Quality of everything is getting worse

Weather underground, takes 20 seconds to load anything (on the fastest phone ) and when it finally does, gives me a seizure.
 
Cliff next time you have to buy a new car think about an Alfa Romeo Stelvio: more quality and less money for a real (Italian) sport car.

This is the first time in history that the words "Alfa Romeo" and "more quality" have been combined in a single sentence. :D

Beautiful cars, though.

My Uncle had an Alfa Romeo Spider convertible from the early 80's. My Dad had an Alfa Romeo GTV6 from the mid 80's and an Alfa Romeo Milano from the late 80's. They both needed second cars because their Alfa's were in the repair shop so much. When I was a kid, I'll never forget one year on Halloween I was hiding behind my Dad's GTV6 waiting to scare my cousins and all of a sudden there was a loud bang that sounded like a shotgun and flames started shooting out from the engine!
 
Drove a Stelvio lately, a rental car, it's quite good IMHO
Considering the massive spate of problems that plagued the Giulia through its launch and first model year, I think we're still waiting for the Stelvio to prove it's a car worth owning long term. It's still on Consumer Reports' list of least reliable cars - along with the Tesla Model X. Maybe Alfa will surprise us - but even their recent history doesn't support that. And clearly reliability is not the end all of car purchasing decisions.
 
I've never been an Apple fan (hate the lack of a delete key, HATE Finder, hate the closed infrastructure, etc.) and their business model has gotten very greedy. They try to force you into buying cloud storage as a revenue stream. I bought a Lenovo X1 Extreme last night. We'll see.
I've got 3 personal Levonos and both myself and me have one for work (so 5 in the house). They've all been really solid.
I bought them out of convenience (friends company going out of business), but am hooked on them.

The 3 personal are Ultrabooks with only a Core i5. I frequently mix music on it with plugins galore running (stuff that are CPU hogs like Slate Virtual Rack, Sound Toys, Izotope, Slate Triggers, Waves Mastering). They chug along just great. Allow me to edit/mix on the go.

I think you'll be happy-ish with the purchase.
 
My 2012 Macbook Pro is on it's last legs. So I'm looking for a new laptop. Should've never installed Mojave but it was constantly nagging me. Worked great before that. Now it's a dog and says the battery needs service but it only has 500 charge cycles. I'm convinced Apple slows down older products intentionally.

Dell: Gets really hot. Dell's response: "Dont' put it on your lap". Excuse me? Why tf do you call it a laptop then?

Apple: No USB ports. You need dongles for everything. Who was the rocket surgeon who came up with that idea? No mag-safe anymore. WTF? Trackpad the size of the USS Nimitz. Stupid strip thingy at the top. STILL no backspace key. Crappy keyboard where the keys stop working because they really needed to shave 0.1mm off the thickness.

Surface Book 2: Was tempted to get this until I read the reviews. 25% of the reviews are 1-star ratings. So, yeah, I'm guessing it's typical MS quality. Cut every corner possible and it breaks after a couple months.

Lenovo X1 Carbon. Overheats and CPU throttles. Gee what a surprise. You made the shell out of carbon fiber dumbasses. It's not a very good conductor of heat.

What's with the "it needs to be absolutely as thin as possible"? I'd rather have a laptop 1/2" thicker if it stayed cooler and got better battery life.



I relied on Intellicast for weather. They got bought by Weather Underground. "Dont' worry, it's gonna be great". Uh, no, WU sucks donkey tits. Everything TWC touches turns to poop.


My Porsche Cayenne got hit by a deer. Damage not too bad but was thinking about trading it in. The new ones are noticeable poorer quality. Floor mats look like they're made out of recycled burlap bags. Poor panel fit, lower quality materials everywhere. Disappointing.


Why do these tech companies have to keep moving the cheese. I swear they just change things for the sake of change.


Oh, and get off my lawn...

It is with my sincerest regard and gratitude for this brotherhood of grumpy old men that I bring to you this evening that which has stirred in my own inquisitive mind and lay before me both quandary and conundrum. That which, in itself, so richly exemplifies the purist distillation and exquisite presentation of paradox that to not partake in its sweetness would be as senseless as rejecting the warmest of springtime splendors.

To wit, to foment outrage and let fly pertinacious accusations of tit-for-tat, nay, subjugation as the consequence of decisions for which not an ounce of compulsion or duress was endured, is to place me in such a state as to conclude that the whole endeavor was but a pasquinade in disguise!

It is of this mind, and knowing that our deeply held mutual esteem will endure the sometimes rowdy assails of the tongue, that I suggest to you that your target is not alone in its foibles, and that the same deficiencies may be found in your lauded vehicular and faux airless tubular extravagances!

Alas, even though these words may earn me the much undeserved reputation of a verbal vomitorium, I feel called to witness to all that shall hear that an injustice has been served to one not able to hear nor offer defense, to rebut, parry or to provide exemplar contrair!

It is my humble wish that all present take heed and let transpire an inquiry of magnitude justly appropriate to the matter at hand, weigh heavily the results of such ponderance, and rest assured that the fine members of this body have duly performed same.

Yours in quiet contemplation,
fractalz
 
Love my 2018 MB Pro. Best computer I've ever had. I even like the touch bar which I did not expect to like.

I recently bought a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Tablet. It's pretty great but I broke it. They fixed it really quickly and I was impressed even though I had to pay due to the fact that liquid spills are not covered in warranty. Not unexpected.

Anyway, I've been impressed with Lenovo and while I'm not a Windows fan, it's a pretty nice computer. Hope you enjoy your Lenovo.
 
It is with my sincerest regard and gratitude for this brotherhood of grumpy old men that I bring to you this evening that which has stirred in my own inquisitive mind and lay before me both quandary and conundrum. That which, in itself, so richly exemplifies the purist distillation and exquisite presentation of paradox that to not partake in its sweetness would be as senseless as rejecting the warmest of springtime splendors.

To wit, to foment outrage and let fly pertinacious accusations of tit-for-tat, nay, subjugation as the consequence of decisions for which not an ounce of compulsion or duress was endured, is to place me in such a state as to conclude that the whole endeavor was but a pasquinade in disguise!

It is of this mind, and knowing that our deeply held mutual esteem will endure the sometimes rowdy assails of the tongue, that I suggest to you that your target is not alone in its foibles, and that the same deficiencies may be found in your lauded vehicular and faux airless tubular extravagances!

Alas, even though these words may earn me the much undeserved reputation of a verbal vomitorium, I feel called to witness to all that shall hear that an injustice has been served to one not able to hear nor offer defense, to rebut, parry or to provide exemplar contrair!

It is my humble wish that all present take heed and let transpire an inquiry of magnitude justly appropriate to the matter at hand, weigh heavily the results of such ponderance, and rest assured that the fine members of this body have duly performed same.

Yours in quiet contemplation,
fractalz

Well played Sir!
 
My Uncle had an Alfa Romeo Spider convertible from the early 80's. My Dad had an Alfa Romeo GTV6 from the mid 80's and an Alfa Romeo Milano from the late 80's. They both needed second cars because their Alfa's were in the repair shop so much. When I was a kid, I'll never forget one year on Halloween I was hiding behind my Dad's GTV6 waiting to scare my cousins and all of a sudden there was a loud bang that sounded like a shotgun and flames started shooting out from the engine!
Something changed lately ;)
 
It's still on Consumer Reports' list of least reliable cars - along with the Tesla Model X. Maybe Alfa will surprise us .
Different pool, different results: https://www.whatcar.com/news/2018-what-car-reliability-survey/n17826
I don't want to convince anyone and go OT but since posted also about the quality decreasing in car (and I owned a Macan sold for trouble with exhaust system and yes quality got worst in recent model) I wanted to say that not all the brand are getting worst, some of them (Alfa among them) are trying to improve quality. IMHO sometimes you can have an infotainment system under the average when you have a better driving pleasure ;) . Form me it's enough, period! This is not a car forum so I would stop here. If someone would like to prove my 510 hp AWD car I can take you for a ride in my Alps road ;)
 
I agree on the sentence
Quality of everything is getting worse
Other said, it is not only the quality, but also the features added to the product which make them less reliable. (electronics, connectivity, ...)
Plus the trend to release a new model every 6 months.
Plus the lack of competencies to repair them. The younger generation are just not educated for that. (for example lots of TVs go into the waste just because of a 5 cents faulty capacitor into the alim.).
I am very sorry guys. We don't need internet or piloted suspension in a car. We don't need connected fridge, but a loving wife/husband able to cook , we don't need alexa to switch on the light, .......
Just my opinion.
 
Considering the massive spate of problems that plagued the Giulia through its launch and first model year, I think we're still waiting for the Stelvio to prove it's a car worth owning long term. It's still on Consumer Reports' list of least reliable cars - along with the Tesla Model X. Maybe Alfa will surprise us - but even their recent history doesn't support that. And clearly reliability is not the end all of car purchasing decisions.

I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything and have no shares with Alfa Romeo. I drove this brand new car for 2 days and found it to be a fine car, that's it. Anyway, only time can prove if an equipment is reliable or not....all the rest on most forums is mainly "opinions". Does not concern this forum IMHO, but nowadays people get paid for leaving positive comments. Therefore I'd rather go for a road test to get my own opinion if a car is rocksolid and safe or not than rely on internet opinions.
 
(out of topic) The alfa romeo giulia is (in my opinion) the sexiest car avalaible in europe.
the stelvio is a great looking car too.
Maybe not built as a german car (i own a mercedes), but look a moment at these curves ! (and look at the prices of german cars. They can for sure be well built !)
Only italy can produces such design.
It is sexy, and what man is ready to do for a sexy thing ?

 
I bought a Lenovo X1 Extreme last night. We'll see.

My two music computers, a 2009 MBP and a 2012 iMac 27, are bound to bite the dust soon and this thread doesn’t have me “looking forward to a new computer” as once was the case! I’ll be very interested to know how this works out for you. If it holds up under your uses, I have a strong feeling it’ll be impervious to mine.

why should you still take pride in your work?

I’m on board with the spirit of your post, but the answer to the question above is always going to be “because it’s your work.” It’s a failing of our society that so many have accepted that the actions of another excuse poor personal effort on your part.

I know what you meant, and don’t mean to convolute the intent of your post. You’re right about some business models affecting the end product. No doubt there (yes, I am looking at you, Henry).
 
I’ve been very happy with HP laptops lately. I went to the Microsoft store a couple years ago to buy a Surface Book and walked out with an HP Spectre x360 instead. Since then I’ve bought two more for my mom and son and they’ve all been great.
+1
I think you are limited to 4 cores on the x360 though and the OP is probably looking for max. horsepower.

Wife switched from Macbook Pro to one of those and loves it. Used for graphic design and light video editing. Tried a Surface Pro + dock first. The tablet was fine, the dock was unreliable crap.

Things getting worse? Seems bean counters and sales shills are making the decisions at Apple lately.
WTF decided Yelp was the gold standard for finding "whatever" near me inside the maps app? I really want to see the "whatever" near me, not just those who paid Yelp site listing fees!
 
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