Dislike of Technology

I think we made the big mistake when we came down from the trees.

This is my jar opener

Nothing would induce me to use a mouse again. Or a trackpad. I love my iPad where I use just my fingers.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

So... last year I had to get HD cable boxes for my parents' TV.

Before that.... they could pop a VHS tape or DVD into the combo VCR / DVD player I got them and it would just run automatically.

But now, due to technological "advancement," that is no longer possible as HD cable boxes cannot be run through a VCR / DVD player. In layman's terms, they can't be all on the same circuit (not technologically accurate, but you get my drift.)

So now... to watch a DVD, my mom (who's 86) has to turn the TV on with the usual cable box remote which acts as their universal remote.

Then she must FIND the remote for the TV (which they never used because I had programmed everything to operate with the cable remote).

Then she has to find this tiny button called "source" or "input" (I can't even remember which!) and bring up a menu.

Then, out of a list of several acronyms, she has to designate the source to run the DVD player - which is "TV." She has to change the source from HDMI1 (which is what the TV uses for TV) and select "TV" - to NOT watch TV, but to watch a DVD. (Try explaining all this to an 86 year old!)

Then she must find the VCR / DVD remote control and hit the "TV/DVD" button - which used to conveniently switch between TV viewing and whatever was in the DVD player - but now, since the "source" is altered, it switches from static to the DVD (but you have to select the DVD first), then you have to push another button just called "DVD" (to designate you're not playing a VHS) and then hit play.

And THEN I have to try to explain how SOME DVD's now have previews you can't fast forward through and some don't - another wonderful technological "breakthrough"!

Oh, almost forgot... if my mom wants to go back to watch TV again after a DVD, she has to reverse the whole process and change the source from "TV" to "HDMI1" (not to be confused with HDMI2) rather than just hitting that formerly-convenient "TV / DVD" button, or by simply turning off the DVD player - if she does that now, she just gets static.


Then MY cable company told me I must upgrade to an HD cable box - they sent it to me - I never hooked it up because I don't want to go through the same thing! I like to just pop a DVD in the player and have it play without having to find 3 different remote controls first.

This is just an update from the last post - this is more frustration for technology that may be broken than general dislike of technology.

I tried to play a DVD for my mom tonight. (I got her 3 Christopher Guest movies for her birthday - A Mighty Wind, Best In Show, and Waiting for Guffman!) For more info, check this thread out:
https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ad.php?t=42094

After going through all the steps outlined in the last post, the DVD player just kept shutting off completely before it would start playing. The weird thing is I discovered that if I put a VHS tape in the VCR side of this combo player, it's power would stay on! Then I thought I found the problem when I went to the player's menu and de-selected "auto shut off" - but that did nothing to fix the problem. So I just left a VHS copy of Babe in the player and that's where it will have to stay if the thing is to function at all.

Just a weird problem - never experienced anything like it before.

Another thing is the sound on the DVD was almost inaudible even with the volume turned to its maximum. (Any clues?) A while back I thought the TV itself had a volume problem as my parents could never hear it, but once I hooked the new HD cable box up to it, the volume is fine (so it's not the TV), but now we're back to the same volume problem with the DVD player (while strangely, the volume seems much better on the VHS tape)???



Meanwhile, the "ABS" light came on in my car again (after just having brake work done last year). What did people do before cars had all these sensors that would alert you to take the vehicle to a mechanic where they charge you $150.00 to hook it up to a computer for a "diagnostic" only so they can then inform you they don't know what the problem is and you better take it to someone to have it looked at?

My combo player is the same, my dvds either stop playing or freeze, i've even had an electric shock off it😳the vhs side though is fine, i'm gonna get a new player!

Just wondering how multiple frequencies work in the common home:

Today a lot of people have multiple laptops or tablets operating off wi-fi that's sending a radio signal, cell phones, cordless phones operating via radio waves, home security systems that send & receive signals (I'm assuming through wi-fi?), cordless intercoms & monitors, remotes for almost every electronic device, garage door openers, etc. (My dad even had a bedside monitor for his pace-maker / defibrillator that scanned the device within his chest remotely and then used a phone line to transmit the device's info to the doctor's office.)

Has anyone ever experienced any type of interference between all these different signals?

I'm asking because once I got this set of radio earphones to use with the TV - this was when I lived in an apartment. I thought the earphones would be the answer to being disturbed by my neighbor's noise and my being able to listen to the TV (or the music channels) any time of day or night without having to worry about disturbing my neighbors. The next day after the first time using the earphones my neighbors called and asked if I was using some sort of device!

They said they picked up TV & music sounds on their baby monitor. After confirming the cross interference, it was yet another piece of technology that went from being a solution to being a problem - I was never allowed to use them again because the signal was picked up on the neighbor's baby monitor.

Then there were the old stories of people changing their neighbors TV channels with their remotes if their dwellings were close enough.

This is just irony - the photo of the jar opener I posted back on page 1 disappeared and is now just replaced with a big question mark.
Ah the Internet! (Don't bother looking, I'm going to find another and replace it - it's just the irony of it all!)

P.S. Was listening to a radio show the other day and they were talking about how the U.S. will soon need to retrofit all the country's fighter jets & bombers in the air force so that planes can operate without reliance on computers since any systems will ultimately be able to be hacked & controlled by enemy forces! It just cracks me up - in order to protect ourselves with technology, we're going to have to eliminate technology from our weapons & defensive systems.

My 20v lithium ion drill/driver fully recharges in 20 minutes.

But I hear ya.

I feel lazy, I want to operate it with my brain waves.

Not sure if that's 100% accurate, maybe they need to fix a security hole. Generally speaking fighter jets are slowly being replaced by remote controlled drones, which means more tech, not less. But I hear you, technology does give humans a lot of power and leverage, that can be used in extremely destructive ways.

I hate horseshoes and steel blades. Life used to be so much simpler.

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Letterboxd

??? I don't get it, Sean.

There is now an answer to Computer Viruses...

Question about CD's & DVD's - do these just somehow "go bad"?
Do they have a shelf life (unlike record albums which, if well cared for, seem to last indefinitely)?

I've had the experience where some CD's & DVD's just stop working. They weren't scratched or damaged, they just mysteriously stop working from a point when they did work, to being carefully put in a case, then say a couple years later, tried again and are suddenly non-functional.

Now, with an LP, you could usually find a scratch which would make it skip, but with discs that stop working, there is often no visual indicator on them - they look exactly the same as working discs. Another phenomenon is that discs will stop working in one player but will work fine in another - what is this about?

I have one DVD that suddenly stopped playing halfway through on a good, name brand player that has no problems with other DVD's. Yet this same DVD will play through on a computer DVD player. I have other DVD's that just stop at one point on all players, but were never damaged in any way.

Also, I have a friend who burns his own Christmas CD's and mails them out as gifts. But I find, after a few years, a lot of the CD's stop playing well or get hung up at certain points - and again, they may play fine on some players but not on others. Does this have something to do with them being homemade burns?

I still have CDs from 2001.. And DVDs.

Oh, so do I... and many from much earlier.
I'm just wondering why some seem to "go bad."
Does this happen to other people?

I never had a record LP "go bad" by sitting in it's sleeve - 20 years later I can put it on a turntable and it will play as it always did provided it was never mishandled.

I read somewhere that they can "go bad", they are not really good to store data long term. The most reliable is still paper or stone, lasts 2k+ years, if stored properly

It's best to back up digital info/pics on at least several different sources. Never put all of your digital eggs into one basket.

If a CD is playing, and if there's a lot of movement, you'll get scratches, and eventually they won't play.... I'm sure the laser reader plays a part, too.

I have my dads collection of LPs, all in their original sleeves, all in good condition, yet the dvds look like new but most of them don't work, very strange!