Anyone else disillusioned with technology / turning into a luddite?

[biostud]

If you like very crisp but relatively "inexpensive" sound, check out NHT. I think it stands for Now Hear This.

If you look at my sig, then I have a ok setup, and the primary problem is time and that I have three small kids and a wife that I currently cannot entertain with my taste in music.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

First web bank account was back in the mid 90s. I don't remember the bank, but it was local to where I lived then. They sent out 3.5" Diskettes to install the program. I dialed in on a 14.4 PCMIA modem card installed in a notebook that I think had a whopping single digit MB of RAM as I recall.

 

[Muse]

It's one reason I really like golf. Yes, I have my GPS and laser rangefinder with me when I play but if they don't work for some reason, my game is still there and I'm pretty darn good at guesstimating my distance to the green and flag. Golf itself is totally analog.

 

[Muse]

I don't think that qualifies you as a Luddite.

Personally, the main reasons I used to build my own were . . . well, that's a bit of a long story. Let's just say that the only things I really need to add to a prebuilt now are maybe an NVMe and video.

My first computer was built with parts by an EE (I subsequently built a few systems myself, mid-towers). I bought it used from him, a proprietary local bus desktop system (Vesa Local Bus hadn't been approved yet), in IIRC 1993, it ran Windows 3.1. He'd put a listing in a local newspaper which caught my eye. He made his living doing Autocad on probably small architectural designs. Reason he sold it to me was he'd decided (with his wife's input, I think) that he could get along OK with a laptop. So, even then, the writing was certainly on the wall that building PC's isn't necessary for some folks, even those who make a living using them at home.

 

[Muse]

I wish they would stop changing things for the sake of change and maintain what works. I still use Win7 on a 10+ year old laptop. It works (for me).

But there's no money in that for them, is there?

I probably would have been happy to stick with Windows 7 on one of my laptops (2006 Lenovo T60) but it was plagued by crashes that I could not figure out how to stop. One day I encountered someone online who had the identical problem I had and the exact same hardware who said that doing the free upgrade to Win10 solved the issue. So, of course, I upgraded and the problem did disappear. I still use the machine from time to time. I did so today, in fact. It's running 32 bit Windows 10. I needed to use it today to use a 16 bit app, PageMaker 6.5.

 

[nakedfrog]

I probably would have been happy to stick with Windows 7 on one of my laptops (2006 Lenovo T60) but it was plagued by crashes that I could not figure out how to stop. One day I encountered someone online who had the identical problem I had and the exact same hardware who said that doing the free upgrade to Win10 solved the issue. So, of course, I upgraded and the problem did disappear. I still use the machine from time to time. I did so today, in fact. It's running 32 bit Windows 10. I needed to use it today to use a 16 bit app, PageMaker 6.5.

Win7 remains the best edition of Windows. The UI in Win11 is stupid shite. Win10 is at least "okay".

 

[Ken g6]

The main reason I'm looking at one more build is so I can do AI locally, without running it on somebody else's computer.

I tried compressing video to AV1 instead of the h.264 I've been doing, and I was surprised that (1) it only takes about three times as long, for smaller files, and (2) I can actually play it back with few/no glitches on my current 6-year-old processor.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The challenge of building computers is... spent. Now it's what you do with them that matters.

 

[Saylick]

I wouldn't say disillusioned, but at least when it comes to PC building for myself, the enthusiasm I once had is pretty much gone. Where I am in life, I find other hobbies more enjoyable and fulfilling than gaming, so my desire to buy and build my own PC is super low. PC hardware is also kind of boring, especially on the GPU side. I am not particularly crazy about any of the games coming out, nor do I drink the Nvidia DLSS fake frames Kool-Aid, so there's really no killer app for me to run. If anything, I am more interested on the CPU side since we could always use faster servers at work.

With that said, the PC building spark came back briefly last year, however, when my brothers told me their current PCs didn't cut it anymore, so I did what any good brother does and gifted them both new gaming PCs for Xmas. I had all of the fun of building a new PC without any of the potential buyer's remorse!

 

[mikeymikec]

The challenge of building computers is... spent. Now it's what you do with them that matters.

When was building computers a big challenge? One of the first IT places I worked at (1998), one of the techs plonked a load of hardware in front of me and said, "build that". Going from AT to ATX was weird and I didn't like it much. <cue Mr Incredible saying that Math is Math and Who Changed It?>

 

[Ken g6]

When was building computers a big challenge? One of the first IT places I worked at (1998), one of the techs plonked a load of hardware in front of me and said, "build that". Going from AT to ATX was weird and I didn't like it much. <cue Mr Incredible saying that Math is Math and Who Changed It?>

Picking the right parts and overclocking them could be a challenge. There were tricks to getting the best deal, like getting a low-medium-end Xeon and plugging it into a consumer board. Optimized hardware, now that the chipmakers can't afford to build in slack for a free next generation, has taken some of the fun out of it. Prices going up every year on the latest stuff, instead of going down or at least staying steady, don't help either.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

When was building computers a big challenge? One of the first IT places I worked at (1998), one of the techs plonked a load of hardware in front of me and said, "build that". Going from AT to ATX was weird and I didn't like it much. <cue Mr Incredible saying that Math is Math and Who Changed It?>

You skipped the dip switch/irq configuration era. The age of ram expansion boards, 3dfx daughter cards, config.sys and autoexec.bat modifications specific to that system, sometimes specific to the program you're trying to run.

 

[lxskllr]

Technology bores me. Computers do what I want, and cell phones are too locked down to be fun. AI is pretty interesting, but I doubt I'll see what I want before I'm dead. I want the models controlled by me, and I'd like to vocally collaborate with my computer like Star Trek to try different options, building models and simulations to estimate the likely outcome of the solutions created.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Technology bores me. Computers do what I want, and cell phones are too locked down to be fun. AI is pretty interesting, but I doubt I'll see what I want before I'm dead. I want the models controlled by me, and I'd like to vocally collaborate with my computer like Star Trek to try different options, building models and simulations to estimate the likely outcome of the solutions created.

While not as fancy as actual Star Trek/Tony Stark, you can actually have technical conversations with chatgpt4 now that will feel very 'computer, extrapolate'. Just depends on the context and how you deliver information.

 

[Zeze]

I hated troubleshooting PCs and building PCs back in my days. Once your PC was down, then you were completely without internet. No smartphone, no second computer. Then you make trips to a friend's house or that local sweaty PC shop.

 

[Ajay]

Picking the right parts and overclocking them could be a challenge. There were tricks to getting the best deal, like getting a low-medium-end Xeon and plugging it into a consumer board. Optimized hardware, now that the chipmakers can't afford to build in slack for a free next generation, has taken some of the fun out of it. Prices going up every year on the latest stuff, instead of going down or at least staying steady, don't help either.

Fair enough, but that has always been the most fun part (well, aside from the games I played afterwards). After building a number of computers, it became pretty easy (with occasional less appreciated surprises). I did have a horror show upgrade recently - I'm much less tolerant of that than I was 20 years ago.

Also, like @mikeymikec , I did allot of break/fix and system builds (white box) in my first job as an IT tech. The plentiful supply of screws, cables, spare parts, tools, good lighting and large tables made working in that environment a real pleasure compared to my less than ideal build area at home.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I absolutely do NOT want to talk to my gizmos and gadgets. I'd prefer that be fully outlawed, but I also recognize that the handicapped might really need it.

I used to put tape over the microphones in devices, but now half the time I can't figure out where they are.

I just can't imagine a house where I talk to stuff. Hella creepy to me. I remember a kids show a couple of decades back that showed that kind of system. Don't remember the name of the show, a guy and his kinds lived in a talking house.

 

[lxskllr]

I absolutely do NOT want to talk to my gizmos and gadgets. I'd prefer that be fully outlawed, but I also recognize that the handicapped might really need it.

I used to put tape over the microphones in devices, but now half the time I can't figure out where they are.

I just can't imagine a house where I talk to stuff. Hella creepy to me. I remember a kids show a couple of decades back that showed that kind of system. Don't remember the name of the show, a guy and his kinds lived in a talking house.

That's because the current model is for companies completely datamining your ass. That's why I specified ai models I control. Some "smart" home stuff is kind of interesting, but data leaving my house is a non starter. I could actually do local smart home stuff, but I'm not interested enough to put in the work.

 

[Ajay]

That's because the current model is for companies completely datamining your ass. That's why I specified ai models I control. Some "smart" home stuff is kind of interesting, but data leaving my house is a non starter. I could actually do local smart home stuff, but I'm not interested enough to put in the work.

I just installed a new router to be able to handle 1Gbps fiber internet (old one could only hit 700Mbps max). It wanted me to connect to social media account for addition 'features'. Gah! No!

 

[MrSquished]

I disabled all the mics and always listening for my voice on my Sonos speakers and my tablet, but I do keep it on my phone. I use it mostly when driving, composing texts and emails on the go, and a lot when I cook. While I cook I can tell my phone to add things to my grocery list as I use them and know I need more, plus I use it to set timers while I'm cooking - my hands are either occupied or dirty so it works out perfect.

 

[nakedfrog]

I absolutely do NOT want to talk to my gizmos and gadgets. I'd prefer that be fully outlawed, but I also recognize that the handicapped might really need it.

I used to put tape over the microphones in devices, but now half the time I can't figure out where they are.

I just can't imagine a house where I talk to stuff. Hella creepy to me. I remember a kids show a couple of decades back that showed that kind of system. Don't remember the name of the show, a guy and his kinds lived in a talking house.

I've never seen any appeal in talking to my devices either.
You might be thinking of the movie "Smart House".