this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Horseshoe crabs. Unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Or just the form of a crab in general! Carcinisation is so weird, but apparently evolution sometimes goes "Let's just do crab again, that shit was πŸ‘Œ".

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Windows Control Panel. Everything's there, multiple ways to sort it all, no need to go shake things up

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Ah yes. Perfection:

Or maybe:

No? maybe this.

Edit I missed windows XP

No shakeups at all, it’s like a rock.

Perfectly reliable and unchanged from the beginning.

Edit since folks choose to distinguish β€œSettings” from β€œControl Panel” as if that doesn’t make the point even stronger. I’ll admit that it’s been pretty consistent since Windows 7. Still very different than the first iteration.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Well, the last 2 images you linked are Settings and not Control Panel, from versions that decided to not only have that but also the Control Panel, and Control Panel is thematically the same across all versions

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

This comment is a time capsule goddamn

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

Control panel is that drawer of tools, tape, rubber bands, and glue that’s near the kitchen

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Hot Dog Stand Color Scheme lol

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh hell no. You don’t remember it coming out and everyone complaining about how convoluted it was. Pepperidge farm remembers.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Alien. Maybe my only 10 out of 10 movie, and not my favorite!

We've all seen it so many times it loses it's luster. Wife had never seen it so I sat with her in the dark and watched it for the first time in decades. Jesus. She was about to tear through the couch cushion in stress. I knew what was going to happen and couldn't peel my eyes off the TV.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Truly one of the best movies ever made.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Instant Pot.

Apparently they went bankrupt because they built their units too well. Everyone bought one and never needed to buy a replacement.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Wow I didn't believe you until I looked it up, 758 million in 2020 to 344 million in 2022, that's bananas. I love my instant pot

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You can't take credit when you're the 11th attempt.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No no, that's not 11, that's one one

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

It’s the closest thing to a β€œperfect” game I can think of. Every new iteration is just fancy bells and whistles on the same perfect core.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (4 children)

If I remember correctly, one such example is the lightbulb. Some of the earliest designs were centered around using longer-lasting filaments than their contemporary counterparts, which meant considerably increased lifespan.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They still made them too. 130V bulbs / garage bulbs / heavy duty bulbs all lasted far longer on 120V because the filament was thicker. They basically never went out.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's a famous example of one of these bulbs that's been in operation since 1901

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

There is a trade-off between efficiency and durability on incandescent light bulbs. They did sell bulbs that lasted longer, but those had lower lumen/watt.

For generic bulbs, the cost of electricity was significantly greater than the cost of the bulb. It was cheaper to replace bulbs more frequently than to waste electricity.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sure, but those kinds of lights are very dim. You can just use a dimmer bulb set to very low if you want that kind of longevity.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Technology connections did a video on it. Basically the lights which lasted forever either; sucked at giving light and/or sucked at sucking power.

Light manufacturers got together and made a standard which was a sweet spot of power efficiency, longevity and light output. Unfortunately, being decent at all three meant no longer sucking at two to boost longevity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Every time I think I understand a household appliance, Technology Connections has a 20-60 minute explaining why it’s more complicated than I thought.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's only because that light has been running non-stop, and at very low power. It's the on/off cycles that kills the filament.

Plus, the whole "they used to make stuff to last" thing is just survivorship bias. They absolutely made garbage products in the past, but those didn't survive.

Plus, most things like appliances were major purchases. People today don't want to/can't drop the equivalent of $400 on a toaster or $3k on a washing machine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah, but that's just it, lightbulbs were the beginning of enshittification. Once lightbulb manufacturers realized people weren't coming back to buy more bulbs very often, they started deliberately making them to burn out a bit faster, to make them more of a consumable product.

Do note, there's a difference between a conspiracy theory and an actual conspiracy. This actually happened yo, and we're still suffering with this sort of deliberately short lived shit today..

https://youtu.be/ulUI7JsFjZU

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

With light bulbs, there is a trade off between longevity and efficiency.

Efficient shorter lasting bulbs are the superior product, they save the consumer money (at the expense of the inconvenience of having to replace them a little more often)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Meanwhile, after they mastered the process of making LEDs, they were quoted to have a half life of around 400 years, meaning that after 400 years continuous use, they'd be expected to emit about half as much light as they did new.

Now what did they go and do? They ramped up the power and made them blindingly bright, yet only last like 5 years or so, if you're lucky.

And the cycle of enshittification continues...

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I agree that there is survivorship bias, but I disagree that its "just" that.

Things are made cheaper today, regardless. There are $400 toasters, but I guarantee that one wouldn't last as long as a 1950s toaster.

Plumbing fixtures are a better example, as essentially you can't find one that is equivalent of a 50 year old faucet, no matter the price. They just don't make them like that.

Electronic components are another factor. First off, we stopped using lead in solder which results in weaker, more brittle connections. They just don't last as long. True, we have advancements that make components run hotter in certain scenarios (so those connections get more stress) but even disregarding that the fact still stands it's not as good.

Then we added those electronics into everything to make them "better". Old washing machines were essentially all mechanical so they would run forever, and be easy to maintain or fix. Now they have computers running them that are designed to not be fixed.

Its hard to find a company today that wants to make a good product. They just want to make one that is good enough. Our culture has shifted to that mindset. Things don't last as long, so we switched to a disposable mindset.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Diablo 1 and 2 by Blizzard. I guess maybe the 2nd time around was perfection but between those two, nothin further was needed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Diablo 2 also had an expansion... and balance patches... But I agree.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. All three are the absolute pinnacle of every craft represented in them. (i.e.: camera work, costumes, casting, CG, practical effects, soundtrack, and all the rest.)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

That was not the first film adapatation

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I fixed a bent iPad 2 using a rubber mallet and a short piece of wood on a good flat wooden bench. Hey, I didn't feel like busting out the heat gun and all that nonsense for the glued on touchscreen just for a bent metal frame, so I took a chance.

At worst, the touchscreen might have broke in the process, but that would have only set me back $7 and an extra 45 minutes. But it worked perfectly, flattened out correctly, didn't break anything, and I got to go to lunch like 45 minutes early.

I don't recommend this approach though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why would a touch screen have only set you back 7 bucks? Is that how much they cost for phone repair shops?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

At the time, for the iPad 2, yes. The touchscreen is not sealed to the LCD on the iPad 2, it's only glued to the edges of the frame with double sided tape.

Neither part was broke, it was just that the frame was slightly bent by the volume buttons, jamming one of the buttons in. It was such a subtle bend that I really didn't see any good reason to go through all the trouble of disassembly, as even that risks breaking the touchscreen.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There should have been only one.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

The first twilight zone. All the followups just lacked the stark yet innocent tone of a someone reasoning with an unjust reality.

I've been making my way through the original recently, one-by-one and though some of them are hit and miss, even the misses are doing something amazing cinematically.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Working analog clock minute hands after the first minute.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Was only a few years ago I realized that the minute hand is entirely superfluous for most applications. You can easily tell what ten minute interval of the day you are in by looking only at the hour hand.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Science-fiction comedy

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

In this thread: people living in fantasy lands.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Batman hitting his target with a batterang.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

You dawg; you're perfect!

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