{"id":2120,"date":"2012-09-18T02:44:53","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T02:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=2120"},"modified":"2023-07-13T17:16:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T17:16:38","slug":"a-better-way-to-fix-our-gadgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/technology\/a-better-way-to-fix-our-gadgets\/","title":{"rendered":"A better way to fix our gadgets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Until now, the process for solving technical problems involved Googling around for advice on forum posts and help pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advice is always the same, isn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Follow an obscure sequence of commands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Now try again.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. If there’s comments on the page, at least a dozen will have conflicting reports about the outcome of these steps.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. If it doesn’t work, go back to Google and look around some more.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Of course the tech geeks could <\/em>be messing with you. By following the advice your TV won’t turn off and your wedding photos are permanently deleted. Who knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately there’s now a better way to solve basic technical problems; devices that STFU when you smack them. Microsoft has invented<\/a> the first phone you can physically abuse when you need it to just shut up for a minute so you can think<\/strong> for once, goddamn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I’d suspect that if this feature seems intuitive, you shouldn’t have kids. But then again people have been smacking their TVs for decades so the gesture is already in our collective consciousness. And who wouldn’t want a TV that stops breaking when you hit it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Besides, not all emotionally responsive technology needs to involve violence. How about a flashlight that turns up the brightness when you’re shaking in terror? Or cars that soothe anxious drivers with relaxing music to prevent road rage? Or a bathroom scale that subtracts some weight if the user is crying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There’s all kinds of ways our gadgets could be made fixable that don’t involve following the advice of strangers online. Get with it, tech companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And let me know when you have a computer that works better when I start cursing under my breath and slamming on the keyboard. I’ll be first in line to buy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Until now, the process for solving technical problems involved Googling around for advice on forum posts and help pages. The advice is always the same, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","slim_seo":{"title":"A better way to fix our gadgets - MrEricSir.com","description":"Until now, the process for solving technical problems involved Googling around for advice on forum posts and help pages. The advice is always the same, isn't it"},"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1422,834,833],"class_list":["post-2120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-rant","tag-smackmyphoneup","tag-stfu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2120"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10153,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2120\/revisions\/10153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}