Ask Lemmy

I somewhat agree: tech peaked just when it was high end and absolutely not relying on manufacturer's cloud / subscription / customer portal enrollment ... 😓

I just had to book a flight.

Frontier forces you to download an app now to check in (there is a well hidden option to do it on web, but the page never loads on laptop nor mobile in multiple browsers).

I tried to rent a parking spot, and 2/4 places would not load quotes at all (again web and mobile and multiple browsers). I probably would've used one of the two that didn't load if their sites had worked. Their loss I guess.

I’d just like it to not feel like each interaction I have with technology, and I guess by extension the world, is becoming increasingly adversarial. The tech itself seems to keep getting better though.

For some, yes. Automotive is one that comes to mind. I miss dumb TVs. I'd say laptop, but then I'm rocking a decade-old Thinkpad, so I might be a bit biased here. I also miss phones that aren't as locked down. I hate what the current streaming service industry have become, and how social media is filled with AI trash.

I'd say that our personal needs for shear computation power have peaked within the last ten years. Yes, people have been saying this since the dawn of personal computers. Yes, servers keep getting more powerful. However, the fact that some schmucks just released a thousand dollar laptop with more or less the same RAM & CPU specs as my decade old Thinkpad kinda proves that.

Other than that, a lot of things are getting better. As an open-source enthusiast, I see things keeps improving, FreeCAD 1.0 just got released, more improvements to Linux kernel, LibreOffice handles MS Office files better, etc. Manufacturing techniques keeps getting more advanced, like 3D printing metal, and for us mortals, faster FDM printing with better plastic material that's more UV resistant. Radio technologies comes to mind; with SDR, one can achieve what people from last decade would need expensive specialized equipments for, yes you can get your hands on these for cheap.

Last but not least, don't forget this very platform where you're reading this very comment ;)

No, I prefer my 2020 phone over my 2014 one... But maybe that is not entirely what you want to mean in your post.

You don't need to upgrade your "tech" yearly though.

Every dog has its day, I suppose. Smart phones were exciting when they first emerged on the market and no one knew where the tech was going. Today, they're an every day appliance and a bit more ho-hum as a result.

At the moment, my tech junkie sights are set on micro-mobility. There's all sorts of fun stuff coming out of ebikes, scooters, and other contraptions, and the sector is still innovating hard and experiencing some growing pains and backlash because it has yet to move past that disruptive tech phase. In other words, it's awesome!

no

Facebook's AR glass prototype is fire. It's too expensive to release to the public but in a few years...

Tech in general isn't accelerating as fast. Drives aren't twice as big every year at half the price. Processors aren't twice as fast. 2024 stuff is still better than 2021 stuff, but it's not twice as good. A few things have take a couple steps backward as they try to wrangle AI data capture into our lives. Up until recently, we've been able to scale thing down, so the same thing, only smaller and faster, but we're hitting the limit of that, which is why people are latching on to ML to distract us from the fact that our gaming system from 6 years ago is still fine.

Yes.

Computers are the worst in my opinion, everything is tens to hundreds of times faster by specs and yet it feels as slow as it did in the 90s, I swear.

Network speeds are faster than ever but websites load tons of junk that have nothing to do with the content you're after, and the networks are run by corpos who only care about making money, and when they have no competition and you need their service, why would they invest in making their systems work better?

This is industrialism. All tech does this. You may have also had some rose colored glasses about business.

You grew up in a time of huge technological innovation, so you see anything else as unusual

Boomers grew up in stagnation, and expect tech to keep progressing at the same rate.

Both are 100% normal ways for our brains to expect shit to go, but neither fit modern society.

I work in VR and AR. I traveled to a conference this week to showcase demos of my work.

I have in my backpack a headset that’s costing few hundred bucks and can spawn in front if your eyes 3D models you can directly manipulate with your hands or a pen.

It just works.

I even use it offline while flying.

This didn’t exist 10years ago. It’s amazing.