Technology you F'ng hate thread

[Dynaman]

I find it a bit odd that half the people saying they hate facebook check back to this website for their own form of nerd/anime/toy social networking and discussion on a daily basis, but yet seem to have a dislike for people catching up with people on facebook/myspace/twitter.

That's easy - when I come here I know I'll be seeing things about the topic at hand, when going to facebook I see a million posts of "look at me fuzzy toes" for every one that is on a topic I am actually interested in.

I suppose there may be some kind of filter to keep that from happening, but I can't be arsed to look for it.

[Nicaragua]

That's easy - when I come here I know I'll be seeing things about the topic at hand, when going to facebook I see a million posts of "look at me fuzzy toes" for every one that is on a topic I am actually interested in.

I suppose there may be some kind of filter to keep that from happening, but I can't be arsed to look for it.

Well thats easily sorted - just stop adding people who have fuzzy toes as friends, either that or get some friends who dont have fuzzy toes, or just ask your friends to shut up about their goddam toes.

Anyway word on the street is that the fuzzy toes gang think we are a bunch of dorks for obsessing over sci fi planes so it all balances out i guess.

[eugimon]

Walls are proof of humanity's insanity. Let's examine.

We make walls to keep the outside out. But then we decide that's a bit oppressive so we poked holes in the wall to let the outside back in. But that defeats the whole purpose of the wall so we invent glass so we can go ahead and shut the outside out again while still being able to look outside but THEN we didn't like the fact that people on the outside could look in so we made drapes to block off the outside again.

And then we realized it's hard to wake up without the sun so we made alarm clocks to wake us up instead of the sun only now people are figuring out that the sun really was the best way to wake up and there's all sorts of physical and psychological maladies one develops from not having enough sun so what do we do? Invent special lamps that mimic the sun.

That's why I just stay outside! Only it gets a bit cold, if only there were some way I could keep the wind out...

[Blue Faced Beast]

My friends made a video with Wes Borg about how Every OS Sucks:

LoadingReadyRun

[David Hingtgen]

That's why I just stay outside! Only it gets a bit cold, if only there were some way I could keep the wind out...

I read this post while the cold winter wind slips through the cracks in the window by my PC, overlooking the snow on the ground, on a day so cold that there's like 1/4 the normal activity around here.

[anime52k8]

Walls are proof of humanity's insanity. Let's examine.

I feel the same way, only about clothes.

[eugimon]

Strollers, I hate strollers. I love my kid, why would I want to push him away from me?

[eugimon]

I read this post while the cold winter wind slips through the cracks in the window by my PC, overlooking the snow on the ground, on a day so cold that there's like 1/4 the normal activity around here.

see, without walls you'd have normal activity because folk would be outside being active. Walls, when will the madness end?

[David Hingtgen]

Without walls, there'd be NO activity today, as we'd all be frozen dead.

PS--ironically, there are Amish near here. But they have walls, too.

[eugimon]

Without walls, there'd be NO activity today, as we'd all be frozen dead.

PS--ironically, there are Amish near here. But they have walls, too.

That's just what the global wall-industrial-complex wants you to think.

[areaseven]

AOL - the single worst internet provider in the world. Also one of the biggest environmental threats (unless you like collecting coasters).

[Ghost Train]

Although I don't like the cold and do feel that walls are actually great inventions, I've become used to the harsh midwest winters, though it's a lot milder here in the D than in the real great plains. Sometimes when I'm out in the cold I'm reminded of my caveman ancestors who participated in humanity's first stand, fighting the evil Mamooth King Tyrano-Dumbo and his minions of demonic elephants in HAND to HAND combat. My caveman ancestor was called Ghost Chariot.... after this incident he took a left turn, crossed back into Asia and founded China.

AOL - the single worst internet provider in the world. Also one of the biggest environmental threats (unless you like collecting coasters).

LOL... they're still around? You'd think that they would have folded by now. I remember trying to argue with their sales rep when I wanted to cancel my account and they kept offering me free (utterly useless) sh!t lol. I was seriously just repeating: JUST CANCEL IT, for like 10 minutes straight like a 5 year old kid - when the sales rep finally gave in to my stubborn stupidity.... this was one of my most proud achievements in life.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Ghost Train

[atomicscissors]

I feel the same way, only about clothes.

"Don't you hate pants?!" - Homer Simpson

Edited December 7, 2010 by atomicscissors

[areaseven]

LOL... they're still around? You'd think that they would have folded by now. I remember trying to argue with their sales rep when I wanted to cancel my account and they kept offering me free (utterly useless) sh!t lol. I was seriously just repeating: JUST CANCEL IT, for like 10 minutes straight like a 5 year old kid - when the sales rep finally gave in to my stubborn stupidity.... this was one of my most proud achievements in life.

Unfortunately, they're still around, as there are still a bunch of idiots out there that check their mail and insert that CD of doom in their computer. But here's an interesting development.

AOL Considering Merger with Yahoo!

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

My peeve right now is any PS3 system update. Argh, nothing like a system update to blue-ball ya from some game time after coming home from a hard day.

[frothymug]

Hey! I use AOL to handle my mail... although it's free internet mail. I've had the same address for... 16 years? I don't really want to change it, tbh.

[RD Blade]

Mandatory ads, hands down. Though not a standalone technology itself, they have infiltrated many enjoyable technologies...making them less enjoyable in the process.

Want to watch a video on any given site? First, you'll have to waste a minute of your time staring at Larry's Lumber trying to hock their assorted popsicle sticks at you. What? No, you can't skip it! Just sit there and take it like a champ. In fact, we'll even boost the volume on this gem so that A: Your eardrums will blow out and B: The vid you intended to watch will sound like a faint ringing in your ears. We'll make you yearn for the days of Viagra popups.

[shiroikaze]

I see that some of the stuff I hate are already covered... DRM, including.

Mandatory ads, hands down. Though not a standalone technology itself, they have infiltrated many enjoyable technologies...making them less enjoyable in the process.

Want to watch a video on any given site? First, you'll have to waste a minute of your time staring at Larry's Lumber trying to hock their assorted popsicle sticks at you. What? No, you can't skip it! Just sit there and take it like a champ. In fact, we'll even boost the volume on this gem so that A: Your eardrums will blow out and B: The vid you intended to watch will sound like a faint ringing in your ears. We'll make you yearn for the days of Viagra popups.

Damn this to hell. It's even worse if the rest of the video fails to load for some reason.

I also like to extend this to the previews and trailers that play before the menu/movie on every goddamn DVD or Blu-Ray disc out there. Damn them harder if you can't skip them or if they're a PITA to skip (Hello District 9 Blu-Ray). PUT THEM IN THE fartING TRAILERS SECTION IN THE SPECIAL FEATURES SECTION! I'LL WATCH THEM WHENEVER I GIVE A FLYING fart ABOUT WHAT'S UPCOMING.

Another technological pet peeve:

Printers. Their reliability has seem to stay the same all these years. If they don't break down on you at all, it's the price of ink that'll kick you down. If I need to print in black and white, why do I need yellow ink? If you want continuous-ink system installed on your printer, you may have to perform surgery or chip replacement on your printer.

Edited December 7, 2010 by shiroikaze

[areaseven]

Internet Explorer (especially - Undoubtedly the worst browser that's not AOL. Version 8 is supposed to be their fastest and "most secure", but while some websites I designed look fine on Firefox and Chrome, they are completely off-alignment and embedded videos don't appear on IE8. And this sucks, as majority of my company's clients use IE and my boss refuses to switch to Firefox or Chrome for that reason.

[Hiriyu]

Mandatory ads, hands down. Though not a standalone technology itself, they have infiltrated many enjoyable technologies...making them less enjoyable in the process.

Want to watch a video on any given site? First, you'll have to waste a minute of your time staring at Larry's Lumber trying to hock their assorted popsicle sticks at you. What? No, you can't skip it! Just sit there and take it like a champ. In fact, we'll even boost the volume on this gem so that A: Your eardrums will blow out and B: The vid you intended to watch will sound like a faint ringing in your ears. We'll make you yearn for the days of Viagra popups.

Pro-tip - use Firefox and download and install the 'NoScript' and 'Adblock Plus' addons. Presto, no more unwanted ads, for real.

[RD Blade]

Pro-tip - use Firefox and download and install the 'NoScript' and 'Adblock Plus' addons. Presto, no more unwanted ads, for real.

Totally. I swear by those addons. But AFAIK, they don't prevent Youtube from forcefeeding users pre-video ads.

[Warmaker]

Like someone else said here, DRM. I've been a paying customer but because of that, the companies see fit to make things difficult for me to enjoy their product. And some go waaaaaaaaayyy overboard in their DRM attempts to a point where I won't buy their product because of their Draconian measures.

"You can enjoy this product but you first need to cut off your left testicle."

F**k 'em.

Cell Phones.

I hate them to no end. I don't own one and have no desire to get one. I had one for a while because my job FORCED me to have one while doing this one particular assignment. My friends and coworkers are simply bewildered by it. I swear I'm the only one that hates them in a world where everyone, including little kids, have one. They just simply wouldn't know how to live if they didn't have a Cell Phone. To me, the biggest reason they exist is that they act as a Dog Leash, regardless of where you're at and what time. And sure enough, when I did have that work cell phone, I was being pestered every few minutes.

"What're you doing?"*

"Where you at?"

"What are your numbers?"

"You need to do this/that."

"Are you sure about that?"

* Usually work bastards will say this first and not even bother saying, "Hey, how you doing out there?" or some other false, semi-polite greeting.

Having a work cell phone was everything I knew I was going to hate. It was also a very convenient means on giving bad news conveniently without seeing someone face-to-face like a man.

Dog Leashes. Freakin' Dog Leashes...

It's also annoying when I have someone that's constantly... constantly... on their Cell Phone. You might as well surgically attach it to their head (hey, that will happen years later, mark my words). That or texting every 5 minutes.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Warmaker

[frothymug]

I don't get what the complaints are about IE8. I never have problems with it and I never notice any speed differences using Firefox. I haven't touched Chrome, but seriously... why does everyone take a huge dump on IE? Is it too mainstream for your tastes?

[Seto Kaiba]

I don't get what the complaints are about IE8. I never have problems with it and I never notice any speed differences using Firefox. I haven't touched Chrome, but seriously... why does everyone take a huge dump on IE? Is it too mainstream for your tastes?

That's a question for another thread, but the short version is that it's nowhere near as secure or capable as the major third-party alternatives. It enjoys a large share of the web browser "market" because it's a pre-installed component of every modern Microsoft Windows OS, which accounts for a little over 83% of the world's personal computers. There are plenty of reasons to dump on IE, but that's a matter for another thread...

On the note of cell phones, one of my other pet peeves cropped up today... most phones these days try to get you to buy custom ringtones and whatnot from the service provider, and go WELL out of their way to stop you from just putting some music clips on your phone's memory card manually and using those. Every new phone I've gotten in the last half-dozen years has required some kind of firmware crack or other trickery to get it to let me load my own custom backgrounds and ringtones onto it without a fuss.

[Major Focker]

my peeves are about what powers technology, or more precisely, the transmission and connection.

plugs/outlets - why do need someting like 9 different configurations? excluding considerations about the inclusion/exclusion of the third "ground" prong (which has some merit), what's the point in having the prongs in different sizes/angles/shapes? for the 3-prong varieties, why can't at least the orientation be consistent, particularly for power bricks/wall warts? Motorolla and Western Digital were on the right track when they included swappable prong faceplates, but when i use the 3-prong one and plug it into a wall outlet, the cable end is pointing up instead of down, and on some of my power strip/surge protectors, they end up covering the switch.

plugs for gadgets and small appliances aren't off the hook either, in some cases actually worse off. where i work, all laptops are sourced from HP, and limited to just 2 models (13" and 15") for each refresh cycle, and they are all within 1 or 2 generations of eachother. yet when we are in meetings, at least half the people can't mooch power off the others since the plugs won't fit. ironic, considering the power bricks have roughly the same output. thankfully, USB has made some headway. when i travel, i only bring my laptop power and charge my phone and camera through the USB on the laptop, or the USB port on my univeral plug adapter. if the iphone/ipod cable had USB on both ends, i wouldn't need to bring that too. and apple was just being obnoxious when they made the headphone socket just a tad deeper the breakaway magnetic power plug on the macbook was cool though (not to mention safer), and the compact power brick with built-in cable harness was thoughtful. now if only the rest of their design choices were similarly functionality driven rather than just for "being different"..

power strips/surge protectors - why can't they all have universal sockets? i know it's a function of cost, so it's forgivable for the basic power strips. but the higher end ones like what Monster or Belkin puts out, why make country-specific variants of the same model rather than using universal sockets? i fancy the Belkin Conceal because it neatly covers the power bricks and has a cable organizer, but soon as i need to use a plug adaptor on a power brick -- no joy. the worst offenders are power strips designed specifically for 3-prong but have sockets spaced a mm too close preventing standard plugs from fitting side by side.

110V - it's debatable whether it is significantly safer than 220V (yet to see conclusive statistics). 220V is more efficient and allows for lighter components. same mess with 50 vs 60Hz. really, one would think the world would have consolidated to 220V/60Hz by now...

[eugimon]

Phones. Why do there need to be so many different phones? I remember there used to be one phone that you leased from one phone company and everybody had the same phone. That was efficiency. But then some idiot had to go and regulate the industry and now there's all these different phones out on the market, bah!

[anime52k8]

Totally. I swear by those addons. But AFAIK, they don't prevent Youtube from forcefeeding users pre-video ads.

nope, ABP blocks those too.

Phones. Why do there need to be so many different phones? I remember there used to be one phone that you leased from one phone company and everybody had the same phone. That was efficiency. But then some idiot had to go and regulate the industry and now there's all these different phones out on the market, bah!

and what's with all the damn buttons on them these days. F*cking 12 buttons on a phone. Rotary phones worked just fine dammit.

Edited December 8, 2010 by anime52k8

[Agent ONE]

Garbage cell phones that mimic the iphone. They are such a joke.. Not even close, but I hear non-tech people brag all the time about how good their droid is (or whatever) and they just have no idea.

[areaseven]

and what's with all the damn buttons on them these days. F*cking 12 buttons on a phone. Rotary phones worked just fine dammit.

I liked it better when telephones still used cranks.

[dizman]

Screw phones, we need to go back to smoke signals.

[mikeszekely]

Garbage cell phones that mimic the iphone. They are such a joke.. Not even close, but I hear non-tech people brag all the time about how good their droid is (or whatever) and they just have no idea.

Really? In the circles I run with, it's the opposite. Every idiot around seems to have an iPhone, but techies prefer Android.

Me? I think the iPad is plenty of iOS for me. I'm happy with Verizon's network, so I'm leaning Android for my next phone.

[Ghost Train]

Garbage cell phones that mimic the iphone. They are such a joke.. Not even close, but I hear non-tech people brag all the time about how good their droid is (or whatever) and they just have no idea.

It takes a special kind of elite human being to use an iphone. The advanced 4 variants require you to hold the phone a certain way to make a phone call. Definitely not a phone for noobs!

(Yea yea Droid II has the same problem, I know)

Note: Droid & iPhone users typically work for people who use Blackberries. Thank you.

[areaseven]

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, Sweet-N-Low and Splenda. Stick to sugar. If you're concerned with your diabetes, then too bad.

[mikeszekely]

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, Sweet-N-Low and Splenda. Stick to sugar. If you're concerned with your diabetes, then too bad.

Which one is the one that comes in the pink packets? I like that stuff. It's sweeter than sugar.

[David Hingtgen]

Cars that automatically lock/unlock their doors. On my last one, I could fully disable it. On my current one, I can prevent it from auto-unlocking them, but I cannot prevent it from auto-locking.

It's VERY annoying when you're trying to let someone off or pick them up at the front door of somewhere, as it will re-lock them the moment you unlock them in preparation of opening the door. Most people don't come to a full and compete stop, THEN unlock the door---they unlock the door when you're down to 2 to 3mph, as they want to quickly get in or out the MOMENT the car stops so as not to hold up traffic---not possible when the car wants to keep locking the doors on you...

I also hate automatic headlights, because it never tells you what it's doing (in my experience---surely *some* cars do have some sort of low-beam status indicator light). The switch isn't truly on/off in most cars in my experience. It's spring-loaded, and moving it "changes it from what it was before". It's often labled off/auto, not off/on. This is important. If they were on, moving it turns them off, and vice-versa. Well, unless it's PITCH BLACK, you can't really see the beams against the road. If you're right behind a car, it's hard to tell if it's your driving lights or DRL or lowbeams reflecting off their chrome bumper.

So---it's dusk out. You want your lights on. But you don't know if your car thinks it's dark enough yet--if it already turned them on, turing the switch will turn them off! Because the switch isn't on/off, it's "change from what they were". You'd have to wait 30 more mins for it to be REALLY dark, to be able to see the actual presence of a beam, to determine their status.

In rain/haze, it's even worse, as it can be quite bright, and DRL's don't turn on your tail lights. But some cars do try to account for fog/haze---but again, if you turn the knob--you don't know what it'll do, as you can't tell how they are now--you could be turning them OFF. (on my car, the dash lighting is quite independently controlled--dash light status is no indicator of what external bulbs are lit)

I want a true on/off button for headlights. Such that no matter what the status is, I can turn the knob to a certain position every time, and know what the lights are going to do. You know, like how cars were back in the 80's and 90's...