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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • We just don’t make tech for old people the way we should.

    My mother in law says things like “Wow, your son is just so good with computers.” She was impressed at how “tech savvy” he was because he was able to change the brightness on her phone for her so she could show him a picture better.

    A lot of our UIs are built for absolute no-thinking usability. How would you propose changing the brightness on a phone that would make it more “old people friendly”. It’s not a matter of difficulty. She just doesnt remember these things, and a different flow may not necessarily be remembered either.

    And I’m not saying its her fault or that she’s bad because of it. She was raised learning how to do and remember things a certain way and that has necessarily changed over the years.

    A phone can do a lot of things, so unless you want to have 100 apps on your home screen, you’ll have to group some together. For instance, putting WiFi into a Settings app. Having every individual setting just available on the home screen potentially complicates things even worse by being overwhelming.

    Genuinely curious how you think things like this could be redesigned to be more old people friendly.







  • Counter point… Both are generating perfectly valid JSON, so who cares?

    Python 3.13.2 (main, Feb  5 2025, 08:05:21) [GCC 14.2.1 20250128]
    Type 'copyright', 'credits' or 'license' for more information
    IPython 9.0.2 -- An enhanced Interactive Python. Type '?' for help.
    Tip: IPython 9.0+ have hooks to integrate AI/LLM completions.
    
    In [1]: import json
    
    In [2]: json.loads('{"x": 1e-05}')
    Out[2]: {'x': 1e-05}
    
    In [3]: json.loads('{"x":0.00001}')
    Out[3]: {'x': 1e-05}
    
    Welcome to Node.js v20.3.1.
    Type ".help" for more information.
    > JSON.parse('{"x":0.00001}')
    { x: 0.00001 }
    > JSON.parse('{"x": 1e-05}')
    { x: 0.00001 }
    

    Javascript and Python both happily accept either format from the string and convert it into a float they are happy with.



  • Sure: that’s a SKU and not the product name.

    From LG’s own website:

    The name of the product is:

    34" Curved UltraGear™ QHD HDR 10 160Hz Monitor with Tilt/Height Adjustable Stand

    But since 34" curved monitors are a dime a dozen and the full name listing all the specs is a freaking mouthful, it winds up being referred to it by the SKU to help differentiate it.

    The 34WP60C-B is apparently the same monitor, but without speakers and a different stand.

    This isn’t Apple where there is only 1 macbook pro each year and you can differentiate with a “M4” or “2024” on it. every year, LG releases 100 different monitors, some of which have VERY similar specs. If they gave them all names, the names would be meaningless except for to differentiate the models. “LG UltraGear Megashark” offers no details, and only serves to make it memorable and google-able.

    34GP63A-B isn’t memorable, but it is google-able to an even better degree (because theres no chance of getting a Terraria Megashark SEO landmine, I hate products that have names like “Cursor”, because how the hell am I going to google that).

    34 is size, G is “gaming”, no idea on P63A, and -B indicates that this is the second revision (there is also a 34GP63A without the -B).


  • bisby@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.world[System32] Make this make sense
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    4 months ago

    Youre right. “Cordless handheld vacuum” is a descriptor and not “the name of a product”.

    In fact, on the Alienware website, the product is called ‘Alienware 34" Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - AW3423DWF’

    Alienware 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitor sounds a LOT like exactly what you described. And then the SKU is tacked on to the end because they sell multiple various models of of 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitors, and people are going to want to get the right one, so they make it prominent.


  • bisby@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.world[System32] Make this make sense
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    4 months ago

    Why does it need a “name” at all.

    I just say “I have the Alienware ultrawide OLED” and if anyone cares, the exact model number gives information and is very distinct and googleable.

    You can google for “AW3423DWF” very easily and know youve found the right monitor for reviews etc.

    Googling for “Macbook Pro” reviews, for example… a pain in the ass.


  • That only works if you assume that there is something consistent to version. Some years it’s a 34" ultra wide, some years it’s a 32" 4k. Will there ever be another 34" ultra wide from alienware? Who knows! Not every monitor gets a revision. and if you have random names for 100 different monitors every year, that doesn’t really help make sense of things either.

    Alienware Monitor 7… Well they release 100 different models a year, and every year thats going to increment, and consumers often conflate “bigger number better” so you better make sure you get the numbering right.

    And “Porkchop” means absolutely nothing to anyone. DWF at least means something to some people. Going from 0% usefulness to even 10% usefulness is a good move.


  • bisby@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.world[System32] Make this make sense
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    4 months ago

    My comment from last time this was posted.

    The most commonly cited monitor in recent years for this is “AW3423DWF”… Which is AlienWare 34" from 2023, DisplayPort, WQHD, Freesync.

    Point is, people see a lot of characters and complain when in reality it is exactly what you are referring to. The name is an encoded version of its capabilities. Its just that the encoding isn’t always clear because if every company used the same encoding they would have the same name. and if there are 2 similar monitors you would need to have every feature in the name to differentiate them, so the shorthand encoding becomes necessary. (Eg, AW3423DW and AW3423DWF only really differ on freesync vs gsync, thus the F at the end)



  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root

    even if you can figure out specifically WHAT a function does, it’s not always clear WHY a function does, and honestly, if this function wasnt labeled in the code, no way in hell would I know what it does.

    It has an entire wiki page dedicated to explaining it, and it involves enough math that most people wouldn’t be able to follow along.

    Nothing this atrocious lives in any current codebases I work on… but if you work at an old enough company, some of the load-bearing code will be tricky to figure out what is calling it, but also it was written in a time where little hacks were needed to eke out performance.

    You only have to experience it once for it to be a memorable enough thing that you will cite it for the rest of your days.

    Or more realistically, it IS comprehensible, but the level of effort necessary to comprehend it is not worth it. So you leave it as “undecipherable” and move on.