So, I just wanted to say that while I realize it is unpopular to think that things are pretty good actually, I do.

I also really like Apple products and think they have a lot of really nice things about them.

I mean, I am just out of sync, it seems but when I look back on the path we took to get here from the first micros to the current technology I am truly amazed at what we, as a civilization, have accomplished. Much of it is neutral, just tools, and its moral implications depend on its application but as it turns out, I also don't think people are necessarily evil, nor mostly stupid, nor do I think that the people at the company's products I buy are simpletons that are missing the most obvious solutions to the glaring flaws in their products.

I realize I must sound like some sort of lunatic but I guess that's just how I roll...

 

I agree. One can so easily get lost in the details and harbor the misconception that a specific flaw that is ones owe pet peeve is proof of incompetence, that we miss the big picture.

Using Apple as an example, I have used Amazon’s Firestick and ROKU streaming devices with much frustration. I finally bit the bullet and coughed up the. much higher price for and Apple TV one. The difference is like night and day. It just works. After asking me to hold my iPhone close to the box and it received my credentials without having to look up passwords and try to type them with 5 buttons, I was playing a video from my phone in seconds. I am impressed.

 

Yet we still cannot get my live-in PA's iPhone11 to alert her to an incoming text or call from me as a priority caller when her phone is on 'do not disturb', but on her Android phone it was achieved in 3 clicks... so now I have to have one number for normal hours and one for night time!


I find, as I get older, its these little things that bug me most...

 

Optimists think that life is as good as it possibly could be.

Pessimists suspect that this is true.

(can't remember where the quote comes from, but I like it)

 

Yet we still cannot get my live-in PA's iPhone11 to alert her to an incoming text or call from me as a priority caller when her phone is on 'do not disturb', but on her Android phone it was achieved in 3 clicks... so now I have to have one number for normal hours and one for night time!

Thank you for a perfect example of what I said in my post.

 

If only companies would just stick to facts instead of creating fantastic marketing hype by the train load.

I know, buzz sells product.

 

I agree. One can so easily get lost in the details and harbor the misconception that a specific flaw that is ones owe pet peeve is proof of incompetence, that we miss the big picture.

Using Apple as an example, I have used Amazon’s Firestick and ROKU streaming devices with much frustration. I finally bit the bullet and coughed up the. much higher price for and Apple TV one. The difference is like night and day. It just works. After asking me to hold my iPhone close to the box and it received my credentials without having to look up passwords and try to type them with 5 buttons, I was playing a video from my phone in seconds. I am impressed.

That’s an interesting point, because I got an Apple TV for playing music from a network storage device, and it was completely hopeless. By the time it was persuaded to connect to the NAS by some convoluted procedure I had generally lot interest in playing music. It went in a cupboard and I eventually gave it away. It also alphabetised composers by their first names which I found deeply annoying.
So the same bunch of engineers that designed it are, in your mind, complete masters of their art, and in my mind are a bunch of idiots.

 

So the same bunch of engineers that designed it are, in your mind, complete masters of their art, and in my mind are a bunch of idiots.

Nobody is either in my mind. Even I do stupid things in hardware and software I design.

That said, for a company selling product, listening to customers is very important but a bit difficult ti evaluate. I do not expect to know instantly how to do anything I think I should be able to do with a product, but I expect them to be able to guide me to the solution if they claim it can do it, and tell me you cannot if that is the case,

 

Nobody is either in my mind.

True, but at that moment of success/frustration . . . . .

 

unless you ignore all that widespread yellow medias and their owners who've p*ssed over every precious things :-"

 

Back to the original topic:

Mankind has seen worse, far worse. Gone are the days where a pandemic would periodically wipe out 30 to 40 % of the population.

With those death rates, given Europe’s current 747+ million inhabitants, it would have suffered 224 to 299 million deaths during the Covid pandemic.

 

Everyone seems ti think we are in the worst of times, crime rates are higher than ever.

The truth(from Wikipedia, “Crime in the United States”):

In the long term, violent crime in the United States has been in decline since colonial times. The homicide rate has been estimated to be over 30 per 100,000 people in 1700, dropping to under 20 by 1800, and to under 10 by 1900.[7]

The current rate is 6.5.