Thursday, November 10, 2022
Over the years I have come to resent manufacturers because they are always changing the products that I have become accustomed to. Usually the change is for the better, but often the changes just ruin the product. Here is a list of products that I use that have changed for the worse over the years:
wash cloths -- When I was young, wash cloths were always tailored in a specific way, with tight stitching around all the edges, and with rounded corners. Now, wash cloths are tailored like towels, with edges folded over and stitched, and square corners. That makes them more cumbersome to use. This change seems to have happened suddenly about ten years ago -- before that, I had no problem finding properly stitched wash cloths. Now I can't find them anywhere. Proper stitching, I assume, is more expensive than towel-type stitching -- but if that is the case, why can I still find cheap dish rags with proper stitching? It makes no sense.
computer monitors -- Originally, computer monitors were approximately square in shape, or perhaps a little wider than they were high -- approximately a 5-to-4 ratio. But when televisions became wide screen, they started making computer monitors wide-screen too. The problem, however, is that the work done on a computer is not generally suitable to a wide screen, especially if a person spends most of his time typing text, as I do. Wide-screen monitors also take up more horizontal space -- yet in my home-office set-up, I am surrounded by peripherals: inkjet printer, postal scale, shelves to hold paper, etc. A wide-screen monitor takes up unnecessary horizontal space and forces me to stretch to reach the peripherals.
electronic music equipment -- When I came of age in the 1970's, like all young men I was into high-fidelity music equipment (receivers, amplifiers, etc.). At that time, it was all silver-colored. Well, within a decade ALL the manufacturers were making either dark-brown or black equipment. To me, the black equipment was downright ugly. Today, forty years later, electronic music equipment is still mostly black, and it is still ugly.
wash cloths -- When I was young, wash cloths were always tailored in a specific way, with tight stitching around all the edges, and with rounded corners. Now, wash cloths are tailored like towels, with edges folded over and stitched, and square corners. That makes them more cumbersome to use. This change seems to have happened suddenly about ten years ago -- before that, I had no problem finding properly stitched wash cloths. Now I can't find them anywhere. Proper stitching, I assume, is more expensive than towel-type stitching -- but if that is the case, why can I still find cheap dish rags with proper stitching? It makes no sense.
computer monitors -- Originally, computer monitors were approximately square in shape, or perhaps a little wider than they were high -- approximately a 5-to-4 ratio. But when televisions became wide screen, they started making computer monitors wide-screen too. The problem, however, is that the work done on a computer is not generally suitable to a wide screen, especially if a person spends most of his time typing text, as I do. Wide-screen monitors also take up more horizontal space -- yet in my home-office set-up, I am surrounded by peripherals: inkjet printer, postal scale, shelves to hold paper, etc. A wide-screen monitor takes up unnecessary horizontal space and forces me to stretch to reach the peripherals.
electronic music equipment -- When I came of age in the 1970's, like all young men I was into high-fidelity music equipment (receivers, amplifiers, etc.). At that time, it was all silver-colored. Well, within a decade ALL the manufacturers were making either dark-brown or black equipment. To me, the black equipment was downright ugly. Today, forty years later, electronic music equipment is still mostly black, and it is still ugly.
A similar thing has happened with computers. For years they were a light beige color, but now they are all black.
SmartAddress -- For many, many years I used a Rolodex-type address program called SmartAddress. It was a somewhat quirky program, but it had many endearing qualities. When the company that made it decided to upgrade it, they changed it so completely that it was completely different. It no longer had any charm. I might have kept using the original SmartAddress, but it wouldn't work with newer versions of Windows.
SmartAddress -- For many, many years I used a Rolodex-type address program called SmartAddress. It was a somewhat quirky program, but it had many endearing qualities. When the company that made it decided to upgrade it, they changed it so completely that it was completely different. It no longer had any charm. I might have kept using the original SmartAddress, but it wouldn't work with newer versions of Windows.
Eudora, Thunderbird, FireFox -- For many years I used Eudora as my email client. It was a fabulous program with a great interface and a truly excellent spam filter. It was bought up by Qualcomm, a tech corporation. Well, they did almost nothing with the program, and eventually they discontinued it. I had no choice but to switch to Mozilla Thunderbird, which had its own problems. Foremost among the problems with Thunderbird was that they updated the program so often that the add-on extension programs would break.
That also happened constantly with FireFox. At one point they completely revamped the programming that was the foundation of FireFox, and most of my add-on extension programs broke, so I was no longer able to customize it to my satisfaction. Eventually I found Vivaldi, which gave me most of the features I wanted.
Microsoft Windows -- With every new version of Windows, the interface becomes less and less customizable. Apparently, Microsoft is doing this on purpose because it requires less programming. But what this means is that I can't make Windows look the way I want it to look. The jump from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was especially jarring, and now I have learned that version 11 (which they will eventually force me to take) is even less customizable. I spend so much time on my computer that a customizable interface is a necessity.
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