Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[IDEngineer]

The subscription model puts you at extreme risk because you're inevitably tied to the software's ability to "phone home". What if you're remote? What if the company goes under? What if the local Internet access has a routing problem? The list of possible failures is endless. Indeed, this is the root problem with all "cloud" models. If you don't personally control it, if the actions of someone else can disable your use of your tool (or your DATA!), you don't really own it. And you're an idiot for trusting that 100% of everything - human and machine - will always work properly forever. If that were true, no one would need to make backups.

[SilverSolder]

Subscriptions don't just trap consumers, they go messy when a business finds a subscriber cash cow has been taking a long dump on the IT budget. Forget not the other consumer traps in the EULA, like agreeing to have the software call home with 'diagnostic' information - such as location, network details, usage stats and your screen cam view [just to check it's you using the 18+ rated PCB design software]

I don't rent SW either [only beer]. Buy it, use it, upgrade it. Much cheaper than paying $10 a month for the next millennia. Yes, I can hear the accountants yelling cash flow, quasi leasing and allowable business expenses, but I ain't that guy. I noted the other day a networking program I use has a pro version that used to be $49. It's now $8 a month. A bargain? No sh*.

Related to software, my peeve de jour is in-app purchases. All app stores feature freemium software, free to download with in-app purchases. So what ARE those in-app purchases? How much do they cost? What do you get for the purchase? Is the purchase a one off or an open subscription? Not a single App Store is transparent. It's rather like going into a restaurant, asking for the menu and receiving an otherwise blank piece of paper that reads, "pay the Chef." Prices have to be clearly displayed, is the law in most western countries. Except on the internet.

I have no idea what "In-app purchases" actually means, I always assumed it means that you can buy "stuff" from the business that made the app, where the "stuff" is TBD.

I have purchased a few mobile apps, and been more than happy with some of them.  I'm glad they are not (yet) sold on a subscription basis, lol!

[SilverSolder]

The subscription model puts you at extreme risk because you're inevitably tied to the software's ability to "phone home". What if you're remote? What if the company goes under? What if the local Internet access has a routing problem? The list of possible failures is endless. Indeed, this is the root problem with all "cloud" models. If you don't personally control it, if the actions of someone else can disable your use of your tool (or your DATA!), you don't really own it. And you're an idiot for trusting that 100% of everything - human and machine - will always work properly forever. If that were true, no one would need to make backups.

I have a bought-and-paid-for Android app on a tablet in my car, that I use to talk to the car through its OBD2 port.  -  Every few months, I get a sour and accusatory error message "Application not owned!"...   which means that I have to take the tablet with me into the house, connect to WiFi, and let it talk to the "mother ship" (all silently in the background, of course... heaven forbid that the user is ever told about its homesick condition).  Once it has been on the Internet for a few minutes, I suddenly "own" the application again, and I am OK to use it for another couple of months!   Seriously.... 

[james_s]

I have no idea what "In-app purchases" actually means, I always assumed it means that you can buy "stuff" from the business that made the app, where the "stuff" is TBD.

I have purchased a few mobile apps, and been more than happy with some of them.  I'm glad they are not (yet) sold on a subscription basis, lol!

It means exactly that, or in some cases you can purchase additional functionality in the app.

I have paid for a handful of apps, but I absolutely refuse to pay a subscription for any, if it's subscription only I'm not interested.

I'm annoyed by Apple's whole app model though. They update the phone OS constantly, far more often than is necessary and it breaks older apps. I can understand app developers not wanting to update their apps forever for a one time purchase. The thing is, I would be willing to pay for a new version of the app when it becomes necessary to do so, but I really would prefer that OS releases were more like every 5 years than every year. I do not need and do not even want a new phone OS every year.

[SilverSolder]

I have no idea what "In-app purchases" actually means, I always assumed it means that you can buy "stuff" from the business that made the app, where the "stuff" is TBD.

I have purchased a few mobile apps, and been more than happy with some of them.  I'm glad they are not (yet) sold on a subscription basis, lol!

It means exactly that, or in some cases you can purchase additional functionality in the app.

I have paid for a handful of apps, but I absolutely refuse to pay a subscription for any, if it's subscription only I'm not interested.

I'm annoyed by Apple's whole app model though. They update the phone OS constantly, far more often than is necessary and it breaks older apps. I can understand app developers not wanting to update their apps forever for a one time purchase. The thing is, I would be willing to pay for a new version of the app when it becomes necessary to do so, but I really would prefer that OS releases were more like every 5 years than every year. I do not need and do not even want a new phone OS every year.

Are you forced to update Apple OS these days, or can you just leave it to run?

I get around all these problems by using an ancient phone (an LG V20) with a headphone jack, removable battery (now replaced with a 3x capacity one), and SD card slot...  I feel like most new phones are a downgrade, with their expensive and/or cumbersome solutions to the above needs!

[james_s]

Are you forced to update Apple OS these days, or can you just leave it to run?

I get around all these problems by using an ancient phone (an LG V20) with a headphone jack, removable battery (now replaced with a 3x capacity one), and SD card slot...  I feel like most new phones are a downgrade, with their expensive and/or cumbersome solutions to the above needs!

I've had an update badge on my settings icon for a couple of years now, but unlike some of the older iOS versions it has not been repeatedly downloading the update and badgering me to install it. I've just gotten used to the icon at this point, for about 95% of the time I've had an iPhone that stupid badge has been a permanent fixture. They always seem to go about one version past where they should have stopped supporting older devices with the new OS version.

[SilverSolder]

[...] They always seem to go about one version past where they should have stopped supporting older devices with the new OS version.

That's the version that's meant to kill the old phone, so you'll go out and get a shiny new one!

[IDEngineer]

I get around all these problems by using an ancient phone (an LG V20) with a headphone jack, removable battery (now replaced with a 3x capacity one), and SD card slot.

Precisely why, when I wanted to replace my field laptop, I searched backwards to find the latest model of the Thinkpad X2xx series that natively supported Win7. Turned out to be the X260. It's just as you describe: All sorts of hardware ports, SDCard interface, dual(!) hot swappable(!) batteries so I don't even have to power down, reasonably fast i7 processor with 32GB, etc. No, it's not sleek and hyper thin. But it's bulletproof, cold boots in mere seconds, I don't have to carry dongles and adapters, etc. I'm not a Thinkpad fanboi (first one I've owned) but it fit my needs as if it had been designed for on-the-road Engineering work.

[IDEngineer]

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price

[SilverSolder]

I get around all these problems by using an ancient phone (an LG V20) with a headphone jack, removable battery (now replaced with a 3x capacity one), and SD card slot.

Precisely why, when I wanted to replace my field laptop, I searched backwards to find the latest model of the Thinkpad X2xx series that natively supported Win7. Turned out to be the X260. It's just as you describe: All sorts of hardware ports, SDCard interface, dual(!) hot swappable(!) batteries so I don't even have to power down, reasonably fast i7 processor with 32GB, etc. No, it's not sleek and hyper thin. But it's bulletproof, cold boots in mere seconds, I don't have to carry dongles and adapters, etc. I'm not a Thinkpad fanboi (first one I've owned) but it fit my needs as if it had been designed for on-the-road Engineering work.

Yep, I buy older Dell laptops for exactly the same reason.  -  Basically, things have taken a bad turn about ten years ago, and we haven't recovered from it.

[james_s]

Unfortunately even the latest laptops that support Win7 are far from perfect. I love the X250 I've had for years, but the clickpad on it is absolutely horrible. Put proper physical buttons below it and it would be perfect. The concept of a clickpad is defective by design.

[rsjsouza]

Unfortunately even the latest laptops that support Win7 are far from perfect. I love the X250 I've had for years, but the clickpad on it is absolutely hobble. Put proper physical buttons below it and it would be perfect. The concept of a clickpad is defective by design.

Indeed, even on some of the older macs. I hate them all. Even the touch clicks annoy me with false clicks when I lift my fingers from it. 

[Nominal Animal]

I love the X250 I've had for years, but the clickpad on it is absolutely hobble. Put proper physical buttons below it and it would be perfect. The concept of a clickpad is defective by design.

I like the touchpad on HP EliteBook 820 G2, 830 G3, and 840 G4.  They have four physical buttons: two above and two below the touchpad. By default, the above and below buttons act the same (left and right mouse buttons), but technically, the two buttons above belong to the trackpoint (between G, B, and H; a "PS/2 Generic Mouse" device), and the two buttons below to the trackpad (a Synaptics one, varies between models, but 840 G4 has TM3139-001).
This means that if I want or need, I can use the buttons independently, at least in Linux (which is what I happen to use on these).

[IDEngineer]

My X260 has two buttons above the trackpad. I operate it two-handed. But I also carry a micro mouse in it's neoprene carry case and use that nearly all the time except in space constrained spots like a plane seat.

It also has one of those stupid eraserhead thumbsticks. I believe those originated with Toshiba decades ago. Useless then, useless now.

[IDEngineer]

One thing I've found indispensable on a laptop is a Fn keystroke to disable the trackpad. Otherwise on many machines it picks up the heel of your hand and suddenly the cursor is "somewhere else".

[Nominal Animal]

It also has one of those stupid eraserhead thumbsticks. I believe those originated with Toshiba decades ago. Useless then, useless now.

As I do not use it for its intended purpose, I've been thinking about converting it to do 3D rotation instead.

If applications used USB HID 3D Game Control input events for 3D rotation (and zoom and pan), it'd be easy.
Unfortunately, most applications do not.  Instead, they use the standard mouse events only, with 3D rotation "tool mode".

The difference is that with the former, you need additional code for the mouse emulation: When 3D rotation tool mode is enabled, mouse events are consumed by the application, and corresponding 3D Game Control input events injected back to the UI event loop.  It can be argued this is much cleaner, because instead of doing the emulation in a widget, you do the emulation in the main event loop, and let each widget just deal with the 3D Game Control input events however they like.

One more pet peeve from me, I guess!

[james_s]

My X260 has two buttons above the trackpad. I operate it two-handed. But I also carry a micro mouse in it's neoprene carry case and use that nearly all the time except in space constrained spots like a plane seat.

It also has one of those stupid eraserhead thumbsticks. I believe those originated with Toshiba decades ago. Useless then, useless now.

Yeah the "clit mouse", I actually had a Toshiba for a few years and got quite used to that, it worked really well. I don't mind that it's there on the Thinkpad, sometimes I use it, especially for scrolling, I could probably get used to it again if I really wanted to but I do prefer a proper touchpad with physical buttons.

[IDEngineer]

My problem with it is that it's not a positional tool, but a directional one. A mouse translates its motion to motion on the screen, but with the eraserhead you're saying "go this direction". It's not as direct an input method.

[Nominal Animal]

Expanding on my pet peeve above:

User interfaces should provide zoom, pan/scroll, rotation etc. events, instead of applications synthesizing them from other events.

This would mean that instead of each application doing all the work themselves, with usually different interfaces, they all would use the same events.  The OS would provide configurable mappings, when the user does not have a Human Interface Device directly producing the events.

The main benefit would be that new interface devices would not need any additional application support.  They would Just Work.

Have an useless nipple stick on your laptop?  No worries, map it to pan/scroll, or 3D rotation, whichever you prefer.
Have two fancy trackballs?  Use one for 3D rotation in 3D design programs, and the other for the normal user interface.

Make your own input device for engineering and design tasks, and have applications work with it by default; no need to plead for the application vendors to add support for it.

Am I asking for a new standard?  No, everything exists already, especially in USB HID.  All I'm asking is for the mapping of these events moved from individual applications to the OS UI services.  Even games would benefit from this –– although they are probably furthest along in doing this already.

This is also nothing new; this has been happening all the time, albeit slowly; a good example is two-finger and edge scrolling on touchpads.  Applications don't see them as touch events, the OS converts them to pan/scroll events automagically.  I just wish we'd do the same for the rest of the 2D and 3D controls.

Feels silly to be stuck in twenty-year old limitations for no real reason.

[Nominal Animal]

Related: Euler and Tait-Bryan angles.  They need to be burned in fire and banned.  Use quaternions/versors, bivectors, or axis-and-angle instead.  All those have a unique mathematical definition – no tricks or gotchas, they just work –, including conversion to and from rotation matrices. And they don't suffer from inanities like gimbal lock. 

[AndyBeez]

Feels silly to be stuck in twenty-year old limitations for no real reason.

It's called, backwards compliance. Which is why I need a box of adapters and converters to tie my computing kit together. Would be nice just to have a common API for HID, but that would need yet another standards working group. At least a vintage RS232 trackball from 1990 still works on my PC - if I use a chain of adapters!

Noticed this the other day on the underside of an Aldi battery pack. Aldi are sure serious when it comes to anticipating potential uses and abuses to their products. No overheating this battery, no throwing into a lake and no burning all make sense - but no to flushing? For the record, some bricks flush, some prove difficult to flush, but this battery brick is not even small enough the get wedged in the bend. There's common sense and there's Aldi customers.

[themadhippy]

Still not as good as he one found in virgin trains toilet

Even more amusing was the same message was played through the bog speaker when you locked the door

[AndyBeez]

Sadly, 18 month's after that photo was taken, the UK government flushed the Virgin Trains' operating franchise down the British Bog (toilet pan).
It's a good job their rolling stock was designed to go around tight bends.

[Bud]

I noticed that youtube videos which start with "Hey guys whatsup" or "Hey whatsup youtube" opening are typically an indication of low quality content video that follows it.

[Nominal Animal]

Would be nice just to have a common API for HID

Linux has had one for the last two decades.  See here for details.  Individual events have a timestamp, but there is also a SYN event following a cluster of related events, so it is easy to determine which events describe a single human action.  All USB devices map to it, and so do SMBus devices, even keyboards.  There is even an interface for grabbing one or more event interfaces –– each HID device provides one or more ––, and creating a synthesized one, with your own application or service daemon mapping the incoming events to the synthesized outgoing one, uinput.  For security reasons, access to the interfaces does require sufficient privileges (which are easily configured on a per-device basis).

It's the X11 input events and Gtk+, Qt, FLTK etc. GUI toolkits that haven't kept up.