 the funniest thing about Apple is the last version of MacOS features "video reactions" where if your camera sees you do a thumbs up or heart symbol with your hands, stuff happens behind you like fireworks in ANY video app you are using BY DEFAULT. A friend was in an online therapy session, describing his trauma so the therapist asked if he was alright and he did a thumbs up and then HUGE FIREWORKS BEHIND HIS HEAD. It's so bad that online therapy sessions now start with a warning dialog! 143 comments
 @mathowie @lunarobverse they should turn off automatically if you flip the bird at the camera  @matunos @mathowie @lunarobverse I would punish people who flip off the camera by having a repeating 5 minute long animation of a bird doing flips that adds on every time it perceives an extended middle finger.  @mathowie apple is to shit, unuseable software what tesla is to shit, unuseable cars @falcennial @mathowie something something "...live long enough to become a luxury brand." @AKPAB @falcennial @mathowie Tesla was never not a luxury brand, they started out with a $250,000 roadster.  @taixzo @AKPAB @falcennial @mathowie Tesla specifically stated their goal was to start luxury and work towards economy. The model 3 is supposed to be the economy car, I think. It starts at $39k, which I don't think of as "economy."  @falcennial @mathowie Right — in part, because both of them USED TO be where you went to get good, usable stuff. Sequences of extraordinarily bad decisions have destroyed both.   Good. Basing beliefs on fairy tales has led to massive death and destruction throughout history. @RodneyPetersonTalent My brother in Christ, 2003 is calling, it wants its edgy internet atheism back. (Hail Eris, hail yes.) @RodneyPetersonTalent @carcosa @mathowie I think this is a poisonous attitude to have. There are times when religion does not harm and especially for those who grieve is used as a coping mechanism. You can be aware of its many, many problems but also accept there are reasons and a purpose for its existence. Not everyone prescribes to the bigoted ideology that anti-lgbtq+ zealots preach. There are those within the religion who hold these people to account and share positive messages for all. @mathowie I had a version of this happen to me on a very serious litigation call with a client. I told them we had to focus on two points, in a very firm lawyerly tone. Then a fleet of colourful balloons floated up around me to both our consternation.  @Tupp_ed @mathowie we have this whole thing where we think it's important to identify the good parts of early microcomputing culture, the stuff that's worth carrying forward into the future, and then protect that. fundamentally what we want is for computers to continue to be tools to expand the human potential for discovery and creation, by staying explorative. tools for self-expression are part of that... BUT it's hardly self-expression when a company's algorithm decides what you want to say? @Tupp_ed @mathowie it's as if Apple remembers its past, from the days when nobody quite knew what computers were going to be good for yet, so they're trying to conjure up that creative spirit but they also have everything so locked down for security and usability reasons that it's not possible for third parties to make this stuff so they try to foist their own corporate creativity on the public, and convince us it's the same thing as if we'd come up with it ourselves   @WeShall @vfrmedia on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. *Cats* are immediately found and defenestrated though. We don't serve their kind here. (Eddie: oops. Meant to stick this on another thread. Sorry for the incoming duplicate!) Damned near died laughing the first time I saw that. Just epic. The early days of Zoom/Teams online meetings were pretty funny in general. @mathowie The fact Apple turned this on as default was a terrible decision. I've also run into this (much less severe, the "thumbs up" emoji showed up in a business meeting). PSA: You can turn this off under "Reactions" in the little green camera symbol on the top of your screen, but you apparently need to do this for every app that uses your Mac's camera.   @mathowie I could see this being used by pts and therapists who are Extremely Online
 @mathowie it was awesome in a business meeting when I was indicating we needed 2 or something and suddenly confetti started falling all around me @mathowie Laughing or crying, I sincerely do not know. What a silly feature…. @mathowie OH GOD OH GOD I tested this in QuickTime Player on my M1 Mac IT IS REAL #Apple #macOS #macOSSonoma #Sonoma #iOS17 #iOS #AppleSilicon #AugmentedReality #AppleReactions #VideoReactions #Reactions @leo @ant_pruitt Just wanted to bring this to your attention, maybe it's worth covering on one of the :twit: shows in the next few days  Probably the same fucking moron who says “ya know, we really should be advertising on Twitter still.”  @dancinyogi @pixelpusher220 @mathowie @mathowie I wrote about how terrible videochat design is--especially from Apple-- for Medium a few years ago. This was so sadly predictable. And stupid. https://medium.com/s/story/video-chat-is-terrible-and-about-to-get-much-worse-174823f3ffb   @mathowie reminds me of how a guy's Facebook photos were pretty much all just from a car crash he was in, and so that's what his automatically generated Friends Day video was: https://youtu.be/8OzZxjqKG10 @nev @mathowie i feel bad for this guy but also this video sends me into hysterics every time i see it “here’s your friend. here’s your one friend again. here they are again. remember your car crash? but anyway, do you remember that time you were in a car crash? do you remember the fucking car crash? what a great year you’ve had!” @Peace_out_art @nev @mathowie not just the accident but also the same friends photo over and over, really not well tested @maarteuh @Peace_out_art @mathowie well, there's only so much it can do if those are the only photos! @nev @Peace_out_art @mathowie yeah like have a minimum and not send this if your format does not support it  @mathowie "tyranny of the default" isn't quite the right sentiment, but boy is this a strange choice for a default. Invasive. And it's downright aggressive against those of us with startle reflex issues  @mathowie I'm really beginning to wonder about the programmers of UI's in the tech industry... They've been messing with a number of UI's lately and its annoying that every single update makes some unexplained change for no obvious reason. A change should be an obvious one and work for nearly everyone. This one lacks all self awareness.  Your poor friend... I hope he is getting the help he needs. I mean, he helped me; because I am laughing so f'cking hard right now.   @mathowie We noticed this in a work meeting the other day and four SREs needed about five minutes to work out where it was happening (both Apple and the video conference tool have "recognize gestures" functions and they each respond to slightly different gestures). @mathowie Hmmm... Never been a fan of Apple. Maybe because I subconsciously perceive Apple as a competitor for my wife's love (she is a designer and a huge Apple fan). Anyway, big corporations like Apple are more evil than most people think.  @mathowie Therapist: So do you feel like you’ve made good progress with your crippling fear of fireworks? Patient: 👍 🎇 😨   "How can we train our AI to classify people's actions without being charged for labelling?" "Gimmicky opt-out fireworks" "Fucking genius, Brad"  @mathowie that happened to me in a therapy session the other day, too. it was terrifying lol!   @mathowie nothing new that "things" happens when someone else aka apple owns the whole device and allowed to change system and its default settings as them only wish to... @mathowie I scanned comments and didn’t see this, but I also feel similarly weird about sending sarcastic “congratulations”in iMessage because it sends it with confetti. No way to turn it off. @mathowie Whoever thought enabling that by default was a good idea should be sent to the time out corner to think about what they've done. Also, they are definitely not listening in on your conversations and training an AI based on it. @mathowie I'm pretty sure it is schadenfreude that I am feeling as I reread that for the hundredth time   @mathowie I HATE APPLES DEFAULTS. They should at least allow us to turn them off. Is this one that can be turned off?  @mathowie @lisamelton having it show up in an interview was fun. I don’t think the interviewer appreciated it. @mathowie Damn, I checked and they are on. Just turned them off. Starting interviews tomorrow for new jobs! (Very serious jobs, where this could totally tank the interview) @mathowie I had a bunch of balloons deploy “behind me” during a Zoom class this week, when I held up 2 fingers. Zoom for iOS thought it was the V for Victory sign from WW2, apparently. @mathowie I can be quite animated with my hands so this could be quite entertaining for me, or others. @mathowie funny enough this happened to me this morning in a therapy session and the video froze until I turned my camera off and on again This gives me pause. Part of the game when it comes to telehealth is accepting the limitations of privacy. A non-collateral participant may overhear conversations or read messages between a patient and a provider. Fact of life. My email signature says "...any use of this information..." @mathowie there was a phone brand years ago that auto inserted emojis into texts etc based off words used. @mathowie Apple never learn - reminds of when (pre-Intel) Macs first had system-wide voice recognition enabled by default and if you learned the correct intonation for the default voice you could reboot anyone else's Mac (without saving open docs) by loudly saying "Computer - Shutdown - Yes" and the hjinks that followed this discovery  |
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