Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[Analog Kid]

They only do it to annoy, because they know it teases.

This I can just about believe!
Snarky code monkeys ...

[Zeyneb]

The Microsoft experience now. It sucks balls. A lot of aspects about it have sucked, but it's getting so much worse now. Stupid now like when searching in file explorer, the path gets stuck with Search Results in... and you cannot click the beginning of a path or search field without having to do 2 or three clicks and then hit home or left arrow to the start. And web pages aren't loading - says cannot load but then loads later. And endless pinwheels. I think I watch pinwheels for 1/3 of my days.

And many 3rd party apps suck even more, like loose hairy scrotum skin suck. Can they find any more ways to make me have to click 3 or 4 times to accomplish what once took one click, and rich pop-up tips and new features that make you endlessly have to click Got it?

And get lost with the Cookie BS!

And everyone wants your GD phone number.

And why the hell does everything have to be printed in two point font, or debossed in black on black.

How about an employer who enforces Windows 7 on every staff member's computer to beat the competition in workforce efficiency?

[Analog Kid]

How about an employer who enforces Windows 7 on every staff member's computer to beat the competition in workforce efficiency?

When? 2010? or now? You do realize it's obsolete at this point, right?
I use Windoze 7, like it very much, but it's for home use, not work.

[Ranayna]

Current annoyance:
Webaplications that require a login, so present you with just Username and Password fields, but do not make the Username field active.
So you have to grab the mouse to click...

Related, webforms that have incorrect tab order set up, so you have no idea where the focus will go next when you hit TAB.

[themadhippy]

Webaplications that require a login, so present you with just Username and Password fields, but do not make the Username field active.

in a similar vein,sites that ask you to register with a page asking 101 questions,but right at the bottom in tiny print is the option to log in as a quest. guest

Bloody dyslexic keyboard

[Xena E]

Webaplications that require a login, so present you with just Username and Password fields, but do not make the Username field active.

in a similar vein,sites that ask you to register with a page asking 101 questions,but right at the bottom in tiny print is the option to log in as a quest.

So instead of answering the riddles the adventurer can instead save some villagers from the firebreathing dragon and kill an ogre?

X

[TimFox]

Webaplications that require a login, so present you with just Username and Password fields, but do not make the Username field active.

in a similar vein,sites that ask you to register with a page asking 101 questions,but right at the bottom in tiny print is the option to log in as a quest.

So instead of answering the riddles the adventurer can instead save some villagers from the firebreathing dragon and kill an ogre?

X

One of my favorite obsolete English verbs is “enchieve”.  One enchieves a quest such as the Sangreal (see Le Morte d’Arthur).

[Xena E]

"...enchieve this adventure. Then made they to ordain a cloth of silk, for to cover these letters in the Siege Perilous."

The brave adventurer of this storie told, was one yclept "Themadhippy"

X

[paulca]

People complaining about the thing they contribute to.

For example, my friend could have purchased higher quality tools, but instead only buys junk, then complains about engineers and 'Enshittification'.
Another friend only plays free cell phone games, refuses to purchase software, yet complains about microtransactions.
Nephew watches stupid celebrity drama online then complains about how dumb Youtube is.
Coworker designs with parts that are obsolete, or without datasheets, or from unknown manufacturers/distributors then complains about manufacturing and quality control.
Neighbor complains about privacy and 'Big Brother', while walking around with an Apple cell phone in his pocket.
Brother purchased 99% of things online then complained about his manufacturing job going overseas. Same with my sister, but she was a programmer who pushed management to let them "work from home".

Basically everyone just pissing into the wind.

People walking around complaining its cold, but still going outside.
People walking around complaining about the smell, but still breathing.

Sometimes it's about cost vs. benefit.  If the software is free, it's likely YOU are the product.  However, it's still a value trade proposition.  At least in the first instance.

So if a friend sends me a link to a website which I might find useful and that website requires I "sign up" and give them data and monitoring access to gain more.  I evalulate on an instance by instance basis if the trade is worth while.

Data has a "tip of the iceberg" problem which makes it difficult to explain the risks faced to lay-people who only see the tip of the berg.

The tip is the stated privacy policy, the stated intent, the "data capturer" declarations.  If you stop here the retort to "personal data security" is "Woo bruh, they going to sell stuff at me, big deal"

What lies beneath that the vast majority of people don't bother to think about is...  what else is can and probably, eventually, will be used for.  Once digitally stored data has an infinite audience an infinite retention.  Data can also be coorelated with other data and become worth more than the sum of it's parts for purposes it was never, ever intended for.... years or decades in the future.

I don't tell people to "hide from big brother" I just tell them to put value on their personal data.  Even if it's just monetary.  I also encourage them to ask, "If I was a nerfarious person, what else could I use that data for?", then remind themselves they are not in fact a criminal and unlikely to be as creative in the nefarious-ness.

EDIT: and this nonesense reply:  "I'm sure they are not interested in boring little old me".

No, they aren't.  They are not going looking for "You", they are however going to trawl with nets for people "like you" and if you fit the net, you get caught.  So, no, get over yourself, its not "you" the individual it's "you" the member of the school.

[Xena E]

Bloody dyslexic keyboard

Yeah, forklift useless things.
..

[armandine2]

---- whatever

[Analog Kid]

---- whatever

Hmmm; what were you expecting to find with that query?

[Poe]

People walking around complaining its cold, but still going outside.
People walking around complaining about the smell, but still breathing.
...

Pretty sure the cold weather is not caused by people walking around in the cold
Pretty sure that people don't create bad scents by just breathing through their nose.

[calzap]

Combo cord and strain reliefs on hand tools and small appliances.  Because of the stiffness and one-piece design, this is where the break occurs.  Sometimes its hard to find an exact replacement for them.  Separate cord and strain-relief is much better.  The cord can move back and forth slightly in the strain relief, which lessens the stress on both.  And if the cord breaks, it’s easy to find a replacement.  With separate cord and strain relief, the cord must have an anchor in the tool or appliance, which increases manufacturing costs slightly.

Mike

[jonovid]

those flange mounted plastic rocker switches that fail. they are found on car vacuum cleaners - tyre inflator pumps -  powerboards
the low profile rocker knob pops out of the plastic body, flicking a spring loaded ball bearing across the room never to be seen again.
rendering the switch useless and unrepairable.

[Poroit]

Different formats of Battery Connectors for 18V Power Tools.

Brands I see such as Milwaukee(my preferred), Bosch ,Ryobi, Makita don't have interchangeable batteries. Probably many others!

Manufacturers likely enjoy it as it leads to more sales of their own but in the long run it just adds to the recycling stock pile.

I would to see some International Standard that manufacturers need to stick to.

[Analog Kid]

Different formats of Battery Connectors for 18V Power Tools.

Different battery connectors for X-volt tools.
I frequent secondhand stores which inevitably have lots of battery-powered tools, mostly drills but sometimes other things like saws, most of which probably work and are cheap, and some of which are quality brand tools.
But of course, no battery, or a battery and no charger (or charger but no battery), so basically just landfill.

Having standard connectors would be too easy, though.

[Bryn]

Another technical pet peeve I have is the fact that printers and scanners don't come with a USB cable anymore. This was the case for the Canon Selphy photo printer I got last year, and now the same for an Epson printer/scanner (I forgot the model name, but I know it's of the WF series) that the manager of my place of volunteering recently got. Fortunately, he was able to get it to work via wireless (for printing at least) but not for scanning, as there is no direct communication between it and the computer, and of course the cable is vital for that to work.

Apparently, printers and scanners coming without the cable is all down to the increased use of wireless and also a cost-cutting measure, same with keyboards having no indicator lights (meaning you can't tell if Caps Lock is used or not if enabled)...

[Siwastaja]

Another technical pet peeve I have is the fact that printers and scanners don't come with a USB cable anymore. ...
Apparently, printers and scanners coming without the cable is all down to the increased use of wireless and also a cost-cutting measure

I remember being shocked about this in year 2004 when buying a new Canon inkjet printer. It was then explained to me that this is completely normal, USB cable needs to be bought as separate item. Reason was cost-cutting, and rationalized by the fact that USB was already commonplace enough that people might have cables lying around, or that different lengths of cable could be used.

And the reasoning wasn't that bad. The amount of e-waste from unnecessary cables is significant.

This definitely is not a new phenomenon at all and not directly related to wireless use, although it added one more rationalization not to supply a cable.

I have mixed feelings about it. When you do have those cables lying around, it clearly is a good idea. And when you don't, and you forget to buy a cable, it seems like the worst idea ever.

[Poroit]

18V Power Tool Battery Adaptors.

Just found these if anyone is interested.

https://powuse.com/blogs/knowledge/how-to-use-any-brand-battery-with-any-power-tool?srsltid=AfmBOori8DZNYTMZzlVDBQ8I6tYH77PYU3iKXDEHa0PpQUEKMROBFt4D

[PlainName]

Seem a bit expensive compared to others, and they don't allow charging.

[neillnz]

Different formats of Battery Connectors for 18V Power Tools.

Brands I see such as Milwaukee(my preferred), Bosch ,Ryobi, Makita don't have interchangeable batteries. Probably many others!

Manufacturers likely enjoy it as it leads to more sales of their own but in the long run it just adds to the recycling stock pile.

I would to see some International Standard that manufacturers need to stick to.

There is some progress on this matter.  I noticed recently that Husqvarna has a range of 18V garden tools that use an "Alliance" battery", this thing:
https://www.powerforall-alliance.com/en/#technology

Also you can get cheap adaptors from the likes of Aliexpress.  I have a Ryobi pole hedge trimmer that I purchased as a skin only to do one job perhaps twice a year.  As I have a lot of DeWalt gear I purchased a cheapo Dewalt battery to Ryobi skin adaptor and it works fine, it might not be best for properly high current applications such as a circular saw but perfectly ok for a hedge trimmer.

[Siwastaja]

There is some progress on this matter.  I noticed recently that Husqvarna has a range of 18V garden tools that use an "Alliance" battery", this thing:
https://www.powerforall-alliance.com/en/#technology

This has been discussed countless of times before here: it is no progress at all. Just basically one entity naming their own proprietary battery system in a way which suggests it's some kind of universal standard, which it isn't. If you look at the "brands" of this "alliance", you will notice there are zero competitors. The companies listed are either directly members of the same conglomerate, or operate in different fields.

For example Makita LXT is already much better de-facto standard simply by others making compatible batteries, chargers and power tools without asking Makita at all. Most is Chinese cheap crap of course.

I don't believe we can ever have an interchangeable power tool battery standard without legal requirements to do so by entity like EU. And I have mixed feelings about that. It has too much surface to go wrong. Manufacturers being able to do their own electronic and mechanical design enables innovation; one-size-fits-all-designed-by-politically-motivated-committee locks down innovation. Latter is still sometimes very necessary and USB-C I think is more success than a failure, but even that was not simple at all. And the market for phones, laptops etc. is much bigger than power tools. So we will probably just have to live with incompatible batteries.

[MrMobodies]

Came across this comment in this thread:

The word SMART and SMARTER  .

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/1588-Smart-meter-and-tariff-change-threat/

BEST ANSWER
Beki's Avatar
Beki

Influencer Lvl 5Cheerleader Lvl 5Generator Lvl 5Registered 3 Years
02-11-21
BEST ANSWER
@enduser & @Tinbum - When you have chosen a fixed tariff, within the T&Cs there is a section that states "Agree to have smart meters installed - By choosing this tariff you agree to a smart meter installation, where eligible."

There are so many benefits to having a smart meter fitted. My personal favourite is the environmental impact that having a smart meter fitted has on the planet - especiallly with COP26. With smart meters comes a smarter energy grid, helping us to be more precise about the energy that everyone needs and reducing CO2 emissions by 25% in the next decade. Wonder what would happen if everyone in the UK upgraded to a smart meter? It would have the same environmental impact as planting 75 million trees. A year. That's something to smile about.

Sending positive energy to you,
Beki - Digi Ops Team Leader & Sustainability Enthusiast

Everything & everyone powered by sustainable energy. 🌍

I sense bullshit.

"So many benefits?" It made me angry reading this... the choice of words and sounding "positive"
Save the planet, pay attention to every watt reported on your meter when you come home from work after a busy day and decided if you really need it. IT WILL save CO2 emissions by 25% and if everybody "upgraded" to smart meters it'll equivalent to planet 75 millions trees.

I suppose they can have the same effect in forcing people to use  less by charging a lot more for things and then sticking a meter in front of their faces where the price is going to matter due to the high expense.

How about being LEFT ALONE without data being collected in half an hour increments on everything you switch on passed to the a series of companies, the government and third party partners.

"With smart meters comes a smarter energy grid"
How? I thought grids were already managed by "smart people" or "smart" enough to do the job as a necessity.

What about the environmental impact on some of these meters that may only be certified for 5 years unless they are recycled and put back in product.

To describe deals with off peak/on peak tariffs, control equipment in area's to manage feed in power wouldn't the word "FLEXIBLE" be better than using that word "SMART" and "SMARTER" excessively? like investing and building a flexible sustainable grid.

What do you think?

[themadhippy]

google says there 33 million smart meters in the uk,power consumption on the suppliers side seems a bit secretive but figures between 5 and 8va are mentioned , a fair bit of power needed just to run the meters before the consumer plugs anything in.