Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[Bassman59]

On an analog clock, you can instantly see "it's nearly 4" without thinking...  3:37 just isn't quite as fast.

On an analog clock, it makes sense to have 60 minutes in an hour.  On a digital clock...   we really need 100 minutes in an hour for it to make sense!

Agreed.  Especially if you have an idea what the expected reading is going to be, I find it easier to glance and see the hand (or pointer, in the case of a gauge) is where you know it should be, your brain can say 'close enough' in an instant.  “I need to leave at 3:55”  A glance at an analog clock at 3:38 shows you have time, and it’s roughly a quarter hour left.  Digital you need to parse that 38 is less than 55, then do the math to find it’s 17 minutes less, then compare that to the 60 minutes in an hour to find it’s about a quarter hour.  Having grown up with analog timepieces, and as one who still wears a watch, this is simply intuitive to me. 

Digital is great for absolute precision, but I find analog is usually better for quick interpretation and comparison.

-Pat

While personally I prefer analog, I have no problem at all looking at a digital clock and automatically know how long to whenever. 

If I need to leave at 3.55 (much prefer 24 hr format) and it read 3.38, I automatically think I’ve got 17 mins,  it’s instant.

Likewise if it’s 18:04 and my wife says dinner is in about 20 mins, dinners at 18:24.

Kirk: "Spock, what time is it?"

Spock: "It is exactly 11:57 and 35.625 seconds."

McCoy: "Spock, it's noon, dammit!"

[Bassman59]

Tiny, delicate items (like Micro-SD cards) that come armored in thick blister plastics that apparently were meant to let you see what you purchased, but firmly resist any sensible attempt to unpack.

You need heavy duty tools and brute force to open them and then either hurt yourself, or even worse, the item you wanted to get at.

Everything sold at Costco has way too much packaging. "Oh, you want to buy orange juice. Well, you have to buy three bottles [OK!] and the three bottles are held together with a piece of non-recyclable plastic." And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

Oh, a better example. Buy two loaves of bread. but! You have to put both loaves (which already have two layers of plastic bag packaging) into a third bag, so it counts as "one" SKU.

[Nominal Animal]

I'm sure a lot of readers think that this silver stuff is just another dodgy woo-woo, but it is actually rather simple thing: in physical contact with many metals, including silver and aluminium, bacteria (and viruses with encapsulating shells) die, as their outer molecular structure breaks down.  Because vertebrate cells have a different surface structure, they're not vulnerable to the same kind of breakdown.  As aluminium has certain issues if used internally, medical dressings and creams commonly use silver for exactly this purpose.

Antiperspirants use aluminium salts for two purposes: aluminium chlorohydrates form a colloid in sweat glands, which physically reduces sweating.  Aluminium sulfate salts (alum) in turn inhibit bacteria; it is the bacteria subsisting on the sweat that generates the smell, as sweat itself is usually scentless.  (There are certain compounds that do appear in sweat if they are ingested, though.  That is, living human skin can smell different based on their diet.)

Nominal Animal, we have here a colloidal silver in spray form - can you find it there? It may be a bit more practical than electrolise it.

Yep, there are even local manufacturers (who work with Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency control).

Colloidal silver is problematic in that it only stays on the surface; I'd like it to adhere to the dressing, but be on the surface too.  I fear that if I just spray some to the dressing, it'll be transferred to my skin, and soon be absorbed/flushed/covered in the cut by the plasma and fibrins, and is no longer effective.

I haven't tested the Hansaplast Universal (which according to ya.fi is a polyethylene strip with natural latex as the glue, with the wound pad made of cellulose viscose, polypropylene, polyethylene, aluminium, and silver), as I haven't yet gone to a store/pharmacy that has them.  Due to the omicron stuff and it being the flu season, I'm kinda avoiding public transport.

[Bassman59]

That rubbery coating does feel nice and luxurious at first, but it invariably turns to nasty sticky goo at some point.

Along the lines of plastic,

Xcelite screwdrivers and tools have "that smell." I have some that are 25 years old and they STILL STINK LIKE NEW. I open my toolbox and eewwwwwwwww ....

[BrokenYugo]

That rubbery coating does feel nice and luxurious at first, but it invariably turns to nasty sticky goo at some point.

Along the lines of plastic,

Xcelite screwdrivers and tools have "that smell." I have some that are 25 years old and they STILL STINK LIKE NEW. I open my toolbox and eewwwwwwwww ....

Cellulose Acetate, I've never opened a box of old tools that didn't reek of that weird vinegary oxidized oil smell.

[jonovid]

That rubbery coating does feel nice and luxurious at first, but it invariably turns to nasty sticky goo at some point.

Along the lines of plastic,

Xcelite screwdrivers and tools have "that smell." I have some that are 25 years old and they STILL STINK LIKE NEW. I open my toolbox and eewwwwwwwww ....

Cellulose Acetate, I've never opened a box of old tools that didn't reek of that weird vinegary oxidized oil smell.

not using uv stabilised plastic in anything exposed to sunlight.
even sunlight from a window can make plastic tubs fragile or brittle over time.

[james_s]

Tiny, delicate items (like Micro-SD cards) that come armored in thick blister plastics that apparently were meant to let you see what you purchased, but firmly resist any sensible attempt to unpack.

You need heavy duty tools and brute force to open them and then either hurt yourself, or even worse, the item you wanted to get at.

That is primarily done to deter theft. Small, relatively valuable items are put into larger packages that are difficult to slip the item out of.

[james_s]

why is it that bed side clocks are AM-PM 12-hour clocks but most others are 24-hour military time
how hard is it to put an AM-PM 12-hour or 24-hour clock mode switch in most appliances or even show a analog clock if the user interface screen can do so.

Probably because the ICs they are based on need to be wired differently for 12 or 24 hour mode and are not easily switchable. They were designed in the 70s-80s and various clones are still being used.

For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever seen a digital clock in this part of the world that used the 24 hour format, although I have a couple of vintage Russian clocks that are and some of the nixie clocks I built are selectable.

[rsjsouza]

why is it that bed side clocks are AM-PM 12-hour clocks but most others are 24-hour military time
how hard is it to put an AM-PM 12-hour or 24-hour clock mode switch in most appliances or even show a analog clock if the user interface screen can do so.

Probably because the ICs they are based on need to be wired differently for 12 or 24 hour mode and are not easily switchable. They were designed in the 70s-80s and various clones are still being used.

For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever seen a digital clock in this part of the world that used the 24 hour format, although I have a couple of vintage Russian clocks that are and some of the nixie clocks I built are selectable.

In Brasil there were some late models (i.e., late 80s) that had 24h formats, but were not as common.

IMHO the AM/PM is a PITA, as everyone I knew (including myself) was bitten more than once by oversleeping due to a mixed setting on their alarm clock. Worse, some of the cheaper and later models did not even had the letters anymore, but simply an LED that, when lit, indicated PM.

[SilverSolder]

Pet peeve of today:   Search engines that return results that don't contain your search terms!

Looks like eBay has switched to this type of "greedy search" recently.  It is so annoying to have to "double check" the results, and avoid clicking into a product that won't work (i.e. not what you asked for).

Amazon is the poster child for this kind of crappy search...  but now eBay has started too...

Is it too much to ask for a "Verbatim" mode like Google has,  to save some time for long suffering consumers with an IQ over 50?   

[Ed.Kloonk]

Pet peeve of today:   Search engines that return results that don't contain your search terms!

Looks like eBay has switched to this type of "greedy search" recently.  It is so annoying to have to "double check" the results, and avoid clicking into a product that won't work (i.e. not what you asked for).

Amazon is the poster child for this kind of crappy search...  but now eBay has started too...

Is it too much to ask for a "Verbatim" mode like Google has,  to save some time for long suffering consumers with an IQ over 50?   

This happened to me last week. I pulled out the phone to help someone out and the search results.. I was like WTF is this s...?

[mc172]

Pet peeve of today:   Search engines that return results that don't contain your search terms!

Looks like eBay has switched to this type of "greedy search" recently.  It is so annoying to have to "double check" the results, and avoid clicking into a product that won't work (i.e. not what you asked for).

Amazon is the poster child for this kind of crappy search...  but now eBay has started too...

Is it too much to ask for a "Verbatim" mode like Google has,  to save some time for long suffering consumers with an IQ over 50?   

YouTube now does this as well, returning "recommended for you" results or "people also watched" crap not related to the search query. For example, searching for "soldering" returns a load of soldering videos as expected. A few results down (about ​is a video titled "7 USEFUL CRFATS [sic]" which is one of those useless DIY "hack" videos that make no practical sense.

It does it on both desktop and in the app. The desktop also returns "for you" results that correlate to stuff I've recently watched and the results get less and less relevant to the query as I scroll, to the point where it just shows me stuff I've recently watched. A search for "soldering" returns the recent EEVblog 1446 (analogue WH meter) a bit down the page, for example. I also get results about the James Webb telescope.

[PlainName]

You know, I just realised that it's now so common I don't even notice and just automatically filter out irrelevant results.

[SilverSolder]

You know, I just realised that it's now so common I don't even notice and just automatically filter out irrelevant results.

Sometimes that can be hard work, for example searching for "Ford Escape AWD" and 90% of the results are non-AWD...    What a pain in the neck, makes me wish great misfortune on the designers and spiritual leaders of these systems.

It's as if they have really drunk the AI kool aid, masturbating themselves to sleep at night while fantasizing that their AI powered fecal-spray search is actually better than the user at finding what they are looking for...       (can you tell I'm annoyed?)

Sometimes it gets so bad, I literally have to use the browser's search function to search in the search results!   -  but the browser's search function is not as good as a proper search engine that supports multiple predicates...   Maybe that's a solution, improving the browser's own search function with an add-in?   hmmm.....

[SilverSolder]

This discussion prompted me to install the "Chrome Regex Search" in my browser.   This is an amazing tool and has made my day! 

[Kim Christensen]

This discussion prompted me to install the "Chrome Regex Search" in my browser.   This is an amazing tool and has made my day! 

Curious as to how this is different than the CTRL-F search? I'm not currently using Chrome because of issues I've had with it in the past.

[SilverSolder]

This discussion prompted me to install the "Chrome Regex Search" in my browser.   This is an amazing tool and has made my day! 

Curious as to how this is different than the CTRL-F search? I'm not currently using Chrome because of issues I've had with it in the past.

Basically, the "Chrome Regex Search" add-in allows you to use more advanced query language (regular expressions) in the search field.

If you are new to regular expressions, they are a little daunting at first, but extremely brutally powerful once you know them.

An example of what you can do with the add-in:

Search on eBay for "HP spectrum analyzer", get 200 results in the browser.  Now we want to find only HP 856xx and 358xx listings.  So we type into the add-in:     ^.*HP.*(358|856).*
...which basically means, "Give me every line of text from the beginning, containing the string HP followed later by 358 or 856, and any following characters to the end of that line"

The add-in has a button that copies all the selected text that was found to the clipboard, and we get these eBay headings:

TESTED/DIM HP AGILENT 8563A 9KHz - 26.5GHz SPECTRUM ANALYZER #55
HP 3582A Spectrum Analyzer 25kHz Dual channel
- HP 3582A Spectrum Analyzer 25kHz Dual channel
Hewlett Packard HP Agilent 8565A Spectrum Analyzer OPT:100 100Hz/300Hz Parts
HP 3582A Spectrum Analyzer Hewlett Packard
HP Agilent 8562A Spectrum Analyzer 1 khz to 22 ghz
HP 8568B SPECTRUM ANALYZER - Free Shipping
- HP 8568B SPECTRUM ANALYZER - Free Shipping
HP / Agilent 85662A Spectrum Analyzer Display 48-66Hz, 250 VA - w/Opt. 067
- HP / Agilent 85662A Spectrum Analyzer Display 48-66Hz, 250 VA - w/Opt. 067
HP 85662A spectrum analyzer display front panel assembly
- HP 85662A spectrum analyzer display front panel assembly
HP8563A Spectrum Analyzer 9kHz - 26,5 - 40,0GHz with Mixer HP11970A
HP 8569B Spectrum Analyzer 2.0 - 4.5 GHz Oscillator Assembly PN: 5086-7350
HP 8560E RF Spectrum Analyzer 30Hz-2.9GHz W/85620A Memory Module Working


Not perfect and with some duplication (sponsored listings etc.?), but basically, we just saved looking through 200 listings manually to do the job that eBay's search engine used to be able to do in the good old days, when men were men, and computers were computers! 


The add-in obviously works with any other page too, as long as there is text in there...

[james_s]

And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

I wish they did that in all stores, it's far superior to grocery bags in my opinion. With everything packed in a box I can place the box in the back of my station wagon and when I get home I don't have to crawl around retrieving all of the various food items that rolled out of the bag and rolled around in the back of the car. Boxes are easier to carry than bags too.

[IDEngineer]

And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

Don't be fooled. That's a cost saving measure for Costco. They don't have to pay to haul away their old cardboard... you're doing it for them!

[Bassman59]

And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

Don't be fooled. That's a cost saving measure for Costco. They don't have to pay to haul away their old cardboard... you're doing it for them!

Oh, of course it's a cost-saving measure.
If only the boxes weren't of the sort that's designed to have the top and front parts cut off for display purposes, which makes them unusable as box to carry your purchases!
Also if you bring your own bags (paper, or an insulated pack, or whatever), they won't pack it for you. Of course how they pack those silly half-boxes isn't useful either.

But they have Lagavulin 16 whisky for $75 a bottle, and they sell actual prime beef (not just that "choice" dog food), so hey, you deal.

[rsjsouza]

And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

I wish they did that in all stores, it's far superior to grocery bags in my opinion. With everything packed in a box I can place the box in the back of my station wagon and when I get home I don't have to crawl around retrieving all of the various food items that rolled out of the bag and rolled around in the back of the car. Boxes are easier to carry than bags too.

James, there is a way to tie the plastic grocery bags in a way that is very easy to be untied. It is hard to explain in words, so there's a short clip I did:
https://youtu.be/czqSlAEAWL4

I use this method every time when going to the supermarket. It never fails to keep the groceries from rolling around the cargo area.

[eti]

I detest it when (usually Americans) say:

# “Feel free to go ahead and <X>”

(er thanks, I know I’m *free* to do as I wish, and I’m not so stupid as to need some meaningless “permission” in this manner. Yes, I’m well aware of my freedom, how patronising.

or

# “I went ahead and <Y>”

or

# “I’m going to do this, right now”

My stupid Amazon Alexa, when asked “What’s the weather?”, will reply in a typically stupid American “English” way, saying “Right now, it’s raining” blah blah blah. When ELSE do the programmers think the user wants to know the weather for, unless they SPECIFY A TIMEFRAME? Duh.

Redundant, ridiculous addition of “Right now” and countless other idiotic “word fluff” is the doing of, and the way of many yanks (of course not all.)

Considering American “English” is based on the very premise of laziness, saving letters, mis-spelling and bad pronunciation of words, the concept of needlessly ADDING words to a sentence is all but idiotic.

[SilverSolder]

And then Costco has the stones to not give you proper grocery bags, so you end up putting your food and such into parts of the cardboard packaging that the products are packed in for shipping to the store.

Don't be fooled. That's a cost saving measure for Costco. They don't have to pay to haul away their old cardboard... you're doing it for them!

Oh, of course it's a cost-saving measure.
If only the boxes weren't of the sort that's designed to have the top and front parts cut off for display purposes, which makes them unusable as box to carry your purchases!
Also if you bring your own bags (paper, or an insulated pack, or whatever), they won't pack it for you. Of course how they pack those silly half-boxes isn't useful either.

But they have Lagavulin 16 whisky for $75 a bottle, and they sell actual prime beef (not just that "choice" dog food), so hey, you deal.

I do think Costco is one of the better stores, in terms of which products they choose to carry.  Generally good to excellent quality, there aren't many duds...

[SilverSolder]

I detest it when (usually Americans) say:

# “Feel free to go ahead and <X>”

(er thanks, I know I’m *free* to do as I wish, and I’m not so stupid as to need some meaningless “permission” in this manner. Yes, I’m well aware of my freedom, how patronising.

or

# “I went ahead and <Y>”

or

# “I’m going to do this, right now”

My stupid Amazon Alexa, when asked “What’s the weather?”, will reply in a typically stupid American “English” way, saying “Right now, it’s raining” blah blah blah. When ELSE do the programmers think the user wants to know the weather for, unless they SPECIFY A TIMEFRAME? Duh.

Redundant, ridiculous addition of “Right now” and countless other idiotic “word fluff” is the doing of, and the way of many yanks (of course not all.)

Considering American “English” is based on the very premise of laziness, saving letters, mis-spelling and bad pronunciation of words, the concept of needlessly ADDING words to a sentence is all but idiotic.

That's very funny, that is!  (as a Black Country lass might say, adding those extra words on the end!)

The Black Country regional dialect is amazing!  The home of the Industrial Revolution, James Watt, Lunar Society, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest etc. etc. etc.,  this is Heavy Metal to the core!

Just listen to this...   and if you understand the joke he is telling, you're doing very well!

[eti]

I detest it when (usually Americans) say:

# “Feel free to go ahead and <X>”

(er thanks, I know I’m *free* to do as I wish, and I’m not so stupid as to need some meaningless “permission” in this manner. Yes, I’m well aware of my freedom, how patronising.

or

# “I went ahead and <Y>”

or

# “I’m going to do this, right now”

My stupid Amazon Alexa, when asked “What’s the weather?”, will reply in a typically stupid American “English” way, saying “Right now, it’s raining” blah blah blah. When ELSE do the programmers think the user wants to know the weather for, unless they SPECIFY A TIMEFRAME? Duh.

Redundant, ridiculous addition of “Right now” and countless other idiotic “word fluff” is the doing of, and the way of many yanks (of course not all.)

Considering American “English” is based on the very premise of laziness, saving letters, mis-spelling and bad pronunciation of words, the concept of needlessly ADDING words to a sentence is all but idiotic.

That's very funny, that is!  (as a Black Country lass might say, adding those extra words on the end!)

The Black Country regional dialect is amazing!  The home of the Industrial Revolution, James Watt, Lunar Society, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest etc. etc. etc.,  this is Heavy Metal to the core!

Just listen to this...   and if you understand the joke he is telling, you're doing very well!

I understand Brummie very well, sadly. It’s one of those accents I just can’t take to. I’m good with understanding English spoken with a strong accent (I’m thoroughly English btw). Many of my friends used to look baffled when listening to reggae, wondering how on earth I could understand the patois; it’s not at all difficult. It’s not that the singer speaks too fast, it’s that the audience listens **too slowly** 😁

As regards Birmingham and the area, it’s about 40 mins away from me. I’ve visited a few times, can’t say I have much fondness for the accent nor the place (esp the old New St station - UGH!) - I won’t say I “hate” Birmingham, but could happily live my life without feeling the urge to go back. Hehe.