You love it. You hate it. It delights you and it drives you mad with rage and despair. Here are The Ten Most Annoying Things About Technology:
Non standard electrical sockets
Programming VCRs
Non standard chargers for mobile devices
PCs take so long to start
Meaningless PC error messages
Setting up so-called plug 'n play broadband routers
Spotty mobile networks
Undecipherable commercial conditions for owning a mobile device
Non standard physical interfaces between different product types
Underperformance compared to the spec on the box
Another one;
User manuals supplied on CD only.
"Programming VCRs"
Does anyone even do this anymore? Or has this blog been syndicated from the 1990s?
Seriously, Sky+ and DVD recorders have long since extinguished this 'problem'.
In fact, most of the complaints on the list (especially 'meaningless PC error messages') are minor, to say the least. It's when the PC doesn't start that I complain, not when a brief alert flashes up.
Well Simon, I don't have Sky but I do have a VCR and I still can't get the bloody thing to record what I want. On the other hand I've never had a PC that didn't start, but I've had plenty that won't do what I want while displaying fatuously incomprehensible reasons why it won't. So in that respect I may have been lucky.
Hi David. I had a friend that was looking for blank videos to buy in stores recently, and really struggled. I'd just envisioned that they'd been phased out of the market completely (much like cassette tapes). I know for sure that you can't purchase videos in retailers such as HMV anymore. Glad to hear you're holding firm in light of this!
Anyway, I'm not one to comment - I'm still mastering the art of the revolving door. Technology indeed!
Sorry Simon I'm talking bollox. Of course mine's a DVD in actual fact, but for some reason I always refer to it as a VCR. Still it's proving just as difficult to get to record as the most stubborn VCR I ever had.
> Seriously, Sky+ and DVD recorders have long since extinguished this 'problem'.
I take your point, Simon, that VCRs are now the trailing edge of technology, but there is still "legacy" kit out there.
I have to admit defeat in the face of my mum's model (and other relatives'). "Knowing a bit about computers" hasn't helped me one iota. Hate the beasts.
PVRs, by contrast are a reliable, easy joy. I'm not a Sky+ person though, please note - a DigiHome model is fine for me.
The worst thing about technology is its logic: if something can be done, it will be done. If someone stopped for a sec to think whether this or that made any sense or if we actually need it, we´d skip a lot of the bs that we´ve grown to accept.
(and this applies to ideas that have had vc backing... so there´s a lot of bull out there!)
One of the worst technology ideas must be the "power plug" - the low-voltage DC power-in connector which comes in more sizes than is really necessary, and they never standardised the polarity (or voltage, or whether power-adapters will be regulated or not).
Andrew, the EC seems to be on the trail of this one having bludgeoned the major phone guys into standardising on plugs for chargers (micro-USB) and saying they'll try and extend this agreement to all mobile data deivces.
Power bricks really are the worst idea ever. Apart from the lack of electrical standardisation the physical size is often so big that they take up two positions on the distribution block. Then some have the wire coming out at the to, some at the bottom.
What is needed is a standardized voltage and polarity so that a single multi-output unit could serve all ones devices.
I couldn't agree more about the DC power supply problem: on my bench, I have a kit of over thirty DC connector plugs, and a 0-30V DC bench power supply. Even that is not enough, though; some units have mini-DIN connectors, others 15-way high-density D connectors - it's a real nightmare! Why do they do it?
If you look at the top 20 companies of the world, 19 of them are still brick-and-mortar companies. I have nothing against tech companies. What I am saying is that if you have a car manufacturer or an oil and gas manufacturer, you won’t get the supply over the Net.