[LiveBrianD]

What little things about technology annoy you?

For instance, my Logitech LX7 mouse has been blinking the 'low battery' light lately. However, I turn the mouse off when not using it to help save battery. Even so, when I do that, it keeps blinking the red low battery light unless I hit the power button again, which I forget to do. For an infinite amount of time. Yes, last night I turned it off, and this morning discovered that it was still blinking the red light indicating low battery. Uhh, if I haven't touched the mouse for 9 hours, chances are that I'm not near the computer and blinking the light won't get my attention (however, it WILL help waste battery... pointless...).

[waldojim]

My LX 7 only blinks when in use... And for some darned reason will last about 3 months with the low battery warning.

There are far too many minor annoyances for me to list though. Always minor ones though...

[LiveBrianD]

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 17 January 2012 - 09:12 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

Energizer NiMH

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 17 January 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 17 January 2012 - 09:12 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

Energizer NiMH

Yeah. Quit using them as they don't last for squat. Spend more time in the charger than in my mouse.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 18 January 2012 - 12:13 PM, said:

waldojim, on 17 January 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 17 January 2012 - 09:12 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

Energizer NiMH

Yeah. Quit using them as they don't last for squat. Spend more time in the charger than in my mouse.

Hmm... I have some NiMH batteries (I forget the brand) in my camera and they last long enough.

[waldojim]

coastie65, on 18 January 2012 - 12:13 PM, said:

waldojim, on 17 January 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 17 January 2012 - 09:12 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

Energizer NiMH

Yeah. Quit using them as they don't last for squat. Spend more time in the charger than in my mouse.

Eh, like I said, they spent several months flashing at me, yet didn't die until recently.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 18 January 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

coastie65, on 18 January 2012 - 12:13 PM, said:

waldojim, on 17 January 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 17 January 2012 - 09:12 PM, said:

I wouldn't say it's quite 3 months, but sure maybe a month or so. I think I just have alkaline duracells in the mouse, what do you use?

Energizer NiMH

Yeah. Quit using them as they don't last for squat. Spend more time in the charger than in my mouse.

Hmm... I have some NiMH batteries (I forget the brand) in my camera and they last long enough.

Got one in my Samsung Camera that does well.

[Evildave]

I used to use Rayovac 'Rechargeable Alkaline' batteries in my ancient Philips TS1000 universal remote and wireless keyboards/mice. Last six months or so, charge overnight, lasted six months again. I still have a few of those batteries left after YEARS of use, though most of 'em eventually failed and leaked. Now they sell something else, like 'Hybrid NiMH', but I haven't used 'em.

Batteries, barring difference in chemistry that requires a different charge controller, are much the same for all devices. Why does everything need a 'unique' battery? I mean, most portable and cellular devices or cameras have almost exactly the same little plastic brick shape to them, with exactly the same guts inside. But the contacts are on a different spot for every one, and they're literally keyed NOT TO fit from one device to another. Cordless tools, too.

For that matter, why are there 30 different screwdriver bits for the same sized screw?

I have never found any two devices that 'WPS' (that thing where you push the buttons and the WiFi devices allegedly set themselves up automatically) works with. Ever. Follow the instructions, watch the lights turn color, or flash, or whatever, and then... wait... and then... plug it in and find the embedded web server configuration. Bluetooth seems to work OK. Why is this apparently so 'hard'?

Wireless routers demanding a 'special' WDS protocol to be enabled, in order to extend a wireless network, that any $30 wireless bridge can extend without that protocol. Something added to REMOVE interoperability, because wireless manufacturers apparently need to sell more little black boxes with wall warts.

Wall warts. Same as batteries. It's getting a little better, since so many people standardized on MicroUSB. But seriously, power requirements for little plastic boxes aren't that different, and 99+% efficient DC/DC converters are on chips, now.

Car parts, or any common machine parts. Realistically, there are only so many ways to justify a 'different' carburetor or fuel injectors, or spark plugs, or air filters or literally thousands of other parts. How many different kinds of lug nuts and configurations of lugs to attach a wheel? Apparently the sky's the limit. More parts literally keyed not to be interchangeable. A hideous waste of resources, and endless source of universal annoyance.

A Starbucks coffee making machine. They disabled all selections for size but the amount for the little foam cups they had. Fine. Reasonable, even. NBD, just fill the little cup twice to fill my thermos mug (sprays coffee out like diarrhea, so can't vend directly into mug - different annoyance). But the machine insistently prompts for the size of cup, even though the OTHER sizes are disabled. Can't just push the 'caffeine fix' button like a rat in an experiment. Nope.

A router that is marketed as having 'media server' capabilities, whose 'media server' doesn't work at all, out of the box. As it turns out, most routers are buggy pieces of crap for anything beyond the basics. And many can't even manage the basics very well, either. People are apparently too sheepish to return it, thinking they don't know how to set it up right.

So, perhaps the short list...

• Buggy
  
• Bad user interfaces
  
• Poor interoperability/compatibility
  
• Deliberate sabotage of parts to make them incompatible between otherwise identical devices
  
• Lousy standards
  
• A public that just meekly accepts lousy standards/poor design/broken implementations - Like Microsoft users.

[LiveBrianD]

Yep, I hate proprietary cables too. Let's see... my monitor's power brick doesn't even have a standard power connector going into it (you know, the one that's usually on a PC, monitor, printer, maybe a coffee maker?). My TI-84 calculator, external hard drive, and camera all use the same mini-USB cable. My phone (samsung) uses a different one (a bit thinner, though the regular mini-USB connector is small enough to fit in the phone), my zune uses a different one, and my ipod uses a different one. Grrrr.... why not a connector with a regular mini-USB part and another part next to it with the separate dock stuff, allowing the extra connections for dock accessories but also allowing a standard mini-USB cable to be used? I've used a nearby mini-USB cable, not necessarily the one that came with the device in question, plenty of times. Now if ALL my devices used that connector, man, things would be convenient...

With laptop batteries, I've also wondered - why not have a few different form factors? Even if this means devices are a little bigger, it would be SO nice to have everything standardized, and batteries would be cheaper (more competition for a given form factor), and there would be less waste. I mean, desktop computers have motherboard standards (ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX, that's about it) and power supply standards (as long as the machine isn't SFF, since there are quite a few options there). And why do different laptop power adapters have different connectors? Why not ONE connector, and have the laptop say what ampage it needs? (after all, they're all 20V, right?) Or maybe key it so that a lower-ampage power adapter won't fit into a power adapter that needs more, but one with a higher-than-needed ampage capacity would fit. That's not all that hard to do, if you think it out a little.

[Evildave]

Oh, and Flash. A nice, ongoing series of rants about using Flash.
http://adobehatesusall.blogspot.com/

[Evildave]

Preachin' to the choir. LiveBrianD.

I want a world where you can make a reasonable guess that a part will fit, and it will fit, AND work.

Go to the store, find 'notebook batteries', and get one. One shelf, four or five different types/brands. Every office store could stock that. You wouldn't have to 'special order' the damned things. Just go and exchange it.

Go to the hardware store, find 'cordless batteries', and they should DAMNED WELL fit every kind of cordless thing you have. Weed whacker, drill, saw... everything. No matter what brand.

With the advent of electric vehicles, they're already well down the primrose path of incompatible systems that we see on all cars. You know, like a water pump. Absolutely standard car part that they should have gotten 'right' decades ago. Same model car, made six months apart, and the pump won't fit.

Charger+Battery, Controller+Motor

I'm not asking for anything that limits anyone's 'innovation'. Is common bolt patterns too much to ask? I could see needing to swap charger and battery together, and swap motor and motor controller together, but everything around those parts should be absolutely standardized, interchangeable, and while not necessarily plug & play (i.e. a 300 volt system versus a 600 volt system wouldn't work together), things like accelerator input, brake, etc. aren't things that we need a hundred completely different versions of. So if we discover that IBM isn't just teasing about their new Lithium battery technology and 500 mile range, the car can be UPGRADED, instead of SCRAPPED.

Think about all of the car part transportation and warehousing they must do, in order to fix any given car that might break down. Why you're so absolutely SCREWED if you break down in Bumf***, Nowhere, and will likely need a hotel room while you wait for a simple part that they don't have.

[waldojim]

Evildave, on 18 January 2012 - 09:37 PM, said:

A router that is marketed as having 'media server' capabilities, whose 'media server' doesn't work at all, out of the box. As it turns out, most routers are buggy pieces of crap for anything beyond the basics. And many can't even manage the basics very well, either. People are apparently too sheepish to return it, thinking they don't know how to set it up right.

For the most part, that entire list is all too true.

I want to comment here, only because it is worth noting. I have NEVER understood the fascination with trying to make my router do ANYTHING but its intended purpose. It is there to route my internet traffic. I honestly want it doing a very small handful of things and nothing more.

1. Assign an IP address to connected devices in my permitted MAC address list.
2. Allow only specific incoming traffic to the devices I designate.
3. Let my [censored] work as intended without any farking interference.
4. Do your job well.

That is it. It isn't a DNS server, a media server, a back up station, or anything else.

There is a reason that cheapo Belkin routers can only pass 45-50Mb/s worth of traffic over their switch. There is a reason Linksys consumer products act the same way. Did any one here ever notice that 1Gb switches on those consumer devices cannot actually PASS that much traffic? Those damned toys are too buys doing things that have NOTHING to do with their job.

There is a reason I own a Linksys small business router. The damned thing passes 95MB/sec connected switch traffic, and 90Mb/sec through to the WAN as needed. Since my internet connection is only 40Mb/sec, I think I will survive. The thing is, it doesn't have any of that extra garbage running. It doesn't even do the easy sync crap. It is a router with basic NAT, DHCP, and firewall functionality. Nothing more.

[Evildave]

Well, obviously I'd prefer a little Linux server box that consumed 5 watts most of the time, which is exactly what most routers are.

I could, for instance, have a router box, a streamer box, a NAS box, etc., and WALL WARTS FOR ALL! Not a great solution. Compositely, they would consume more than a small desktop power, and quite a bit of juice wasted by the inefficiencies of running a bunch of separate little 'inexpensive' wall warts.

And I could, just for instance, have the EXPECTATION that when such functionality is advertised on a box, that the thing actually works, as advertised. You know, literally MINUTES of testing would find the kinds of blatant, show-stopping bugs that these things have, that idiot users in forums complain about for MONTHS, and get no patches for.

But 99+% of the time, the 'streamer' is only idle. Consuming no cycles at all.

90+% of the time, the NAS is only idle, consuming no cycles.

Just as the embedded web server, and whatever other features sleep when you don't ask for anything from it.

So these 'bonus features' should simply be sleeping processes. Literally waiting for something to happen in 'select()'. Consuming nothing but a bit of RAM. So no 'hits' on performance, and realistically, if you can build a computer that decompresses and plays HD video for $25, you can build a router that streams a bit of video (doesn't do anything but move the raw, compressed data from HDD to network) for the same price as a typical router.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Those snappy little ARM chips they make for cell phones would make a nice little server. Just as some of the cheapest of the cheap netbooks do, with a few USB frobs sticking out of them.

These aren't demanding processes, and it only bespeaks the abysmal cheapness of the hardware, and poor design of the thing, in general, if they can't keep up with what they promise to deliver.

[waldojim]

Evildave, on 19 January 2012 - 11:59 AM, said:

Well, obviously I'd prefer a little Linux server box that consumed 5 watts most of the time, which is exactly what most routers are.

I could, for instance, have a router box, a streamer box, a NAS box, etc., and WALL WARTS FOR ALL! Not a great solution. Compositely, they would consume more than a small desktop power, and quite a bit of juice wasted by the inefficiencies of running a bunch of separate little 'inexpensive' wall warts.

Nope, not a thousand individual devices, more like one PC to do all of the extra work, and one secure router that does it's job. As it stands, that is exactly the configuration I use now, and it works out extremely well.

Shoot, my Windows boxes don't even manage to get infected! Something must be working right.

Quote

And I could, just for instance, have the EXPECTATION that when such functionality is advertised on a box, that the thing actually works, as advertised. You know, literally MINUTES of testing would find the kinds of blatant, show-stopping bugs that these things have, that idiot users in forums complain about for MONTHS, and get no patches for.

But 99+% of the time, the 'streamer' is only idle. Consuming no cycles at all.

90+% of the time, the NAS is only idle, consuming no cycles.

Just as the embedded web server, and whatever other features sleep when you don't ask for anything from it.

So these 'bonus features' should simply be sleeping processes. Literally waiting for something to happen in 'select()'. Consuming nothing but a bit of RAM. So no 'hits' on performance, and realistically, if you can build a computer that decompresses and plays HD video for $25, you can build a router that streams a bit of video (doesn't do anything but move the raw, compressed data from HDD to network) for the same price as a typical router.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Those snappy little ARM chips they make for cell phones would make a nice little server. Just as some of the cheapest of the cheap netbooks do, with a few USB frobs sticking out of them.

These aren't demanding processes, and it only bespeaks the abysmal cheapness of the hardware, and poor design of the thing, in general, if they can't keep up with what they promise to deliver.

You can expect anything you want. But it just happens to be that in 99% of the tech world, nothing seems to be as flawless as the manufacturer claims.

And sorry, but no I would not want an ARM based server. I don't care for the ARM core design any more than I care for the Intel Atom design. Even the absolute slowest Intel SB Pentium dual core processor is faster than the fastest quad core ARM. Coupled with 4GB of ECO ram, you have a machine that sips power idle, and still does everything you could ask for and then some under load.

[mjd420nova]

I have earned the scorn from many a salesperson when I walk away from them after I find what kind of battery the thing uses. Mice, remotes and phones. If it has a special battery, I walk away. My daughter has a nice Nikon Coolpix camera that uses a special battery but has it's own built in charger. However, when out and about, when they die, no way to charge them. The Coolpix I bought was selected because it has all the capablities of the rechargable one but takes AA bats. I like to use the Energizer Lithium ones as they last longer than any other I've tried and can be replaced on the spot. Using the optical zoom and flash will really take them down fast so you have to be careful to use it sparingly.

[coastie65]

mjd420nova, on 19 January 2012 - 01:39 PM, said:

I have earned the scorn from many a salesperson when I walk away from them after I find what kind of battery the thing uses. Mice, remotes and phones. If it has a special battery, I walk away. My daughter has a nice Nikon Coolpix camera that uses a special battery but has it's own built in charger. However, when out and about, when they die, no way to charge them. The Coolpix I bought was selected because it has all the capablities of the rechargable one but takes AA bats. I like to use the Energizer Lithium ones as they last longer than any other I've tried and can be replaced on the spot. Using the optical zoom and flash will really take them down fast so you have to be careful to use it sparingly.

Yep my Samsung is like your daughter's camera and does have a special battery. Been meaning to get a second one and charge it and put in the camera bag for just in case.

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 19 January 2012 - 01:27 AM, said:

Evildave, on 18 January 2012 - 09:37 PM, said:

A router that is marketed as having 'media server' capabilities, whose 'media server' doesn't work at all, out of the box. As it turns out, most routers are buggy pieces of crap for anything beyond the basics. And many can't even manage the basics very well, either. People are apparently too sheepish to return it, thinking they don't know how to set it up right.

For the most part, that entire list is all too true.

I want to comment here, only because it is worth noting. I have NEVER understood the fascination with trying to make my router do ANYTHING but its intended purpose. It is there to route my internet traffic. I honestly want it doing a very small handful of things and nothing more.

1. Assign an IP address to connected devices in my permitted MAC address list.
2. Allow only specific incoming traffic to the devices I designate.
3. Let my [censored] work as intended without any farking interference.
4. Do your job well.

That is it. It isn't a DNS server, a media server, a back up station, or anything else.

There is a reason that cheapo Belkin routers can only pass 45-50Mb/s worth of traffic over their switch. There is a reason Linksys consumer products act the same way. Did any one here ever notice that 1Gb switches on those consumer devices cannot actually PASS that much traffic? Those damned toys are too buys doing things that have NOTHING to do with their job.

There is a reason I own a Linksys small business router. The damned thing passes 95MB/sec connected switch traffic, and 90Mb/sec through to the WAN as needed. Since my internet connection is only 40Mb/sec, I think I will survive. The thing is, it doesn't have any of that extra garbage running. It doesn't even do the easy sync crap. It is a router with basic NAT, DHCP, and firewall functionality. Nothing more.

Maybe THAT is why when I connect my laptop to the desktop via a second ethernet card in it that allows me to use bridging, I get faster transfer speeds than if I connect both to the router. However, I can see having the router act as a file server being useful. IF it works well. I had a netgear one that gave me about 3MB/sec with a USB hard drive. Seriously. 3MB/sec????? My dad plugged it into his PC and got 25MB/sec (darn you USB 2.0!).

[waldojim]

My old Minolta used AA's as well, and I happened to like that camera. Unfortunately, like anything else these days, it eventually died. Now The choice for AA powered cameras is dying, leaving nothing but the cheapest junk.

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 19 January 2012 - 12:26 PM, said:

And sorry, but no I would not want an ARM based server. I don't care for the ARM core design any more than I care for the Intel Atom design. Even the absolute slowest Intel SB Pentium dual core processor is faster than the fastest quad core ARM. Coupled with 4GB of ECO ram, you have a machine that sips power idle, and still does everything you could ask for and then some under load.

If it's just a file server, why would it need much power? A Pentium 4 machine can work just fine for that. I do wonder about an AMD E350 server though - it's reasonably powerful (better than atom) and doesn't use much power (my E350 netbook uses about 12W idle).

@mjd: My camera uses AAs (a canon powershot A1000IS, reasonable budget model) and I use rechargeable ones in it. Who needs a stupid proprietary rechargeable? When my old camera got damaged, I simply took the recharegable AAs and the SD cards from it and put them in the new one. If it was proprietary, I'd probably have to get rid of it.