Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[james_s]

Anyone with a gmail account can use POP3 or IMAP. There is no fee for that. I don't even know what the gmail app screen looks like. I've never used it.

That's the whole reason I went with gmail in the first place, it was the only free one that supported IMAP and I've always used it that way. The only time I ever use the web interface is when I'm not on one of my own devices. Every time I do use it, they've made it worse than the time before. I really don't know what the engineers at Google are smoking, it's like they sit around trying to think of ways to make their interface less usable and more annoying. For a while at least they seemed to be trying to turn email into instant messaging and they made the compose window a tiny box down in the lower right corner with no way to expand or move it.

[james_s]

All off-the-shelf products come with cheap carbon-zinc "starter" batteries. Same business model as the "starter" toner cartridges and "starter" ink jet cartridges. All they have to do is make it work initially. They're not setting you up for several years of battery life. True for TV remote controls, etc. Always the cheapest batteries with manufacturer names I've never seen elsewhere.

Those aren't always so bad. The weird off-brand carbon-zinc 9V battery in the code pad for my garage door opener lasted 10 years, granted it is not used every day but I do use it typically more than once a week. I have had cheapo batteries in remotes last years too, and they don't seem to leak like alkaline batteries do.

[Bassman59]

Anyone with a gmail account can use POP3 or IMAP. There is no fee for that. I don't even know what the gmail app screen looks like. I've never used it.

That's the whole reason I went with gmail in the first place, it was the only free one that supported IMAP and I've always used it that way. The only time I ever use the web interface is when I'm not on one of my own devices. Every time I do use it, they've made it worse than the time before. I really don't know what the engineers at Google are smoking, it's like they sit around trying to think of ways to make their interface less usable and more annoying. For a while at least they seemed to be trying to turn email into instant messaging and they made the compose window a tiny box down in the lower right corner with no way to expand or move it.

What do you want for free?

Register a domain. Pay a host $100 a year to deal with the server. Use a standard mail client (I love the Apple Mail client, I fucking hate Thunderbird and Outlook) as your user interface. Done.

[IDEngineer]

Register a domain. Pay a host $100 a year to deal with the server. Use a standard mail client as your user interface. Done.

I'll heartily second this. Did this years ago and it's well worth the ~$100/year to totally control your environment. Allows you to manage your own DNS records if you wish, host webpages, etc.

I went with InMotionHosting, overall I'd give them an 8/10. Had a few glitches over the years but generally they're reachable, knowledgeable, and help you solve the problem. Only repeating problem is sometimes finding my email on a blacklist somewhere which I attribute to being on a shared server with a shared IP address. It was bad enough at one point that I asked them to move my account to a different shared box, which they did, and that rectified the issue. They do offer dedicated boxes with dedicated IP's for additional money but so far I haven't considered it worth the cost - maybe someday. This is not a plug for them, just sharing my experiences and I'm sure other hosting outfits are similar.

[CatalinaWOW]

Having and controlling your own domain is like doing your own auto mechanics.  Doing it yourself often results in a better technical outcome.  But takes time that comes at the expense of something else.  Your own domain typically takes less time than servicing a car, but it is just one more thing on the list of things to do.  Which in my case more than fills the available time.  Fortunately many of the things on the list can be outsourced and domain management is one that is outsourced for me.  YMMV.

[PlainName]

There is a difference between having your own domain and messing around with the domain config. The first - the having it - is really pretty essential whereas the second - the tedium of looking after it - can be outsourced to whichever registra you used. Or someone else (best to keep the mail hosting and domain hosting separate to prevent an 'eggs in one basket' issue).

Edit: for a car analog, having the domain is like buying your own car as opposed to renting one. You can still get a garage to do all the work, and even hire a chauffeur if you want. So, actually, having a domain is not at all like doing your own auto mechanics

[james_s]

What do you want for free?

Register a domain. Pay a host $100 a year to deal with the server. Use a standard mail client (I love the Apple Mail client, I fucking hate Thunderbird and Outlook) as your user interface. Done.

What do I want? Well the gmail web interface from ~15 years ago was pretty nice as I recall, that would be a nice start. Why does being free mean that it has to be garbage or that I have no right to point out flaws? They already had something that worked, they have continued to expend effort actively making it worse. Also it isn't really free, Google makes billions of dollars off of the advertising data they gather and I give them that data in exchange for using the service.

As I already said though, I use it via IMAP 99.999% of the time, so I bypass that whole mess. Why would I pay a host $100 a year when I already have IMAP that works with a standard email client?

[mag_therm]

I use
Dyndns for host
Rackspace for email

The costly part is the monthly charge by Comcast for the static IP.

[james_s]

I never really understood the point of a static IP, a friend of mine was always ranting about how he "needed" one but for years I've been using dynamic DNS and it works just fine. For most things where a static IP actually makes sense it's usually more sensible to just have them hosted elsewhere. Static IP on domestic internet is a round peg in a square hole.

[free_electron]

it's not so much googles user interface (ok, the iconification bugs me) but the fact they poke their nose in my email content and start sorting emails based on what they deem important ... they track whom you email and what conversation and start rearranging emails for you. KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY EMAIL !

[Bassman59]

it's not so much googles user interface (ok, the iconification bugs me) but the fact they poke their nose in my email content and start sorting emails based on what they deem important ... they track whom you email and what conversation and start rearranging emails for you. KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY EMAIL !

Remember, you're the product.

[james_s]

it's not so much googles user interface (ok, the iconification bugs me) but the fact they poke their nose in my email content and start sorting emails based on what they deem important ... they track whom you email and what conversation and start rearranging emails for you. KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY EMAIL !

I don't particularly like it, but I accept that I'm giving them that information as payment for use of their service. I don't really mind so much because my online presence is polluted with enough garbage data to be essentially useless and I'm not a typical consumer anyway, on the rare occasions that I buy something new I very carefully research what I'm interested in. I've used an ad blocker for quite a few years now and I don't watch TV so there aren't too many ways to bombard me with advertisements.

[ccktek]

Using “Bode plot” to mean a plot of a system’s actual frequency response rather than a straight line asymptotic approximation to the frequency response.  (I know – picky, picky.  But if it was good enough for Hendrik Bode it’s good enough for me.)

[SilverSolder]

Using “Bode plot” to mean a plot of a system’s actual frequency response rather than a straight line asymptotic approximation to the frequency response.  (I know – picky, picky.  But if it was good enough for Hendrik Bode it’s good enough for me.)

Hendrick Bode may not have had a VNA or SA? 

[IDEngineer]

Back in my early days we hand-drew Bode plots using a function generator and oscilloscope. Amplitude plots were semi-reasonable, but phase plots were a real drag.

Yes, it was uphill both ways in the snow too. 

[vk6zgo]

Using “Bode plot” to mean a plot of a system’s actual frequency response rather than a straight line asymptotic approximation to the frequency response.  (I know – picky, picky.  But if it was good enough for Hendrik Bode it’s good enough for me.)

Hendrick Bode may not have had a VNA or SA? 

I think it is very likely that he had both, as he worked for Bell Labs.

When I learnt about Bode Plots, back in the early 1980s as part of Telecom Australia's Bridging Training to Tech Officer scheme (The participants proudly called ourselves "Retreads"! ), we were presented with a mathematical expression describing a network, & asked to draw an idealised plot of the amplitude/ frequency & phase/frequency response.

They were, as ccktek points out, straight line approximations.

People whose "bread & butter" was involved with using swept frequencies to measure amplitude/ frequency response could easily understand the difference between Bode Plots & "real world" results.
On occasion, we used non-swept signal generators to check levels at discrete frequencies across the band of interest, then graphed them manually, if required.

Another "pet peeve" of mine is when people who should know better use the term "in series" to refer to "cascaded" devices!

[vk6zgo]

While I'm at it, why does every educational establishment have to call themselves a "campus?"

Up until the 1980s,the term was virtually unknown outside North America, but these days, it is used to describe the premises of even the smallest primary school.

Now, hospitals have started using the term, even when they are not "teaching hospitals"!--AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! 

[TimFox]

In US usage, a “campus” usually means multiple buildings on a large plot of land, originally educational, but now extended to health care or multiple museums.
The dictionary starts with that first meaning for a college or university, and the second meaning is a situation that resembles a college campus.

[TimFox]

Using “Bode plot” to mean a plot of a system’s actual frequency response rather than a straight line asymptotic approximation to the frequency response.  (I know – picky, picky.  But if it was good enough for Hendrik Bode it’s good enough for me.)

Hendrick Bode may not have had a VNA or SA? 

I think it is very likely that he had both, as he worked for Bell Labs.

When I learnt about Bode Plots, back in the early 1980s as part of Telecom Australia's Bridging Training to Tech Officer scheme (The participants proudly called ourselves "Retreads"! ), we were presented with a mathematical expression describing a network, & asked to draw an idealised plot of the amplitude/ frequency & phase/frequency response.

They were, as ccktek points out, straight line approximations.

People whose "bread & butter" was involved with using swept frequencies to measure amplitude/ frequency response could easily understand the difference between Bode Plots & "real world" results.
On occasion, we used non-swept signal generators to check levels at discrete frequencies across the band of interest, then graphed them manually, if required.

Another "pet peeve" of mine is when people who should know better use the term "in series" to refer to "cascaded" devices!

See H Bode, “Network Analysis and Feedback Amplifier Design”, D Van Nostrand, 1945 and subsequent editions.

[mansaxel]

While I'm at it, why does every educational establishment have to call themselves a "campus?"

Up until the 1980s,the term was virtually unknown outside North America, but these days, it is used to describe the premises of even the smallest primary school.

Eh, it is latin, and there's this military plot of land in Rome, that's called "CAMPVS MARTII", or "Mars Field" (because "CAMPVS" means "Field", nothing more, nothing less.) being as it as exercise grounds was dedicated to the god of war, Martius.  Stating that the term was recently unknown outside USA is "The trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur" level ignorant.

[vk6zgo]

While I'm at it, why does every educational establishment have to call themselves a "campus?"

Up until the 1980s,the term was virtually unknown outside North America, but these days, it is used to describe the premises of even the smallest primary school.

Eh, it is latin, and there's this military plot of land in Rome, that's called "CAMPVS MARTII", or "Mars Field" (because "CAMPVS" means "Field", nothing more, nothing less.) being as it as exercise grounds was dedicated to the god of war, Martius.  Stating that the term was recently unknown outside USA is "The trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur" level ignorant.

Ok, you got me!

I should have written "virtually unused" outside North America. (Please note that  I did not mention the USA).
It is the specific usage which is the subject of my rant.

In that part of the world, the word "campus" does not usually bring to mind your very erudite reference. -----people just think "University grounds".

Elsewhere its use in that sense has been treated as an amusing North American idiosyncracy until relatively recently, rather similar to
people in the UK calling a moving van a "Pantechnicon".

It, like "entrepeneur", was formerly regarded as rather pretentious.

[PlainName]

people in the UK calling a moving van a "Pantechnicon"

They do? Can't say I've ever heard anyone say that word, nor have I read it except in Jeeves & Wooster-style novels. Can't imagine it would be used for real for the simple reason that it's too unwieldy - it would be shortened to 'panty' or something after the first mouthful.

[vk6zgo]

people in the UK calling a moving van a "Pantechnicon"

They do? Can't say I've ever heard anyone say that word, nor have I read it except in Jeeves & Wooster-style novels. Can't imagine it would be used for real for the simple reason that it's too unwieldy - it would be shortened to 'panty' or something after the first mouthful.

From memory, the shortened version was "Pantech", similarly to the way Brits call semitrailers "Artics" (short for "Articulated vehicle").
I think they would find "panty" hilarious.

[PlainName]

Possibly more likely that I come from the wrong area or class and/or age for such language.

[bsfeechannel]

I fucking hate Thunderbird and Outlook

OK, Outlook is a mess. But what is so bad about Thunderbird?