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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: 3, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday November 07 2017, @10:13PM
Show trials are a real thing. They work best when the 'trial' is known to happen and *in theory* the public could go watch even if in practice, it never quite manages to work out. That theoretical possibility is part of the show.
Don't get hung up on exact dates. 1984, for example, was an arbitrary year in the future, not a scientifically calculated date.
But it really is amazing how fast things change. Few now can even imagine that the idea of needing a licence to drive was truly offensive to many people in the early 20th century. It was about as popular as gun control at an NRA event. Click it or ticket wouldn't have stood a chance in the '50s. In the '80s, you actually could run through the airport like OJ and get on your flight, no ID required, boarding pass = flight.