Designing desktops doesn't look good on a designer's resume. Designing phones and tablets does.
If a former Apple designer is struggling to justify their resume, they're doing it wrong.
Thus there is no incentive to do good desktops, because they are regarded as passe.
Desktops are about as passe as 400HP V8 engines in Detroit, and for similar reasons. When users need real performance, a fucking tablet ain't gonna cut it. And Corporate America still uses the shit out of them.
What’s wrong with a bigger, better looking screen and longer battery life in roughly the same form factor? Which consumers didn’t want those things?
Uh, that "same" form factor now costs you over three times what it used to. Think that's also what consumers wanted? Mediocre upgrades in exchange for an obscene price tag?
Sadly, people don't even remember the fact that new iPhones used to be heavily discounted at $199 when you signed up for a 2-year agreement.
Now you have a bend-over-and-take-it cost model where you pay the full MSRP for the hardware before you even think about service for it.
We no longer give a shit what features you want. You'll get what makes us the most money and like it.
Fuck you, and have a nice day.
Hugs and Kisses,
- Apple, Google, and Samsung
That's a bit of an exaggeration but I applaud you policy of hating Apple, Google and Samsung equally.
A bit of an exaggeration? Not really. Try and remember a feature on a smartphone that consumers actually asked for.
A super-mega-retina-grade display on a 5" screen? Rather pointless, but let's add $100 onto the MSRP anyway.
Remove the headphone jack? Zero consumer demand for that, but how about wireless earbuds at 5x the cost. What a bargain!
Non-replaceable batteries? Yup, another revenue generating feature no one asked for, but let's make sure every device has this "upgrade".
All-glass design? Yes, please make my device FAR more breakable, and don't forget the back too (said no consumer ever.)
10MP cameras and 4K recording? Tack on another $100 to the MSRP.
Discounted phone price with contract? Yeah, no. We'll just give you a full MSRP 2-year loan instead. That way, it won't seem like we're ripping you off.
About the only damn thing that has come out lately that consumers actually needed was some level of water resistance. Of course, this benefit was pretty much voided with the all-glass design, since there's far more revenue to be made with dropping smartphones vs. dunking them.
Unless we can modify the system, rampant consumerism is the only thing that will save many of us from destitution.
Rampant consumerism isn't the answer to continue to fuel rampant greed. Besides, it's kind of hard to be a consumer of pointless throw-away shit when you're unemployed. Sadly, those replacing jobs with automation don't see the proverbial gun aimed at their own foot.
Greed is also used to ensure private prisons have plenty of "consumers" too. A "rampant" mentality in that industry would land you behind bars for texting and driving.
Big banks still primarily use DOS software. I'm sure support for DOS was phased out over 20 years ago. If the main financial institutions still trust a 20 year old operating system, i don't think my slightly out-of-date iPhone is really that much of a problem.
A large bank must adhere to a lot of regulation to simply operate. If it has proven that it can properly mitigate risk by running DOS or some other antiquated system, then they've likely got the controls in place to prevent a data breach.
It's rather pointless to even try and compare that to the average citizen who doesn't give a fuck about security or privacy, and couldn't define risk mitigation if their life depended on it.
My iPhone 5 is still going strong. I have a 5S at home waiting to be formatted and put into service, but meh, the 5 still works.
When it comes to highly networked electronic devices, "strong" is not merely defined by functionality. It is also defined by support. I believe the iPhone 5 is a 32-bit platform, and support stopped at iOS 10.
Who says you have to? A modern flagship phone is good for at least two years, and if the S4 I recently handed off to a relative is anything to go by, significantly longer.
You choose to update every year, there's not a gun to your head, and if you are as concerned about e-waste as you claim to be, this should not even be a question in your mind.
Who says you have to? Greed does.
Every year new models are marketed with the "best" whizz-bang hardware, and yet they are somehow unsupportable after 2-3 years (which would also include your S4) They're now manufactured with sealed cases and non-replaceable batteries to prevent upgrades or maintenance.
Put another way, how many other $500+ electronic devices in your life do you replace as often as you do a smartphone? You would be rather pissed if you were forced to replace HDTVs, laptops, desktops, music players, or tablets at that frequency, and yet society happily accepts a forced schedule of manufacturing greed that creates a considerable amount of e-waste with smartphones (recycling programs can only go so far).
To the parents point, 18 - 24 months IS "every year or so", which is now the standard replacement schedule and contract length.
You prefered the days of USB dongles, license servers and an inability to rent per-minute licenses? I for one didn't I ask companies to add internet connection based licensing, I'm so sick and tired of managing FlexLM servers, replacement dongles and paying $1,000 a year when we desparately need it for 60 minutes.
I'll take a local license file and FlexLM manager any day over internet-dependent services.
I can handle one license server having issues, impeding work. I sure as hell don't want to deal with all of my license managers going down if I lose internet service.
And 60 minutes a year define your usage requirement? I'd outsource that shit.
When I worked in support, the biggest security risks were always the higher up managers or CEOs that always wanted to be an exception to the security concept that they ordered.
This isn't the 1980s anymore.
Those who cannot grasp a concept as simple as "weakest link" get what they deserve in today's world.
...For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.
Yeah, these are the same people who would label a fucking Roku stick a "computer".
Sorry, but I'd prefer to not have the masses redefine what sits on my desk. At this rate, our future computer will be a dumb terminal driven to market by mindless idiots who think SaaS addiction is hip and cool. That $19.99 computer will "only" cost you $149.99/month to operate. Gee, what a fucking bargain.
I swear, common sense is dying faster that the concept of ownership.
Because firemen are required to wait and Uber drivers aren't.
Ah, so clarity is needed around necessity? That's easy.
Go to any major city that has a long-established history with ride-sharing services and immediately shut every single one of them down.
You would find proposed legislation in front of the mayor within hours, re-defining ride-sharing as "critical infrastructure", with the pitchfork-wielding masses storming city hall by midnight...
They can be forced, actually. The prosecution tells you that if you plead guilty you'll be given a reduced sentence, so you plead guilty regardless of whether or not you're actually guilty.
An innocent person being forced or coerced into an admission of guilt pretty much sums up the fucked state of our legal system.
It's not about justice anymore.
Ironically, the Department of Justice doesn't quite fucking grasp that fact.
We must find a way to fix the wealth inequality and disparity, and eradicate a pointless desire to become a trillioniare.
I don't think that will ever happen. For most of human existence, having more stuff likely correlated with not dying. More food, more spears, more firewood, more family. I suspect that hoarding is baked into our genes at this point.
Throughout recorded history, the powerful have always amassed more than they needed, at the expense of the weak. Kings, bishops, emperors, generals and dukes alike all amassed fortunes and land. Time and time again the weak suffered increasingly under the system until they rose up and overthrew it. In the age of democracy, we seem to have turned to legislation rather than bloody revolt, but it's still the same old thing we've been doing for thousands of years.
If we had been able to separate money from democracy, we might have had a bit more of a shot at minimizing greed. But not only haven't we been able to do that, at this point politics seemingly runs solely on money, not votes or popular outcry. Given this, I expect it to continue to get worse rather than better.
When taxing only estates left to descendants worth more than $5,000,000 is controversial and deemed excessive double taxation by the ruling class, we really don't have a shot at fixing greed. That's a value that should set anyone up for the rest of their life. If I had half that much money, I'd retire tomorrow. "Why should we pay taxes on a gift worth more than what 99% of people will make over the course of their entire lifetime?"
That's how close we are to solving greed.
Over the course of thousands of years, a single human trait has stood the test of time; a propensity to never fucking learn from our mistakes.
"...There are billions in borrowings on the balance sheets of troubled retailers...The debt coming due, along with America's over-stored suburbs and the continued gains of online shopping, has all the makings of a disaster."
Thousands of balloon/ARM mortgages approved for unqualified borrowers also had all the makings of a disaster back in 2008 too.
There's a common trait in the human race that spans thousands of years; a propensity to never fucking learn.
And over-stored is right. It's ridiculous just how many damn choices there are within a mile-long stretch of suburbia. No wonder so many are closing.
Nobody needs an Assault Rifle headset. This is just wrong. The 2nd Amendment never was intended for this purpose...What?...really?...sorry, nevermind, carry on.
Headset development prioritization list:
#1 - Work without needing an iPhone
#2 - Virtual porn
#3 - Better virtual porn
#4 - iPorn
#5 - iPorn with iSteve
#6 - iPornX
Don't worry. The only thing users will likely be assaulting, is themselves.
The pathetic part is realizing that this bullshit no-reservation policy works. If we want to change this, then we have to get rid of the fucking stupid mentality that queues are somehow hip and cool.
It doesn't help that since the invention of online reservations, actual reservation fulfillment has dropped - instead of people making one reservation ahead of time and going to that restaurant, they make 10 reservations through OpenTable and then pick one of those and screw the other 9.
What happens when you reserve an Uber or Lyft and you do not show up?
Exactly. It's amazing how well you can curb asshole behavior when fees are involved. Change the OpenTable TOS to hold a credit card and enforce fees for cancellations. Problem solved.
So restaurants have two options - one is to take a credit card and have a "no-show" fee for reserving a table you're not going to occupy (but it costs the restaurant a table and creates a queue outside), or simply not take reservations at all.
And yes, no-shows are a big deal, because they occupy a table that could otherwise be used to serve a walk-in guest. Instead, that guest is now sitting waiting for a table, creating a queue. Yes, there are restaurants who hate queues too - they want guests in and eating and out so t hey can serve the next round - high throughput for high profits.
Part of the reason people don't mind waiting in queues and hanging out paying for overpriced drinks is they are enjoying the experience. The experience is exactly the reason I'll happily take 3+ hours to eat dinner at a restaurant. High-throughput is not my priority when I'm enjoying a meal out somewhere. Making it worthwhile and memorable is.
Slashdot Mirror
Designing desktops doesn't look good on a designer's resume. Designing phones and tablets does.
If a former Apple designer is struggling to justify their resume, they're doing it wrong.
Thus there is no incentive to do good desktops, because they are regarded as passe.
Desktops are about as passe as 400HP V8 engines in Detroit, and for similar reasons. When users need real performance, a fucking tablet ain't gonna cut it. And Corporate America still uses the shit out of them.
What’s wrong with a bigger, better looking screen and longer battery life in roughly the same form factor? Which consumers didn’t want those things?
Uh, that "same" form factor now costs you over three times what it used to. Think that's also what consumers wanted? Mediocre upgrades in exchange for an obscene price tag?
Sadly, people don't even remember the fact that new iPhones used to be heavily discounted at $199 when you signed up for a 2-year agreement.
Now you have a bend-over-and-take-it cost model where you pay the full MSRP for the hardware before you even think about service for it.
Dear Consumer,
We no longer give a shit what features you want. You'll get what makes us the most money and like it.
Fuck you, and have a nice day.
Hugs and Kisses,
- Apple, Google, and Samsung
That's a bit of an exaggeration but I applaud you policy of hating Apple, Google and Samsung equally.
A bit of an exaggeration? Not really. Try and remember a feature on a smartphone that consumers actually asked for.
A super-mega-retina-grade display on a 5" screen? Rather pointless, but let's add $100 onto the MSRP anyway.
Remove the headphone jack? Zero consumer demand for that, but how about wireless earbuds at 5x the cost. What a bargain!
Non-replaceable batteries? Yup, another revenue generating feature no one asked for, but let's make sure every device has this "upgrade".
All-glass design? Yes, please make my device FAR more breakable, and don't forget the back too (said no consumer ever.)
10MP cameras and 4K recording? Tack on another $100 to the MSRP.
Discounted phone price with contract? Yeah, no. We'll just give you a full MSRP 2-year loan instead. That way, it won't seem like we're ripping you off.
About the only damn thing that has come out lately that consumers actually needed was some level of water resistance. Of course, this benefit was pretty much voided with the all-glass design, since there's far more revenue to be made with dropping smartphones vs. dunking them.
Sadly, I stand by my "exaggeration".
Unless we can modify the system, rampant consumerism is the only thing that will save many of us from destitution.
Rampant consumerism isn't the answer to continue to fuel rampant greed. Besides, it's kind of hard to be a consumer of pointless throw-away shit when you're unemployed. Sadly, those replacing jobs with automation don't see the proverbial gun aimed at their own foot.
Greed is also used to ensure private prisons have plenty of "consumers" too. A "rampant" mentality in that industry would land you behind bars for texting and driving.
Big banks still primarily use DOS software. I'm sure support for DOS was phased out over 20 years ago. If the main financial institutions still trust a 20 year old operating system, i don't think my slightly out-of-date iPhone is really that much of a problem.
A large bank must adhere to a lot of regulation to simply operate. If it has proven that it can properly mitigate risk by running DOS or some other antiquated system, then they've likely got the controls in place to prevent a data breach.
It's rather pointless to even try and compare that to the average citizen who doesn't give a fuck about security or privacy, and couldn't define risk mitigation if their life depended on it.
Dear Consumer,
We no longer give a shit what features you want. You'll get what makes us the most money and like it.
Fuck you, and have a nice day.
Hugs and Kisses,
- Apple, Google, and Samsung
My iPhone 5 is still going strong. I have a 5S at home waiting to be formatted and put into service, but meh, the 5 still works.
When it comes to highly networked electronic devices, "strong" is not merely defined by functionality. It is also defined by support. I believe the iPhone 5 is a 32-bit platform, and support stopped at iOS 10.
I hate to change a phone every year or so .
Who says you have to? A modern flagship phone is good for at least two years, and if the S4 I recently handed off to a relative is anything to go by, significantly longer. You choose to update every year, there's not a gun to your head, and if you are as concerned about e-waste as you claim to be, this should not even be a question in your mind.
Who says you have to? Greed does.
Every year new models are marketed with the "best" whizz-bang hardware, and yet they are somehow unsupportable after 2-3 years (which would also include your S4) They're now manufactured with sealed cases and non-replaceable batteries to prevent upgrades or maintenance.
Put another way, how many other $500+ electronic devices in your life do you replace as often as you do a smartphone? You would be rather pissed if you were forced to replace HDTVs, laptops, desktops, music players, or tablets at that frequency, and yet society happily accepts a forced schedule of manufacturing greed that creates a considerable amount of e-waste with smartphones (recycling programs can only go so far).
To the parents point, 18 - 24 months IS "every year or so", which is now the standard replacement schedule and contract length.
You prefered the days of USB dongles, license servers and an inability to rent per-minute licenses? I for one didn't I ask companies to add internet connection based licensing, I'm so sick and tired of managing FlexLM servers, replacement dongles and paying $1,000 a year when we desparately need it for 60 minutes.
I'll take a local license file and FlexLM manager any day over internet-dependent services.
I can handle one license server having issues, impeding work. I sure as hell don't want to deal with all of my license managers going down if I lose internet service.
And 60 minutes a year define your usage requirement? I'd outsource that shit.
What are the numbers for pagers/beepers like?
When I worked in support, the biggest security risks were always the higher up managers or CEOs that always wanted to be an exception to the security concept that they ordered.
This isn't the 1980s anymore.
Those who cannot grasp a concept as simple as "weakest link" get what they deserve in today's world.
There must be 3 different starbucks knockoffs in my area... seriously?
When it comes to the bean-sucking masses who insist they don't have an addiction problem, there's not much to say.
The strongest drug in the world is denial.
...For many people, their phone is their computer, and this will make that easier and more common.
Yeah, these are the same people who would label a fucking Roku stick a "computer".
Sorry, but I'd prefer to not have the masses redefine what sits on my desk. At this rate, our future computer will be a dumb terminal driven to market by mindless idiots who think SaaS addiction is hip and cool. That $19.99 computer will "only" cost you $149.99/month to operate. Gee, what a fucking bargain.
I swear, common sense is dying faster that the concept of ownership.
Because firemen are required to wait and Uber drivers aren't.
Ah, so clarity is needed around necessity? That's easy.
Go to any major city that has a long-established history with ride-sharing services and immediately shut every single one of them down.
You would find proposed legislation in front of the mayor within hours, re-defining ride-sharing as "critical infrastructure", with the pitchfork-wielding masses storming city hall by midnight...
Paid time off is legally mandated for all employed people in the UK.
Is this also true for the part-time IT consultant or contractor that gets paid an hourly rate?
Just looking to see exactly how far the UK takes the definition of "employed people"
Plea bargaining should be abolished. Nobody should be punished for exercising their right to a fair trial.
How much extra are you willing to pay in taxes to ensure that happens? That's basically what it comes down to.
Perhaps what it truly comes down to is lawyer should not be a $250,000/year profession.
Reduce the overall cost of a courtroom. Plain and simple. It's gotten quite fucking obscene anyway.
They can be forced, actually. The prosecution tells you that if you plead guilty you'll be given a reduced sentence, so you plead guilty regardless of whether or not you're actually guilty.
An innocent person being forced or coerced into an admission of guilt pretty much sums up the fucked state of our legal system.
It's not about justice anymore.
Ironically, the Department of Justice doesn't quite fucking grasp that fact.
If the going is good why not expand. Bacteria do it, humans do it, companies do it, shares dealers do it.
One of these things is not like the other.
When ruthless Greed is compared to mindless bacteria that only know how to do one fucking thing, the real disease that will destroy us, is Ignorance.
One would have thought the most advanced species on the planet would be more capable of preventing it's own destruction. Guess not.
We must find a way to fix the wealth inequality and disparity, and eradicate a pointless desire to become a trillioniare.
I don't think that will ever happen. For most of human existence, having more stuff likely correlated with not dying. More food, more spears, more firewood, more family. I suspect that hoarding is baked into our genes at this point.
Throughout recorded history, the powerful have always amassed more than they needed, at the expense of the weak. Kings, bishops, emperors, generals and dukes alike all amassed fortunes and land. Time and time again the weak suffered increasingly under the system until they rose up and overthrew it. In the age of democracy, we seem to have turned to legislation rather than bloody revolt, but it's still the same old thing we've been doing for thousands of years.
If we had been able to separate money from democracy, we might have had a bit more of a shot at minimizing greed. But not only haven't we been able to do that, at this point politics seemingly runs solely on money, not votes or popular outcry. Given this, I expect it to continue to get worse rather than better.
When taxing only estates left to descendants worth more than $5,000,000 is controversial and deemed excessive double taxation by the ruling class, we really don't have a shot at fixing greed. That's a value that should set anyone up for the rest of their life. If I had half that much money, I'd retire tomorrow. "Why should we pay taxes on a gift worth more than what 99% of people will make over the course of their entire lifetime?"
That's how close we are to solving greed.
Over the course of thousands of years, a single human trait has stood the test of time; a propensity to never fucking learn from our mistakes.
Yes, I agree. We don't stand a chance.
Need I say more?
I count six Sears department stores operating within a 30-mile radius near me. That's not including the additional Sears outlet stores.
What exactly was your point again?
"...There are billions in borrowings on the balance sheets of troubled retailers...The debt coming due, along with America's over-stored suburbs and the continued gains of online shopping, has all the makings of a disaster."
Thousands of balloon/ARM mortgages approved for unqualified borrowers also had all the makings of a disaster back in 2008 too.
There's a common trait in the human race that spans thousands of years; a propensity to never fucking learn.
And over-stored is right. It's ridiculous just how many damn choices there are within a mile-long stretch of suburbia. No wonder so many are closing.
Let's use the most insecure protocol ever developed to send potentially personal information into the ether for everyone to grab.
What could possibly go wrong?
Manufacturers, choose the answer most likely to generate profit:
A) Consumers don't give a shit about security or privacy.
B) Consumers don't give a shit about security or privacy.
C) Consumers don't give a shit about security or privacy.
D) Both A and C.
E) All the above.
"The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin..."
2,000 people didn't read anything and just clicked "I Agree".
Yup, there it is, on page 37 of the Investing 101 EULA...the definition of volatility...
Nobody needs an Assault Rifle headset. This is just wrong. The 2nd Amendment never was intended for this purpose...What?...really?...sorry, nevermind, carry on.
Headset development prioritization list:
#1 - Work without needing an iPhone
#2 - Virtual porn
#3 - Better virtual porn
#4 - iPorn
#5 - iPorn with iSteve
#6 - iPornX
Don't worry. The only thing users will likely be assaulting, is themselves.
It doesn't help that since the invention of online reservations, actual reservation fulfillment has dropped - instead of people making one reservation ahead of time and going to that restaurant, they make 10 reservations through OpenTable and then pick one of those and screw the other 9.
What happens when you reserve an Uber or Lyft and you do not show up?
Exactly. It's amazing how well you can curb asshole behavior when fees are involved. Change the OpenTable TOS to hold a credit card and enforce fees for cancellations. Problem solved.
So restaurants have two options - one is to take a credit card and have a "no-show" fee for reserving a table you're not going to occupy (but it costs the restaurant a table and creates a queue outside), or simply not take reservations at all.
And yes, no-shows are a big deal, because they occupy a table that could otherwise be used to serve a walk-in guest. Instead, that guest is now sitting waiting for a table, creating a queue. Yes, there are restaurants who hate queues too - they want guests in and eating and out so t hey can serve the next round - high throughput for high profits.
Part of the reason people don't mind waiting in queues and hanging out paying for overpriced drinks is they are enjoying the experience. The experience is exactly the reason I'll happily take 3+ hours to eat dinner at a restaurant. High-throughput is not my priority when I'm enjoying a meal out somewhere. Making it worthwhile and memorable is.