Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[E-Design]

Animated turn-signals on cars bug me. They feel very gimmicky whilst (imo) being less visible.

I tend to agree.
But also, I believe that all turn signals should be made to blink no less than 3 times even if the turn signal lever is barely touched.  This cures those who give only a half-blink when turning or changing lanes.  Why has no car maker done this?

There is nothing more annoying when the car in front indicates in one direction and then goes the
opposite way   
  They need a third indicate for those people that can't make up their Minds   

Yes, this one reminds me of another peeve of mine.. the driver who puts on the turn signal like 1 second before actually making the turn. Why bother at all at that point.

[cliffyk]

So called "journalists" with zero, zilch, nada command of the English language:

Most recently, this from a local newspaper's coverage of the latest Hyundai recalls:



How does one determine the necessity of replacing a leak? I'm sure the owners will be delighted to have new leaks instead of the bad old ones.

I showed this to my wife and she said it means "They will replace the engine."

I told her "I know what they meant, but that's not what they said."

[Labrat101]

So called "journalists" with zero, zilch, nada command of the English language:

Most recently, this from a local newspaper's coverage of the latest Hyundai recalls:



How does one determine the necessity of replacing a leak? I'm sure the owners will be delighted to have new leaks instead of the bad old ones.

I showed this to my wife and she said it means "They will replace the engine."

I told her "I know what they meant, but that's not what they said."

Or it could mean replacing the engine
That has a fresh oil leak . Only drips on the road an not on ur driveway.
Whats  a knock sensor.. ?
Knock knock who's there . Oil ..
Oil who . ?

[cliffyk]

Or it could mean replacing the engine
That has a fresh oil leak . Only drips on the road an not on ur driveway.
Whats  a knock sensor.. ?
Knock knock who's there . Oil ..
Oil who . ?

As written it means they will replace any leaks revealed by their inspection. They certainly meant it to mean they will replace the engine, but that's not what it says--that's my peeve, pathetically poor sentence structure and/or just not reading what they wrote.


Sometimes it's just funny:

[PlainName]

How would you rephrase it?

[cliffyk]

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks and, if necessary, replace the engine.

Though a single semi-colon would improve it by indicating the second clause is missing essential words provided by the first.

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks; and replace them if necessary.

(I spent 5 years creating and editing technical documents for Lockheed Martin Astronautics; mostly for their EELV project)

[Gromitt]

Animated turn-signals on cars bug me. They feel very gimmicky whilst (imo) being less visible.

I tend to agree.
But also, I believe that all turn signals should be made to blink no less than 3 times even if the turn signal lever is barely touched.  This cures those who give only a half-blink when turning or changing lanes.  Why has no car maker done this?

My eleven year old VW Golf does this.

[E-Design]

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks and, if necessary, replace the engine.

Though a single semi-colon would improve it by indicating the second clause is missing essential words provided by the first.

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks; and replace them if necessary.

(I spent 5 years creating and editing technical documents for Lockheed Martin Astronautics; mostly for their EELV project)

Yes much better wording - clear and concise.
I guess the original phrasing  might be considered slang / lazy? Not quite written correctly, but everybody understands the meaning.


LOL on the students first hand job experience. Those crazy high school kids..
.

[CatalinaWOW]

While it is possible that replacing the engines was the intention, I'd put long odds on it being a spell check error and that repairing the leaks was the real intended sentence.

[cliffyk]

While it is possible that replacing the engines was the intention, I'd put long odds on it being a spell check error and that repairing the leaks was the real intended sentence.

Most of the people writing these blurbs have no technical expertise and limited reading comprehension. The recall notice states they will inspect for fuel and/or oil leaks and replace parts as indicated--including engine replacement if con-rod bearing damage is found.  If you dig deep enough it appears the foundational issue is failure of seals in the camshaft driven high-pressure fuel pump (2500 psi) used in the direct injection fuel system. The seals fail and raw gas contaminates the engine oil.

DFI on other brands has similarly failed (along with gummed up intake valves)--overall it is a piss-poor design, trading engine life to meet absurd EPA fuel economy regulations...

[eugenenine]

My eleven year old VW Golf does this.

Our 1992 Plemon (Plymouth Lemon) has this as well.  The only vehicle that I've ever had that didn't was my 1988 s10 and that was because the steering column had been bent when the previous owner put on a body lift and most of the steering column parts had been bashed when it was stolen.  It didn't even turn off the turn signals after a turn because that part was broken.  Dad got it cheap from an auction for my first vehicle.

[eugenenine]

I forgot about these new crappy Kias and Hundays that are putting the turn signals as low on the bumper as possible to hide them from other cars.

That reminds me, in Australia, in the state of Victoria at least, with vehicles like Toyota Land Cruiser and Nissan Patrol and similar you can get a rear bumper bar with tail, brake and indicator lights built in. If you fit one of these, the normal lights that are much higher up and more easily visible must be disconnected! That’s the law! How stupid is that???

These crappy cars have all the lights up high where you can see them except for the turn signals, and those are on the very lowest portion of the bumper, which being a minivan/cuv is pretty low.  Those are going to cause a lot of accidents.

[Sal Ammoniac]

I hate the new animated brake lights that flash, I see the brake light come on and apply my brakes then it goes off so I release mine then it comes on again so I apply mine again, etc.

Your internal PID control loop needs tuning.

[james_s]

So called "journalists" with zero, zilch, nada command of the English language:

Most recently, this from a local newspaper's coverage of the latest Hyundai recalls:



How does one determine the necessity of replacing a leak? I'm sure the owners will be delighted to have new leaks instead of the bad old ones.

I showed this to my wife and she said it means "They will replace the engine."

I told her "I know what they meant, but that's not what they said."

To me it seems obvious that this is what they mean. IE "if the leak cannot be corrected through less drastic measures, the engine will be replaced."

[james_s]

Animated turn-signals on cars bug me. They feel very gimmicky whilst (imo) being less visible.

I tend to agree.
But also, I believe that all turn signals should be made to blink no less than 3 times even if the turn signal lever is barely touched.  This cures those who give only a half-blink when turning or changing lanes.  Why has no car maker done this?

My eleven year old VW Golf does this.

That sounds extremely annoying, I don't want it to automatically blink 3 times every time I accidentally bump the signal lever or start to signal one direction and then decide I want to go the other way instead. I want my car to do precisely what I command it to do, period. If I want the signal to blink at least 3 times, I'll let it blink 3 times before I cancel it.

That brings up another peeve of mine, when things do stuff automatically for me, trying to guess what I want in an effort to be helpful. I find that they invariably get it wrong at least as often as they correctly guess my intentions and it creates additional work and gets in my way rather than helping. Software is the worst offender of this, I *HATE* IDEs that automatically add a matching quotation mark, parem, bracket, etc, it drives me absolutely crazy! I often go to add parentheses after I've already typed something and I have to move the mouse, click, delete the unwanted character, then go to where I want the closing character, type it, click, backspace to delete the extra one it adds there. It's absolutely infuriating and creates the impression that the software is actively trying to fight me and make my life harder. The worst part of all this is that it's often excessively difficult to disable this stupid behavior.

Autocorrect on my phone is just as bad, sometimes it's helpful but I loathe the way it second guesses me constantly and changes correctly spelled words to completely different words that it thinks I wanted to use instead. I'd like it to correct misspelled words but it should never change a word that is spelled correctly.

[aargee]

Sounds like this thread is rapidly heading towards the need for lots of paper and boxes of crayons but I'll add my beef anyway (sorry if it's already been said)...

New cars need a 'Dumbass' switch.

'Dumbass' on - the car will ping, ring, buzz, vibrate, fart for every little transgression of deviation from 'normal' operation, according to the manufacturer.
'Dumbass' off - only mission critical issues will be forcibly alerted. You know, no oil, for example.

[Gromitt]

Animated turn-signals on cars bug me. They feel very gimmicky whilst (imo) being less visible.

I tend to agree.
But also, I believe that all turn signals should be made to blink no less than 3 times even if the turn signal lever is barely touched.  This cures those who give only a half-blink when turning or changing lanes.  Why has no car maker done this?

My eleven year old VW Golf does this.

That sounds extremely annoying, I don't want it to automatically blink 3 times every time I accidentally bump the signal lever or start to signal one direction and then decide I want to go the other way instead. I want my car to do precisely what I command it to do, period. If I want the signal to blink at least 3 times, I'll let it blink 3 times before I cancel it.

You can turn it off if you want, I have done that so it only blink once.

[opabob]

AMPERAGE.  I hate it when people use the word AMPERAGE!  It's CURRENT and it is measured in AMPERES!


And I also hate traffic lights that are timed so that, driving exactly the speed limit, you catch each and every one red and they turn red so that you have to brake harder than you normally would.  And you have to do this three to five times every mile!     On the other hand you can set your cruise control five to seven miles an hour north of the speed limit and get all those lights green, mile after mile after mile.  All that STTOOPPP go SSTTOOOOPPPP go SSSTTTOOOPPPP go driving wastes gas, causes air pollution, and contributes to glow-bull warming.  Quite often driving just a little bit faster saves gas and is actually safer.

[Bud]

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks and, if necessary, replace the engine.

Though a single semi-colon would improve it by indicating the second clause is missing essential words provided by the first.

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks; and replace them if necessary.

(I spent 5 years creating and editing technical documents for Lockheed Martin Astronautics; mostly for their EELV project)

This may be the case when the audience is familiar with dry technical language and the topic, but for an average Joe the original construction would work better, since it clearly says which component will be replaced. Otherwise a non-savvy reader may think they will replace fuel or oil leaks found during inspection.

[TimFox]

AMPERAGE.  I hate it when people use the word AMPERAGE!  It's CURRENT and it is measured in AMPERES!

It is a back-formation analogous to "Voltage" for "Potential".  I have never seen a "Danger! High Potential" sign in an English-speaking country.
In German, I believe it is "Hochspannung lebensgefahr" for danger, high voltage.  "Spannung" translates into voltage, tension, or stress.

[TimFox]

My pet peeve, typically found in audio contexts, is when one measures the RMS voltage V across a load resistor R to measure the power applied to the resistor and refers to the result as "RMS power", when the correct answer is "mean power" or "average power".  The RMS power exists mathematically, but is never useful for a sine wave.  Comparing the RMS power to the mean power for a sine wave, we find that the RMS power is 1.225 = (3/2)^1/2 times the mean power.

[PlainName]

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks and, if necessary, replace the engine.

Though a single semi-colon would improve it by indicating the second clause is missing essential words provided by the first.

Dealers will inspect the engines for fuel or oil leaks; and replace them if necessary.

(I spent 5 years creating and editing technical documents for Lockheed Martin Astronautics; mostly for their EELV project)

Sorry for the delay on this one. I asked for your version because I couldn't think of a simple and easy-fitting alternative. Your first suggestion is fine, but rather artificial in the way it circumvents the problem.

The second suggestion, with the semicolon, made no sense to me at all. So I bounced this off my partner who is an editor (hence the delay) and she says the semicolon contributes nothing. It's a separator, and could be treated as a full stop. The comma alternative doesn't contribute anything either.

OK, that's her bit said (and she agrees with you that the original is very iffy). My view is that it may be wrong but everyone knows what it means, and that's pretty much how you'd say it, so it comes over as natural (at least to the non-cognoscenti). I think that's why it wasn't simple for me to think of a better alternative (and why I asked for yours).

[andy3055]

People using  "your" in place of "you are."

[SilverSolder]

People using  "your" in place of "you are."

"break" instead of "brake"

[Ed.Kloonk]

People using  "your" in place of "you are."

"break" instead of "brake"

There are lots moar examples of this.