News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by cookie_monsta on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @05:40PM (#29801819)
I have a slightly ageing model (my co-developer is adamant there will be no upgrades, please do not suggest) and my problem is that it appears to have defaulted to ICT time (we are at GMT +11). I hear it performing operations well into the early morning, but booting from a cold start any earlier than 9am leads to all sorts of unexpected behaviour and system errors.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by tkgally on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:40PM (#29804337)
It sounds as though many of the commenters here are still trying to deal with the first-generation Small Child. My sympathies to all of you. A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to acquire a next-generation model, rebranded as Small Grandchild, and the UX is much superior. All of the troubleshooting and command-line interactions are handled by the Grown Child, who herself now has a reasonably good interface. For me, the UX of Small Grandchild is purely hug and play.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by rsyring on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @11:04PM (#29804989)
> purely hug and play

That was fantastic...thank you. :)

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by disillusioned on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:53AM (#29805990)
Literally perfect.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by omegant on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @06:46AM (#29807851)
You could say that Grown Child is now Turing complete.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by saargrin on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @03:55AM (#29806699)
ah finally moving away from monolith to microservices and handing over all those tasks off to someone

SmallChildAsAService 2.0

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by Sevaris on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:32AM (#29809400)
I'm disturbed by the complete lack of any sort of ChildFactory in the comments.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by skaaptjop on Thursday January 13, 2022 @07:19AM (#29919951)
Or indeed the Build Process. That's usually the most engaging part for me.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by ragebol on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:55AM (#29805997)
Ah, so the troublesome interface is abstracted away by an further developed version of the roughly same thing. Interesting
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by joejerryronnie on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:46AM (#29805943)
Well played sir, well played.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by napier on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @06:18AM (#29807663)
Absolutely brilliantly put.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by simonh on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @07:50PM (#29803336)
It’s probably running a process that’s connecting to internet services such as mine craft or league of legends out of working hours. I’ve found that disabling internet connectivity at the WiFi router from 12:00 midnight until the morning can be effective to prevent wasteful background processing over night.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by jasonhansel on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:06PM (#29804032)
Disconnecting Wi-Fi is not recommended, since it may prevent access to firmware updates that improve overall friendliness.

The real problem may be in your educational system, whose operating hours may be incompatible with the standard, pre-set clock phase that most models naturally acquire at that age.

I suggest contacting your local school board to continue troubleshooting.

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by killjoywashere on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @10:14PM (#29804593)
^Hmmm ... it appears Grown Child without Small Child has entered the chat.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by indymike on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:07AM (#29805738)
I must have an advanced self directed learning model. I cut off the local wifi and they just paired with the neighbors wifi.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by eru on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @11:24PM (#29805100)
Eh, disabling the wifi after midnight seems perfectly reasonable; even if everything else you are suggesting is true.

Now, disabling the wifi after 4pm or completely, that would be a different question.

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by 908B64B197 on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:54PM (#29813272)
Alternate take: some private third party school boards use a different scheduling algorithm and manage to bypass that issue. Plus you get an API key that gives you better support.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by howdydoo on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:24PM (#29804199)
Turning off wi-fi isn't enough. Like many Samsung smart TVs, a Small Child will cycle through all access points in range if its configured network doesn't have internet connectivity.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by LadyCailin on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:27PM (#29804218)
My model keeps downloading things for offline and even electricity free use. It’s a serious problem, I’m not sure how to patch it.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by eru on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @11:25PM (#29805108)
Run down your model's battery during the day? Tire them out enough to make them want to sleep?
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by KSteffensen on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @03:54AM (#29806686)
For all of its UX problems, I must say I am very impressed with Small Childs battery life. The low power shutdown does tend to be very noisy though.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by nucleardog on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @10:43AM (#29810347)
Yeah the low battery warning is extremely obnoxious and not dismissable at all. I don't know who thought this was a good decision!

What's even more crazy is that often when I attempt to silence the low battery warning by placing the Small Child in the charger, it often refuses to begin charging until the battery has been entirely depleted, so along with not being dismissable, even attempting to charge the Small Child does not stop the low battery warning consistently! I believe this is likely a bug, but I haven't yet been able to consistently replicate it to file a bug report despite experimenting with various charging and usage schedules.

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by bryanrasmussen on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @06:37AM (#29807787)
Mine evidently felt in need of a recharge last night and used its optional fuel intake valve to ingest some of my espresso, finding it not 100% compatible with its system it ejected the espresso and made an error sound, after which it walked around the room, came back and went for the espresso again. Prevented second time by manual intervention.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by albrewer on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @10:37AM (#29810273)
I've found that, while the smaller model's battery life seems boundless, what really drives the appearance is their remarkable ability to recharge quickly. I can wipe out the battery of both of of the smaller models I'm currently in charge of and within 2 hours they have resumed normal levels of activity.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by ngcc_hk on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @08:01PM (#29803435)
Not sure the skynet junior will not take over if you try to unplug. Want some sleep my dear!!
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by msgilligan on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:58PM (#29804460)
You need to make a Use Case Diagram and further analyze the system. If you do this and properly understand the system, you will realize that you are the product and your UX is perfectly designed for the child who is the actual user in this system.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by msgilligan on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @10:14PM (#29804590)
This also reminds me of the old joke:

> Q: How do your parents know exactly how to push your buttons?

> A: They installed them.

But the truth is evolution installed the buttons in parents as well as installed instincts in the children enabling them to push those buttons whenever they need.

Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by buu700 on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @05:59PM (#29802088)
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by hluska on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @06:05PM (#29802173)
My parents tried that when I was the model in question. They discovered that at best, forcing a reboot triggers unpredictable output from the model's emotional processing unit. At worst, the sneak process starts running with full privileges over the system.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by dgivney on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @06:10PM (#29802244)
Ah yes, I can see the regression tests are failing so it's likely a developer error.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by hluska on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @06:38PM (#29802603)
No, that was my sister. I was the proof of concept. Management didn't accept that my test results were typical so they kept resourcing development.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by dangc on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @08:51PM (#29803919)
*MVP
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by hluska on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @12:28AM (#29805489)
Sometimes I think barely viable is a better descriptor for me...:)
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by gumby on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @07:10PM (#29802925)
The DRM on these things is insane! Just try to set a simple breakpoint and they set the law on you.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by cookie_monsta on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @06:08PM (#29802224)
I don't know where you are, but the right to repair movement here is nowhere near that advanced.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by jmspring on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @06:10PM (#29802243)
Reinstall windows? duck
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by adamredwoods on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @07:14PM (#29802963)
In the winter, the boot times are ridiculous.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by kubanczyk on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @07:34PM (#29803167)
The new models actually very often need a reboot right after their first booting completes!
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by dr_dshiv on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @01:45AM (#29805937)
Tell me about it. I'm also having stability issues with the digital interface pairing.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by iab on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @07:21PM (#29803029)
Honestly this sounds like a systemd/timedatectl issue, try hard reset (ctrl/shift/fn/cheddar goldfish)
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by atom058 on Thursday January 06, 2022 @08:22AM (#29823210)
My model doesn't come with a ctrl key
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by stickyricky on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:13PM (#29804090)
If you're still in warranty contact the manufacturer and see if you can RMA it.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by lotsofpulp on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @10:20AM (#29810009)
She has repeatedly refused the RMA request.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by tomcam on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @08:55PM (#29803951)
I don’t mind the slightly aging models. Elizabeth Hurley is about 57 and seems to be functioning very well.
Re:The UX on this small child is terrible by fragmede on Tuesday January 04, 2022 @09:16PM (#29804130)
That particular model seems to be running with the be_fckin_rich cheat enabled, which allows for a team of clinician-type bots to treat her avatar. The rest of us don't quite* have that level of luxury.