Times When You Feel Technological Advancements Are Actually a Step Back...


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bhvm

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Dear friends.
The technology improves by leaps and bounds everyday. And the trend is increasing with each passing year. The new Tech brought us Safer cars, Faster computers & Mobiles that outdo laptops of a few years ago.

However there come times when I feel Advancements were actually a step or 2 back. Lets take a look-

>Cars- thinner metal. Mostly plastic parts. Tons of Electronic wizardry that could lead to niggles. Really small engines that simply don't have the grunt & Feel of larger ones.

> Laptops- Lack of Ports. COmpletely Sealed Back (I am looking at you- HP) that prevents users from simple RAM & HDD upgrade. Skipping VGA & expresscard ports. Smaller heatsinks. Very small 3 or 4 cell batteries.

> PCs- lack of large heatsinks. Not much improvements in design & Ergonomics over decade.

>Mobiles- Really Fragile. most models skipping over Dual Speakers, IR, NFC. Still poor battery life. Overheating.

>Home appliances- They simply don't last as much as older stuff used to.

Do you folks feel the same? Then Chime in and lets discuss!

Note- I am not aware if threads on the topic exits. Please merge if deemed fit.
 

Akash1886

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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

A very valid topic!! I feel with the advancement of technology, products have now become more complicated. For every small function there is a different button. Though it makes work of people easy but at the same time, it becomes difficult to understand the functioning of today's products to a great extent. A simple product with much less operating hassle would have been a blessing in my opinion. I would like to speak of myself here, I had been using a keypad mobile phone and when I bought a smart phone, it had no keypad and had to use touch screen. Now, the touch screen is so sensitive and secondly, typing on touchscreen is a pain for me and I feel much easier to type using keypad. So, even though the smartphones are advanced but not quite easy to operate.

Regards

Akash
 
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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

A very valid topic!! I feel with the advancement of technology, products have now become more complicated. For every small function there is a different button. Though it makes work of people easy but at the same time, it becomes difficult to understand the functioning of today's products to a great extent. A simple product with much less operating hassle would have been a blessing in my opinion. I would like to speak of myself here, I had been using a keypad mobile phone and when I bought a smart phone, it had no keypad and had to use touch screen. Now, the touch screen is so sensitive and secondly, typing on touchscreen is a pain for me and I feel much easier to type using keypad. So, even though the smartphones are advanced but not quite easy to operate.

Regards

Akash
In addition to this, the keypad phones can be held in single hand and typed just by using thumb of that hand. In today's smartphone and touchscreen this is nearly impossible. While entering into office I used to press "*" key just to change my "General Profile" to "Silent Profile", i am missing this in smartphone.
 
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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

I dont know if we are going backwards but some things can make driving dangerous.

- Somehow I get the feeling that touchscreen things would be more of a distraction than anything. Now we are able to connect our phones to the car, we can open apps. I get the feeling its a recipe for trouble (for the driver :P)

Some things are downright stupid

- Rain sensing wipers!! I can see the rain and switch on the wipers
- Auto dimming rear view mirrors
- Auto headlight

I think these are making us dumber than better
 
Thread Starter #5

bhvm

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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

more from my side-

1. tyres with tpms. helpful yes.but in case of a puncture you can't give it to any roadside shop.the unit is very delicate.

2. internet- really eats up time if you're not careful.

3. websites- modern websites are unnecessarily heavy with lots of flash & animations. I really Miss the old homebrew websites from decade ago.

4. DRM mess.

5. very heavy PC games that don't Focus much on character & gameplay but will bring your PC to the knees.
 
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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

our cars have become more electrical junk than a motor, the ecm fails the service guy says its electronic part can fail anytime. the sensor fails same reply, Sir electronic part hain change karna padega. and these things cost a bomb.

where are the days when it was just an engine a superb solid metal body and very less electricals my be headlight indicators, entertainment system, wipers and inner light thats it.

the car could be repaired by any mechanic on the road side as long as he knew what an engine is.

i simply love old school, its way better and simpler than these complex things.

and yeah the only phones i liked were those multimedia keyboard phones which had a keypad same as computers it was way too nice and simple to operate. blackberry, nokia aasha, micromax q3,q4,q5

i simply loved the old panasonic GD55 mobile which was like a match box with polyphonic ringtone. also the flip phone from erricson which had a antenna which used to rise automatically once you opened the flip simply classic!!! when a mobile phone was used only to call. No BS.

nowadays the situation is we are very busy chatting on whatsapp than to atttend the guest who is come home to meet us.

its not me but the entire older gen that feels that we have lost the real connection we live in a world of virtual connnection.

we dont talk to our neighbours or our relatives but are busy talking to friends who are not near us on whatsapp. not that friends arent necessary but there is a limit to everything dont you feel?? we are loosing out on the person to person talk.

its summer holidays for kids and how many kids do yyou find playing outside in the sun, everybody is busy visiting malls to play video games or bowling or something else no touch of nature, we used to climb trees fetch fresh guava, mangoes, Amlas go into somebody else's farm take a sugar cane or mango, gone are those days.
 
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Thread Starter #7

bhvm

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Re: Times when you feel advancements in tech are actually a step back...

exactly.
what hurts more is that our grandpas used to tune,repair, maintain cars by themselves. totally 'tender loving care'.

today it's not possible as cars become complicated & it needs special Laptop/software to check everything.
 
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The more you hate or resist change more you become old, iam getting older.
Smartphones---having a basic java phone as primary phone and a windows phone as secondary phone (for maps,internet). Got seriously affected by a android phone i will never use a smartphone as primary phone.

whatsapp, facebook--deleted facebook long time back, whatsapp number only for official purposes.

side mirrors--love the simple ones in my spark( it has a inner stick for adjusting the angle ). Other cars has electronic ones.

BHVM-- regarding games, i fully accept your view. Nfs 2 se was a simple no nonsense game, but the nfs games which followed it were terrible.

I play 90s and 2000s games. Newer games lack either good story or controls, they get sacrificed for graphics. Once played some nfs in ps2, the player has a bmw and some girl comes and talks at each cutscene. Everything was so cardboard like. Old game makers were like rockstars, newer guys are just paid workers.
Same with hollywood and music industry.

Fuel lid--newer cars dont have key holes in the fuel lid , so if the mechanism goes wrong it becomes difficult to fill fuel.
 
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The things you mentioned in the first post, cars, mobiles and laptops, they were considered like an asset for the lifetime when they were initially introduced. Now the life expectancy of them has come down to a few years. Manufacturers have also known whatever cutting edge technology they will introduce it is going to go obsolete in a matter of a few years or maybe even months. They are now providing quality just enough to run for the expected lifetime (Say, 5 years for a car). So we can't really say it is a step back, this is how the world is on todays date!.
 
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I also feel the same way that's why I always refrain from upgrading to any new technology, just for the sake of it. Sometimes all the hype of new tech be it in a car, bike or gadgets cools down almost instantly. However, not every new technology is bad and most of the times upgrading has it ups too.
 
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Thread Starter #11

bhvm

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BHVM-- regarding games, i fully accept your view. Nfs 2 se was a simple no nonsense game, but the nfs games which followed it were terrible.

I play 90s and 2000s games. Newer games lack either good story or controls, they get sacrificed for graphics. Once played some nfs in ps2, the player has a bmw and some girl comes and talks at each cutscene. Everything was so cardboard
mate I still play games from 90s or millennium.
the ones I currently have installed are-
serious Sam fe.
serious sam se.
serious Sam 2
doom 2 (how can anyone forget this!! )
doom 3
painkiller (over 5 variants )
nfs hp 2
nfs mw
Little fighter 2
frozen bubble!! (Linux port)
call of duty 1
call of duty 2
call of duty 4-mw
street fighter (dos type)
beats of rage (dos type)
project snowblind
unreal 2 (single player)
unreal tournament (2003,2004)
crysis 1 & crysis warhead
far cry 1 (2 is horrible! )
descent 3 (god like game!! )
star wars republic commando
left 4 dead 1&2
code of honor 3
Tom Clancy rainbow 6
sonic dx
no one lives forever 1&2 (best ever dialogue & character I've ever seen)

and you know what's the best about this?
they're very light and will work Great on laptop onboard graphics (except crysis that is ).
 

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