I prefer older tech -> Turning into a dinosaur

[ControlD]

Desktop+tablet > Laptop

Indeed. That's how I roll these days as well.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Desktop+tablet > Laptop

Yea, tablet can be handy sometimes .. but I am 100% satisfied with just 2 Desktop setups. One at a desk, with 3x 1080p monitors, one hooked up to my projector on a 106 inch screen at 1080p. with decent enough GPUs, plenty of ram, and decently quick i5's, I dont need a full blown tablet, a smart phone works for me if whatever it is that needs doing isnt good on a desktop.

 

[Imp]

Laptops, meh, Give me a desktop.

<snip>

Laptops have crap GPUs, crap CPUs, crap disk, crap keyboard, crap mouse, and crap displays. They are clearly better than tablets, but, they are far inferior to desktops.

You forgot the biggest one: battery. My 5 year old laptop still works perfectly... just like my almost 6 year old desktop. Only difference is that I spent $150 (about 1/3 the price for the entire laptop) to replace the battery when it couldn't hold more than a 20 minute charge. It was down to about an hour after 3 years, started around 2 to 3 hours.

I drive a Fusion and it's the first car I have owned with a backup camera.

<snip>

Bottom line, I've grown more comfortable in trusting what I see on the screen now, thought it still isn't a full replacement for situational awareness and having your head on a swivel.

That's probably the best approach, not to rely on any single approach. I'd probably trust the camera more just because of how high trunks/rear windows have gotten. Whenever backing up, I usually looked back and out the side windows... best I could because anything shorter than 4' and blocked by the C-pillar couldn't be seen.

 

[dullard]

Is this for real? Our department recently got 5 brand new Ford Fusion Hybrids that have the camera. It's the first car I've driven with it, and I just DON'T trust it. I don't know if it's because I'm so used to not having one or more along the lines of 'I hope this thing is accurate'. At 28, I wouldn't say it's the dinosaur mentality either. Maybe I'm wrong? Shit, I hope so. In either case, I still find myself using the mirrors and looking over my shoulder any time I'm backing up.

Yes, it is a requirement. It was supposed to happen years ago (by law), but car manufacturers fought it and delayed it for quite some time. But it will finally happen with no more delays.

You are NOT supposed to back up while watching the LCD. You look at the LCD BEFORE backing up to see if there is a small child or similar object behind you. Then you back up normally looking over your shoulder. This is because the LCD won't show if someone is moving from outside the LCD view to inside the LCD view (like a kid on a sidewalk while you back up your car out of your driveway).

You can look again at the LCD while parallel parking or backing into a spot to be sure you aren't going to crash into whatever is behind you. In my experience, they have been perfect to within millimeters. But, I wouldn't trust it to that level of accuracy because I bet camera alignment may change over time. It is still a great indicator to know if you have a few feet or a few inches left to back up though.

 

[dullard]

majority of new cars now have a 7" display screen and a single joystick knob to control/make selections from it. meh. give me my push buttons.
(ALL new cars will have a display screen when backup cameras become mandatory in 2017 )

My Toyota Camry Hybrid did it just about right. There is a touchscreen for music and navigation. Then individual buttons (or knobs for temperature) for everything else. Sure, you could probably use the touchscreen for AC control, but no one would want to do that. The combination of both touchscreen and buttons wins out any day over pure old-school buttons.

Sadly, Toyota forgot to add either a button or touchscreen capability to rewind / fast forward within an MP3 though.

 

[BurnItDwn]

You forgot the biggest one: battery. My 5 year old laptop still works perfectly... just like my almost 6 year old desktop. Only difference is that I spent $150 (about 1/3 the price for the entire laptop) to replace the battery when it couldn't hold more than a 20 minute charge. It was down to about an hour after 3 years, started around 2 to 3 hours.
.

I usually have to replace the CMOS battery on a desktop after the mobo is around 7-10 years old. Sometimes they die even earlier than that. But its no more thna a minor PITA to manually set the clock in the bios each time I reboot if the CMOS battery is dead.

 

[Imp]

I usually have to replace the CMOS battery on a desktop after the mobo is around 7-10 years old. Sometimes they die even earlier than that. But its no more thna a minor PITA to manually set the clock in the bios each time I reboot if the CMOS battery is dead.

Just replaced my 6 year old desktop's CMOS battery in case of leakage. It was still working. First time doing it, so it took longer -- took me a while to figure out the super simple battery retention mechanism, and I had to take out my video card for room.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yea, tablet can be handy sometimes .. but I am 100% satisfied with just 2 Desktop setups. One at a desk, with 3x 1080p monitors, one hooked up to my projector on a 106 inch screen at 1080p. with decent enough GPUs, plenty of ram, and decently quick i5's, I dont need a full blown tablet, a smart phone works for me if whatever it is that needs doing isnt good on a desktop.

Yeah, but what if you want to read ATOT on the couch next to your wife? The desktop doesn't work then, it's either a laptop or a tablet.

I take the tablet 10 out of 10 times.

 

[stargazr]

I prefer a desktop. Still using one I put together in 2010. I just have a regular cell phone with a full keyboard for texting. Maybe I'll upgrade to a smartphone next year, but I'm in no hurry.

 

[Ham n' Eggs]

ill give you the car one mostly because the implementation on most cars is shit

its nice for a map or a backup camera but FFS no other controls should be on it. I was in something (dodge I think) where to change the fan speed for the ac in was 2 menus deep on the screen

I can't fathom how disconnected with reality any car maker must be to put any controls (that a driver needs to access while driving) on a touchscreen. Controls need to be able to be touched/grabbed by feel to keep the eyes on the road. Controls on touchscreens are guaranteed to cause accidents and some of those accidents are going to kill people.

---pretty unbelievable that this even needs to be discussed

 

[DesiPower]

I can't stand tablets either, I need bigger screen, anything under 14" inch is "meh"

 

[MarkXIX]

I can't fathom how disconnected with reality any car maker must be to put any controls (that a driver needs to access while driving) on a touchscreen. Controls need to be able to be touched/grabbed by feel to keep the eyes on the road. Controls on touchscreens are guaranteed to cause accidents and some of those accidents are going to kill people.

---pretty unbelievable that this even needs to be discussed

I agree and I have a big old 7-inch touch screen in my car.

However, another annoyance is that they prevent a passenger from using many of the functions while the car is in motion which is stupid too. I made a suggestion on the manufacturer's website that they reconfigure the software so that if the passenger airbag sensor is on that those features be available, but all they did was send me a $20 off my next oil change coupon and thank me for my input.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Yeah, but what if you want to read ATOT on the couch next to your wife? The desktop doesn't work then, it's either a laptop or a tablet.

I take the tablet 10 out of 10 times.

I use the desktop hooked up to the projector, and I sit on the couch next to her.. or I just use my phone, no need for a separate tablet device.

 

[ControlD]

Yeah, but what if you want to read ATOT on the couch next to your wife? The desktop doesn't work then, it's either a laptop or a tablet.

I take the tablet 10 out of 10 times.

Honestly, I never read ATOT on my tablet. It is always desktop or Tapatalk on my phone.

Ebooks, movies, watching Tivo, gaming, light web browsing. Those are things I am generally using my tablet for.

 

[AMD64Blondie]

Ahem...still clicking away on a 1991 IBM Model M PS/2.

(Model # 1391401..assembled June 10,1991.)

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah... my laptop can run rings around either my tablet or my smartphone when it comes to looking up something online.

 

[disappoint]

something about safety and operating it while moving?
I thought to myself whats the diff if he's operating the knob while the car is moving? isn't that even more dangerous?

If ever the govt. requires mandatory tattooing of everyone's junk "Do not play with knob while operating a motor vehicle or other heavy machinery" I'll give up.

 

[DrPizza]

I still like my desktop - started in Feb 2007 right after Vista came out. A few upgrades here and there, but otherwise, it's pretty solid for my needs.


I would LOVE a backup camera on my truck. I hate backing up, getting out, taking a glance to see how aligned I am, then back in, and back up until I'm within 6" or so. Then out to figure out how many inches to back up (I don't want to accidentally back far enough and put a dent in the rear end). Some trailers, I can come within an inch or so on the first attempt. But, the tongue on the boat trailer is pretty long - the closest thing to the end of it that's in my field of view is quite a few feet away.

 

[DrPizza]

/obligatory Still Own stock in horse buggy whip company

I shouldn't know this, yet I do, from going to a lot of Amish auctions - very very few of them use buggy whips - really nice ones sell for as little as $1 each. It's a joke among the Amish - they take pride in how well trained their animals are - they don't need to use buggy whips. Thus, your buggy whip is even more outdated than you think.

 

[Jembo]

My Toyota Camry Hybrid did it just about right. There is a touchscreen for music and navigation. Then individual buttons (or knobs for temperature) for everything else. Sure, you could probably use the touchscreen for AC control, but no one would want to do that. The combination of both touchscreen and buttons wins out any day over pure old-school buttons.

Sadly, Toyota forgot to add either a button or touchscreen capability to rewind / fast forward within an MP3 though.

LOL. That's pretty bad oversight.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My problem with lot of the newer tech like tablets is that they want you to REPLACE things with it. There is no freaking way I am replacing my triple monitor PC running a non proprietary OS, with a tablet, which is a very closed platform with little to no input/output capabilities. A lot of these newer things are accessories, not full replacements for a computer. I can't imagine trying to do anything productive like coding or any kind of content creation on a touch screen.

Also if they really are getting rid of knobs and stuff in cars I could see that being an issue, it's much easier to reach for a knob or something you can feel than have to look at a screen and use touchy feely stuff just to do something basic like adjust the heat.

Maybe I'm just old school, but I feel that today a lot of companies use technology just for the sake of using it. Technology missused actually makes your life harder.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Also if they really are getting rid of knobs and stuff in cars I could see that being an issue, it's much easier to reach for a knob or something you can feel than have to look at a screen and use touchy feely stuff just to do something basic like adjust the heat.

The infuriating thing about a lot of car touchscreens is that they aren't responsive. If you're going for a particular control you should be able to glance at the screen just fast enough that your finger is hitting the right place and know that your touch is going to be recognized. So often it doesn't register the touch, so your eyes are constantly going back to the screen for longer and longer periods of time as you re-position your finger and stab at it with increasing ferocity. If there needs to be a fast and responsive touchscreen interface ANYWHERE, it should be in your car, yet most cars feel like they have $20 resistive touchscreen tablets installed in the console. Then of course they have to implement frustrating safety measures while the car is in motion to cover for their shit implementation when the safest thing possible is to just make one that works when you try to use it.

 

[fralexandr]

I just wish you could get a decent smart phone with an actual key pad vs the touchscreen keyboard, well at-least outside of the blackberry, as I never really did like them. I can't type for crap on my S5 phone, and then the stupid slide crap thing that happens while trying to type and throws random crap or spaces up...give me a damn keyboard and get off my lawn! (I'll be 31 this year)

Lets not even talk about trying to rebuild the current cars with touchscreen controls in 40+ years when they are starting to become "classics."

yeah, my brother's still rocking a droid 4, hoping for a droid 5 . The phone is ridiculously slow now, since for some reason software & web devs keep making things with snazzier graphics that run slower and crappier... Why lenovo no make droid 5?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yeah, but what if you want to read ATOT on the couch next to your wife? The desktop doesn't work then, it's either a laptop or a tablet.

I take the tablet 10 out of 10 times.

LMAO Oh ye of little vision. I'd take a picture, but the house is a mess.

 

[zinfamous]

Desktop+tablet > Laptop

I'm probably heading that way, but I see no real need for a laptop. That being said, I've had no use for my old and crappy laptop for the last 4 years or so, so it really doesn't make a difference.

I'd probably use the tablet as a larger remote for my actually useful TV.