The 100-Year March of Technology in 1 Graph

[Chris]

Found this interesting to say the least.

The 100-Year March of Technology in 1 Graph (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-100-year-march-of-technology-in-1-graph/255573/)
http://i.snag.gy/NW9Or.jpg

...One way to parse it is to ignore everything at the top and trace your eye along the 10% line:

-- In 1900, <10% of families owned a stove, or had access to electricity or phones

-- In 1915, <10% of families owned a car

-- In 1930, <10% of families owned a refrigerator or clothes washer

-- In 1945, <10% of families owned a clothes dryer or air-conditioning

-- In 1960, <10% of families owned a dishwasher or color TV

-- In 1975, <10% of families owned a microwave

-- In 1990, <10% of families had a cell phone or access to the Internet

Today, at least 90% of the country has a stove, electricity, car, fridge, clothes washer, air-conditioning, color TV, microwave, and cell phone. They make our lives better. They might even make us happier. But they are not enough.

[Captain Obvious]

Technology as we know it is total fucking bullshit. I'm not a backwards thinking guy by any stretch, but fuck technology. Fuck it with an iron fist, it's not about doing things better and smarter - it's all about padding the bottom line of hardware and software producers.

Technology should be simple, it should work, it should work well and it should be getting increasingly inexpensive. That latter part can be argued granted considering the cost of laptops and shit are getting cheaper, but they suck. You (I) only get a couple years out of them seemingly.

Used to be you could buy software - a game or some business stuff, pop the CD or whatever in and in minutes you're off and running. Now you have to fuck around with getting it installed, patches, 'does it work in Windows 7' - all fucking day until you finally give up and do whatever you're trying to do manually.

They have apps, I-whatevers coming out every couple days seemingly, nobody can fucking possibly be using this shit effectively. As soon as you get used to something, it changes.

Just like Microsoft Office and Windows. They change it every couple years - "change it" mind you, not improve it. It's still doing basically what it always did, but differently - and much of the time shit stops working with these kinds of upgrades and nothing that was added with the upgrade couldn't be added to the older product with an update.

Why? They want you to buy more shit. Can't pad the bottom line if what they sell you works and works for a long time. That's why shit always stops working or has problems with new platforms, it's a planned design flaw.

Microsoft office? Does basically the same shit the old version did but they move shit around so you can't do the same thing you've been doing for fucking years without sitting there and wondering where it is.

It's kids that create this problem, the whole "ohhhh, something shiny" crowd. Fucking kids today don't know shit about shit, they just want something new - no matter what it is and the rest of us have to suffer through this "technology" wave.

Fuck technology to hell.

[Chris]

Happiness is subjective.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, getting fucked in the ass involuntarily is offensive also.

Furthermore....

Everything - I-pads, Google, all those news networks that want you to create an account - it's all about spying on you. "Where are you going on the internet", "who are you calling", "what are you buying" - all to jam more ads in your face.

Privacy has been gang raped, there is zero privacy with anyone anymore, it's all about you and your data. That's why I don't have a Facebook account nor have I ever created a Google login or anything like that nor do I give my cell phone number to anyone under pain of misery should they leak it out to anyone else because you have to be super-protective with your information because everyone out there, like fucking vultures hovering over a shitwagon, they're just waiting to swoop down on the feast.

Why? Those fucking kids who don't know shit about shit, fucking retards.






... ok, rant over. It was cathartic.

[Conley]

You don't really have to use it though. Maybe you do for work, I don't know. We still use XP on some of our computers and it works great. Much better than Vista for sure. I've got 7 and it does everything I need it to. The Office updates are a huge pain, I just figured out where everything is in 2007.

[Conley]

Today, at least 90% of the country has a stove, electricity, car, fridge, clothes washer, air-conditioning, color TV, microwave, and cell phone. They make our lives better. They might even make us happier. But they are not enough.

These things undoubtedly make my life easier and happier.

[Chris]

Today, at least 90% of the country has a stove, electricity, car, fridge, clothes washer, air-conditioning, color TV, microwave, and cell phone. They make our lives better. They might even make us happier. But they are not enough.

These things undoubtedly make my life easier and happier.

And next time someone throws the 1% nonsense at you, refer them to these facts. For it was first the 1% who purchased these goods and services before the 10% and now the 90%. If we all existed on a level playing field we'd still beback in the stone age.