spend your life at school and in a cultural milieu, (as many girls and women do) being told (consciously and more subtly) that they are thick at tech, well, is it any surprise that many internalise this message, and believe that mastering this stuff is entirely beyond them?

Furthermore, if it doesn't work easily (remember that early Apple slogan "it just works"?) - if understanding how it works is too complicated - for those who are to use the system, then, that is a design fail, no matter how pretty it looks in the car.

No matter how many times I showed her how to change from Sirius to AM, she simply could not remember. Of course she was late 70's by this point.

Dad finally gave up and downgraded her to an E550 which still had physical buttons.

But, why does it have to be that complicated?

Switching on - or, being able to operate - a car radio shouldn't require a postgraduate degree (and I have postgraduate degrees, as does my brother, yet that damned touchscreen defeated us both).

Being 70+ has nothing to do with it.

Decent Brother & I were - and are still - (a few) decades away from 70+ and we were both incredibly frustrated, dealing with this.

 

[Clix Pix]

A while ago when I bought my first car in fifteen years it was indeed rather a different experience getting used to the new functionality and features that my 2006 Acura simply did not have. And I'm somewhat of a techie sort -- it still was a bit of learning curve and I spent three days poring over the manual and patiently going through various menus to become really familiar with how everything worked.

For those of us who have been driving for many, many years, most of which during a lot of things didn't really change all that much in terms of features and functions in the car's interior, it is quite an adjustment when things which we used to do manually are now handled automatically and instead of buttons for the sound system and the heat/AC (now called "climate control" on the screen). Thankfully there is a knob to turn the sound volume up or down and a knob to turn the heat or A/C up or down. Other items, such as adjusting where the flow of heat or A/C goes (feet, upper body, both, etc.) are in a menu on the screen, along with adjusting how powerfully the user wants the flow of air to run: low, medium or high.

I love that I can approach my car and she unlocks for me when I put my hand on the door handle, and later, when I've arrived at the destination, I can get out of the car and walk away and hear her gently beep, then lock herself up. Particularly useful when I've got packages or books to carry!

 

[bousozoku]

My sympathes lie entirely with her.

Techbros need to learn that people need to be able to work these systems; there is no point in being too clever by half and dazzling people with technology, if they don't understand it and are unable to use it.

Actually, this is a strong argument for diversity - and the input of different life experiences - at the design and engineering stage.

Moreover, if you (by that, I mean "one" as in "one spends") spend your life at school and in a cultural milieu, (as many girls and women do) being told (consciously and more subtly) that they are thick at tech, well, is it any surprise that many internalise this message, and believe that mastering this stuff is entirely beyond them?

Furthermore, if it doesn't work easily (remember that early Apple slogan "it just works"?) - if understanding how it works is too complicated - for those who are to use the system, then, that is a design fail, no matter how pretty it looks in the car.

But, why does it have to be that complicated?

Switching on - or, being able to operate - a car radio shouldn't require a postgraduate degree (and I have postgraduate degrees, as does my brother, yet that damned touchscreen defeated us both).

Being 70+ has nothing to do with it.

Decent Brother & I were - and are still - (a few) decades away from 70+ and we were both incredibly frustrated, dealing with this.

Women who are told that they can't grasp technology or something else are usually told by men who barely understand it and can't explain it.

I've heard men and women like that explain something in a meeting with gobbledegook to hide the fact that they don't know precisely what they need to say and can't really explain why someone should fund a project.

Many devices are complicated for a variety of reasons.

One is the cost of more storage and RAM to make the interface acceptable. Then, there is the available technology to create the interface and make it usable. Also, the people working on the project may be extremely creative but have no real depth on creating the interfaces and making them work.

Most important is testing by people who don't work for the company and who have no background in technology. Many projects seem to be tested only by the original developers.

Being 70+ adds to the problem, especially for people who didn't work in a position where they were problem solving.

 

[Herdfan]

Switching on - or, being able to operate - a car radio shouldn't require a postgraduate degree (and I have postgraduate degrees, as does my brother, yet that damned touchscreen defeated us both).

Being 70+ has nothing to do with it.

In this case it wasn't a touchscreen, but you had to use this knob that would spin and also move directionally.

So in the case of the radio, it had 3 levels. The top was the Source, the middle was the Station and the third had the presets. So to change the Source, say from Sirius to AM, if it were on the middle, you would have to move the know up to the Source line, then turn the knob to what you want to select and then push it down. Not very intuitive. Then if you wanted a different station, you would need to go to the 3rd line and select the station.

And it was the same for almost every function.

As for being 70+, she was in her late 50's when home computers came out and was always afraid of them. Worried that she would mess something up. More menus she couldn't understand. Things we take for granted. So we got her an iPad. No matter how many times we tried to tell her, she would push so hard it was almost like she was trying to push her finger out the back. Don't get me started on Netflix.

I just remember my daughter was 6 and we were going on a cruise. So to help keep her occupied we bought her an iPod Nano for her birthday. I had put a few of her songs on it and we gave it to her at dinner when we were celebrating her birthday with family. Keep in mind she had never seen or worked one before (she was just finishing Kindergarten - 5 year old preschool), yet she picked it up and was playing a song on it in less than 30 second. My mom was stunned that she just intuitively knew how to work things.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

In my early days with technology, I used to say that I wanted to move to Thailand where there is no electricity, and to learn to weave baskets, so I wouldn't have to deal with the upcoming craziness.

No you don't. I grew up with little to no electricity, water had to be hand pumped every day, stove was wood-burning, and water was collected from the roof when it rained and stored in tanks.
School was literally writing with dip pens and ink.
We were lucky, because my father worked in the local (very small) hospital, so we had good medical access, but not so for many around us who died of preventable disease and injury. Very few people died of cancer because they died of something else before the cancer got to them.
Living off-grid is not idyllic. It means lots of work, little to no communication with others (even sending letters requires a vast infrastructure) and relying on yourself when you or your family members get sick or injured. Can you stitch a wound, set a broken limb or make an antiseptic poultice?
The knowledge that people used to have that enabled them to live has mostly been lost.
For example, find a copy of Mrs Beeton's Cookbook, and look at the section in the back on dealing with poisons. Not even many health professionals today have that knowledge.
That is just one tiny example of the knowledge you need to live off-grid.
Add to that the knowledge of growing the foods that are available in your area, killing, skinning and preserving meats, etc, etc, etc.

 

[J.A.K.]

I just want things to be simple and easy to follow.

I understand the sentiment as life in a globally connected world with virtually instantaneous information dissemination is terribly exhausting. But cutting oneself off from the world isn't going to help. It just means relinquishing power to the most influential voices.

Anyway, I miss Twitter. For all its faults, it was an excellent source of learning about things I never even thought to consider. I became less bigoted because of the voices I listened to and the debates I witnessed. Then again, I also became far less tolerant of the intolerant, so...

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

... less tolerant of the intolerant, so...

I must think on this...

 

[Apple fanboy]

My mom couldn't. Dad bought her an S550 in the late 00's (a W221) and it had the COMAND sytem and she could not operate it. She was never very good at understanding the concept of a menu system where a button could have more than one function, so this was too much.

No matter how many times I showed her how to change from Sirius to AM, she simply could not remember. Of course she was late 70's by this point.

Dad finally gave up and downgraded her to an E550 which still had physical buttons.

Not only does my BMW i3 have physical buttons it has programmable ones. So for example pressing the first one opens the Sat Nav and shows you the way home (regardless of what the screen was previously showing).
Number 4 phones Mrs AFB.
Number 8 plays my favourite radio station.
If you hover over the button rather than press it, it tells you what it does.
Clever stuff.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My sympathes lie entirely with her.

Techbros need to learn that people need to be able to work these systems; there is no point in being too clever by half and dazzling people with technology, if they don't understand it and are unable to use it.

Actually, this is a strong argument for diversity - and the input of different life experiences - at the design and engineering stage.

Moreover, if you (by that, I mean "one" as in "one spends") spend your life at school and in a cultural milieu, (as many girls and women do) being told (consciously and more subtly) that they are thick at tech, well, is it any surprise that many internalise this message, and believe that mastering this stuff is entirely beyond them?

Furthermore, if it doesn't work easily (remember that early Apple slogan "it just works"?) - if understanding how it works is too complicated - for those who are to use the system, then, that is a design fail, no matter how pretty it looks in the car.

But, why does it have to be that complicated?

Switching on - or, being able to operate - a car radio shouldn't require a postgraduate degree (and I have postgraduate degrees, as does my brother, yet that damned touchscreen defeated us both).

Being 70+ has nothing to do with it.

Decent Brother & I were - and are still - (a few) decades away from 70+ and we were both incredibly frustrated, dealing with this.

I think most companies employ a lot more diversity in those areas now than they ever did before.
But (and this isn’t something people say too much these days) I notice that a lot of the male photographers we deal with at work are interested in the technology side of photography (how many frames per second, transfer speed, this number or that), whereas the female photographers are more interested in the creative side of photography.
Obviously that’s a generalisation and of course there will be exceptions. But it’s often the way the conversations go in the store or at trade shows.

 

[Apple fanboy]

A while ago when I bought my first car in fifteen years it was indeed rather a different experience getting used to the new functionality and features that my 2006 Acura simply did not have. And I'm somewhat of a techie sort -- it still was a bit of learning curve and I spent three days poring over the manual and patiently going through various menus to become really familiar with how everything worked.

For those of us who have been driving for many, many years, most of which during a lot of things didn't really change all that much in terms of features and functions in the car's interior, it is quite an adjustment when things which we used to do manually are now handled automatically and instead of buttons for the sound system and the heat/AC (now called "climate control" on the screen). Thankfully there is a knob to turn the sound volume up or down and a knob to turn the heat or A/C up or down. Other items, such as adjusting where the flow of heat or A/C goes (feet, upper body, both, etc.) are in a menu on the screen, along with adjusting how powerfully the user wants the flow of air to run: low, medium or high.

I love that I can approach my car and she unlocks for me when I put my hand on the door handle, and later, when I've arrived at the destination, I can get out of the car and walk away and hear her gently beep, then lock herself up. Particularly useful when I've got packages or books to carry!

You are very good at embracing technology and making it work for you. My parents (who are a similar age), are the exact opposite. They have always been hopeless with it. They just want something to work, but will put no time into learning or studying it.
They can’t get it to work straight away so they get frustrated with it.

Last year I met up with my Mum. She was nearby as she was going to a concert in the City where I work. So the night before I picked them up at their hotel on the outskirts and took them to dinner.
She was asking the best way to get to the concert hall. I told her to use the Sat Nav. Despite having the car for three years they had never used it
They didn’t understand it. So they just gave up.
Now for a car you will own for a number of years, why would you not put the effort into learning.
Anyway I set up their home address and the concert hall in the favourites and showed them what to do.

Now my Dad who is just as bad, signed up for a computer class now he’s retired. I asked him what he had learnt.
I just go for the company and the free tea and biscuits was his reply!

 

[mtbdudex]

Well…

Is there an iPhone app that shows .. apps on your phone you’ve added and their usage / non usage?

there’s some I added used 2-3 times so briefly then no more

Maybe simple metrics like by app - so also last time used.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

You are very good at embracing technology and making it work for you. My parents (who are a similar age), are the exact opposite. They have always been hopeless with it. They just want something to work, but will put no time into learning or studying it.

But they had their own skills, and had mastered their own professions.

I am willing to wager that none of the techbro types have anything approaching your dad's skills (or knowledge of meat) as a butcher.

I have quite a bit of sympathy for them; they just want this stuff to work, without difficulty; why should they have to (put hours into) studying it or learning it?

They can’t get it to work straight away so they get frustrated with it.

I sympathise with them.

And while many younger people may understand tech, far fewer have the gift of explication, or of being able to explain how it works, or being able to teach this.

Last year I met up with my Mum. She was nearby as she was going to a concert in the City where I work. So the night before I picked them up at their hotel on the outskirts and took them to dinner.
She was asking the best way to get to the concert hall. I told her to use the Sat Nav. Despite having the car for three years they had never used it

I am not surprised.

They didn’t understand it. So they just gave up.

My sympathies lie entirely with them.

The thing about explaining something, or teaching something, is that, very often, you have to repeat it again and again and again.

Saying (or explaining) something once will rarely work; and, if the would-be teacher shows signs of frustration or impatience, (with the slow pace of learning, or comprehension on the part of the older student), an adult "student" will simply politely switch off, and decide that this is far too much trouble (the stuff is technically challenging, the would-be teacher impatient) and decide that life is too short for all this trouble.

Now for a car you will own for a number of years, why would you not put the effort into learning.

Not if they think it is too complicated.

Anyway I set up their home address and the concert hall in the favourites and showed them what to do.

Now my Dad who is just as bad, signed up for a computer class now he’s retired. I asked him what he had learnt.
I just go for the company and the free tea and biscuits was his reply!

My mother would have laughed - with shared amusement and no little understanding - at that.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Just back from the farmers' market:

I bought free range, organic, eggs, aubergines (eggplant), herbs (parsley, rosemary and thyme), cherry tomatoes, chilli peppers, lots and lots and lots of blood oranges, pesto, spinach, garlic, olive oil, sultanas, meat (shin of beef on the bone, pork belly), and fish, (fillets of turbot).

My bread was collected from the French bakery, and I also bought Jersey milk and double cream and some wine.

 

[HDFan]

Are they killing the cow or growing the potatoes?

I remember a restaurant somewhere north of Salt Lake City which had its own cattle corral. Made your steak right on the premises.

 

[decafjava]

Well…

Is there an iPhone app that shows .. apps on your phone you’ve added and their usage / non usage?

there’s some I added used 2-3 times so briefly then no more

Maybe simple metrics like by app - so also last time used.

Settings->general->iPhone storage

It shows the apps in order of size and when it was last used.

 

[bousozoku]

My head hurts so much right now. I woke up two hours early because one of the renters is divorced and brought his sons last night and they will be taking the bathroom for longer than necessary.

I just want everyone to live peacefully together but this is a bit much for me. 😆

 

[mtbdudex]

Settings->general->iPhone storage

It shows the apps in order of size and when it was last used.

Hmm, well it’s not tracking last used that accurately, as in lotta last used where in Dec-2023 and totally missing them.

Costco here I ordered snow shoes Dec-2023 for Christmas, and used BCBSt for my work FSA and other account stuff

Here I used UHC as my new 2024 health provider, bought online from best buy and target, accessed fly delta early January 2024 for spring break plane booking, and also my Radar.

Here CVS for vaccine, zoom meeting, and group me all used January 2024

Here United, google, Kroger, cvs all used January 2024

So in conclusion..
I have zero trust in this info from Apple .. wtf

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Ok, so I am backing the car out of the garage, down the driveway and turning left as I do so.
There is a blind spot, where the wing mirrors and the reversing camera don't overlap.
I didn't realise how big it was.
Somebody had parked a large, black Amazon van in the shade on the other side of the road, where, against the bright Aussie sunlight, it was almost invisible.
That Amazon van fitted nicely into my blind spot.
Fortunately I saw it in time.
Amazon, please paint your vans Barbie-pink, or daffodil yellow, or neon green, something other than black.