Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[TerraHertz]

[...]
I recently saw a job description where the company touted their penchant for turning Monday's idea into Thursday's quick-turn PCB, assembled in time for Friday bench testing.   I should have scored an interview just to ask them how they managed to get all their good ideas on Mondays.

Mondays were the only day they had time to think. All other days were consumed in screaming panic, trying to get Mondays' half-baked ideas to work by Friday.

My pet hates of recent days:

Work boots that contain ONE critical component made of some crappy rubber or fake leather that disintegrates rapidly. Thus making the whole boot unusable despite the real leather being perfectly good.

People that destroy books deliberately. Case in point - a small second hand bookshop, that gets sent a lot of charity donated 2nd hand books. More than they can sell. So rather than set up some giveaway scheme such as a 'free books bench' out front, to at least give the books a chance of living on, they tear the covers off most of the best ones and put them all out in paper recycling bins. Two bins full every week. Given the small size of the place, the staff/guy must spend a significant portion of his time tearing covers off.

Cat pee soaked well into a futon.

And ebay sellers that pack big, heavy, precious items in really crappy boxes so they get broken.

[IDEngineer]

They likely believe they're being environmentally responsible. Look up "stripped book". I have no idea how they decide which ones to strip.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I have no idea how they decide which ones to strip.

'round my way they usually start with the ones containing blasphemy.

 

[TerraHertz]

Did I ever mention how much I hate leaking NiCad batteries soldered into PCBs of historic/rare old test equipment?
I think I might have a, uh few times. I really don't like repeating myself. But not as much as I hate those &*#$@ NiCads.

Here's another reason to hate them. A HP 8170A Logic Pattern Generator. A recent 'interesting bit of history' buy (and I got the manual and necessary pods too!).
The machine arrived today. Immediate horror on opening it. I think it might be repairable, we'll see how it goes.

The worst are the edge connector sockets. But with a pointy thing the green corrosion scrapes off easily, leaving clean gold plating. The problem is the tight space and the number of contacts. The idea of a miniature 'sand blaster' using some soft grit (baking soda?) seems worth trying. Needs to be some abrasive that can be washed or blown out of the sockets. And that won't blast away the socket body material.

Has anyone ever tried something like that?
There are two backplanes. One is OK, the other one has about half the sockets (two fifferent kinds) with 'green gunge.'

[srb1954]

Did I ever mention how much I hate leaking NiCad batteries soldered into PCBs of historic/rare old test equipment?
I think I might have a, uh few times. I really don't like repeating myself. But not as much as I hate those &*#$@ NiCads.

Here's another reason to hate them. A HP 8170A Logic Pattern Generator. A recent 'interesting bit of history' buy (and I got the manual and necessary pods too!).
The machine arrived today. Immediate horror on opening it. I think it might be repairable, we'll see how it goes.

I also hate NiCds, particularly those used widely in HP equipment of this era.
 
Good luck with cleaning up the edge connectors but it might be better to be looking for replacements as once the corrosion has got through to the underlying base metal it is nigh impossible to permanently eradicate it.

Looking at the extent of the corrosion I think you are also going to have to remove some ICs and clean up the corrosion underneath. Hopefully, you won't have too many bad PTHs.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Many tech corporations in a monopoly or oligopoly market position frequently message you to inform you of their latest unilateral decision....  and you are given a choice between "Obey" or "F*k off".

[MrMobodies]

I ordered a used, nice looking portable bluetooth keyboard on Ebay but what they don't show in the listing is the battery compartment with the lid off.



There is some corrosion on the positive end but fully caked in the green stuff on the battery terminals inside the cover.
Listed as "tested".
Doesn't seem to power up, no lights, and not detected so as usual I opened a returns for defective or doesn't work.

Obviously I forgot to ask. So now I have remember to ask the sellers to check for these sorts of things.

[james_s]

Did I ever mention how much I hate leaking NiCad batteries soldered into PCBs of historic/rare old test equipment?
I think I might have a, uh few times. I really don't like repeating myself. But not as much as I hate those &*#$@ NiCads.

This is a very common problem that plagues vintage computers and arcade/pinball games. Commodore Amiga PCs had a NiCd, and some games like Omega Race and Qbert are particularly notorious for having batteries leak and run down the board due to being located up at the top. Even worse than NiCds, 68k Macs have a lithium thionyl chloride battery that occasionally leaks and completely destroys the machine, venting acidic vapor that corrodes the hell out of everything nearby.

[GopherT]

.

[Kasper]

[...]  The idea of a miniature 'sand blaster' using some soft grit (baking soda?) seems worth trying. Needs to be some abrasive that can be washed or blown out of the sockets.

Haven't tried it myself but dry ice could be easy to 'clean up'.

[Labrat101]

.    <---

lithium thionyl chloride  missed a spot

[Circlotron]

When your parents won't let you do certain things but tell everyone how wonderful and talented your enemy is when they do that exact same thing. 

[MrMobodies]

I need to be able to connect with a web browser to check all the basic things that it is running correctly with all the strings and voltages.

Solar panel installer: It is "cloud based" You need an app on your phone or PC  to see it. bullsh*t.
Very angry hearing nonsense once again.

What happens if this "cloud" stops. then that would useless wouldn't it?

I shouldn't have to have it upload stuff just so I can download it elsewhere.
Very stupid.

Engensa did this thing, I was told to check that the panels were working but that was useless and when they closed down it stopped. I think it was a website portal for just comparing the difference between two meters (maybe handy for comparing but not see if it is working) but in the contract I put down for a Sunny webbox which they eventually provided after arguing with them.

[devinatkin]

People who argue based on how things have always been. That's never a justification for anything. Same with people who say well that's the rule. If the rule doesn't make sense, change the rule. People acting like machines make me hate them cause at least machines are good at it.

"His Majesty made you a Major because he believed you would know when not to obey his orders."

[vk6zgo]

And back in the 1960s the general public would often call a portable radio a transistor. 

And my reaction then was what it is now AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

[james_s]

People who argue based on how things have always been. That's never a justification for anything. Same with people who say well that's the rule. If the rule doesn't make sense, change the rule. People acting like machines make me hate them cause at least machines are good at it.

"His Majesty made you a Major because he believed you would know when not to obey his orders."

I don't see the problem with that. I don't like change, it is stressful to me. "It's always been like that" is a perfectly valid reason to me to keep it like that, unless there is a real, genuine need or benefit to changing it.

[MrMobodies]

I don't mind changes too even if they don't add any benefit but when they start to disadvantage me in any way and cause me problems and inconvenience then yes I wouldn't like those changes.

[IDEngineer]

I dislike churn for no good reason. Like when a vendor changes the user interface to "freshen things" without actually adding any value. Microsoft Office is a perfect example, as are countless development tools over the years. There is zero redeeming value in forcing your user base to waste time RElearning how to use the same tool. It's just lost time and greater frustration.

[devinatkin]

I don't see the problem with that. I don't like change, it is stressful to me. "It's always been like that" is a perfectly valid reason to me to keep it like that, unless there is a real, genuine need or benefit to changing it.

You see I've never seen someone use it as a justification when there isn't a major benefit to change. Yeah if the effort of changing doesn't outweigh the benefits don't change. But the people touting that as a reason have always in my experience been those who either just want busywork, or don't want to have to think/ put in the effort required to make needed changes.

[free_electron]

i got a new pet peeve : #%&&^ USB-C !

Every new laptop comes with the damn things. New docking station comes with the damn things. The end result is that none of my existing peripherals ( keyboard, mouse , space navigator ) can be plugged in. i need to buy a usb hub. old charging cables for iphone, watch and whatnot : same deal. i need ot buy adapter to convert 'classic' usb to that usb-c connector.
They can pump displayport or thunderbolt over that connector. yet another cable i need to buy.
For oodles of years HP has been using a standardized power plug. i got at least 10 of those 240 watt bricks laying around. Due to USB-C they now use a much smaller plug ( they use a kind of combo connector with a powerplug magnetically attached to a thunderbolt link for the dock ) Tthe dock still takes the classic power connector. the laptop has a different one. Problem is there are two versions of the dock : one with power (240watt), one without power (120watt). of course i have the 120 watt dock without power link. Power goes over the usb-c but is not sufficient to run the laptop full throttle (Zbook Fury 17 with an i7-10850 and a Quadro RTX3000). so now i can get another power brick for my second office ( i have two locations i work from. both have a dock and a power brick connected to the screens. i only move the laptop. no need to carry that stuff. now i have to.)

i understand the technical reasons and the reversability ( finally no more attempts to plug in a usb connector, having to flip it over and then flip it once more since you had it right the first time , it just didn't go in) but it is bloody annoying to have to deal with all the adapters and other crap since it is not backward compatible.

[rsjsouza]

I don't see the problem with that. I don't like change, it is stressful to me. "It's always been like that" is a perfectly valid reason to me to keep it like that, unless there is a real, genuine need or benefit to changing it.

You see I've never seen someone use it as a justification when there isn't a major benefit to change. Yeah if the effort of changing doesn't outweigh the benefits don't change. But the people touting that as a reason have always in my experience been those who either just want busywork, or don't want to have to think/ put in the effort required to make needed changes.

You must be new to the internet and the corporate world, no? I think the most offenders are websites all around that change for the sake of change, but several other minuscule changes to match the "new style" of the company are quite prevalent for a few decades now (me and my colleagues are suffering through this on our documentation).

[rsjsouza]

i got a new pet peeve : #%&&^ USB-C !

Every new laptop comes with the damn things. New docking station comes with the damn things. The end result is that none of my existing peripherals ( keyboard, mouse , space navigator ) can be plugged in. i need to buy a usb hub. old charging cables for iphone, watch and whatnot : same deal. i need ot buy adapter to convert 'classic' usb to that usb-c connector.
They can pump displayport or thunderbolt over that connector. yet another cable i need to buy.
For oodles of years HP has been using a standardized power plug. i got at least 10 of those 240 watt bricks laying around. Due to USB-C they now use a much smaller plug ( they use a kind of combo connector with a powerplug magnetically attached to a thunderbolt link for the dock ) Tthe dock still takes the classic power connector. the laptop has a different one. Problem is there are two versions of the dock : one with power (240watt), one without power (120watt). of course i have the 120 watt dock without power link. Power goes over the usb-c but is not sufficient to run the laptop full throttle (Zbook Fury 17 with an i7-10850 and a Quadro RTX3000). so now i can get another power brick for my second office ( i have two locations i work from. both have a dock and a power brick connected to the screens. i only move the laptop. no need to carry that stuff. now i have to.)

i understand the technical reasons and the reversability ( finally no more attempts to plug in a usb connector, having to flip it over and then flip it once more since you had it right the first time , it just didn't go in) but it is bloody annoying to have to deal with all the adapters and other crap since it is not backward compatible.

I also dislike the new USB-C dusplacing legacy connectors, but at least in this case it has tangible benefits. My biggest peeve is with the notebooks that use it for everything (Ethernet, Graphics, USB 3/2, etc.) and the docking stations have five or six footnotes that describe why you can't have simultaneous Ethernet and 4k video, for example, despite showing this feature all around their marketing documentation (I am looking at both Dell and HP here).

About the change in plugpack jacks, I have been suffering from this for about five years now, when Dell sid the same move after some 15+ years of a pretty decent jack.

Ah, the USB-C connector seems to be a lot more fragile than the type A.

[james_s]

You must be new to the internet and the corporate world, no? I think the most offenders are websites all around that change for the sake of change, but several other minuscule changes to match the "new style" of the company are quite prevalent for a few decades now (me and my colleagues are suffering through this on our documentation).

My favorite is when some stale company develops a stupid new logo, usually with much fanfare, as if that's going to fix anything.

[james_s]

I also dislike the new USB-C dusplacing legacy connectors, but at least in this case it has tangible benefits. My biggest peeve is with the notebooks that use it for everything (Ethernet, Graphics, USB 3/2, etc.) and the docking stations have five or six footnotes that describe why you can't have simultaneous Ethernet and 4k video, for example, despite showing this feature all around their marketing documentation (I am looking at both Dell and HP here).

About the change in plugpack jacks, I have been suffering from this for about five years now, when Dell sid the same move after some 15+ years of a pretty decent jack.

Ah, the USB-C connector seems to be a lot more fragile than the type A.

I'm not a fan either. My work MacBook is USB-C only, everybody has a pencil pouch of dongles for everything and I've had to replace the charging cord several times because the connector either gets damaged when the ridiculously slippery laptop slides off the back of the sofa or it just gets loose over time. I don't recall having that problem with other USB types.

[MrMobodies]

I know someone who spent a lot of money an a Macbook last year and their's only came with two USB C ports on the left despite there being a good amount of room.

I had to get a couple of adapters to fit it just to plug a normal USB flash drives.