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When I read about these things I always think about some of the writing of @pluralistic on graceful failure modes. A product (system) is not defined by its success but by how good or poorly it fails. I've been teaching students that not considering (poor) failure modes is a huge liability.

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/1

A Zipcar parked bya a curb.
Ars Technica · “Nightmare” Zipcar outage is a warning against complete app dependencyBy Scharon Harding

@koen_hufkens @pluralistic i used to have an electric bike for which the only way to turn on the builtin lights was via an app. I got rid of that bike.

(UPDATE: the bike was a Blix. Don't buy a Blix bike. For more reasons than just that)

Jorge Toledo

@detritus @koen_hufkens @pluralistic Seeing being infected by this kind of technological approach hits deep 🥺

@eldelacajita @detritus @pluralistic This is worth the read within the context of #enshitification and the cycling industry (only talking shifters). What is the cost of convenience, and what are we willing the bear to not have things fail on us in unexpected ways? Many who are informed are now considering these questions. I will probably never use electronic shifting.

bikepacking.com/plog/cost-of-c

BIKEPACKING.com · The Cost of Convenience: Taking a Hard Look at Wireless ShiftingIn this opinion piece, Nic Morales takes a cold, hard look at the proliferation of electronic shifting and reflects on its true costs...

@eldelacajita @detritus @pluralistic This sentence summarizes a lot: "Components created with mechanical logic hold value, regardless of their aesthetic quality, because they have a use function inherent to their design."

Software, how convenient and flexible, messes with this relationship. And this isn't even touching on copyright issues.