SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the if-manuals-are-for-sissies,-who-are-automatics-for? dept.
Lancelot Braithwaite cannot get through my visit without bursting forth a mantra that once served him and thousands of consumers well: “Read the frickin’ instruction manual!” he bellows. “And don’t throw it out unless you’re pretty good at memorizing it!” Never mind that products—from iPhones to Facebook—have made manuals into curious artifacts of a distant era. That era is alive if not well in Braithwaite’s smokey, cramped one-bedroom on West 14th Street.
Before tech product reviewers were brand names, there was Braithwaite, thundering his wisdom and geekery from publications that now exist only in yellowing copies. It was a time when the best critics were so familiar with technical specifications that their knowledge rivaled the engineers who built the products. And none were as omnipresent or as savvy as Braithwaite, who even served on industry standards committees.
Manuals are for sissies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:13PM (6 children)
I've always liked the AvE Boltr youtube channel for his tears downs and reviews. Very honest and in an oldschool style, doesn't hold back. He doesn't accept free products for reviews, so no worry about bias from that. He limits to mostly tools and appliances, but it's still interesting and very funny. Vulgarity warning, though.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:52PM
A product that brings you to tears is so bad it doesn't need much of a review. More of a warning, actually.
Like Windows 10.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by insanumingenium on Tuesday November 07 2017, @04:56PM (4 children)
If only vulgarity was the end of it, there is a whole world of kanukistani slang to learn, and then you get into the real meat of her and just start mispronouncing words for fun. I have a hard time pronouncing certain words now, it is a coin toss if I say rectifier correctly, and I am a blonde one from never saying tungsten carbide correctly (or indeed the same way twice) again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @07:55PM (1 child)
Tungsten carbide drills? Wot in the bloody 'ell are tungsten carbide drills?
(Score: 2) by jcross on Tuesday November 07 2017, @10:12PM
That's when you practice saying "tungsten carbide" over and over to get the pronunciation right.
(Score: 2) by splodus on Wednesday November 08 2017, @02:47PM (1 child)
I used to find him intensely annoying, but put up with it because he really did pass on a huge amount of practical knowledge.
Over the years I've kind of got used to it (although I know what you mean about the mispronunciation...)
But what is sad, for me, is that I would love to show a lot of them to my children, and I can't because of the vulgarity.
It's not being prudish (it doesn't bother me in the slightest). But I can't be exposing my 8 year old to it, if only because I don't want her coming out with it at school!
It's such a shame, cos my two eldest love watching MrPete, Abom, EEVBlog, Big Clive, all the other great youtubers. But I think AvE is unique in his content - real-world-based and covering such a wide range of aspects in his tear-downs and little shop-projects...
(Score: 1) by insanumingenium on Thursday November 09 2017, @04:45PM
Funny you mention Big Clive, a huge portion of his draw for me is specifically the waiting for him to say or do something entirely inappropriate. I would be much more worried about kids watching a video about drinking methylated spirits than most of the stuff AvE does.
Though on second thought if they start breaking out the sawzall to open boxes that might also be an issue.
Not to judge your choices in the slightest, they are yours to make. But personally I wonder if having a kid who understands the mechanical and thermal characteristics of various plastics (to take an easy example of something he covers nonstop) is more valuable than the cost of picking up some shop language.
Before you ask, no, I am not a parent, and no, I don't understand the dread of a child acting inappropriately. Perhaps those experiences will change my mind, but I'm not going to bet on it.
Now I need to look up MrPete and Abom...