- 7,666
Bad Design in Everyday Things
- Thread starter Sage
- 177 comments
- 10,662 views
- 6,977
- old-guy64
Is the right side of the car the driver's side?
It just bothers me when the gas-filler is on the passenger side of the car.
It seems harder for some people to get close to the pump if it's on the "wrong" side of the car.
I learned from a navy buddy when I filled his Camaro before you brought it back, next time I needed it the keys would "magically" appear in my hand.
Roo
Premium
- 7,487
- Hampshire, UK
- GTP_Roo
The card door on the Nikon D40:
It's the door on the 2nd and 3rd pictures. The door is right under your palm; move your hand backwards and it opens the door. I have 30-odd corrupted image files from yesterday thanks to that.
Fortunatly, it's easily fixed with a bit of duc tape.
It's the door on the 2nd and 3rd pictures. The door is right under your palm; move your hand backwards and it opens the door. I have 30-odd corrupted image files from yesterday thanks to that.
Fortunatly, it's easily fixed with a bit of duc tape.
- 6,899
- GTP_event / kevinr6287 (farming account)
TI-83 is hundreds of times better for quick calculations. Plus, mine has been durable as hell. I've had the same one since 8th grade (7 years). I've only come across a few things that it can't do that I needed it to do, but I can just do it in MATLAB if I really can't do it by hand or don't want to do it by hand.
If, however, the 89 could handle solving ODE's with using constants instead of numbers, then I might consider buying one...
- 6,584
- Kent, UK
- GTP_Jondot
It's because some people don't know that the enter button does that, and instead decide the logical thing to do is to move their mouse all the way up there and hit enter. It's the same kind of people who, when presented with a warning about leaving a secured site, get all panicky and decide to unplug the computer at the mains for fear their data might be stolen.
What I do hate is the close proximity in Firefox of the back button and your first toolbar-placed bookmark. You never think you're going to do it, until one day you miss slightly and find yourself on a completely different site with no idea what's going on. Handy.
- 5,236
- Nicest part of hell
Toilets ruin my day, and I cannot avoid them.
No matter what I do, or how I do it my ass gets splashed with nice dirty toilet water.
I miss those old fashioned toilets were you ''could see what you have done'', they were absolutely splash-less.👍
Argh. I absolutely HATE these modern chimney styled fountain creating dejection-seats; they just accelerate the crap too fast, the poop impacts like a meteor shower making your butt wet. It feels like having a supersoaker in the arse or getting water-bombed right in the rear-end.
Its just frustrating, thats not bad design, thats worst design.
No matter what I do, or how I do it my ass gets splashed with nice dirty toilet water.
I miss those old fashioned toilets were you ''could see what you have done'', they were absolutely splash-less.👍
Argh. I absolutely HATE these modern chimney styled fountain creating dejection-seats; they just accelerate the crap too fast, the poop impacts like a meteor shower making your butt wet. It feels like having a supersoaker in the arse or getting water-bombed right in the rear-end.
Its just frustrating, thats not bad design, thats worst design.
- 1,202
Toilets ruin my day, and I cannot avoid them.
No matter what I do, or how I do it my ass gets splashed with nice dirty toilet water.
I miss those old fashioned toilets were you ''could see what you have done'', they were absolutely splash-less.👍
Argh. I absolutely HATE these modern chimney styled fountain creating dejection-seats; they just accelerate the crap too fast, the poop impacts like a meteor shower making your butt wet. It feels like having a supersoaker in the arse or getting water-bombed right in the rear-end.
Its just frustrating, thats not bad design, thats worst design.
I don't like getting my butt splashed either. In the UK that can be cured by dropping a few sheets of bog roll in the water before commencing displacement activities. Might be different in other countries, depending on how much water their loos fill with and stuff, I suppose.
- 8,481
- P_Balance
The toilet is not at fault here. You seem to have a severe case of the "Power Dumps."Toilets ruin my day, and I cannot avoid them.
No matter what I do, or how I do it my ass gets splashed with nice dirty toilet water.
I miss those old fashioned toilets were you ''could see what you have done'', they were absolutely splash-less.👍
Argh. I absolutely HATE these modern chimney styled fountain creating dejection-seats; they just accelerate the crap too fast, the poop impacts like a meteor shower making your butt wet. It feels like having a supersoaker in the arse or getting water-bombed right in the rear-end.
Its just frustrating, thats not bad design, thats worst design.
Edit: As listed HERE, 5th from the bottom.
- 7,719
Toilets ruin my day, and I cannot avoid them.
No matter what I do, or how I do it my ass gets splashed with nice dirty toilet water.
I miss those old fashioned toilets were you ''could see what you have done'', they were absolutely splash-less.👍
Argh. I absolutely HATE these modern chimney styled fountain creating dejection-seats; they just accelerate the crap too fast, the poop impacts like a meteor shower making your butt wet. It feels like having a supersoaker in the arse or getting water-bombed right in the rear-end.
Its just frustrating, thats not bad design, thats worst design.
And I thought the exact opposite. The "see what you did" toilets are oh-so-common in Germany, and are the most idiotic thing ever. In the confines of a bathroom.
First off - the smell. It's just lying there, stinking.
Second, washing it off - it just sticks to the surface.
- 24,249
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
This thread stinks, it has really gone down the pan.
- 895
I've NEVER been able to get the cap off the top of a Bic mechanical pencil to load the thing with lead. I had one as of a couple weeks ago, but ripped the entire inner body of the pencil out of the top whilst trying in vain to put more lead in it.
I bought a more expensive Staedtler as a replacement, and so far has worked wonderfully.
The grey clip at the top slides off in order to load it. It's very easy to remove, yet strong enough that it stays on while I'm writing. Never thought I'd develop an attachment to a pencil, but I have.
Then again, I love my vacuum cleaner (a Dyson DC07), so it isn't all that far out of the ordinary for me...
Sage
Staff Emeritus
- 12,533
- United States
- GTP_Sage
I completely totally utterly 100% swear by the Pentel P207. They simply don’t break or have any mechanical problems whatsoever. I’ve yet to find a pen that I really really like, but these are the only pencils I buy (and the only reason I ever buy new ones is because I lose them every few years).
.
V1P3R
(Banned)
- 6,310
- 19,818
- Alabamamania
I remember using those BIC disposable-mechanical pencils 20 years ago, mainly because the pencil sharpeners in our school were worn out or jammed (and probably not due for replacement according to the budget for another 10 years).
I've NEVER been able to get the cap off the top of a Bic mechanical pencil to load the thing with lead. I had one as of a couple weeks ago, but ripped the entire inner body of the pencil out of the top whilst trying in vain to put more lead in it.
Those silly things never had enough eraser.
You wasted half your "lead" just so you had enough for the mechanism to hold onto it without falling back into the lead container.
You always have to manually adjust the lead, or you'd break it off in a nanosecond. Either that, or you were "lowriding" and you'd scrape the hole.
If you scraped the hole, you'd block the exit point for the lead to come out. (The metal tip of a compass bored out the plastic crud in emergencies.)
And you always have to keep a spare, since you really can't tell how much lead you have left, unless you're in the quietest of situations.
I picked one up the other day at work, and was reminded about how terribly designed they were for the first time in eons. At home, I use a Staedtler Marsmicro for the rare times I still use a pencil, a far better product, except for the eraser and cap that does it's best to flee the compound.
- 635
- Grabsplatter
My latest computer had a keyboard where the
keys had been rearranged to
I had to go and find and old keyboard with the old pattern - not impressed.
----
LG DVD recorder with HDD forgets all the programmed recording times when there is a power cut.
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Photocopiers that do not show dimensions for zoom in/out - the one we have at the moment shows in only one dimension (sometimes) so you often loose the bottom of teh copy. I had access to one years ago that you could put your small item on and then press the zoom button until the little orange lines matched the edge and it was great, no more it seems.
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MS Excel "normal.dot" template - MS Word's normal.dot file is straight forward to use - the excel equivalent almost never works (I have followed the instructions carefully several times - the only time I got it to work was when I did something not in the instructions and I can't remember what) - now I have to cusomise all my toolbars every time I change computers.
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Bangkok's international terminal - wtf were they thinking? When you are just changing flights you arrive in exactly the same place you leave from except that there is a wall of glass stopping you so you have to go out into the main terminal and back to where you started. In the process they take everything liquid from you - water, duty free alcohol, etc. all of which can only be bought before the security checks meaning it is impossible to get water to take on your flight and if you bought duty free grog as carry on you will probably loose it.
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Australia's two party preferred voting system - a party can get 10% of the primary vote and end up with no seats in government - does not sound much like democracy to me.
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100km/h (60mph) speed limits (not really a design thing thing but close) - cars handle twice as well and have twice the power as they did 30 years ago (if not more) and yet the speed limit is the same - give natural selection a chance.
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Any electronic device that has a function that can only be activated by the remote control - these functions generally seem to be selected at random.
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Microsoft's language preference functions - firstly MS assumed that Australia uses US english which it doesn't, and secondly, MS word refuses to believe that anyone could want to use anything other than US english - no matter how many times I tell it to use UK english it will eventually revert to US english (MS could be forgiven for the first one given our politicians' yes sir, no sir relationship with the US).
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I could go on for a long time - so many things annoy me - so many things are badly designed and so many things that used to work well now often don't - car turn indicators are a classic.
Code:
insert home page up
delete end page downkeys had been rearranged to
Code:
home end
insert page up
delete page downI had to go and find and old keyboard with the old pattern - not impressed.
----
LG DVD recorder with HDD forgets all the programmed recording times when there is a power cut.
----
Photocopiers that do not show dimensions for zoom in/out - the one we have at the moment shows in only one dimension (sometimes) so you often loose the bottom of teh copy. I had access to one years ago that you could put your small item on and then press the zoom button until the little orange lines matched the edge and it was great, no more it seems.
----
MS Excel "normal.dot" template - MS Word's normal.dot file is straight forward to use - the excel equivalent almost never works (I have followed the instructions carefully several times - the only time I got it to work was when I did something not in the instructions and I can't remember what) - now I have to cusomise all my toolbars every time I change computers.
----
Bangkok's international terminal - wtf were they thinking? When you are just changing flights you arrive in exactly the same place you leave from except that there is a wall of glass stopping you so you have to go out into the main terminal and back to where you started. In the process they take everything liquid from you - water, duty free alcohol, etc. all of which can only be bought before the security checks meaning it is impossible to get water to take on your flight and if you bought duty free grog as carry on you will probably loose it.
----
Australia's two party preferred voting system - a party can get 10% of the primary vote and end up with no seats in government - does not sound much like democracy to me.
----
100km/h (60mph) speed limits (not really a design thing thing but close) - cars handle twice as well and have twice the power as they did 30 years ago (if not more) and yet the speed limit is the same - give natural selection a chance.
----
Any electronic device that has a function that can only be activated by the remote control - these functions generally seem to be selected at random.
----
Microsoft's language preference functions - firstly MS assumed that Australia uses US english which it doesn't, and secondly, MS word refuses to believe that anyone could want to use anything other than US english - no matter how many times I tell it to use UK english it will eventually revert to US english (MS could be forgiven for the first one given our politicians' yes sir, no sir relationship with the US).
----
I could go on for a long time - so many things annoy me - so many things are badly designed and so many things that used to work well now often don't - car turn indicators are a classic.
I've NEVER been able to get the cap off the top of a Bic mechanical pencil to load the thing with lead. I had one as of a couple weeks ago, but ripped the entire inner body of the pencil out of the top whilst trying in vain to put more lead in it.
I'm fairly certain that, although you can reload those pencils, you're not actually supposed to. That's why they're disposable, just like the cheap Bic pens. When they run out, you just toss 'em and pick up the next one.
The more expensive pencils are specifically designed to be reloaded, which is why it's easier to do so.
- 7,956
- BradleyH131
It's the single most frustrating thing in MS Word. It even has a selection for English (Australian), but selecting it only seems to change it for the next word, you can select all your text, and change the language and it only works for the text you've typed and reverts back to US English when you start typing again. Setting it as the default language seems to do absolutely nothing either.
Joey D
Premium
- 47,737
- Lakes of the North, MI
- GTP_Joey
- GTP Joey
The cars can handle it but the idiot behind the wheel can not. I do not want to be ran down by a 16 year old kid that just got their license and is doing a legal 120mph on the motorway. Somewhere around 70-80 mph should suffice.
Why do so many people have problems with this? Just make whatever language you type in the default. When I have to type thing in German I just set the default to German (Germany) and hammer away on the keys. Never had an issue. When I was in England I had my laptop switched over to type in English (U.K.) so I could write papers that wouldn't make the professor tell me to learn how to spell. Maybe Microsoft just didn't do the Australian English part correctly? Try using English (U.K.) and see if that helps.
zoxxy
(Banned)
- 4,334
I've NEVER been able to get the cap off the top of a Bic mechanical pencil to load the thing with lead. I had one as of a couple weeks ago, but ripped the entire inner body of the pencil out of the top whilst trying in vain to put more lead in it.
I bought a more expensive Staedtler as a replacement, and so far has worked wonderfully.
The grey clip at the top slides off in order to load it. It's very easy to remove, yet strong enough that it stays on while I'm writing. Never thought I'd develop an attachment to a pencil, but I have.
Then again, I love my vacuum cleaner (a Dyson DC07), so it isn't all that far out of the ordinary for me...
Hahaha, oh my god. You only need remove the eraser at the top.
