products you hate

[P90]

If it's at all possible for "user error" to occur when operating a washer and drier, then it's a very bad design.

not necessarily, some people don't know how to use a toaster properly...

[moz]

My laptop died and I was faced with the choice of Windows 10 or adopting some form of Unix.

Windows 10... bring out the pitchforks.

Crowdfunded computer games that decide at the last minute to use Steam. Steam is worse than Windows 10.

Laptops that more or less support Linux, except for certain key features. With my MSI laptop I can either have working shutdown or power management, but not both. But there's only so many times you can hard-shutdown a modern OS before you have to reinstall it. Other people have apparently made Ubuntu and Mint work on my model, but not me.

The gap between "cheap chinese junk" and "really expensive artisanal hand-crafted masterpieces" being empty. Why can't I pay a bit more and get something a bit better, why does it have to be 10x the price or GTFO? Right now I want a 12V->19.5V laptop PSU, but the $50 eBay one is just awful, and the alternative (presumably) decent ones are several hundred dollars. A replacement AC supply is $100-ish.

[TerraHertz]

Commercial switch-mode power supplies in which the ferrite transformer halves are glued together with an epoxy that absolutely cannot be softened by heat or any available solvent. Thus making the transformer and the whole supply a lump of junk that cannot possibly be modified or reused for anything else.

Especially when the core halves have molded clip-points for metal springs to hold them together, but no, the power supply manufacturer used epoxy instead.

Like on this little 40W 18V laptop charger, that I wanted to change to 12V. Traced the circuit, it's a good design and would be easy to change -  if I could get the transformer apart. But it's not going to happen. Glued together with an epoxy that completely ignores acetone and MEK, and doesn't even go soft at soldering iron temps.  PCB and transformer at top in pic.
Frustrating, after the effort of schematic tracing. (pic 2)

I'd ordered a 12V 40W supply online as a fallback plan. It arrived... (bottom in pic) but the design is so cheap-arse shitty I'm not sure I want to use it. Not without modifying it somewhat. For one thing it has zero filtering on the mains input. Straight in via fuse, to the bridge rectifier. It looks unlikely this thing could put out 3.3A, which is what the markings claim. Next: trying this bit of crap.

Grrr... one way or another I need a 12V supply that fits in here. (pic 3, green arrow.)

Edit to add pics: load testing the el-cheapo 12V supply. Hey, it actually can put out a bit over 3A - briefly. Temperature of the heatsinks headed for meltdown, and that's without the plastic case. Also the output regulation is poor, and there's lots of ripple and HF noise - because there is no inductive filtering on the output, just a cap.
Such cost-cutting rubbish. Considering I recently bought some nice 12V 4A supplies in neat metal cases, MUCH better than this for Au$12.79 each, for Au$16 this is disappointing.

[Kilrah]

Umm why poke at the transformer in this case? You can certainly change the resistive divider that sets the output voltage.

[P90]

or stick 10 silicone diodes in series on the output... LOL

[TerraHertz]

Urrgh. To both above. Anyone else want to explain it to them? I'm too busy enjoying the lib-meltdown at Comey being fired. AT LAST.

[moby]

I hate my compressor.
I need it to power my Metcal desolderer and to blow the crap out of amplifiers that have lived in disgusting places but -
It is fundamentally evil. It waits, hissing malevolently, until
1: The phone rings - or -
2: Something particularly interesting comes on the radio.
Then it decides to fill the tank - totally destroying the acoustic environment.
M

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

The kettle because every week or two it's got lime encrusted at the bottom, again.

[P90]

The kettle because every week or two it's got lime encrusted at the bottom, again.

stop being stingy and get an R.O. system to filter that nasty tap water. I take it you haven't experienced the excruciating pain of kidney stones...

[P90]

I hate my compressor.
I need it to power my Metcal desolderer and to blow the crap out of amplifiers that have lived in disgusting places but -
It is fundamentally evil. It waits, hissing malevolently, until
1: The phone rings - or -
2: Something particularly interesting comes on the radio.
Then it decides to fill the tank - totally destroying the acoustic environment.
M

Senco PC1010...

you're welcome...

[t_ryner]

What do I hate? Well- That's a kind of hard question for me, as I can't truly hate a thing I can get components from... That's it- I know now. I hate any item that is unnecessarily canned or sealed with custom security bits that are not for sale. These are not the problem though. I use a lot of what some refer to as "E-Waste"- (curbside electronics). Every once and awhile I'll come across something interesting only to find that some absolute genus stripped every screw while attempting to scrap it or something. 

[ansonbao]

maybe the money.So many people work hard to earn more,but they never understand what is the meaning of life and why they work so hard.Some of them evern discard morality.

[jonovid]

when is a Video Balun not a CCTV Video Balun, when its just a connector
sold as rca  75 ? to  Line

[slurry]

maybe the money.So many people work hard to earn more,but they never understand what is the meaning of life and why they work so hard.Some of them evern discard morality.

I think you are on to something here, also, the meaning of life cannot be found on the internet.

[SeanB]

The kettle because every week or two it's got lime encrusted at the bottom, again.

stop being stingy and get an R.O. system to filter that nasty tap water. I take it you haven't experienced the excruciating pain of kidney stones...

Yup, those hurt.......

when is a Video Balun not a CCTV Video Balun, when its just a connector
sold as rca  75 ? to  Line

They do work surprisingly well though, I have put video and power through 30m of Cat5 cable with them for a surveillance system with no problems. Camera would still run at 10V, which was good as the night time IR emitter dropped the voltage on the 3 parallel pairs to that at night.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

the meaning of life cannot be found on the internet.

I'd swear Monty Python can be found somewhere on the interwebs

[R005T3r]

I hate my compressor.
I need it to power my Metcal desolderer and to blow the crap out of amplifiers that have lived in disgusting places but -
It is fundamentally evil. It waits, hissing malevolently, until
1: The phone rings - or -
2: Something particularly interesting comes on the radio.
Then it decides to fill the tank - totally destroying the acoustic environment.
M

Well, get a bigger one. Having a 100L air compressor, changed my way of dealing with electronics and diy stuff, charge once and then you are fine for the day!

also, I got some other pneumatic tools... They work flawlessly and in some aspects I think they are superior to the electrical equivalents.. 

[AlxDroidDev]

Not a product, but 2 expressions used to describe many products that I really hate:

Disruptive Innovation and Disruptive Technology

I've read Clayton Christensen's (the guy who came up with these expressions) 1997 book, called "The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail", and then I read a few papers, specially one from Erwin Daneels ("Technology Reconsidered: A Critique and Research Agenda"), where Christensen's entire theory is debunked. They are probably the most misused expressions in the industry today. People use these expressions all the time never stopping to research what it means, or what is the (idiotic) theory behind it. They just make up a meaning in their heads and go along with it.

Even John C. Dvorak has debunked the expressions: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1628049,00.asp

Whenever I hear someone talking about how some new product/technology is going to be "disruptive", I just cringe!

[forrestc]

Not a product, but 2 expressions used to describe many products that I really hate:

Disruptive Innovation and Disruptive Technology
.....
Even John C. Dvorak has debunked the expressions: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1628049,00.asp

Having been both the disrupter and the disrupted with the same product, I can say I *mostly* agree with this...

I would argue that what gets disrupted are business models.   Especially ones built around 'what the market will bear' pricing.   Or ones built upon a higher-than-normal method of production.   How much impact a lower-cost-but-good-enough product will have to an existing business is hard to quantify generally and really depends on what differentiators really exist between the low cost and the high cost product.   Where they are so close to identical to be indistinguishable and the higher price point isn't a selling point in itself (i.e. designer bags), it is fairly common to see a lower-cost entrant disrupt the business model of the higher-cost incumbent, especially if the product is actually better at a lower price point.

However, in a lot of cases, the lower cost entrant simply provides availability of a product for those who wouldn't have bought the higher cost product anyways.   Which doesn't cause any meaningful disruption.
 
All of the above applies to 'Disruptive Pricing', not necessarily a disruptive product or technology.   And I agree that those terms are being thrown about indiscriminately. Disruptive things tend to be 'big ideas' not a single product.   Look at how the Internet is disrupting everything as a specific example.

[cprobertson1]

Not a product, but 2 expressions used to describe many products that I really hate:

Disruptive Innovation and Disruptive Technology
......
Even John C. Dvorak has debunked the expressions: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1628049,00.asp

Whenever I hear someone talking about how some new product/technology is going to be "disruptive", I just cringe!

I think this calls for a good xkcd reference

[Circlotron]

I have a Sony ILCE-3500 digital SLR camera. It has the option to take a panoramic photo but only in landscape mode!!! You gain in width which you already had more of, but nothing in height! How much better it would be if you could take a pic the full height of the frame "width" like you can with a smartphone.

[Zbig]

Am I first to mention car radios that still use RAM for their station presets and other settings? I have a Sony unit that was the top-end model when I got it new in 2010. It has pretty much all the bells and whistles you could get back then: USB, Bluetooth, full-matrix VFD, you name it. Yet the damn thing still loses all the settings but the Bluetooth ones as soon as you disconnect it from the battery. I mean, seriously? In this day and age, when everything uses non-volatile memory for configuration?

[BradC]

Am I first to mention car radios that still use RAM for their station presets and other settings? I have a Sony unit that was the top-end model when I got it new in 2010. It has pretty much all the bells and whistles you could get back then: USB, Bluetooth, full-matrix VFD, you name it. Yet the damn thing still loses all the settings but the Bluetooth ones as soon as you disconnect it from the battery. I mean, seriously? In this day and age, when everything uses non-volatile memory for configuration?

As opposed to the Blaupunkt that was in my Audi. It wrote _everything_ to eeprom including the volume level. After 6 years of use it would randomly select a volume level when you moved the control as it tried to write a new one and read back random data. I'll take RAM any day over a unit that self destructs thanks.

[technix]

Am I first to mention car radios that still use RAM for their station presets and other settings? I have a Sony unit that was the top-end model when I got it new in 2010. It has pretty much all the bells and whistles you could get back then: USB, Bluetooth, full-matrix VFD, you name it. Yet the damn thing still loses all the settings but the Bluetooth ones as soon as you disconnect it from the battery. I mean, seriously? In this day and age, when everything uses non-volatile memory for configuration?

As opposed to the Blaupunkt that was in my Audi. It wrote _everything_ to eeprom including the volume level. After 6 years of use it would randomly select a volume level when you moved the control as it tried to write a new one and read back random data. I'll take RAM any day over a unit that self destructs thanks.

It is bad programming. If Blaupunkt spent a bit more time in programming the unit with a wear leveling algorithm (even just rip some open source one) they could have avoided this problem entirely. Using a slightly larger EEPROM than needed (for bad block remapping) and avoid frequent writing goes a very long way.

[BradC]

As opposed to the Blaupunkt that was in my Audi. It wrote _everything_ to eeprom including the volume level. After 6 years of use it would randomly select a volume level when you moved the control as it tried to write a new one and read back random data. I'll take RAM any day over a unit that self destructs thanks.

It is bad programming.

No kidding. My point still stands. I don't mind resetting my radio stations every 7 years when I replace the battery.