Technology can easily run amuck

carl

carl

True Classic
I bought a new flat screen and it was a Roku brand and a smart TV. It has been nothing but a royal pain in the ass for a low tech person like me. The controls are very non intuitive and make no sense to a normal person. It changes settings on you. I actually had to set up an external Roku so I could stream channels at my level of tech. The something activated a voice that told you what volume setting you were at, the program name, the hour it was on etc. My son is coming over tomorrow to figure out how to delete the voice....he has had to do it once before. Pretty soon I'm going to give him the TV and go buy yet another non smart non Roku TV.


Yea, I'm venting.
 
I hear you. Many things have evolved backward as he result of trying to add more technology to them. My current example is my cell phone. I've had excellent performance with the same phone and carrier for several years. Until a couple of weeks ago when the carrier "upgraded" their service and my phone stopped working. Every attempt by me, the customer service department and two local stores have not been able to resolve the issue. They just keep saying I need to buy a new phone. There are some applications where the added technology has improved them, but many that don't. And the frustrating part is in many cases you really don't have any control of the changes, it is forced onto you.
 
I don't mind all manner of fabulous options on electronic devices...IF YOU ELECT FOR THOSE OPTIONS. What I can't accept is the device making those choices for you. My GTI has a lot of interesting options that I have no interest in like lap timer, launch control etc but the car never ever activates those features without me instructing the car to do so.
 
My daughter gave me her Roku smart TV when she moved. The smart TV features work fine but I found that it was a bit too slow to replace my Comcast cable box. It was about 6 years old, similar to my separate Roku box which was also a bit slow. I recently picked up a new Amazon Fire Stick during a half price sale (~$25). They claim that it has a really fast processor (also does 4K and HDR). I decided to give it a try as I'm getting a bit tired of shelling out $10/mo. for cable boxes. I got it all hooked up and it works great. It is actually faster than using the cable boxes. Menu selection and stream loading are almost instantaneous. I'll definitely get rid of the cable boxes on the TVs that only I use. I'm sure it will take some time for my wife to get with the program as she is not big on change.
 
dllubin said:
I'm getting a bit tired of shelling out $10/mo. for cable boxes.
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That must be a typo. My 99 year old mom spends a lot of time watching TV and she doesn't "stream". So we have a cable box on each of the two TV's she uses. Pretty much just the basic service without any of the specialty options....$250/month!
 
Dr.Jeff said:
That must be a typo. My 99 year old mom spends a lot of time watching TV and she doesn't "stream". So we have a cable box on each of the two TV's she uses. Pretty much just the basic service without any of the specialty options....$250/month!
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I'm just talking about the boxes. The access to the programming and internet gets it up into your mom's price range.
 
Wonderful how all new appliances and your house thermostat can be controlled by your phone ap. Wish I could control my shop pup with a phone ap.

So we figured out how to turn off the sound which told us the volume level but that had no effect on the voice announcement of what channel number, the program name and it's time. That may actually be accessed through our FIOS remote since it doesn't do that on the streaming channels. Wife has a habit of hitting buttons on the remote that do all manner of odd things. Son is coming over today to try deleting. Backup up plan is to hit it with my BFH in the garage and bring up the TV in the basement.

I had to take the electronic ignition off my spider because the HAL9000 was messing it up....."I'm sorry carl, I can't let you rev over 4,000rpm".
 
I work in Technology so can understand your issues. Often when a technology like Roku is intergrade into a another manufacture device the quality of that experience will be heavily depended on how well it was done by the manufacture. The only way you will know this pre-sales is research, look up sites like Tom's hardware guide, CR, ect... Also look into Reddit groups about the matter at hand, these are users like us for the X, they have done it and will tell you what works and what does not. They may not be as nice as this board but will help.

For my self I do not like to integrate some technologies, I have 4 TV in the house all with their own attached Roku devices which I stream everything through including hard drive based movies . Good Luck!
 
I bought a 55" TCL Roku TV a few years ago. The interface is clunky and I just learned to deal with it.

Now if you really want some high tech action, get a Tablo dvr. It's basically a VCR with an HD antenna that connects to your home network. You can watch over the air TV on any device attached, PC, phone, tablet, etc. And yes, there is a learning curve.
 
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I think on a lot of this stuff the people who design it are probably very much into whatever the tech is and do not test it out on "real" people to see if it makes any sense to 80% of the people who are going to use it. That seems fairly clear to the functionality of the Roku TV and it's remote. Moving it all over to my FIOS universal remote and external Roku make the TV at least usable.
 
Just don't load the ap on your phone, like we do with our house thermostat which can talk to my phone if I loaded the ap.
We get a new slide in oven this week, can't wait to see how overly complicated it will be.
 
carl said:
Just don't load the ap on your phone, like we do with our house thermostat which can talk to my phone if I loaded the ap.
We get a new slide in oven this week, can't wait to see how overly complicated it will be.
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My Maytag washing machine died and I called the serviceman thinking it might be a broken belt. He took off the back cover and said there is no belt and the reason the tub does not spin is because the plastic gears in the gearbox are sheared. I asked if there is a brass gear upgrade for that?
No.
I asked, what is available in something that is made to last and does not have cheap plastic gears. He said there is one, but it is noisy--SPEED QUEEN. Just like in the laundromat. But without the coinbox on top. It is still going (not quietly) 15 years later.

As for cars, what the USA needs now is a FIAT 128 that meets 1974 US safety and 1985 CA smog requlations. I am thinking 2000 pounds, 110 hp, no ABS, no stability control and no airbags. It can have a 74 spec seat belt interlock to get around the passive safety regulation.
 
Tech.... watch this Mazak Integrex (60hp on the main spindle, 20hp on the moving spindle, Japan) move metal..

Tech works when properly applied, Tech goes wonky when mis-applied.. Mis-applied tech is often the result of marketing-management, biased and Meh designed studies or engineering folks disconnected with reality and actual needs of any given design.

Bernice
 
johnph said:
My Maytag washing machine died and I called the serviceman thinking it might be a broken belt. He took off the back cover and said there is no belt and the reason the tub does not spin is because the plastic gears in the gearbox are sheared.
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Apology to everyone else for going so far off topic here.

John, Maytag washers (and all of the clones with other brand names on them) made for many years (decades?) had a classic failure that you perfectly described. And it is a easy and cheap fix.

The drive motor is on the bottom of the tub/transmission with a "coupler" - a pair of plastic "cogs" and a rubber cushion - connecting the two. The rubber helps to absorb shocks, while those plastic cogs were designed to be the failure point in the event of a catastrophic failure. However with age they become brittle and break for no reason. The aftermarket has designed an improved version with a metal sleeve inserted into the center of each cog. The parts run less than $10. To install them you need to remove the motor from the bottom of the machine, pry off the two cogs (one on the motor shaft and one on the transmission unit above the motor / under the tub) and push the new ones on. That's it. Your machine will work perfectly for another 20 years.

Here's the parts:


Likely thousands of washers have been discarded due to this. You can find lots of used units at the used appliance stores with a new coupler installed. And a lot of repair men will try to upsell you on a more expensive repair, while only replacing this cheap part. Message me for additional details.
 
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