What's a current or growing trend only you seem to have concerns about?
I’ve definitely turned into the paranoid nutcase within my friend group in recent years, I hate that everything is “smart” nowadays requiring an app/internet connection & account, just to do basic things that didn’t require any of that before.
What’s some things currently making you ramble like an old man?
Another one that gets me: buying things but not actually owning them. You buy a game but you don't actually own the game, you own a license to play a game on a service that might shut down sometime in the future or change their mind about the license they sold you. You buy an e-book but the storefront you bought it from might change or remove it, and then forcibly update or remove any copies you have on e-readers. Most people don't even buy movies or TV shows, they just subscribe to some streaming service, and if they do "buy" an electronic copy it's the same issue as e-books.
At least physical copies of movies and tv shows and books are still a thing, but even then we're heading towards a future where physical media may require phoning in before it'll play.
It needs to be made illegal for any store to call a lease a purchase. If what you’re buying is a temporary, revokable license to download and play a game or watch a movie, the store you buy it from should be forced to make that perfectly clear.
Ooooh, I could give you a while list of things, but I am not one to set fires intentionally.
I will say that a lot of people have been trained to use their feelings as a moral compass before letting logic and reason do the talking. This includes “treating the symptoms” of a problem and not digging down to the root cause. A lot of root causes are byproducts of the industrializaton of the modern era, but it’s an unforgiveable sin to produce research that makes a company look bad.
This is the single greatest comment I have ever seen on this platform. I’m not being hyperbolic. It took me years to discover what you just wrote. It’s a never ending journey to the root causes, but it’s well worth it. I find myself constantly asking: “Why do we do things like this?” The usual answer involves money and traditions. People never contemplate the inefficiency of our society. Please set more fires intentionally.( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
After being poor for some time, I got a whole degree in economics to understand how we justify paying employees absolute trash.
I worked hard at a restaurant for 5 straight years. I was paid $8 or so, minimum wage at the time. And then they upgraded and moved. I got to move with them! And I got a raise to $11! Then they cut my hours in half.
Fuckin’ assholes. I had to get another job.
In any case, money is the motivation for so many problems. Honestly, it’s disheartening.
I understand the need for some subscriptions and their benefits when there is ongoing content added to a platform.
However i’m not paying a subscription for software I could just buy and own forever, i’m not paying a £6.99 subscription to get some shitty cloud features in an app that is costing several cents a month to host. I get hundreds of gigabytes a month for less than that with Backblaze.
I’m not paying a subscription to read every second news website. I’m not paying a sub to access remote features of my car. I’m not paying a subscription to remove ads in an app, just let me pay once.
Back in the day I sailed the seven seas with the best of em. It started with Napster. Then Netflix and Hulu had most of the things I wanted and I stopped. Now I have a dozen subscription services that come free as credit card perks, cell phone perks, internet service perks, or whatever. I don’t even know what all I have for free. So I don’t pirate because I have loads of perks. But the day that stops I’ll likely be back unless I’m too old and my mind is too far gone to figure it out.
I’ve pirated two movies in the last several years. Neither were available from any service at all. They’re just gone from the civilized world.
With all that being said, I’ll still pay for Shudder. It’s got content I want and they always have a sale when it’s time for me to re-up. Maybe instead of pirating I’ll only watch bad horror forever. There are way worse things for me to live out my life.
Same here. I’m subscriptioned out. Can hardly even graciously donate to something anymore without them expecting me to sign up to have money drawn from my account every single month. I’m so done with that.
The popularity of brachycephalic dogs especially French bulldogs and backyard breeders of them and their horrible health issues. 90 percent of people who have them have no idea why their 5,000 dollar dog can’t breath or aspirates or get paralyzed/horrible back pain.
The fact that the entertainment industry has weaned entire generations with a way to access popular works, or events such as sports and concerts - and then started to privatize them, first with cable, then with subscription services, and each of them with higher costs and more draconian controls than the last. It feels as if the concept of “popular culture” was manufactured to hook us into paying larger amounts of money to the entertainment industry.
But… you have choice. Nobody needs to go to taylor Swifts concerts. Nobody needs to see the next Marvel movie. It’s a business.
As long as people only spend money on things that are worth more to them than said money, everyone is fine. If people can’t control their purchases, it isn’t the industry’s fault.
I’m fortunate to not enjoy popular culture in the first place.
It makes me angry when I see the sort of stuff that trends on popular services. It’s like the vast majority of humans have zero standards. We’re all just human centipadding, groveling to our Hollywood and RIAA overlords, worshipping celebrity idols. It’s really sad and pathetic.
The propietary shit around bicycles was never good, especially drivetrains, but on the other hand most of it was some sort of standard easy enough to machine with modern technology that you got at least 1 factory in china still cranking out the most esoteric shit possible because ehh it costs them $2 to make or something and they can sell it for $25 or something, why not. It’s just pipes and diameters and threading.
The bicycle industry really needs to settle on a singe bottom bracket standard. It’s not like there’s a significant difference in performance from the million different variations. An industry-standard rear derailleur hanger would also save a lot of headaches where people try to hunt down a replacement for a frame that’s been out of production for years.
I reformated that so much I forgot to include my dissatisfaction was mostly with e-bikes and the associated electronics lmao
But yeah, bottom brackets are ridicolous. Only reason we ever moved away from BSA was cost cutting and now that everyone and their grandma has creaky high end bikes people just return to BSA anyways.
I tell you, if I ever become emperor of a country it will have the world largest bicycle industry and everything is in absolutely standardized parts
I think strawberry pop tarts have less frosting than all other flavors.
It’s petty and small, but every time I have a strawberry pop tart the frosting is so thin that the holes on the top are clear through the frosting. No other flavor has this problem. I don’t think it matters, but it feels like a conspiracy.
I’ve noticed the same thing with cool ranch Doritos. A while back they seem to have realized they went too far making them practically naked. They were heavily seasoned for several months but now it seems like the level of seasoning has been creeping down again. No idea why they single out that one flavor. Does it have silver in it, or something?
You have to turn the bag upside down for two hours before opening. It re-ranches the flavor molecules, so when the oxygen hits them when you open them it has that cool flavor you are looking for. If you don’t disperse the ranchaloids properly, it won’t fully oxidize.
What probably was happening is some bags were getting shaken or were flipped over during stocking right before you bought them. Those had the extra flavor because the ranchaloids were properly dispersed, but when you left it sitting at home too long before opening, they all sunk to the bottom, hence no oxidiation, and very little flavor.
Climate change. I live in a city with decent bicycle infrastructure and good public transport. Yet most people still argue they need their damn car to get to work alone without luggage, less than 5 kilometers away.
Lack of computer literacy. When I was in school, we had computer classes that taught us how to use Word, Excel, even Photoshop and Illustrator, etc. And also things like proper netiquette. It seems like students nowadays are just expected to have computer literacy, and it’s either not being taught anymore or is being taught in a severely diminished way. I’m extremely concerned by the number of younger students who don’t know how to use Excel (or, frankly, anything that’s not a social media website/app). Likewise, I believe the fact that young people are no longer taught to be wary of privacy on the internet (and are in fact encouraged to share their personal lives on the internet) is an oversight in education that will harm these people, as well as society, in the future
Hey I am old and I hate using a mouse, it’s a waste of time. I just tab through everything, and when there is some missing shortcut and I have to grab the mouse for excel it extremely pisses me off.
Friends of mine had IT classes but with a 60+ teacher, that told them that lcd screens are the new hot shit. I don’t know what’s worse, nothing or such outdated information in this rapidly changing environment.
English. Math. Whatever your Primary Language is. Chemistry, Physics and all other subjects that are already in every school curriculum.
School is not there to feed you everything you need to know for every possible Job.
Technological literacy might be a Subject worth talking about. But that does not have Excel and Word in it.
How do i find Information. How do i fact check information.
Not “how do i use Access and Excel to create a Form for filling out my Taxreport”
That is elitist circlejerk shit that only people in tech jobs say.
“Hurr durr that highschooler doesn’t know how a master slave drive configuration works, nobody is computer literate anymore”
mate I get what you’re saying, but doing simple calculations using functions in a spreadsheet is helpful in everyday life, it’s really unfair to compare it to welding
Lol no. When i go to a site and do networking i do not use excel. When i go to a site and pull miles of CAT7 cable i do not use Excel.
Not even my Tax guy uses Excel.
I do not use Excel apart from Eve online.
Does School teach you welding? Does school teach you how to swim? Does school teach you thermodynamics? Does school teach you how water drainage systems are being kept in good condition?
Want me to go on?
I hate to burst your bubble but you have to go to trade school to learn the basics of welding, then you can grab an apprenticeship to learn how to do it professionally.
You proved my point.
You go to trade school. That is when you have already decided to be a welder. Then you get an apprenticeship.
And both teach you how to when you need it.
Didnt need a schoolcourse on it.
There is not a single program, that every job has as a requirement.
None of my employees, unless they choose to, work with Excel.
We have no Excel sheets. Unless someone chooses to.
And if someone comes to me and has the technical skills required to do networking or low voltage work, then we teach him all the software we use.
And nobody that learns the trades that i employ for learns networking in school. They learn it when they need to learn it, which is when they have already decided that they wanna do the job.
School did teach me how to swim, yes. Public school. And welding was also an option for kids who decided to go to tech school instead of regular HS. As well as HVAC.
Yes, school taught me thermodynamics because it was a course I needed for my major.
I’m not sure what point you think you’re making here…? Have you never heard of technical school? Vocational School? College?
welding was also an option for kids who decided to go to tech school i
So you agree with me.
Not everyone needs Excel and it doen’t need to be taught in school.
If one needs it they will learn it when it’s required.
Yes, school taught me thermodynamics because it was a course I needed for my major.
That’s not School, thats University and it’s because you chose to take the course.
You chose to learn it.
It was not part of your regular Middle to Highschool curriculum.
College is a chosen path. You chose to learn it. It is not a required course for everyone.
Not everyone needs to know how thermodynamics work.
No Plumber needs to know how to configure firewalls.
No Secretary needs to know how to do plumbing.
So what is your argument then? “Not everyone needs to know Thermodynamics”. Maybe that’s why that is an advanced class in highschool. Do you just not like people getting a general, well-rounded education?
It looks like an English teacher never taught you how a paragraph is formatted, Mr. I-make-a-new-line-after-each-sentence.
Are you just here to agree with me?
Yes. Not everyone needs Excel. That’s why you learn it when you need it.
That’s why it’s not on the curriculum and why it’s not important. That’s also why Excel and computer literate do not go with eachother.
“The new guy at work doesn’t know how to use =(index …)” is of no indication of anything. Just teach him.
Yes. Because Lemmy has a non-dynamic line width that everyone adheres to and a proper wordprocessor in its editor.
I use lines because it makes text more readable. This isnt Latex, i am not writing an Essay.
I am telling you people why Word and Excel are not life defining skills, that everyone needs to know.
Why do children not learn how to use Latex anymore. How are they ever gonna be technologically literate when they cannot even use Latex.
This is so naive and just so incorrect. You never get the job in the first place if you don’t have skills (such as Excel) to put on your resume. And if you do, your employer is going to be pretty disappointed to find out that they need to teach you the most basic shit ever.
No. Just because you learned Excel in School doesn’t mean it’s useful to anyone.
If you apply to a welding job straight out of school your employer is still gonna teach you how to weld.
Excel is such a niche thing to know.
Electricians don’t know shit about high voltage lines before they get the job. They learn it. Welders don’t know how to weld. They learn it.
No employer is gonna be pissed because they have to train the trainee how to weld. No electrician is gonna be pissed because they have to explain how a voltage converter works.
Those are also basic things.
You are delusional if you think that more than 5% of all Jobs need Excel knowledge.
Adding onto that: Its so fricking easy. I can explain all you need in excel in 5 minutes.
Everyone should learn how to use excel. Just because something might not be useful for your profession, doesn’t mean it’s not useful to you. Just like everyone should learn how to manage personal finances, (which Excel can be a great tool for) even if they are not in the finance sector.
Your are very ignorant of how professional work is conducted. Companies want to higher people that know how to do their job and have years of experience doing it. Some places do have entry level or junior positions where some training is expected. But in general, you will be hired for the skills you have (not because you have ‘potential’ and they would love to spend months teaching you).
For welding and electric work, that is often learned through an apprenticeship, which aren’t easy to land either. That’s how a lot of trades work. But most jobs do not just offer apprenticeships or ‘free teaching’.
Also, have you ever heard of Trade School?
EDIT: If your argument was true I would just ask to be a brain surgeon and have the surgeons explain it to me.
Lol no. Most people get hired because there is a need for them.
Is a Starbucks Barista new-hire required to know what the difference between a 2 week old robusta and a 4 week old arabica is?
Does he need to kow how to use a POS System?
Nope. You just train them.
Does a straight out of School Sysadmin need to know what all the 7 Layers are for? Or how to use Wireshark? Or how to configure a Switch from Brand ? No. They learn that on the Job.
Sysadmins also don’t have a trade or vocational school.
Does a new-hire junior programmer need to know the codebase for the program they are being paid to work on? No they get the codebase and learn along.
The last 2 examples were much, MUCH deeper than the amount of excel you realistically need.
Highschoolers do not learn cisco unless they choose to.
And Excel and word are not that deep that you need any knowlede in them. One is a sheet that you can learn in 5 minutes and the other is a word processor.
It is naive to talk about the downfall of computer literacy when everything is moving away from computers.
I manage my Staff from my phone or tablet at home.
I click where i wanna go and i put in what it wants from me.
I can teach this stuff to my 5 year old and the rules behind it to my 16 year old. Both have never touched word or excel.
First of all i did. When i worked in a place that used Excel heavily. Didn’t touch Excel before that and learned them all in minutes. You’re not that cool.
And then: Why would i need to? I do not use Excel for my work anymore. Any of them actually. What Plumber uses =(getpivot on a regular basis and why would he need to know that before using it?
I have at least 4 companies on my banned list, but the ones that come up most often are…
Starbucks - I like good coffee. They just can’t seem to deliver and just focus on mass appeal to overly sweet milk drinks. No thanks. Good coffee doesn’t deserve that.
Blizzard/Activision - They need to clean house. Horrible treatment of people inside. The games they produce aren’t good even that good. I refuse to play their stuff as popular as it might be.
Disney - I don’t think they produce anything really valuable. Their marketing is amazing but I don’t like what they have given us. I honestly want nothing to do with Marvel or Star Wars and dislike the direction they have gone with those franchises.
Wizards of the Coast - all their game products are clearly cash grabs. Building in expiration so customers have to buy more is awful. I do not play Magic the Gathering and never will. I have also grown to dislike Dungeons and Dragons. It’s not even that great and there are so many better, more interesting games to play.
I used to play paper Magic the Gathering; I liked the game, but it became unaffordable after a while. Magic the Gathering Arena has been a good alternative. You don’t have to spend money (nor much time) to get good things, and you can easily find players in formats that accept old and new sets, for example, Historic mode which accepts everything that has been playable in Arena, except for some banned cards.
About D&D being fun… I have played Dungeons and Dragons only a couple times in my life, but some friends invited me to Baldur’s Gate 3 and it is a great game that has a lot of the things I remember from the tabletop game. However, this is entirely subjective, so I am just sharing my experience.
My point is not to defend the Wizards of the Coast executives, as I have heard they are terrible. I guess my point is that there are still options to enjoy their games or the essence of their games (Arena, BG3) without falling into their cash grabbing.
Autonomous driving vehicles. I’ve worked in software for over a decade and if their internal processes are anything like the places I’ve worked then no thanks
I support that point of view, but you also have to compare their performance to human drivers. We often have the expectation that technology have to be perfect (which it isn’t). Since you also have an IT background you know this pretty well probably. But if it’s safer than human drivers it could as well be an improvement.
We still don’t have a reliable enough way to automate trains, and that’s a (mostly) centrally controlled and closed system. The driving assists like automatic braking can at least be tested to a reasonable confidence, but I’d rather drive drunk than sit in a fully autonomous vehicle.
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