The Onion
5 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2010–2026
2:31 · 10M views · Feb 10, 2009
An Onion News Network satirical segment about a new Sony gadget that is infuriatingly bad, delivered as a profane tech-trends report.
HN mentions it as a joke or a shared favorite Onion classic when tech frustration or The Onion comes up.
5 comments from Hacker News
It's been a few years (OK, >10) since I spent some time at the Rochester Institute of Technology studying aspects of Color Science and later at UCLA studying image sensor design from the guys who designed and built nearly every image sensor that's gone into space. The problem with the "we need better sensors" question is that, in reality "they" don't, "we" do. By this I mean that the vast majority of the people on this planet are well served with a color system, from sensor to display, that provides the images we get today. These images are great for everything from selling you an iPhone to being entertained for a couple of hours by a movie to printing stunning images in a Victoria's Secret catalog and posting about your vacation in Maui with your kids on Facebook. There are well-understood color management approaches for making all of the above work very well. In other words, from "their" perspective, there are no problems and "we" are all crazy. Would people be amazed by the images one could produce with better sensors on matching display systems? Absolutely. Just as I was when I saw analog HDTV at least ten years before it got to consumer-land. However, the issue really becomes one of economics. Consumer electronics isn't about excellence. It's about a simple question: "What's the next piece of shit we can get everyone hooked on?". Famously: this video OK, that's a little harsh, but, yes, consumer electronics companies are always on the hunt for the next mass craze in the seg
I feel bad for the guy and all the Apple users constantly sharing stories of being mistreated and abused. Stop giving these companies your money and consent. I'm basically numb to it at this point though. Every few days we read on this site small permutations of the same story. Sometimes people here get a little extra backchannel support, but that's a token prize for the jester who made a king chuckle. Then a few more days go by and everyone upvotes a new iWidget to oblivion because it has 0.1 new gigablahs or takes up a milliblah less of some bullshit nobody was asking for. All while we collectively virtue signal that people are spending too much time and relying on technology too much. Well, it's almost Monday let's see what new bullshit convinces everyone to keep getting fucked and pay for the privilege. I basically have turned into this guy: this video
They had amazingly high production values on classics like "Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard" [LINK] and "Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work" this video I wonder why they stopped.
"That's why you have TVs that come with remotes with a million buttons on them, it makes the buyer feel like he's got something powerful" this video
I still send this one around a lot: "Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work" - this video