Inventions/Progress you HATE

[Section 15]

I leave my cellphone in the car. When I have to make a call, we have a landline. If I need to find out something online, I go to the computer. But I do check email too much, that's my weakness. But still - no texting, no social media, no "apps". Far from perfect but to my mind better than the alternative.

BINGO! My biggest annoyance is people who automatically think that they can text me on my landline. Then days later they are irritated that I didn't respond to their text. GRRR...

Section 15

[bundabergdevil]

Air fryers rock. Fight me.

They're unnatural and only work through unholy magic.

[Section 15]

I began my career before mice were that common and it wasn't long before I was flying around the keyboard on Lotus 1-2-3

Now that takes me back. I worked at Lotus back then. You probably learned how to use it from the documentation I wrote. History lesson for you youngsters (under 50 ). Back then the company had about 500 employees and was the largest software company in the world - bigger than Microsoft.

Yeah, I'm that old.

Section 15

[camion]

BINGO! My biggest annoyance is people who automatically think that they can text me on my landline. Then days later they are irritated that I didn't respond to their text. GRRR...

Section 15

My nephews only respond to text messages. No answering phones, no voicemail checking, no email response.


Happily, if I text them to call me they will.

[wilson]

Now that takes me back. I worked at Lotus back then. You probably learned how to use it from the documentation I wrote. History lesson for you youngsters (under 50 ). Back then the company had about 500 employees and was the largest software company in the world - bigger than Microsoft.

Yeah, I'm that old.

Section 15

Interestingly, I went back to a traditional mouse during the pandemic-related period virtual instruction, and have really found it to be an efficiency for me. I don't think I'll re-switch back, or whatever...the track pad on a laptop is the WORST.

[-jk]

Now that takes me back. I worked at Lotus back then. You probably learned how to use it from the documentation I wrote. History lesson for you youngsters (under 50 ). Back then the company had about 500 employees and was the largest software company in the world - bigger than Microsoft.

Yeah, I'm that old.

Section 15

Did you invent the slash command?

-jk

[OldPhiKap]

They're unnatural and only work through unholy magic.

Just like my honeymoon.

[75Crazie]

Now that takes me back. I worked at Lotus back then. You probably learned how to use it from the documentation I wrote. History lesson for you youngsters (under 50 ). Back then the company had about 500 employees and was the largest software company in the world - bigger than Microsoft.

I was working at IBM (RTP) when it assimilated Lotus. That was pretty much the death knell for 1-2-3 and Notes. IBM has killed more fine software packages and systems than anyone (I am still irate at how they let the superior OS/2 operating system die a lingering, painful death).

[bundabergdevil]

Just like my honeymoon.

Dude. You had one H-E-Double Hockey Sticks of a honeymoon!

[brevity]

People darting in at the last minute cause more delay, because of the “accordion effect” of drivers in the lane accelerating and decelerating constantly due to these interruptions.

As BlueDevil2K said, the zipper merge, where (when it’s congested) drivers go to the end of each lane and then alternate, is the most efficient way to merge in those conditions. That doesn’t mean that when traffic is flowing, it’s OK to speed up ahead of somebody and merge in at the last second. It traffic is flowing, merge in when you have a gap and keep up the speed.

So here are three things worth knowing about author Tom Vanderbilt:

1. He is married to former MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn, which makes them the alternative rock version of Michael Lewis and Tabitha Soren.

2. He appeared on an episode of Jeopardy! in 2011 (archive). By the final round, he was a distant third and in no position to win, but it's still karmically interesting that he whiffed on a clue very much in his wife's wheelhouse, a perfect intersection of her two areas of expertise: rock music and New Jersey.

3. He wrote about early vs. late merging in his 2009 book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (official excerpt from his website), and explains why he chose to become a late merger. An excerpt from that excerpt:

Seized by some rash impulse, I avoided the instinctual tickle at the back of my brain telling me to get in the already crowded right lane. Just do what the sign says, that voice usually counsels. Instead, I listened to another, more insistent voice: Don’t be a sucker. You can do better. I plowed purposefully ahead, oblivious to the hostile stares of other drivers. From the corner of my eye I could see my wife cringing. After passing dozens of cars, I made it to the bottleneck point, where, filled with newfound swagger, I took my rightful turn in the small alternating “zipper” merge that had formed. I merged, and it was clear asphalt ahead. My heart was beating faster. My wife covered her face with her hands.

I'm an early merger, but the argument later in the excerpt that said "late mergers were quite rationally utilizing the highway’s maximum capacity" is compelling, because that's exactly how I feel about a different situation when there are two lanes that combine into one lane as it merges onto a highway.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Gated community/gate controls.

I live in a gated community.

1. There are three entrance and three exit gates. At least one gate is broken (open) 70% of the time.
1a. I checked the fine print in the facility ads and nowhere does it say the gates are working gates.
2. There are 3 ways to open a gate when entering.
a. Dongle on keychain.
b. App on phone.
c. Code to punch in to box at gate, box calls phone, then punch code on phone.
3. C. code is intended for you to give to expected visitors so you can let them in. You can't talk to the visitors and code box at the same time.
4. Dongle only works within 30 feet of control box outside. Gate is 31 feet from control box. How to get out while walking?
5. The welcome text message on the box at the gate says, "Add your welcome text message here."

Look man, I'm sure you're proud of it and it's glorious but the rest of us don't want to read about your dongle.

[Phredd3]

The converting of non-consumable goods, like software, to subscriptions "as a Service"

That seems like a strange thing to hate. Curious as to why…

The corollary to this is music services. I hate them. I like to own my music in high-quality format, so that I can play the things I decide I like whenever I want, on whatever device I want, as many times as I want, at satisfying fidelity, regardless of whether or not some subscription service has decided to pony up for the rights. It may just now be getting easier to really have the quality part, now that many music services are moving up to full redbook quality, but most of the services still load the downloads up with DRM crap that include restrictions. I don't want someone else to manage my music, thanks.

[Indoor66]

I already posted earlier in this thread that six-blade razors have, in fact, been made and are still being made and sold, just not by Gillette (which, by the way, is not the only company in the world that makes razors).

Google Dorco Pace 6, or just take my word for it.

I do agree that worrying, at this point in time, about the addition of more blades seems at least 7 or 8 years behind the times. However, if you change it a tiny bit from being worried about more blades being added to saying that there are already way too many blades, it is, imo, a valid entry for the original topic.

Gillette very quietly makes a cheap, plastic single-bladed cartridge razor that they try to sell only in the Indian subcontinent. It is called the Gillette Guard. It is a far better razor than anything they sell in the US or Europe, and it only costs a couple of bucks. Last I checked the replacement cartridges were 50 cents a pop, but that was pre-pandemic. It is a smooth shaver, never clogs, is easy to use with a simple pivoting head, and it could save shavers hundreds to thousands of dollars. A couple of shaves with the Guard would probably convince most people that they have been duped by Gillette over the years with the patently ridiculous idea that more blades equals a better shave.

I can tell you that the only thing the plethora of blades is doing is distributing the force you place on the razor, like lying down on a bed of nails. Helpful, for sure, if you push really hard, which a lot of people do. But there is also the option of just not pushing so hard! And if you just stop shoving the razor into your face with a lot of force, a single blade shaves every bit as well, if not better, than a bunch of blades.

Why does anyone care how many blade razors are available? Have they become mandatory to include in your shopping cart? With all this issues in the world, this one hardly seems to deserve attention (IMHO).

[wilson]

Look man, I'm sure you're proud of it and it's glorious but the rest of us don't want to read about your dongle.

In an increasingly technology-laden educational world, we use rather a lot of dongles. I giggle every time I use that word...every time. It's super helpful and productive in a 7th grade classroom.

[ClemmonsDevil]

My nephews only respond to text messages. No answering phones, no voicemail checking, no email response.


Happily, if I text them to call me they will.

Omnivert here. I speak in front of large and small crowds for a living. If I never had to have a live conversation with another living human soul who are not friends and family outside of work and could conduct all business electronically then I would happily sign up. And I'm a fifty-year-old dude. And I'm also super average and not tech savvy. Actually, I'm not even that great at being average. I'm just okay at it.

[Section 15]

Did you invent the slash command?

-jk

No, just CTRL ALT DEL !!!

Section 15

[ClemmonsDevil]

Dude. You had one H-E-Double Hockey Sticks of a honeymoon!

At least one of them did.

[Indoor66]

Now that takes me back. I worked at Lotus back then. You probably learned how to use it from the documentation I wrote. History lesson for you youngsters (under 50 ). Back then the company had about 500 employees and was the largest software company in the world - bigger than Microsoft.

Yeah, I'm that old.

Section 15

I was quite lost when I could not get SuperCalc for my spreadsheet program. You remember that program on CP/M? I used on my Osborne.

[bundabergdevil]

In an increasingly technology-laden educational world, we use rather a lot of dongles. I giggle every time I use that word...every time. It's super helpful and productive in a 7th grade classroom.

I also like that dongles dangle.

[Indoor66]

I also like that dongles dangle.

Or dongles daringly dangled.