Page 1 of 2 [ 19 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

thechadmaster
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,126
Location: On The Road...Somewhere

26 Oct 2012, 7:14 pm

/rant

I am so annoyed with the digital transition that took place in the US back in 2009. I live in a city in Maine. There are several over the air channels in the area (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, CW, ION, TBN) all of which I could receive before the transition. Since the transition happend, I receive ONE channel perhaps 40% of the time.

A fuzzy signal does not bother me, but with DTV, its either all or nothing. I live in an apartment and rooftop antennas are not allowed. What bugs me is that my ex lives 18 miles south of town and she gets three out of seven channels without having to adjust her antenna.

The one channel i sometimes receive has a transmitter 15 miles west of town. Two other channels have transmitters only 6 and 8 miles from my house and I have not seen them since 2009. I really like the news offerings on the local NBC affiliate but I can no longer recieve.

I do not want cable. There are too many channels that offer me nothing. 95% of the stuff on TV is garbage, all i want is the news and the CBS monday and thursday lineups. I also have trouble sleeping without a TV on, if the channel goes out I wake up and cant get back to sleep until i get a signal again. Ive had to keep my laptop on lately to have an internet radio stream going.

I do not like being lied to either. I was told back in 09 that by 2011 all the bugs would be worked out and that DTV would have a greater range than analog did. I live in the city and cant get crap, yet people out in the sticks get everything clear.

:x :x :x

I also dont like being forced to adopt a technology i have no interest in. I was mad when VHS went away, i now grudgingly accept DVD's, and here we go into blu-ray. I remember making mixtapes... on actual tape. I hated CD's because i couldnt record from the radio. Im ok with CD's now that i can rip audio from youtube and make decent mixes.

I had a Sega Dreamcast back in 1999, paid good money for it too. Three years later, it was abandoned. I thought it to be an excellent console, ahead of its time. Same went for the Sega Saturn and the original PlayStation, heck I remember being able to rent a PS from the video store.


_________________
I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.


CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,298
Location: Stalag 13

26 Oct 2012, 10:02 pm

I still have the same TV that I've had for 17 years. My mum keeps telling me that I should save up for a flat screen, HD TV. I don't tell her this, but I'd rather own a vintage TV from the 60s. The TV that I have right now, is good enough for me.


_________________
Who wants to adopt a Sweet Pea?


Cornflake
Administrator
Administrator

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 65,512
Location: Over there

27 Oct 2012, 5:07 pm

But hasn't Canada already switched over to digital TV transmissions? I thought the very last of it was completed in August 2012 with the majority completed a year earlier.
That would mean your old TV wouldn't receive any stations at all, unless you were using an external digital converter box.

The UK has just completed the switch-over (my area changed earlier this year but I was already using digital via satellite) and while I can appreciate the technical improvements this brings, as thechadmaster knows there are disadvantages too - mostly that digital seems to mean "even more crap than there was before".


_________________
Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.


Prof_Pretorius
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,520
Location: Hiding in the attic of the Arkham Library

27 Oct 2012, 5:54 pm

I rented a car recently while on holiday. I hate the stupid controls for air/heating and so forth. What ever happened to making things simple for a driver? I literally could not figure out all the controls, not to mention the sound system.


_________________
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. ~Theodore Roethke


Metalwolf
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jan 2008
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 948
Location: Pennsylvania 78787878 787878 7878787878787878

27 Oct 2012, 8:50 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
I still have the same TV that I've had for 17 years. My mum keeps telling me that I should save up for a flat screen, HD TV. I don't tell her this, but I'd rather own a vintage TV from the 60s. The TV that I have right now, is good enough for me.
Same here, as far as having a preference for 'older' things. It seems that the push is that newer is better, but is it really? Most of the newer stuff doesn't even last that long- and much of the time it looks and plays the same as the older stuff, but is supposed to be 'better' because it's digital.


_________________
Crispy Pickles!!


2wheels4ever
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 May 2012
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,694
Location: In The Wind

28 Oct 2012, 12:31 am

Metalwolf wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
I still have the same TV that I've had for 17 years. My mum keeps telling me that I should save up for a flat screen, HD TV. I don't tell her this, but I'd rather own a vintage TV from the 60s. The TV that I have right now, is good enough for me.
Same here, as far as having a preference for 'older' things. It seems that the push is that newer is better, but is it really? Most of the newer stuff doesn't even last that long- and much of the time it looks and plays the same as the older stuff, but is supposed to be 'better' because it's digital.


It's better for the manufacturers and the big box stores if if breaks in 2 years, it means they get to sell another one. Strange how the automakers' agenda of 'planned obsolescence' in the 1950s through current, at the time produced cars so durable that one could plausible drive away from anything short of a full-speed highway collision and yet today a car can be declared a total loss if it backs into a garage door. Is it any wonder these cars from the mid-50s to late-70s routinely fetch 5-figure sums for little more than rolling chassis?


_________________
Let's go on out and take a moped ride, and all your friends will thing your brain is fried, but you can't live your life too dirty, 'cause in the the end you're born to go 30


VMSmith
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,735
Location: the old country

28 Oct 2012, 1:08 am

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
I rented a car recently while on holiday. I hate the stupid controls for air/heating and so forth. What ever happened to making things simple for a driver? I literally could not figure out all the controls, not to mention the sound system.

the thing i hate about new cars is the window control. i much prefer to wind things down or up myself. it always takes me forever to figure out which control will work which window and when you are driving that is not what you want to be doing. that and the fact that i cannot work out how to turn music on and off and i hate gps- it is the only thing that gives me road rage- and touch screen buttons that make everything in the car work.



MacDragard
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 542

28 Oct 2012, 2:53 am

Technology these days is in the hands of the Chinese and the Indians.



outofplace
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jun 2012
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,771
Location: In A State of Quantum Flux

28 Oct 2012, 2:53 am

2wheels4ever wrote:
Metalwolf wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
I still have the same TV that I've had for 17 years. My mum keeps telling me that I should save up for a flat screen, HD TV. I don't tell her this, but I'd rather own a vintage TV from the 60s. The TV that I have right now, is good enough for me.
Same here, as far as having a preference for 'older' things. It seems that the push is that newer is better, but is it really? Most of the newer stuff doesn't even last that long- and much of the time it looks and plays the same as the older stuff, but is supposed to be 'better' because it's digital.


It's better for the manufacturers and the big box stores if if breaks in 2 years, it means they get to sell another one. Strange how the automakers' agenda of 'planned obsolescence' in the 1950s through current, at the time produced cars so durable that one could plausible drive away from anything short of a full-speed highway collision and yet today a car can be declared a total loss if it backs into a garage door. Is it any wonder these cars from the mid-50s to late-70s routinely fetch 5-figure sums for little more than rolling chassis?


Well... not really. You should see the crash test IIHS did in 2009 with an offset frontal crash involving a 1959 Impala and a 2009 Malibu. The '59 was demolished and would have killed all in the car while the Malibu could be walked away from. Cut and paste this link to see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g Oh, and yes I was pissed they destroyed a serviceable 1959 Chevy for this!


_________________
Uncertain of diagnosis, either ADHD or Aspergers.
Aspie quiz: 143/200 AS, 81/200 NT; AQ 43; "eyes" 17/39, EQ/SQ 21/51 BAPQ: Autistic/BAP- You scored 92 aloof, 111 rigid and 103 pragmatic


thechadmaster
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,126
Location: On The Road...Somewhere

28 Oct 2012, 9:06 am

Saw something on the today show a while back. They tested various types of collisions on two different cars. a 1986 Ford Escort and a 2000 something toyota. Hitting a brick wall at 5mph caused over $2000 worth of damage to the toyota, the ford sustained a scratch on the front bumper.

Everything is made to be replaced instead of repaired these days. My grandparents had a VCR they bought in 1988, paid $500 for it. When something went wrong they took it to a repair shop. Now you can get a DVD player at walmart for $15 that will last you a year.

I got into it with someone at Bestbuy once. He wanted to sell me a new PC, when i was just looking for a new hard drive. He asked how old my PC was, i told him three years. He tried to tell me that i needed a new one because the internet was not going to support it much longer. Then i told him about the old 1999 Compaq Presario 1200 that i have collecting dust running windows 98 without a problem.

It really irritates me that HP locked the BIOS in my 2009 laptop which prevents windows XP from being installed on it. IMO, XP is by far a better OS than vista or 7.


_________________
I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.


thechadmaster
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,126
Location: On The Road...Somewhere

28 Oct 2012, 9:09 am

one more thing about the durability of cars.

Back in April, i backed out of a parking spot into another car. My car is a 2004 Pontiac, the other was a 2009 Caddillac. My bumper had a minor scratch on it, looked like a shopping cart hit it. The other car had $1500 worth of damage.


_________________
I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.


Cornflake
Administrator
Administrator

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 65,512
Location: Over there

28 Oct 2012, 10:53 am

thechadmaster wrote:
Everything is made to be replaced instead of repaired these days. My grandparents had a VCR they bought in 1988, paid $500 for it. When something went wrong they took it to a repair shop. Now you can get a DVD player at walmart for $15 that will last you a year.
That sort of thing really ticks me off.

My electric kettle has a blue LED which is (or was) lit until the water boiled - but it failed.
It's encapsulated into a self-contained, screw-in plastic assembly which although specialised and proprietary to the kettle, is easily replaced - were it not for the manufacturer making excuses about it "not being an integral part of the kettle's functionality" (well duh - I know it's just eye-candy) and refusing to pick up this small part off the production line and sell it to me.
Yeah, it's only an LED and more an annoyance than a big deal - but what is a big deal is that I'm expected to buy a whole new kettle and consign an otherwise functional one to landfill in order to resolve this small problem.

I bought a portable DVD player for a little over USD 20 - and it lasted a little over a year before the disk drive motor failed: just long enough for the warranty to expire.
Same story: all that fully-functional electronics, display and mechanical assembly was expected to be discarded for the sake of one small replaceable component.

Quote:
He tried to tell me that i needed a new one because the internet was not going to support it much longer.
:lmao:
So they attempt to force you into buying ever-more powerful hardware in order to make the ever-increasing bloat and decreasing efficiency of Windows look good.
I just walked away from Microsoft and the whole pile of crap associated with it.

Quote:
It really irritates me that HP locked the BIOS in my 2009 laptop which prevents windows XP from being installed on it.
Heh yes - it really irritated me that where Dell could have bolted some boilerplate code into their BIOS to utilise the temperature and fan speed sensing hardware already present on the motherboard - they instead used a proprietary solution consisting of a fan with a self-contained and closed-off means of regulating its speed vs. temperature, and disabled CPU temperature sensing.
I do not understand how requiring a unique assembly using more components than a standard part and incapable of being monitored is in any way cheaper, more useful - or even SANE - than using standard hardware and control/monitoring functionality already available.


On a different note, I bought a replacement mouse mat a while ago - the boring, ordinary type; a small square of dense foam with one plasticised surface - and was amused to see it came with a 1-year warranty.
It's a relief to know that I'm protected from any failure in all those intricate components for a whole year... :wink:


_________________
Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.


MakaylaTheAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jun 2011
Age: 27
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 14,565
Location: O'er the land of the so-called free and the home of the self-proclaimed brave. (Oregon)

28 Oct 2012, 1:58 pm

I happen to like newer technology, when it actually has a purpose. In the end though, I don't really care if a computer runs on Windows 7 or Windows XP. (I just want one that works.)

I actually used to drive a Ford F150 from the eighties, but my parents sold it to my cousin Wesley. I miss that truck.


_________________
Hi there! Please refer to me as Moss. Unable to change my username to reflect that change. Have a nice day. <3


thechadmaster
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Feb 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,126
Location: On The Road...Somewhere

28 Oct 2012, 3:05 pm

When it comes to cars, Ill gladly trade my 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix for a 1987 or earlier model GP or Chevy Monte Carlo (same basic car). Old cars have fewer electronics that can fail. My dad had an '86 Chevy 1500 than still runs to this day, and has the classic carbureted engine exhaust smell. Too bad he sold it, his '06 has a million sensors and electronic parts that are all acting up.

This next part will either make you laugh or shake your head...

At work we pulled out the "crash kit" which is essential stuff to run a store without power. Included is a corded phone(circa 1998, according to the package) and an old credit card imprinter. One of my co-workers could not understand how the phone will work without power, nor did he even know what the imprinter was. Sad thing is, he is only 5 years younger than me.


_________________
I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.


Cornflake
Administrator
Administrator

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 65,512
Location: Over there

28 Oct 2012, 5:38 pm

:roll: and :lol: simultaneously about the phone and credit card imprinter.
It's really quite sad though.

As for cars, I'm going to continue running my trusty and much-loved VW Golf VR6 hatchback, 1996 vintage, until either it or myself falls apart.
Aside from a couple of small rust spots on the bodywork there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.


_________________
Giraffe: a ruminant with a view.


outofplace
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jun 2012
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,771
Location: In A State of Quantum Flux

29 Oct 2012, 1:43 am

As far as cars go, I drive a 1998 Nissan Frontier with almost 370,000 miles, and a 1991 Geo Metro. Right now, the Metro is down for repairs but when it works, it gets 40 mpg in city traffic. Not highway, city. On the highway it gets better than 50 mpg. It is an EXTREMELY dangerous car in an accident though and that is the one major drawback to using a car that is over twenty years old on a daily basis. When in a moderate to severe accident with a modern car, the old one loses.


_________________
Uncertain of diagnosis, either ADHD or Aspergers.
Aspie quiz: 143/200 AS, 81/200 NT; AQ 43; "eyes" 17/39, EQ/SQ 21/51 BAPQ: Autistic/BAP- You scored 92 aloof, 111 rigid and 103 pragmatic