Re:Remember when you could reboot your computer without rebo...
by ryandrake on Tuesday November 24, 2020 @10:35PM
(#25205785)
THANK YOU, brother!
I really hate this (not so recent) concept of having to ask my computer “pretty please, with sugar on top, do this thing.” When I command my computer to do something I expect it to do that thing immediately. Not ask me if I’m sure, not do it later when it’s not too busy, not do something else because AI. Do it right now! Even the wording has changed. We used to command our computers, now we issue requests. And maybe if the computer feels like it, it will actually listen to the user.
On PCs it all started with the “shutdown” button. Used to be, when you wanted to turn your computer off, you flipped the mechanical switch and it’s off. Now we have all these buffers to flush and caches to sync, and inscrutable background tasks doing god knows what that you have to wait for. So now instead of the switch you need to ask very nicely: “Please oh wise computer, do this thing that was instant and reliable before!”
I really hate this (not so recent) concept of having to ask my computer “pretty please, with sugar on top, do this thing.” When I command my computer to do something I expect it to do that thing immediately. Not ask me if I’m sure, not do it later when it’s not too busy, not do something else because AI. Do it right now! Even the wording has changed. We used to command our computers, now we issue requests. And maybe if the computer feels like it, it will actually listen to the user.
On PCs it all started with the “shutdown” button. Used to be, when you wanted to turn your computer off, you flipped the mechanical switch and it’s off. Now we have all these buffers to flush and caches to sync, and inscrutable background tasks doing god knows what that you have to wait for. So now instead of the switch you need to ask very nicely: “Please oh wise computer, do this thing that was instant and reliable before!”