darkclarity

Just my observation that adults are regressing into child like behaviour as each generation takes over. Less people taking responsibility for themselves, more people hiding from the world through escapism and a general irreverence for history and tradition. I might be wrong but it keeps bubbling up.

It was a fun suggestion but going with it would have reminded me of the world exemplified by the movie Idiocracy. We are heading in that direction with the likes of adult colouring books, but I think it's a good sign that there is still some form of resistance.

Facebook doesn't just keep you in contact with old friends, it encourages you to stalk their public facing persona. There's none of the mystery and personal discovery that creates the bonds of friendship. It's not real friendship. It's like being a super fan to an amateur musician - a one way street with occasional responses.

The fear of missing out? That's just one of the many addictive strings that Facebook tugs to manipulate you. The things that happen on Facebook don't matter. If something is important then it is far better to discover it outside of Facebook. In the end, nothing is that important.

There are other ways of keeping up with old friends and relatives. Listen to gossip from other friends and family. Keep in contact with them using email, telephone and post. If you don't maintain some link then they should be resigned to the past - until some event occurs to trigger a re-established connection.

> The only thing I can think of is that the developers use the shiny new hardware and it runs okay for them.

I think that was one of the problems with Google+ in the early days. They launched a social network that assumed a huge screen resolution (because that's what they used), so the interface was too big and clunky for a lot of people.

I think the best power supplies are those commissioned by big manufacturers to go with their hardware. The HP Touchpad's power plug being a good example. These brands don't want a poorly designed adapter killing their products.

That's a big reason why private businesses are better than public ones. There's no need to push for unsustainable growth at the behest of busybody investors.

Mozilla lives on money from the ad industry, so in a way they are all part of the same system.

Clementine comes from an place where software is aimed at all levels of user - without sacrificing expert features. If your idea of UI and UX (I don't know) is the modern trend of hiding features to make software into toys then that won't go well with its users.

Exactly. Amarok was one of the few pieces of software I looked at and thought, from a feature perspective... that's perfect. Was so glad Clementine appeared on the scene and rescued the player from its well intentioned fall from grace.

I'm not that bothered by them personally, but I would rather see these international taxi brands gone. They take away income and entrepreneurship from local economies.

The world is slowly becoming a boring homogeneous place run by multinational brands. It's like fast food outlets, coffee shops and so on, most of them are run from another country and look exactly the same - there's no character.

I have gone through a similar phase. Got rid of social media, switched back to a feature phone, am reading real books, listening to music on physical media, using cash where possible and whatever else.

The Internet has gone from a place with a high barrier of entry (and the interesting characters that self selected for that barrier), to an all encompassing entity with a load of moralisers, businesses and governments fighting over the ability to call the shots.

In its current state, I think it's better to take a step back. View the Internet as an occasional tool for getting things done, rather than a place to live within and rely upon. Let the masses have their addictions fulfilled, while technology enthusiasts move on and enjoy real life.