Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[unknownparticle]

Supposedly educated people, when talking about, or reporting on, Nuclear subjects, who don't pronounce Nuclear correctly
Really grinds my gears!

[AndyBeez]

Supposedly educated people, when talking about, or reporting on, Nuclear subjects, who don't pronounce Nuclear correctly
Really grinds my gears!

Grind away...

[PlainName]

How should it be pronounced?

[TimFox]

New-clee-err, based on the spelling.
US President D Eisenhower never got this right either.
Then again, everyone back then called nuclear power "atomic power", as well.

[PlainName]

Oh, that's what I thought. How disappointing

[MrMobodies]

Here is the massive problem with Apps; smart phone applications require a device to support the very latest gleaming OS build. If your IoS or 'droid is a version behind OS support, then it is highly likely that THE APP CANNOT BE USED

Which is why I check before I choose them that they can run standalone and won't update behind my back.

[james_s]

Printer manufactures have started using the razor blade business model,

Started? they been at it for years.

I guess I should have said started enforcing it, it's been around for decades but more recently it has gotten much worse. That stupid HP+ thing locks users into it, no thanks. Personally I think it should be illegal for printers to enforce OEM ink, and they shouldn't be able to void the warranty either unless they can prove the failure was a result of the aftermarket cartridge. It's not my fault they've decided to make printers stupidly cheap, and I'm not ever going to pay retail price for toner.

[unknownparticle]

New-clee-err, based on the spelling.
US President D Eisenhower never got this right either.
Then again, everyone back then called nuclear power "atomic power", as well.

Yes, that was a thing. There was book published by the United States Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Defense, titled The Effects of Atomic Weapons, basically a review of results from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and later weapons testing. This was then published again, titled The Effects of Nuclear (Nu Killer for those that muddle their pronunciation) Weapons. Atomic and Nuclear would seem to distinguish between Atomic weapons, that is fission bombs, and Nuclear, that is Fission Fusion or, thermonuclear bombs.

Both books by the way, are extremely interesting reads, and very scary.

[PlainName]

Heinz tinned soup.

Not the soup, which is perfectly reasonable, but the stupid cans. Once upon a time they were just like any other modern can, which a beveled bottom edge so they'd stack easily. Then some bright spark had the idea of making shelf stackers' life more 'interesting' and made the bottom edge exactly the same as the top, so they no long stack. Just spent a fun 10 mins picking the bloody things up off the floor when trying to fit them just two-high onto the pantry shelf.

[MrMobodies]

Watching a TV review about Volkswagen battery cars. I got put off starting from the bit when the creator was all, it's got "this app" and "that app", " the app does this and that" and "the 'smart'' app:bullshit: will tell you how much battery is left blah blah blah..."

All I care about is how well it drives and pulls out of busy junctions, how smooth it is, the torque, efficiency, the functionality within the car itself and the serviceability not about phones and apps dominating the review.

I'd expect it to display that information by default on the built in screen without the need of an "app" on a phone. It's nice to have functionality as well but I found it ridiculous that the creator was focusing on just a phone when it should be the car and showing this functionality in the car.

So they are taking features that are nothing new and are calling it 'smart' because it is on batteries instead of fuel, which I find a damn insult as if they were portraying that the "fuel gauge" is brand a new concept that I have never seen before.

[james_s]

Watching a TV review about Volkswagen battery cars. I got put off starting from the bit when the creator was all, it's got "this app" and "that app", " the app does this and that" and "the 'smart'' app:bullshit: will tell you how much battery is left blah blah blah..."

All I care about is how well it drives and pulls out of busy junctions, how smooth it is, the torque, efficiency, the functionality within the car itself and the serviceability not about phones and apps dominating the review.

I'd expect it to display that information by default on the built in screen without the need of an "app" on a phone. It's nice to have functionality as well but I found it ridiculous that the creator was focusing on just a phone when it should be the car and showing this functionality in the car.

So they are taking features that are nothing new and are calling it 'smart' because it is on batteries instead of fuel, which I find a damn insult as if they were portraying that the "fuel gauge" is brand a new concept that I have never seen before.

Cars are all so similar now that ads mostly focus on the infotainment crap and other gadgets they contain. They're pretty much all the same basic design, nearly indistinguishable from each other. They're pretty much all reliable, get similar gas mileage and have similar performance, there isn't much to differentiate the brands besides the hideous gigantic grills and the tech gadgets.

[coppice]

Cars are all so similar now that ads mostly focus on the infotainment crap and other gadgets they contain. They're pretty much all the same basic design, nearly indistinguishable from each other. They're pretty much all reliable, get similar gas mileage and have similar performance, there isn't much to differentiate the brands besides the hideous gigantic grills and the tech gadgets.

Really? Where can we find these highly reliable cars? The average car is better than it used to be, but large numbers of us still choose cars with a big bias towards ones that don't break too often. Choosing a higher power option doesn't give the eye watering fuel bills it used to, but there is still a large gulf between economy and performance engine options.

[james_s]

Really? Where can we find these highly reliable cars? The average car is better than it used to be, but large numbers of us still choose cars with a big bias towards ones that don't break too often. Choosing a higher power option doesn't give the eye watering fuel bills it used to, but there is still a large gulf between economy and performance engine options.

I struggle to think of anybody I know whose car under about 10 years old has been in the shop recently. Cars used to break down regularly, even fairly new cars, now most of them will go 100k+ miles with little more than oil changes. Many of them will go a lot longer than that without requiring major repairs. Everyone seems to have settled on the cookie cutter crossover SUV design, they're all pretty much the same.

[coppice]

Really? Where can we find these highly reliable cars? The average car is better than it used to be, but large numbers of us still choose cars with a big bias towards ones that don't break too often. Choosing a higher power option doesn't give the eye watering fuel bills it used to, but there is still a large gulf between economy and performance engine options.

I struggle to think of anybody I know whose car under about 10 years old has been in the shop recently. Cars used to break down regularly, even fairly new cars, now most of them will go 100k+ miles with little more than oil changes. Many of them will go a lot longer than that without requiring major repairs. Everyone seems to have settled on the cookie cutter crossover SUV design, they're all pretty much the same.

Unless you bought one of the gasoline direct injection cars that choke with carbon after 40k or 50k miles; or you bought one of most makes with a CVT, especially Nissan; or you bought one of the various troublesome dual clutch gearbox cars, like the Fords that caused huge law suits; or.... The best cars out there are pretty solid these days, but I wouldn't say this was general. They keep changing technologies without much regard for the downsides. We even had a fault on our 10 year old 65k mile Honda Jazz recently, and that keeps topping the reliability ratings in the UK.

[Circlotron]

In the current context - engines with aluminium cylinder heads.  Back in the day with cast iron heads you could boil them till the paint peeled off, refill them with coolant and away you go. Not nowadays. Just look at them sideways or misgender them or whatever and bingo! time for a new head gasket. And nowadays doing a head gasket is not always straightforward job you can do at home. Gotta get the head machined, preferably with a surface finish to suit the gasket, new head bolts that torque to yield instead of three grunts tight and there is a whole plethora of overhead cams and belts and chains and a pile of other stuff that gets in your way. And get of my lawn!

[vk6zgo]

In the current context - engines with aluminium cylinder heads.  Back in the day with cast iron heads you could boil them till the paint peeled off, refill them with coolant and away you go. Not nowadays. Just look at them sideways or misgender them or whatever and bingo! time for a new head gasket. And nowadays doing a head gasket is not always straightforward job you can do at home. Gotta get the head machined, preferably with a surface finish to suit the gasket, new head bolts that torque to yield instead of three grunts tight and there is a whole plethora of overhead cams and belts and chains and a pile of other stuff that gets in your way. And get of my lawn!

This leads to another gripe, though it is really a "past gripe".

Bosch in Oz sold a particular sparkplug part number to fit the HQ Holden six cylinder engines.
They worked much better than the cruddy "AC" brand ones fitted by GMH, but were expensive, so when I saw the same part number a lot cheaper at KMart, I grabbed a set.

Fitting them, I looked forward to trouble free operation, only to find the insulation was breaking down after a very few km.
Looking at them, they all had hairline cracks in the insulator, right where it joined the metal body.i

It turned out that Bosch Germany used that part number in aluminium cylinder heads.
As all the other characteristics were the same, Bosch in Australia reused the same part number for sparkplugs  which were intended for use in cast iron heads, just "beefing up" the insulation at the point where the insulator entered the metal body, due to the greater difficulty of dissipating heat with the cast iron heads.

Comparing the German & Oz ones, the thicker insulator was quite obvious---it appears thar was all that was needed to avoid the hairline cracks.

Bosch in Oz always struck me as " pretty sharp cookies" but they dropped the ball on that one!

[james_s]

In the current context - engines with aluminium cylinder heads.  Back in the day with cast iron heads you could boil them till the paint peeled off, refill them with coolant and away you go. Not nowadays. Just look at them sideways or misgender them or whatever and bingo! time for a new head gasket. And nowadays doing a head gasket is not always straightforward job you can do at home. Gotta get the head machined, preferably with a surface finish to suit the gasket, new head bolts that torque to yield instead of three grunts tight and there is a whole plethora of overhead cams and belts and chains and a pile of other stuff that gets in your way. And get of my lawn!

Volvo was using aluminum heads on cast iron blocks as far back as 1976, I've had several of them, one of which my parents bought new in 1986 has 350k miles on it and still runs fine. If you overheat them badly enough the head will warp but it isn't too hard to avoid doing that. The aluminum is *much* lighter and easier to work with if it does need work. There's an even greater weight savings in newer cars that have aluminum blocks too.

[coppice]

In the current context - engines with aluminium cylinder heads.  Back in the day with cast iron heads you could boil them till the paint peeled off, refill them with coolant and away you go. Not nowadays. Just look at them sideways or misgender them or whatever and bingo! time for a new head gasket. And nowadays doing a head gasket is not always straightforward job you can do at home. Gotta get the head machined, preferably with a surface finish to suit the gasket, new head bolts that torque to yield instead of three grunts tight and there is a whole plethora of overhead cams and belts and chains and a pile of other stuff that gets in your way. And get of my lawn!

Volvo was using aluminum heads on cast iron blocks as far back as 1976, I've had several of them, one of which my parents bought new in 1986 has 350k miles on it and still runs fine. If you overheat them badly enough the head will warp but it isn't too hard to avoid doing that. The aluminum is *much* lighter and easier to work with if it does need work. There's an even greater weight savings in newer cars that have aluminum blocks too.

The Volvo red block engines are famous for being among the most trouble free engines ever made. I'm not sure what they did right about mixed materials, expansion rates, etc. but they certainly did get it right.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Yes. They really should.

[vk6zgo]

Yes. They really should.
(Attachment Link)

Why would they?

Ours isn't quite that old, being from 1999, but even if it looks beat up, still stacks up well against a lot of new cars.
Some years ago, I thought "it must be on the way out!" but as happens, the occasion came up where my daughter got a new job in Carnarvon in WA's Northwest, 892 km away from Perth.

Her Mazda 323 was a bit tired, so we drove her up there, loaded "down to the gunnels" with stuff she needed, & made it Ok, except for a dead alternator (a young couple in a Hilux helped us out by recharging our battery every 50-70km).
We got there, the local Auto Electrician rebuilt the alternator, & after a few days visiting, we flew back home, leaving her with the Camry.
We made do with her Mazda.

She drove it round for the best part of a year without incident, then came back, traded the Mazda in on a new Hyundai Accent.
Back she went to Carnarvon with her new "pride & joy", but on her first return trip to Perth, the Hyundai blew its radiator cap off, & cooked the engine.
And to think we were concerned about the "ancient" Camry!

[SilverSolder]

Watching a TV review about Volkswagen battery cars. I got put off starting from the bit when the creator was all, it's got "this app" and "that app", " the app does this and that" and "the 'smart'' app:bullshit: will tell you how much battery is left blah blah blah..."

All I care about is how well it drives and pulls out of busy junctions, how smooth it is, the torque, efficiency, the functionality within the car itself and the serviceability not about phones and apps dominating the review.

I'd expect it to display that information by default on the built in screen without the need of an "app" on a phone. It's nice to have functionality as well but I found it ridiculous that the creator was focusing on just a phone when it should be the car and showing this functionality in the car.

So they are taking features that are nothing new and are calling it 'smart' because it is on batteries instead of fuel, which I find a damn insult as if they were portraying that the "fuel gauge" is brand a new concept that I have never seen before.

Cars are all so similar now that ads mostly focus on the infotainment crap and other gadgets they contain. They're pretty much all the same basic design, nearly indistinguishable from each other. They're pretty much all reliable, get similar gas mileage and have similar performance, there isn't much to differentiate the brands besides the hideous gigantic grills and the tech gadgets.

They even share the same parts, e.g. Ford and GM even use the same 8-speed automatic these days...

[james_s]

Yes. They really should.
(Attachment Link)

I'd rather have a nice clean '93 Camry than just about anything available in dealers today. I find modern cars to be almost universally hideously ugly. They all look like angry anime robots. Comically gigantic grills, many of which are mostly fake, and the emblems are enormous now too.

[coppice]

They even share the same parts, e.g. Ford and GM even use the same 8-speed automatic these days...

There has always been a lot of sharing of automatic gearboxes. Borg Warner used to make them for many people. What is now Aisin was Aisin Warner in the 1980s, and built derivatives of the Borg Warner gearboxes for the Japanese market, and others like Volvo. Whole cars get shared now. With makes producing cars for other makes, makes jointly building plants to make variants of a car for all of them, and makes subcontracting manufacture to OEMs, like Magna.

[PlainName]

People who are quick to snap up a freebie then, once the arrangements are made, enter radio silence. It would be nice to send just a quick note to say it's arrived, and polite if they could bring themselves to mutter a simple 'thanks' for covering the shipping cost.

[SiliconWizard]

Yes. They really should.
(Attachment Link)

I'd rather have a nice clean '93 Camry than just about anything available in dealers today. I find modern cars to be almost universally hideously ugly. They all look like angry anime robots. Comically gigantic grills, many of which are mostly fake, and the emblems are enormous now too.

Indeed. And they also look like the Cx has been a completely forgotten notion as well. Now with max speeds getting reduced all the time, you could argue that it doesn't matter much anymore. Who cares about the Cx when you're driving at 30 km/h? (OH it's getting there!)