Support NeoGAF

[deriks]

I'm IT guy, and since I got my first computer, in the wholesome year of 1998, I got into tech in some capacity and tried to learn as much as possible. It was a interesting new world, and every day felt like a new years eve, with a nice party going on and the promise of a better future. Now, everyday feels like I'm climbing the worst mountain ever, and it's raining, and it's getting darker and darker. You don't have much options, only to accept

Streaming is probably the new Titanic
Everyone here got to feel how great Netflix was in like 2015. Cheap, practical, and had what you wanted. Now it has too much shit, and 90% of it you don't want it. More bad news? Warner is about to get sold, so who buys will get their platform more expensive. Oh, is that enough? You can't stream by your phone to the TV anymore, just downloading the app on the TV and logging in. What was new and easy became a chore, and piracy is getting more and more attractive every day that passes

YouTube only for logged ones
My folks got used to have a dumb TV with Chromecast. It was fine, but age has come and the TV died. I bought a new Samsung for them, and for starters was fine. They searched on YouTube only here and there and it was most normal TV. Out of nowhere the Youtube app started to ask to logging, but they didn't have an account. Wasn't really an obligation since it has the option to watch as a random user, but every time one needs to choose this instead of just opening. I find it weird, but they don't even watch that much, so wasn't the worst thing ever.

In my place I have two TCLs, only with my account. Out of nowhere the app started to ask me to sign in every fucking time I turn my TV on. It's just one button away to press, but what the fuck? Why they created a problem when it was working perfectly in recent past?!

Chrome for Android always opens a new tab
I have an Android tablet and a phone, and from time to time if I open Chrome, a new tab is open because of hellish reasons. There's no option to disable this, and guess what? This didn't happen before - it's been a while actually, but not long ago it didn't happen

Things are getting more expensive just because of fuck it
Every year GPU gets bigger and more expensive, but we are not really seeing this in real life, just the spec numbers. RAM manufactures said "fuck you" to every final consumer and just to embrace AI, which is leading to even less final consumers since a lot of jobs got cut - people needs to reinvent since a lot of jobs have bad professionals, but things doesn't look good

Microsoft has a lot of effort of being the worst
Copilot here, there, in your fucking butt. GamePass is cheap? It was, bitch. Windows 11 looks nice? Well, it's more bloated every single day and you can't delete anything. Oh, even your TV is not safe anymore and we are watching you. You don't need friends to have real conversations and introduce to new stuff, we will do it for you on regular basis, and you're going to pay in some way that you won't even feel it

Social events of tech bros died
When it was the iPhone or a huge game launch night, people got excited, there was camping, pizzas, people talking about their journey into the thing... Now it's basically dead. But not only that, but the overall real social thing. You don't have your thing, tell to your friends on the next day how was the experience, and post something of it. You just get your thing by a digital way, and maybe also digitally you tell someone who probably don't really care for it

Maybe I'm getting older and bitter, but things used to be better expected and executed in the technology world. We used to have fun with it, and now it's getting just a tool for us and for the company themselves. We don't feel the next step anymore, if is because of human understanding of technology (how big we will see the difference from the PS5 to PS6?), if is asking too much money for the new shit, or if bureaucracy exclude people from cursing on some live chat. I'm not saying it's about to have a crash or something and the bubble will explode or whatever, but while in the early 2000s the future looked bright and we are high on it, now the future looks dull and not because people lost interesting per se, it's because stupidity led people to get tired

 

[Windle Poons]

It's all about the ability to sell your information to someone else really.

Folks don't want a digital ID card in the UK but will reference themselves, their family, where they live, when they're on holiday all the fucking time on facebook and the like.

 

[Nocty]

the death of websites soon too, since everyone will transition to AI for search and discovery etc. Forums like Gaf I hope can survive but I honestly rarely visit websites for anything now

The AI bots already indexed everything and can tell you what you need to know

 

[AJUMP23]

My wifes new car just sent her this message. Now I have to figure this out.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

A lot of the reason they do this is for data collection. I would be interested in paying out of pocket for otherwise "free" services if it meant they can't collect my data, but I don't know of many options where that's the case.

 

[Trilobit]

My wifes new car just sent her this message. Now I have to figure this out.

Lol you're not allowed to use it?

 

[AJUMP23]

Lol you're not allowed to use it?

It is her daily driver, but I drive when we are together. But I did want to get her a used car and she decided we should get her a new car. Ya I caved.

 

[deriks]

My wifes new car just sent her this message. Now I have to figure this out.

So you're stopped because the OS don't recognize you?

A lot of the reason they do this is for data collection. I would be interested in paying out of pocket for otherwise "free" services if it meant they can't collect my data, but I don't know of many options where that's the case.

I guess VPN do this job in some way, but data collecting is inevitable in some way or another. Still, the main problem is having this before the user experience

Remember when ads are a thing that appeared in the bottom or the sides of the video? It could be there for the whole video, or you could just close it. Now the ad takes the whole screen and pause the video. In websites there's not much rules, so every site could have like one or a bunch of ads, but you could also navigate without much problem. Now it takes the whole screen, and even has a video of it sometimes. Adblock were a thing that helped before but now are a necessity in some cases

 

[Unknown?]

For data collection, use a DNS sinkhole and blacklist those bastards!

 

[AJUMP23]

So you're stopped because the OS don't recognize you?

I guess VPN do this job in some way, but data collecting is inevitable in some way or another. Still, the main problem is having this before the user experience

Remember when ads are a thing that appeared in the bottom or the sides of the video? It could be there for the whole video, or you could just close it. Now the ad takes the whole screen and pause the video. In websites there's not much rules, so every site could have like one or a bunch of ads, but you could also navigate without much problem. Now it takes the whole screen, and even has a video of it sometimes. Adblock were a thing that helped before but now are a necessity in some cases

No you can drive the car the "INFOTAINMENT" system just wants USER profiles.....And a subscription

 

[StueyDuck]

Westcoast tech bros and globalization absolutely fucked the industry in general and have done so for quite a long time...

 

[Dirk Benedict]

the death of websites soon too, since everyone will transition to AI for search and discovery etc. Forums like Gaf I hope can survive but I honestly rarely visit websites for anything now

The AI bots already indexed everything and can tell you what you need to know

This and I also believe there is a quiet fight to be on the desktop, now.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Folks don't want a digital ID card in the UK but will reference themselves, their family, where they live, when they're on holiday all the fucking time on facebook and the like.

That't not a sound argument for dystopian government overreach. One is voluntary.

 

[Melon Husk]

That's because unlike in the 90s, rather than selling a quality product to the middle class it's aimed at extracting money from the poor.

 

[Hypereides]

Big tech has definitely begun to abuse their presence and positioning on the global scale. Its been an event progressively in the making. Newer tech advancements are seemingly looking more nefarious and intrusive rather than actually beneficial to the public.

We really opened a Pandora's box with the internet that derailed into a malign direction for the general population. Let's not forget how Google's slogan went from "Don't be evil" to the ambiguous "Do the right thing".

A lot of the reason they do this is for data collection. I would be interested in paying out of pocket for otherwise "free" services if it meant they can't collect my data, but I don't know of many options where that's the case.

There's a good bunch of alternative options out there. Its just that you have to dig through much redundant and polluted information to find your way to them if you use a mainstream sanitised and corporatized ad-supported search engine.

 

[Windle Poons]

That't not a sound argument for dystopian government overreach. One is voluntary.

A daft comparison on my behalf I admit.

I think what I was trying to say was they've already got all the information on you anyway.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

My wifes new car just sent her this message. Now I have to figure this out.

So fun. Love new cars locking you out of shit because everyone wants a recurring revenue stream.

 

[DeepEnigma]

A daft comparison on my behalf I admit.

I think what I was trying to say was they've already got all the information on you anyway.

It's all seen through a prism, you see.

 

[YCoCg]

We're essentially heading towards a cyberpunk dystopia without any of the cool stuff.

 

[Ovek]

Tech is just so boring now. Apple who were the premium product launchers just now release the same products every year with minute changes usually for the worse, especially the software.

And everything from Cars to fucking stupid smart fridges are riddled with software bugs and a severe lack of adequate QA testing.

I work in IT and it's no better "behind the curtain" so to speak, especially the drive to push everything to the fucking cloud and the number one offender... you guessed it Microshite and fucking Azure.

Basically everything is shite and it's only getting worse.

 

[EverydayBeast]

We can't cling to the past, ability to watch TV whenever you want, VR is young, don't forget about advancements in the medical industries (AI & Machine Learning for diagnostics (like faster cancer detection), Genomic Medicine (CRISPR, mRNA), Robotics (surgical assistants, nanobots), Telemedicine, 3D Printing (implants, tissue), and Wearable Sensors)

OP:

 

[nkarafo]

They want to be able to control everything. Your car, your TV, your phone, your fridge, etc. The more control they have, the more money they can extract from you to let you use "your" stuff.

At first they sold you "convenience". Having all the movies and songs in the cloud, ready available without maintaining your own local collections or having to buy your own CDs and Blurays was very convenient, was it?

But now convenience isn't even a selling point anymore. A car with a touch screen or a fridge that needs the cloud to work are the antithesis of convenience. Turns out normies are so stupid, they don't even have to sell them something beneficial to them in order to convince them anymore. They just accept whatever.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Sports betting sites automatically log you out after a certain time. They even say they do this to reduce risk of gambling and legal issues which I guess the gov forces them to log you out of your profile.

So it's a pain to track your bets all night as you surf the net because you got to keep logging in every maybe half an hour. I dont even think it's based on inactivity since I'll purposely click around here and there to keep it active, but it'll still log you out since it's based on total time per session.

 

[Dacvak]

They can sell my data all they want, I'm not that interesting.

Just make the products and services cheaper!

 

[Dirk Benedict]

We can't cling to the past, ability to watch TV whenever you want, VR is young, don't forget about advancements in the medical industries (AI & Machine Learning for diagnostics (like faster cancer detection), Genomic Medicine (CRISPR, mRNA), Robotics (surgical assistants, nanobots), Telemedicine, 3D Printing (implants, tissue), and Wearable Sensors)

OP:

Okay. I wanna know who did this to our Bo-ChatGPT Bot and downgraded to ShiteGPT?

 

[Mistake]

Here's a good video why windows is going to hell. Tldr, corporations are moving to subscription models because it's more lucrative. Businesses care more about shareholders than the average joe, so if you want to actually improve society, consume less slop and support the small guy. This problem isn't exclusive to tech

 

[StreetsofBeige]

They can sell my data all they want, I'm not that interesting.

Just make the products and services cheaper!

LOL. I'm the same.

Cheapos like us arent even worth the hassle marketing to since the profit margins they make off us are barebones. Even hackers and scammers will waste their time. I always have 2A on and never save my credit card information on any online account. I hand type it for every purchase which is like 5 online orders per year max. There's been years I ordered nothing online. lol

 

[SupaComputa]

I work in software and I pretty much hate software at this point. Everything is made to be annoying as possible, we're at the point where we're less efficient and secure than if we were to go back to paper. Everything is cookie cutter, there's nothing fun with tech anymore.
The industry is almost entirely swindling, it's a shameful profession that I regret partaking in.

 

[ZehDon]

It's called enshittification. Most of these things have reached the value extraction phase of this process, so their job is to now pressure you to give up as much money, data, time, and convenience as possible. And people do it all in the hopes of getting back what the services originally were.

The best example are search engines. Search engines are basically a solved problem, and worked pretty dang well even five years ago. So, why are they all getting worse now? Because they de-prioritise getting you the best results. They know exactly what you're after, but work to hide it, because then you'll leave. The more searches you have to do, the more chances they have to stick paid sponsored links in your face, or trick you onto other pages that give them kick backs. They deliberately made search objectively worse to extract more value from you.

This now applies to everything in the tech sector. The companies got too big too quickly, so now they have to destroy their own products in order to keep posting more profits for their shareholders. And because every tech company copies every other tech company, they don't have to worry about you leaving. What are you going to do, go to a competitor... who does exactly the same thing they do?

 

[kevboard]

My wifes new car just sent her this message. Now I have to figure this out.

with cars this whole bullshit is not only annoying, but also potentially dangerous.

cars that lock you from starting the car while it automatically starts an update,
normal functions relying on touch inputs,
software bugs,
electronically opening and closing doors with hidden manual mechanisms...

cars are ripe for stricter regulation imo. there needs to be a ban on touchscreen use while driving above, say, 10km/h. using phones while driving was banned REAL DAMN FAST, but somehow using a screen in the center of your car, that forces you to look away from the street, is ok? I'd argue being on the phone while driving is far saver than using a touch screen.

 

[Hypereides]

They can sell my data all they want, I'm not that interesting.

Just make the products and services cheaper!

LOL. I'm the same.

Cheapos like us arent even worth the hassle marketing to since the profit margins they make off us are barebones. Even hackers and scammers will waste their time. I always have 2A on and never save my credit card information on any online account. I hand type it for every purchase which is like 5 online orders per year max. There's been years I ordered nothing online. lol

I'm sure all the data brokers out there are thrilled to read testimonies like this.

This isn't something like "I got nothing to hide", its more in a vein where that data is used against you. It boggles my mind how little some people think their private habits, personal choices and life is worth. There's an entire billion dollar industry built on amassing and reading folks' data. Much can be learned from it.

Its one of the reasons they're knowingly pushing prices up since they've come to the realization that most people likely won't resist much and roll over.