Technology is irritating

[Jeff T]

Technology can be pretty frustrating indeed. An Iphone that would not allow me to enter 911 when my friend was dying in front of me (I grabbed his phone and got through). Windows 95 and 98 that would completely crash when trying to import analog video--- I'd have to start from scratch and load everything above the BIOS. etc,
Then there times when not having a useful technology is a bear- lack of traffic signal control in a metropolitan area of 2.3 million which is underserved by its freeway system.

 

[Progster]

It bugs me the way Windows makes it's operating system versions obsolete after a few years, so you will be forced to buy the new version. I have an ageing desktop computer that's now 8 years old, and Windows tells me that I can't run Windows 11 on it. So when Window 10 becomes obsolete, I intend to install Linux on it instead of Windows. In fact, I might do that soon and keep it alongside Windows. As will lots of other people. Windows are shooting themselves in the foot with this, I think.

Phones drive me mad - tiny screen, apps nearly all have ads that you can't get rid of with an adblocker. The touch screen drives me crazy - I keep hitting the wrong button. Smartphones are a necessary evil - when they first came out, I resisted them, but now they are creeping their way into my life more and more. I resent that so many businesses or systems operate with the assumption that one will have a smartphone.

 

[1ForAll]

Funny technology stories? Well, yes and no. Funny to our youngest as he throws his I-pads and our laptops all the time, not just when upset but when he thinks it's a game sometimes too, to see if they can break or how quickly. The longest we have had each one was like 6 months, and the I-pads always had protective cases on them.

And he pokes hard at these thin screen touch-screen laptops, and they break even easier. He laughs when he sees these broken pictures on the screens with all sorts of weird extra colorful jagged or streaks of mess. They certainly do not take a licking and keep on ticking.

What makes it stranger is we never get insurance for them, like when the salespersons keep asking us when we walk in twice a year to buy new ones, paper thin televisions included which look like cheap attempts for them to make money through their constant breakage.

Modernization of technology is not all that. I rather some 2-ton huge looking floor model console tv or fat looking computer desktop that our child cannot lift, or some more expensive material that really is sturdy enough to withstand more than normal wear and tear.

I do not need technological devices so small and cool looking, and to be taken anywhere, as we don't go many places, do not use devices in other places unless like some camera for scenic places, and as I do not always think newer or more modern is better.

I'm likely atypical here in that my technology IQ is likely close to 0. And I have no patience to figure that stuff out. Give me any other task that requires precision, analysis and/or details and I will be very self-motivated, effective and efficient there.

 

[Judge]

It bugs me the way Windows makes it's operating system versions obsolete after a few years, so you will be forced to buy the new version. I have an ageing desktop computer that's now 8 years old, and Windows tells me that I can't run Windows 11 on it. So when Window 10 becomes obsolete, I intend to install Linux on it instead of Windows. In fact, I might do that soon and keep it alongside Windows. As will lots of other people. Windows are shooting themselves in the foot with this, I think.

Just be aware that Microsoft is constantly contemplating ways to sabotage their competition. Like making a dual boot of Windows 11 and any Linux Distro somewhere between difficult and impossible. I'm not even sure I could operate removable drives between the two, without having to constantly change certain bios parameters.

Though in my own case, with my existing computer that is nine years old, I fully intend to keep my Windows 10 drive, though when support runs out I won't attempt any access with it to the Internet given the obvious security concerns. However I'll be running Linux as I am right now, so it's a moot point. The more I use Linux the more I like it.

Another thing I like is that I keep discovering all the tasks I did in Windows I can and have done in Linux. Making the gap between being forced to use Windows and wanting to use Linux much less than it was at the start when I was first learning Linux.

 

[maycontainthunder]

 

[Duna]

stupid Windows, interfering so much that it even interferes with itself

Hahahahahaha!

except my phone, I dont like phones

That's so funny - Before I started to get involved in forums (three diffy topics) a week or so ago I was convinced to be the only person who doesn't like them (even my mother who never carries hers around likes it in a way). And now you are about the fourth person who expressed a dislike for phones.

 

[Duna]

Another thing I like is that I keep discovering all the tasks I did in Windows I can and have done in Linux. Making the gap between being forced to use Windows and wanting to use Linux much less than it was at the start when I was first learning Linux.

I work for a a small IT company and my developing, coding, programming colleagues all have Windows, and my developing, coding, programming boss has a Mac, and I who work in project planning, managing and QA and such am the one who uses Linux. Making me the one who has to restart servers and databases when they are down and the boss is not around because nobody else knows how to do it.

But when my parents ask me to install the drivers for the new printer on their windows computers, I'm stymied.

 

[Thinx]

It's on the whole more amazing than it is irritating, for me. I grew up in times before colour TV - well it came in when I was about 10 or 11- and phones were attached to the wall and had dials and handsets. Both my parents worked in what was back then the telecommunications side of the Post services in UK. It's a different world now.

The internet! Wow. I like Phillip Reeves' vision of Technology developing creatively to save us from ourselves to some extent, by running the world(s) benignly and letting us keep on existing despite our tendencies to annihilate ourselves through unwise use of resources. He envisions a world or worlds where the only device needed is a headset that plugs one in to everything.

 

[Judge]

But when my parents ask me to install the drivers for the new printer on their windows computers, I'm stymied.

Almost a private joke among us Linux users. Reminds me of how nasty it can be in having to reinstall the HP inkjet printer drivers to Windows 10. Especially if being configured for wireless use.

With Linux Mint you simply turn on your printer and Linux does the rest automatically.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I have a love/hate relationship with technology.

It allows me to work from home. BIG PLUS. My smart phone lets me carry ALL my client files around with me in a tiny device instead of lugging around huge paper files. (I have to make home/school/work visits.)

Plus I can Face Time with my grandson in Sweden. (I am in the US.) It is certainly easier to keep in touch with family flung far and wide. And I get value from the few (3, count them, 3) forums I use.

All the above are valuable me, even more so with autism.

The hate part - oh, my goodness. Up until 2019, the state agency I contract with used a program in DOS. Yes, DOS. Now, the current software we have to use is so impossible to use, it actually takes longer to input data than it does to handwrite it. At this point, we'd rather return to the DOS program.

Here is what happened: The state allocated only X dollars to purchase new software. The state also has to take the lowest bidder for any particular project. So, they bought an "off the shelf" product and figured out work arounds. The work arounds means information needed for one task is located in at least three different tabs. To change a service plan requires entering and going back and forth between three different tabs numerous times. The tabs do NOT update each other. We have to do the updates by hand. If we make an error on progress notes, we cannot fix it. We have to submit an IT request to "open" it up again so we can fix it.

I hate how often things are updated, making previous versions unworkable. I have to use MS because the state stuff is in Windows. Right now my scanner has an update. Every time I turn on the scanner, it tries to update. I have tried to run the update, but an error comes up. So I can't update it and I can't get rid of the message telling me to update. And that is a simple one.

 

[Judge]

I hate how often things are updated, making previous versions unworkable.

A major reason why I like Linux so much. I use it on a nine-year old hardware platform and my most cherished program is Adobe Photoshop 5.5. A windows program that runs poorly on Windows 10 and like a champ on Linux Mint 20.3/21 with the "Wine 7.0" program.

Taking into consideration that Photoshop 5.5 is around 23 years old. The same one I used professionally as a website designer many years ago.

 

[mysterionz]

Saw a customer at work that has a phone that was destroyed by her young kids, she still uses it as technology is very expensive to replace.

Cracked my sixth gen iPad in the upper left hand corner (which is now my moms)

Broke my mom’s second or third gen iPad when I was six or seven as well

 

[MildredHubble]

I jumped ship from Windows 17 years ago to the Mac or as an IT tech once called it "Linux for toddlers" .

I don't know if that's exactly a statement I would agree with but, I find MacOS doesn't cause me much hassle and rarely trips over itself.

It's possible (at least for now) to run MacOS on PC hardware with a bit of messing about. You can also dual boot with Windows. But probably not something you would want to try installing on a "mission critical" machine.

 

[Aspychata]

Like Linux. I felt it is more interactive, yet Linux holds my hand so l don't feel like l am going into a Windows maze and l am stuck in the permissions page which l have to know what permissions shouldn't be allowed because then my system will be vulnerable to outside threats. There are multiple screens of permissions which leave me numb after awhile. Linux just seems more black and white and easier to wade thru.

 

[maycontainthunder]

 

[SusanLR]

If you aren't already doing this, give it a shot. Don't do any keystrokes for at least two minutes after bootup. Then click on the security feature to see if Windows acknowledges your third-party security software with a check mark citing all is well.

This works for me also, @Judge
I just wait a few minutes and I can see the check mark accepting my third-party security software. It doesn't really bother me to make the wait.

I see other posts on what does bother me with Windows.
They push what they want onto you want it or not.
I hate that type of change with no choice.
My desktop is old but serves the purposes I need.

As far as phones, I hate them. Especially Smartphones.
I don't use a phone for much of anything except business appointments.
A simple texting and talk is all I want.
I refuse to use a Smartphone until the day they will probably be forced on us.
You see the pushing us into the roundup everywhere.
Get the app. Get rewards. Tap and pay. On and on.
If I were into religion, I would probably say those silly square things to scan
on everything is the Mark of the Beast!

So, Smartphones are my windmills. And like Don Quixote, I fight the invasion of
my monster.

 

[Shamar]

Ooh, I just remembered a story myself.

So, I had a PS2, right. Well... no I had a lot of them. Accursed things broke easily. Slimlines, mostly. Terrible quality, those.

Well, I had one that PARTLY worked, the one that lasted the longest. But it only worked if you used The Boot.

I dont mean "boot" as in "boot it up" or some other computer term. I mean an actual freaking boot. You had to put the disc in, close the drive, and then put the boot on top of it. If you did not do that, the thing would do nothing at all.

Normally, I'm a huge fan of retro gaming from any era. But I make an exception for PS2 stuff. It's the only console where I actually got rid of my collection instead of holding onto it. I knew, for absolute sure, I wasnt going to play any of those again.



Everything. Absolutely everything.

I disliked phones even before they were portable. After all, they're used to make.... *spooky voice* ... phone calls. I shudder at the very thought.

And these days? Well... I see them for what they are. Just another stupid way for corporations to shove ads in your face. After all, that's the main use, aint it? Social media?

It's funny, I'm the technomancer of the family, but my PARENTS are the ones that are always glued to their stupid phones. I complain at them about this regularly.

I expect, one of these days, somebody (probably Apple) to announce a new phone with so many features that it cannot call another phone and let you talk. That function is not important enough or used enough to be included.

I'm one of those perverted freaks without a cell phone or significant social media presence (just here and another technical forum). When someone asks how I can function without a cell phone, I simply reply "Very peacefully and without stress, thank you."

I remember a time when you typed in commands, and a computer did exactly what you told it to do (what you THINK you told it to do and what you ACTUALLY told it to do were not necessarily the same). Now, you click on something, and if the computer decides that is not what you actually wanted, it does what IT thinks you wanted. Scary. And people want computers to make more decisions for them? Matrix, here we come.

 

[Outdated]

And what does the computer engineer say when something works absolutely perfectly?


Well.... Obviously it doesn't have enough features yet....

 

[A Fluffy Gray Cat]

For some reason, I guess I shouldn't be surprised with the amount of Linux comments in this thread. But to be fair, I've been trying to get on the linux train since 2020. I started learning about it during the pandemic and after much distro hopping, I have finally settled on Arch. I've liked a lot of the things I've tried with the OS, though Linux isn't exactly great with music production, which is my main interest, so I have a laptop running Windows 11 just for that.

I totally get the sentiment about technology being irritating. I hate having to update my tech and PC build every few years with overpriced parts just because new stuff is designed to run out so quickly. Needless to day though, with my interests, the high end computer parts are mandatory for my interests. Despite that, I still find older tech way more fascinating.

 

[LadyS]