Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[armandine2]

I watched Dave's Fluke Volt Alert video today - and of course it prompted me to check my batteries in my volt alert -- aagh getting into this was a pain, I eventually substituted my inferior finger strength with a vice (rubber protected jaws  - Energiser Max OK

[PlainName]

Generic sellers corrupting technical terms.

For instance, buy a tracker off Ebay/Amazon/Ali and it will say "GPS" even though it may not have a GPS receiver and just use GSM triangulation. 'GPS' is not shorthand for determining location regardless of technology.

Similarly, 'BNC' means 'coax connector' and is typically applied to F connector and other RF, but definitely not BNC, connectors.

Just a huge drag having to send stuff back because they don't know wtf they are selling.

[MrMobodies]

Just noticed this:

Dear
Your latest XLN invoice is ready to view online.

*1 Please download and install our MyAccount App  on your Android or Apple device. If you don’t have a smart device    ,  *2 you can still access all of your invoices here.

*1 No! I am not going to download anything to just to view a bunch of invoices.
*2 Why shouldn't I be allowed to view invoices without the need of a phone and a stupid app.

Very STUPID. It is a page full of text and numbers and should not need a stupid "smart" phone with limited screen size/resolution, limited input and a stupid app just to view it.

I find that talk "smart device" very insulting and degrading.
What has that got to do with it because it is labelled "smart".

You should not need this sh*t just to view invoices.

I do have a phone but it is old and won't use it for things like that apart from programs that run locally for a reason as I find the new phones bloated full of annoying animations that treat me like I am stupid that I find I can't turn off and make me mad and loose me temper, the dimming overlays and embedded malware from the manufacturer.

[PlainName]

Many banks do this now. Chase, Monzo, etc. force you to use their mobile app to not just do money stuff but view statements. At least they have the ability to 'share' the documents so you can email them to your PC.

The one you show, XLN, at least give you the option to still view online (presumably that's what the "you can still access all of the invoices here" thing is). Bear in mind that the trend is for people to use mobiles to do things nowadays, so a mobile app is better than trying to use a web page, or to download a pdf that you don't have a viewer for. In that context it's just catering for modern users, but old farts like us can still view online if we want.

[paulca]

The other more and more prevalent (near) forced use of mobiles is for MFA.

Banks for example will very often now ask you to sign in on your mobile as a way of authenticating for online or phone transactions.  The mobile platforms are actually considerably more secure than the average home desktop.  Surprisingly Android and IOS provide enough layers of sandboxing and SSL lockins that banks et. al. actually trust mobile environments more than a desktop.  There are a limited number of combinations of device and OS and it's easy to profile, work around or block clients that aren't secure.  Not so easy on a desktop without endpoint protection.  The other big advantage is a certified/tested biometrics sensor of a known brand and spec.

I personally hate working on mobile.  The most use it gets is when I'm waiting in a waiting room to mull the time away.   I needed to type a paragragh to my mother the other day, I got to 3 words on the mobile and went and logged into the PC and used WhatsApp desktop to send it instead.

My email address is xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx long.  Android refuses to remember it and autocomplete it.  It makes using the phone for ANYTHING that requires I log in to the local network devices TEDIOUS.  / rant.

[MrMobodies]

Many banks do this now. Chase, Monzo, etc. force you to use their mobile app to not just do money stuff but view statements. At least they have the ability to 'share' the documents so you can email them to your PC.

The one you show, XLN, at least give you the option to still view online (presumably that's what the "you can still access all of the invoices here" thing is). Bear in mind that the trend is for people to use mobiles to do things nowadays, 1 so a mobile app is better than trying to use a web page, or to download a pdf that you don't have a viewer for. In that context it's just catering for modern users, but old farts like us can still view online if we want  .

For a bank with money transfers but for an ISP that does not involve money transfers and so on I find that plain stupid.

Joke: 1 I find a desktop browser with controls on it so much better and easy than using a "mobile app" with a keyboard that hogs screen space that I can imagine maybe possibly littered with fixed headers and widgets, animations; fake loading spinners, animated skeleton placeholders and dimming overlays that cut me off from the contents whatever is left  (with the dimming hurting my eyes) and no adblock to kill them like with a browser.

Actually you might know the ones that do the above annoyances if you use them.  I am hoping they'd stop that nonsense one day with the above.

The other more and more prevalent (near) forced use of mobiles is for MFA.

Banks for example will very often now ask you to sign in on your mobile as a way of authenticating for online or phone transactions.  The mobile platforms are actually considerably more secure than the average home desktop.  Surprisingly Android and IOS provide enough layers of sandboxing and SSL lockins that banks et. al. actually trust mobile environments more than a desktop.

I am not happy about having the banking presence and access to my account on a phone that I take everywhere that I only use to make calls. I'd feel the need to buy a phone just for that to separate it. Also the wifi portion too (my paranoia) but maybe I could buy a ethernet adapter.

I had an idea that maybe the bank could issue modified phones or devices just for the purposes of banking, that are kept at home for customers but with the annoyances I find above I think I'll go into the branch whatever one is left and the paper invoices which is not ideal but I think I prefer that whilst they are still going and I see they may not be there pretty shortly.

So if, I have a probem with the "smart phone", won't turn on, wifi issues, no longer supported etc, that means I won't be able to view stuff.
The ONE and ONLY way of just viewing stuff which I find VERY STUPID.

I think they should stick to both mobile and desktop browser (with some authentication) as a backup and for convenience.

[Kim Christensen]

I am not happy about having the banking presence and access to my account on a phone that I take everywhere that I only use to make calls. I'd feel the need to buy a phone just for that to separate it.

Yup... Seems less secure to me. Hopping onto random WiFi networks, phone getting lost, getting robbed while a thug forces you to empty your account via that convenient device in your pocket, etc, seems way less secure than a desktop PC with a dedicated connection. My 2FA comes through another device (landline) where as the so called 2FA on a phone is on the same potentially compromised device. Plus trying to do complex stuff, or deal with larger lists of data, on a stupidly small screen with a touch interface is just retarded. I'm not that old yet and have good eyesight, but I can imagine a day where a phone would just be impossible to use.

[SiliconWizard]

I am not happy about having the banking presence and access to my account on a phone that I take everywhere that I only use to make calls. I'd feel the need to buy a phone just for that to separate it.

Yup... Seems less secure to me. Hopping onto random WiFi networks, phone getting lost, getting robbed while a thug forces you to empty your account via that convenient device in your pocket, etc, seems way less secure than a desktop PC with a dedicated connection. My 2FA comes through another device (landline) where as the so called 2FA on a phone is on the same potentially compromised device. Plus trying to do complex stuff, or deal with larger lists of data, on a stupidly small screen with a touch interface is just retarded. I'm not that old yet and have good eyesight, but I can imagine a day where a phone would just be impossible to use.

Yeah. Also, while some banks allow the same feature set on their web interface and their mobile app, others (such as one of my banks) do not, and offer some functionalities on the app that aren't available on the web interface - so for those, it's either the mobile app or going to the bank agency.

[helius]

That's something I hate also.
On the other side you have museum archivists who write descriptions so vague and non-technical, it doesn't seem like they would be useful to anyone:

Here:

Each wire ends in a circular metal connector with 1 pin in the center of each.

[paulca]

I had an idea that maybe the bank could issue modified phones or devices just for the purposes of banking, that are kept at home for customers

My bank, Nationwide offer that as the alternative.  They ship you a little device with a keypad on it.  To do anything with it, you need one of your cards and it's pin.  It will then allow you to respond to various challenges presented by the web banking.  Such as verifying a new payee will require a full challenge/response exchange of RSA tokens.  One generated by the bank, the other by your "card reader device".

It's a right pain to use though.  50% of the time the chip reader gets a bad connection part way through and you have to back out again.  Or... annoyingly... it always asks for the last 4 digits of the card, after you put it in the reader and can't see the number.

Biometric finger print is fair enough with me as long as it's local to the device (which it is in Android) and not exported to clients of the reader.

The security feature which you will not get with the card reader is the MFA authentication at time of purchase.  If anyone tries to use more than about £100 or a merchant for the first time, they will be required to authenticate to Nationwide.  With the mobile app this means I get a "ping" and a notification of who, what and how much and to approve it I have to use my fingerprint.  I believe this feature should be extended to re-occuring subscription type charges through your bank.  Allow you to approve or deny/delay each individual one.

[paulca]

On the "challenge response" stuff. 

In the example of adding a payee, the web site instructs you to enter the reference number (which is basically the target account number), then enter the full amount of the first payment.  It then generates a 6 or 8 digit number as the response.

Given there is no communication channels available with this card reader device the expected behaviour here is to hash the reference number + amount + salt + a sequential RSA token.  The salt being something which can only be gained from the chip/pin hardware with the correct PIN.  That information is present on both sides.  If both sides generate the hash with the same data (having matching synchronized RSA seeds) and the same algorithm then the hashes match. 

[paulca]

I think I have found the 2020s equivalent of the "Audio-phool".

The "NAS-phool".

Oh boy.  We have a collection of mostly spotty bedroom nerds with too much money, being led by YouTubers and 'influencers' who convince them they need "Enterprise class" hardware to run it on.

Those people the spend £3k on a NAS setup with a dozen Seatgate Red NAS drives or some second hand enterprise SAS drive.  They run it on a second had dell poweredge burning 200W idle and sounding like the vacuum cleaner is on constantly.

They are "proper enterprise grade server admins" now aren't they?  They fell well big in their boots.

Now...  should you an actual enterprise tier 1 developer should .. lets say... test drive one of their "Enterprise grade platforms" and can instantly crash it node or cluster wide in a matter of moments.

I am using it wrong.

What most of these people actually do is....

1.  Install Plex.
2.  Copy their pirated movie collection to the 80Tb RAIDz3 array of expensive disks.
3.  Install a Wireguard or pfSense VPN on it... on  a single LAN bridge, on a single VLAN on a single node.... in a container as root on the main cluster host bare.... yep.

Then they get on the forums and tell people like me that I'm using it wrong because I can crash the whole damn node/cluster nearly at will from a continer or VM and it's isolation and authority over said virtual environment is toothless and insecure.

When you push them on "HA" their concept if HA is "Be right back in a minute...."  No.  Just No.

/rant.

I should know better.  This was "Reddit".

[themadhippy]

today's annoyance is  suppliers  who take your money for an order and ship it out with a little note saying xyz is out of stock and will follow when we get some more.Why couldn't you tell me that at the time of order?why cant you at least give me a rough idea when the parts expected to land?and why have you charged me for it?

[Zeyneb]

today's annoyance is  suppliers  who take your money for an order and ship it out with a little note saying xyz is out of stock and will follow when we get some more.Why couldn't you tell me that at the time of order?why cant you at least give me a rough idea when the parts expected to land?and why have you charged me for it?

Yes it's a hassle. When dealing with an unknown online shop or one with a previous bad experience. First contact customer service to have them verify if that item is actually on stock. Even with such a simple question you might get some vague answer because the salesperson is as shallow as 90 nm!    Then reconsider doing business with them altogether. If that item is like 25% more expensive elsewhere I would likely buy elsewhere then.

[Circlotron]

The inconsistency of DVD menus from one disc to another in a box set. Currently we are watching Monk from start to finish, and even discs in the same container have different menu structures. And some you can skip all the copyright warnings and some you have to wait through.

[RJSV]

YOUTUBE changes that do 'clumsy' things to cellphone players.
   Latest 'change over' making my screen to have a tiny little active area while whole rest of display is a blank area.  Various apparently unworking ICONs that do other things when click-on, (such as going to 'share this', when icon looks like it should expand to viewing window).
Also, appears that I've been, somehow, been SIGNED UP, as a 'member', newly receiving other members 'recommend's, randomly.
   Those newly minimized screen formats also often playing 2 or more ADs with definitely LOUDER audio, click-offs that don't work, or take you anyway. etc.

   New marketing push ?   Open exploitation doesn't even pretend, anymore ?

[SiliconWizard]

(...)
Oh boy.  We have a collection of mostly spotty bedroom nerds with too much money, being led by YouTubers and 'influencers' who convince them they need "Enterprise class" hardware to run it on.
Those people the spend £3k on a NAS setup with a dozen Seatgate Red NAS drives or some second hand enterprise SAS drive.  They run it on a second had dell poweredge burning 200W idle and sounding like the vacuum cleaner is on constantly.
(...)

Yeah sure. Well people spend their money on the shit they like. That's their problem. Of course that's ridiculous in the vast majority of cases.
But the same kind can also spend thousands of dollars just to gain 10% more FPS on their favorite game.

Note that those who do this and promote it on social networks (with enough subscribers) can get a lot of cash out of it and thus it basically costs them naught. Sure a number of gullible people may replicate what they see while not managing to get any cash out of it (so it's a net loss), but that's pretty much the business model of influencing, and thus social media in general.

[TimFox]

People have their own interests.
A co-worker who wanted to buy very expensive audio speakers (above his pay grade at the time), could not understand why a different person would want a car more expensive than a Honda Civic.
As I posted elsewhere, my boss once suggested that my good 4x5 and 8x10 inch film cameras were obsolete, but his enthusiasm was raising horses.
As long as it's their money, let's just all get along.

[themadhippy]

Todays "mild" annoyance.Wondering  why my latest master piece works exactly as designed with a bog standard 555 but  fails spectacularly when a low power 7555 was used.Turns  out the 7555's that dropped through the door this morning are actually 25lc04's.

[RJSV]

   Automated voice system, in enterprises, government or private.  Note that the abilities of such system are (often) inversely proportional to severity of need:
  1.) Local frozen custard stand automated orders will work perfectly.
  2.). Critical transactions, (like Calif. DMV), will exhibit SEVERAL obvious flaws.  One DMV topic asks for your cellphone number, then interrupts virtually immediately, saying;
   " (51 is not a valid call-back number"

   An obviously broken menu system,...How do the contractors get away with that kind of shoddy performance    That's what buggs me.!

[PlainName]

Garmin.
Express won't update satnav because there isn't enough space on the PC. Oh yes there bloody well is, it's just not on the C: drive which Express is hardcoded to use. Mind, it has improved somewhere in recent times - now it asks where you want to install the 10s of GB of map data, so of course you point to that drive with TBs free and it accepts that, and even installs the map there. But it won't use that to update the satnav and still insists on the C: drive! fsck!

OK, so out with Sandboxie to redirect C: to the oodles-of-space drive, and still it doesn't work because instead of actually trying it the damn thing just looks as the space on C: and goes 'nope'.

And if you do manage to free up enough space on C: to get it working, and also tell it to shove the maps elsewhere, the cretinous excuse for software leaves a copy of it on C:, so you actually have the stuff duplicated in two places!

Nice hardware, really shit software.

[Circlotron]

Apple Watch alert sound.
When it’s paired with your phone only the watch will sound. Trouble is, the sound is a high pitched ping that I can hardly hear, especially when outside.  Not only that, there is no option to change the sound.   

[Psi]

Pet peeve:  That no one working on the Bluetooth standard though it would be a good idea to upgrade the profiles to allow a mic channel and high quality audio at the same time. "Oh, so you want a mic channel, let me drop your stereo audio quality to 4bit 8khz mono"

[coppice]

Pet peeve:  That no one working on the Bluetooth standard though it would be a good idea to upgrade the profiles to allow a mic channel and high quality audio at the same time. "Oh, so you want a mic channel, let me drop your stereo audio quality to 4bit 8khz mono"

Its almost like the cellular people don't want people bypassing their networks, using Wechat, Whatsapp and so on, with higher quality audio than their systems permit.

[dnparadice]

SaaS ... its the end of the world, soon it will be EaaS that is: Everything as a Service.