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> use a good pdf reader.. markdown flash cards Ever had the experience that your favorite shoes or watch is discontinued by the manufacturer? It sucks because

> use a good pdf reader.. markdown flash cards Ever had the experience that your favorite shoes or watch is discontinued by the manufacturer? It sucks because you’re back on the consumer treadmill again, wasting time and money on things that aren’t as good and struggling with an annoying distraction that previously did not exist while you try to find something that works for you again. Software churn is just like this, only much worse. It should/could have been different, but it’s not. So no, I don’t really think we should take away all books, buttons, and knobs that offer a reasonably consistent user experience and replace everything we can with software and tablets. At least not until software learns to behave. Reading is as basic as tying your shoes. Would you really want SV PMs in charge of revolutionizing the shoe-tying experience every quarter, or dropping updates on you that change the place you’ve always stored your shoes?

chrisandchris 2y ago
Exactly. It was perfectly fine, I loved it. It worked very well. They took it away, now I have to re-learn how to do it what I already knew with somethibg that I also have to pay for. Sometimes we should just keep things as they are and stop looking for the next thing.
- photonthug 2y ago
  Relearning is fine if that’s on the way to a new stable state, but I just don’t see that happening. The fact that people are discussing the best pdf reader after like 2+ decades of widespread usage, or the fact that signing a pdf often means rebooting into a different OS or using a cloud service that just wants a look at what kind of stuff you’re signing just totally destroys the idea that this tech is working for us. Further, does anyone believe that pdfs are going to fix something like textbook costs? You will still pay too much for something that you don’t really own now and cannot share or loan out, etc. Savings for the publisher or distributor cabals are not going to find their way to end users, or if they do then this will certainly be a temporary situation. They already know how much they can charge and get away with it, so… I’m far from a Luddite, but just know that tech is great to the extent that it gets out of the way and lets us focus on things we care about. Corporate tech is the opposite though, because it always wants engagement, feeding, maintenance. PDFs and chrome books that empty out your backpack might look like a convenience for students but who really benefits? The people that push Chromebooks get a captive audience of tax payers and children who are future android fans, the distributors that can empty their warehouses and fire a forklift driver, etc. Business as usual.. everyone should think critically about it when someone is telling them “these changes are for your own good”.

chrisandchris 2y ago

Exactly. It was perfectly fine, I loved it. It worked very well. They took it away, now I have to re-learn how to do it what I already knew with somethibg that I also have to pay for. Sometimes we should just keep things as they are and stop looking for the next thing.

photonthug 2y ago
Relearning is fine if that’s on the way to a new stable state, but I just don’t see that happening. The fact that people are discussing the best pdf reader after like 2+ decades of widespread usage, or the fact that signing a pdf often means rebooting into a different OS or using a cloud service that just wants a look at what kind of stuff you’re signing just totally destroys the idea that this tech is working for us. Further, does anyone believe that pdfs are going to fix something like textbook costs? You will still pay too much for something that you don’t really own now and cannot share or loan out, etc. Savings for the publisher or distributor cabals are not going to find their way to end users, or if they do then this will certainly be a temporary situation. They already know how much they can charge and get away with it, so… I’m far from a Luddite, but just know that tech is great to the extent that it gets out of the way and lets us focus on things we care about. Corporate tech is the opposite though, because it always wants engagement, feeding, maintenance. PDFs and chrome books that empty out your backpack might look like a convenience for students but who really benefits? The people that push Chromebooks get a captive audience of tax payers and children who are future android fans, the distributors that can empty their warehouses and fire a forklift driver, etc. Business as usual.. everyone should think critically about it when someone is telling them “these changes are for your own good”.