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He was around 40 years old when he said it and he wasn't talking about smartphones - at least what we call smartphones today.

> "I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone".

> I said that after a frustrating attempt to use a "feature-rich" telephone sometime around 1990. I'm sure the sentiment wasn't original, and probably not even the overall phrasing; someone must have thought of that before me.

https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html


He worked for AT&T at the time, right? Those corporate PBX systems had all sorts of crazy features which people mastered by pounding the 12 keys really fast. And he was probably on the bleeding edge of that. (In many places digital voice mail commonly predated email.)

edit to agree: obv Stroustrup in 1990 was not talking about your cell phone.


The terminal menu driven interfaces were archaic but a dream.

You had help, everything was explained in manuals, they rejected invalid outputs. Now everything is close eyes, press enter and pray it works.

Siemens ISDX was what I worked with. To build a new corporate extension was something like option 5-2-1-1 ext code Y 2-4-7 and then 9 to confirm.

Simpler times.


> The terminal menu driven interfaces were archaic but a dream.

MicroCenter (by me, at least) still uses what looks like some terminal interface for checkout and such in stores.

It's a riot cause it's all young kids and all the keyboards are RGB gamer ones. I've never seen a faster checkout at a register.


A lot of nerve from the guy that invented the hardest programming language to use right, and the easiest to use wrong.


Since we're talking about the actual astronaut, not the movie, I feel I should point out Swigert and Lovell both say "Houston, we've had a problem", not have.


Only to have the Apollo 13 movie unnecessarily invent a fake argument in which Haise accuses Swigert of screwing up the oxygen tank stir

Decent movie, but that scene ruins it


That's linked in the OP.


Is this something you come across often? I always give the canonical spelling of my email, dots included, and can't remember a time when it wasn't accepted.


You used five twos.


I'm in the same boat. I can't see things as though they're physical objects but I can sense them in some other way.

I can also draw outlines with my eyes closed - e.g. I can point my finger out and trace the positions of my desk, table, windows, etc.

But when explaining the concept of aphantasia, my go to explanation is to look directly at a person, close my eyes, and say "I have no idea what you look like." I can still sense where they are - height, weight, - and I can state facts about their beard or hair colour, but I'm not seeing it in any way I'd normally use the word 'see'.

But with all that, I feel like it could be close enough that that might be how others sense things and we just lack the terminology to express it, so I tend not to say I'm aphantasic as a definite term.


> 0$ to get started, then pay as you go” reads to me: “0$ to get started, and then you can order add-ons and extra features as you need them

I think I disagree with this, but maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

Pay as you go sounds strongly to me that you pay based on your actual usage, not that it's free except for add-ons. A pay as you go phone, for example, does not imply you need to buy a telephony add-on, an SMS add-on, etc.

PAYG phones, however, were always prepaid, so I think I would expect PAYG hosting to be similar. That said, if my site was publicly accessible without my prepayment, I think it would be clear that it works the way it apparently does.

It's potentially misleading, but I don't think it's intentionally dishonest.


> you pay based on your actual usage

The disagreement is on what "usage" means. I wouldn't assume that "usage" includes things that don't take any action on my part.

If I don't use my phone, for example, I wouldn't get any "usage". A phone pay-as-you-go plan would probably trigger similar outrage if they charged you potentially unlimited amounts for phone calls that hit your voicemail overnight.


Do you know how web hosting works? You pay for a service so other people can use it. Extending the phone analogy, it is like you set up a public phone that anyone can use, and you pay for every time someone uses it.


Your analogy break down because no part of buying and setting up a phone yourself is free. If some company offers to set up a public phone "for free" in your neighborhood, and charge you for "usage", you wouldn't expect to be charged if you don't place calls.

The "do you know how it works" is completely unnecessary and rude.


> It's potentially misleading, but I don't think it's intentionally dishonest.

That’s my interpretation as well.

The usage of the term “add-on” is not clear here in my opinion. On their main pricing page[1], Netlify currently lists “Additional bandwidth” as “Add-on”. To me, that sounds like “I can actively order additional bandwidth in case the included bandwidth isn’t enough.” Not: “Additional bandwidth is automatically allocated and charged for as it happens to occur.”

In addition to that, there is a big bold “$0” at the top of the “Starter” plan.

[1]: https://www.netlify.com/pricing/


For me, it was the Blink-182 album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.


Yeah, I didn't get the masturbation pun for that one until like three years ago; it always seemed like a pretty innocuous title until someone laughed when I mentioned it.


Wow I’ve listened to that album since I was a teenager and still never figured that out until right now


Wow. One of my favorite albums from my youth, I never got this until you just mentioned it!


"If you see Kay, will you tell her that I love her?"...


> but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly

Maybe I'm not crazy. Twice in the past couple weeks, my phone has seemingly unlocked itself in my pocket and I suspected it was to do with moisture/sweat, but dismissed it as unlikely.

In the first instance, it emergency dialed. I had just hung up the phone and put it away, so I thought I hadn't secured it.

In the second instance, I hadn't touched my phone in several minutes when suddenly my podcadt was overlaid with a demo video from an executive at my company which had opened in Teams. I closed out of that and discovered an unsent text to my wife filled with gibberish and a dozen image attachments.

I have a swipe and fingerprint enabled. My best guess is the mosture is registering my leg through the pocket and swiping it unlocked in an infinite monkeys scenario. I switched to password only for my walks now and haven't had an issue since.


Sometimes brushing against the fingerprint sensor (with the proper finger) is enough to unlock the phone. It might happen when you put your phone back in your pocket, then it's pure chaos


Wow this has happened to me more in the past few months than in the previous decade of iPhone ownership.

I received a call with my Mom, my emergency contact, because somehow my phone had pinged her or dialed her as an emergency.

Other times I pull out my phone and also see that it was doing something. Earlier today I was using google maps in a new city, I put my phone back in my pocket and when I pulled it out a few minutes later I was on an "add a new place to the map" or "mark a new place" flow.


After an accidental emergency call, discovered the cause of this was the "tap to turn on screen" feature -- and my leg was tapping it through my pocket. (On my phone, there was no way to remove the emergency call button on the lock screen.)


Thank you! That explains the strange wakeups I get on the phone when I put it my pocket. Every time I think I am crazy “I remember turning the screen off” but then I get it out later and it is on and has the camera app active.


Snoo is the name of the reddit alien. I believe it was going to be the original name of the site (what's new - what'S NOO).

Since "redditor" is a community name, it makes sense there would be a different internal/employee demonym and Snoo fits the site as good as any other name might.


Here’s an idea, call them employees.


Every company I've ever worked for has had some sort of name for their employees. It's probably supposed to foster some sense of community/belonging.

You're welcome to take the cynical approach to that, sure, but I've never felt it to be a particularly harmful thing. It's good to have some semblance of a friendly culture, if only to break up the day.

Some people will like it and I'm sure some people hate it. I've never given it a second thought though.


I always hated it. It feels infantilizing.


I don't see it as any different from schools or sports going "go [Mascot]s!". I was never into that culture, but I also see my world getting more and more lonely by the year.

If others bond together from that, I get it now.


Family! ;-)


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