Posted On: Wednesday - June 19th 2019 7:29PM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Artificial Stupidity Orwellian Stupidity Healthcare Stupidity iEspionage
(pretty much a continuation of this post)
We do know, here at Peak Stupidity, that there IS more important stuff to write about than our personal pet peeves. There are, in fact, 10-12 posts to be written, simmering on the back burner, emitting who knows how much carbon into the ionosphere. Though it was, after all, the subject of the very first post of this blog, these little peeves are not the point of it all. However, we figure the readers may still enjoy the curmudgeonry posts, even those not about particularly existential problems.
In other words, I don't HAVE to use the stupid-ass "Higi Station" blood pressure
It's been 4 days under 2 years since I wrote that previous post on this Orwellian machine, seen again here:
The update I have for the Higi Station today is about a change in the software. Now, I wouldn't give a rat's ass what software changes are made that work behind the scenes, but now there are new menus and new pieces of data to be intentionally-erroneously entered. (Fake or not, it still slows down the process.) I was even getting used to the little digital-presented-as-analog gauges that would shoot up from the left and settle down on the BP readings - there was a kind of suspense involved.
Oh, man, as railed on before here in Software as a Tool, here comes another case of having to learn new stuff just to do the same job as before. There is now a survey. Though one can skip each question, that still takes a "button" push on the touch screen. Each "push" is another trial, as touchscreens are notoriously not reliable, for me, at least. I'd had to wet my finger with spit to get it to work, and I really don't think this spreading of germs this way is what you really want in a piece of
I got through that, and things became familiar, though still with different displays. Again, this type of re-learning process just slows things down and raises the blood pressure (so all initial uses of this machine will have a 10 mm-Hg handicap for me). I found the same functions available, such as averaging of my readings and all that other Big Brother data storing crap that I take no part in.
After all that, roughly 15 screen clicks at minimum, there are no cool gauges anymore. Oh, well, what do you want for the price of your privacy... OK, for me, FOR FREE. This is how the company sees it:
"self-service" - yes, we're all used to that.
"engage consumers" - I guess that's just a typo. "Enrage comsumers" is probably what they meant, but WHY?
"improve their health" - Actually, it's none of their business. I understand the simple concept of a free BP reading being a way to bring business into the store. It's way beyond that now though.
"customer loyalty" - to the old 2-button machines. Good going, marketing team.
Speaking of marketing teams and data collection, I'd really rather be able to skip all data entry with these things, but you can't get out of some of it. I make it all up, as I've written (more on the store loyalty cards). I'm not trying to screw up the studies, but these 110 year-old women with decent blood pressure and a solid BMIs (you can weigh yourself too) are probably gonna be outliers that will have to be thrown out. Sorry, guys, there was no MYOFB button.
Comments: