Author Topic: What annoys you to no end? (Read 493,911 times)

J-Mac · « **Reply #125 on:** May 26, 2009, 09:42 PM »

Quote from: Josh on May 26, 2009, 09:30 PM

And all of the *#%( DAMNED ICONS that quicken places on my desktop on a clean install!

Grrrrr.. I feel your pain with Quicken!

Jim

mouser · « **Reply #126 on:** May 26, 2009, 10:09 PM »

J-Mac, that's a very nice list of software annoyances.. maybe worth making into a list on a website somewhere.

J-Mac · « **Reply #127 on:** May 26, 2009, 10:20 PM »

Quote from: mouser on May 26, 2009, 10:09 PM

J-Mac, that's a very nice list of software annoyances.. maybe worth making into a list on a website somewhere.

Ha! You should see my entire list!!

Jim

Shook · « **Reply #128 on:** May 27, 2009, 01:29 PM »

Computer-related hate train departing now, toot-toot!

- Pop-ups. Seriously, they're just obstructions, and something tells me that the amount of clicks is about 1 per 10000 pop-ups.
- Excessively animated banner ads (HELLO ADVENTUREQUEST). They use a lot of bandwidth, which slows down both browsing and flash games.
- Anti-virus/spyware programs that say "Oh hay you have like one million problems on your PC, buy this product to get rid of them!".
- Programs that crash and freeze up for no reason. (I think i stated this one previously, but that was about video games. =P)
- Programs that get all "Our program is THE BEST PROGRAM EVAR!", after which you find out that it's a bunch of... Poo.
- Time limited trial versions of any kind. Seriously, just give me a cut-down demo without timer, and i'll be happy, and i might even buy the product.
- Computers that start so slowly that a european forest slug could crawl all the way across the monitor before the computer was ready. (School computers, grr! *Shakes fist*)
- Blue screen of death. I don't think this needs any explanation.
- Unintuitive interfaces. Sure, i can live with them, but i'd rather not have to.
- The Match 3 genre of games. The first few were pretty good, but the next million? Not as much. Even the few twists the developers sometimes apply can't save it from the demon that is known as "hopeless cloning".

... Off the top of my head.

Fred Nerd · « **Reply #129 on:** May 28, 2009, 12:04 PM »

Back to big words
(never use a long word when a diminutive one will suffice)..........

I worked out a routine for a female friend of mine to try out next time some bloke was hitting on her at a bar..
'Despite the impression you may derive from my presence in this locality, it behoves me not to acquience to your request'
(him): 'I don't get it'
(her): *smug* 'Exactly'

drum6789 · « **Reply #130 on:** May 29, 2009, 12:48 AM »

When people eat/chew incredibly loud, ads, conspiracy theories, pointless e-mail forwards. Stuff like that.

CleverCat · « **Reply #131 on:** May 29, 2009, 07:53 AM »

I'm with you on the e mail -

"If you don't forward this, something bad will happen"

Rubbish!

SKesselman · « **Reply #132 on:** May 29, 2009, 09:27 AM »

Software that looks great (such as, but in no way limited to, CLCL) but doesn't install, or doesn't install all the way, leaving me wondering what happened...really annoying!

wraith808 · « **Reply #133 on:** May 29, 2009, 02:31 PM »

Companies that do underhanded things to try to sabotage another company's efforts because they can't compete.

No, I'm not talking about Microsoft, but EA right now. I ordered Mirror's Edge off of Steam, and then ordered the DLC through EA's store since they didn't put it on Steam, and it won't work! They could at least (its been months apparently since this first surfaced) put a disclaimer on the DLC page, but nothing...

Josh · « **Reply #134 on:** May 29, 2009, 03:16 PM »

People who use the word INFER when they obviously mean IMPLY!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #135 on:** May 29, 2009, 04:17 PM »

Quote from: CleverCat on May 29, 2009, 07:53 AM

"If you don't forward this, something bad will happen"

Rubbish!

Will you please stop forwarding to me all your rubbish?!

mwb1100 · « **Reply #136 on:** May 29, 2009, 05:39 PM »

Quote from: J-Mac on May 26, 2009, 09:05 PM

11. Confusing privacy policies that appear to have been written by monkeys - and I apologize if that offends any monkeys out there.

In the interest of reducing confusion, there are really only 2 types of privacy policy:

1. simple to read policies that pretty much clearly state that your privacy will be repected to the extent permitted by law

2. all others - no privacy protection is afforded. See http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/05/26/9640963.aspx for some details.

J-Mac · « **Reply #137 on:** May 30, 2009, 03:11 AM »

Quote from: mwb1100 on May 29, 2009, 05:39 PM

Quote from: J-Mac on May 26, 2009, 09:05 PM
11. Confusing privacy policies that appear to have been written by monkeys - and I apologize if that offends any monkeys out there.

In the interest of reducing confusion, there are really only 2 types of privacy policy:

1. simple to read policies that pretty much clearly state that your privacy will be repected to the extent permitted by law

2. all others - no privacy protection is afforded. See http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/05/26/9640963.aspx for some details.

You missed #3) Privacy Policies that state in one paragraph:

Quote

The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web page, used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes, not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes, disclosed when legally required to do so, at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our Web site and applicable laws or to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web site.

(Emphasis mine)

So you think you are safe. But then farther down the page in a different paragraph it states:

Quote

From time to time, we make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other reputable organizations whose products or services we think you might find interesting.

And farther down the page yet another paragraph states:

Quote

If you supply us with your postal address on-line you may receive periodic mailings from us with information on new products and services or upcoming events.

Sounds like just them, doesn't it? Ha! This is a couple more paragraphs down the page:

Quote

Please provide us with your exact name and address. We will be sure your name is removed from the list we share with other organizations

... and ....

Quote

Please provide us with your name and phone number. We will be sure your name is removed from the list we share with other organizations From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice.

Don't you love it?! BTW, this privacy is from the web site of Granite City Tools, from whom I purchased a few bottles of granite countertop cleaner/polish after having a new kitchen installed. Their policy now has opt-out instructions but did not when I made my purchase. Nor was their policy this "clear" then; it was much denser then. After receiving the cleaner I started receiving monstrous catalogs from tool companies selling granite cutting tools, mining tools (Yes, excavators larger than the entire block where my house is!), at the rate of about two to three a day. And these catalogs were of the major city phonebook size variety. Though I contacted them by phone, email, and postal mail they never responded, so I had to get off the lists my own way.

They should all die of something painful....

Jim

mrainey · « **Reply #138 on:** May 30, 2009, 01:50 PM »

Grownups saying "Woo Hoo!!!!"

Josh · « **Reply #139 on:** May 30, 2009, 02:10 PM »

Forums which have to give you the "Thanks for posting" or various other confirmation pages after certain activities occur. I don't need to be thanked for posting, just redirect me to my post and don't show me the unneeded middle-man page!!!!

fenixproductions · « **Reply #140 on:** May 30, 2009, 03:13 PM »

2Josh
I agree with you but there is one more annoying thing: crippled search with no links to posts with desired phrase. Instead of that, you receive list with URLs either to the beginning or to the end of monstrous thread. They give you some highlight, obviously, but I just f*ng hate to browse 20-pagers to discover that looked word was mentioned once with different context.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #141 on:** May 30, 2009, 05:52 PM »

Here are a couple common forum behaviors that drive me nuts:

1. most forum software searches completely and silently ignore search terms that are 3 characters or less. Quite often this means I can't search for what I need (there are a lot of terms that are 3 characters, but are not necessarily 'cut words' like "the" or "are"). But for chrissake, tell me if you're ignoring something in my search terms - especially if it's the only thing in the search!

2. support forums that don't let you search unless you've registered. If I'm evaluating a product or just want to see if there's a solution to a particular problem, I don't want to have to jump through the hoops of registering for a forum I'll probably never want to make a post in.

J-Mac · « **Reply #142 on:** May 30, 2009, 06:02 PM »

Software programs that unexpectedly open your browser and take you to a web page that you had no real need nor desire to visit.

And similarly, programs with their Help pages online that don't say that they are online. You are working offline - trying to get something done without getting hopelessly distracted so you are purposely not opening your web browser, and you click on Help on the program's menu bar, then Help Contents. And it opens your default browser (or worse, your non-default browser!) and takes you to their online help. There are times I would rather eschew Help altogether.

Let us not omit the programs that insist on opening your browser after you uninstall them to ask you why you would ever want to uninstall their amazing and wonderful program.

And a special salute to software developers who do not offer any Help file at all but instead have a PDF user manual hidden away somewhere on their web site. The manual is very complete and comprehensive - 340 pages long - but doesn't have any bookmarks, and has a Table of Contents that is not "clickable", meaning there are no working links in the manual. Manuals put together so carefully and thoughtfully usually have another great feature: The first 15 or 30 pages are "pre-numbered"; they are numbered with lower case Roman numerals: i, ii, iii, iv, etc. This serves to make any reference in the manual to page numbers completely bogus, since all PDF readers/viewers automatically number the page thumbnails starting on the first page or cover without any correlation to the author's fanciful pre-numbering scheme.

There are many more, but I grow weary....

Jim

f0dder · « **Reply #143 on:** May 30, 2009, 06:03 PM »

Quote from: mwb1100 on May 30, 2009, 05:52 PM

1. most forum software searches completely and silently ignore search terms that are 3 characters or less. Quite often this means I can't search for what I need (there are a lot of terms that are 3 characters, but are not necessarily 'cut words' like "the" or "are"). But for chrissake, tell me if you're ignoring something in my search terms - especially if it's the only thing in the search!

2. support forums that don't let you search unless you've registered. If I'm evaluating a product or just want to see if there's a solution to a particular problem, I don't want to have to jump through the hoops of registering for a forum I'll probably never want to make a post in.

Amen!

#1 is something that doco is guilty of too - it's annoyed me a few times here and there.

#2 is really annoying. I've signed up for enough sites already >_<

Josh · « **Reply #144 on:** May 30, 2009, 09:20 PM »

Drive thru's which block you in so you can't get out when you find out "Our ice cream machine isn't working". ARGH!!!!!!!!

SKesselman · « **Reply #145 on:** May 30, 2009, 10:21 PM »

I always try to buy what I can in person. But some things, like really hard to find items have to be ordered online, and what really gets me hot under the collar is:
Online stores that take your orders after you've
*finally found what you wanted
*shopped around for a good price
*given them your email address (I know, disposable email addresses - it looks like a PITA. Maybe I'll learn how to do that, someday.)
*given out your mailing address (can't do this without worrying about junk mail)
*given them your credit card number (yeah, yeah, it's "secure", like the massive hacks that have involved tens of thousands of customers at once)
*accepted their crappy shipping terms (will ship 1n 3-5 working days? (Well, fine, I've gone this far...let's just finish this transaction)
and worst of all,
*given them your money

only to find out, days later, that the items you ordered were out of stock - oops - but they'll order it for you (um, didn't I just do that??), then tell you to wait another 10 days to receive your products. No wonder nothing was marked "out of stock" on their web site - there is no stock!

People making money acting as middlemen - without disclosing who they are and the real wait time - IMO -are thieves. Sometimes it's too little, too late.
Yes, I could cancel the transaction & start over, but that's pretty disappointing, and really annoying, too.

SKesselman · « **Reply #146 on:** May 30, 2009, 10:46 PM »

Quote from: Josh on May 30, 2009, 09:20 PM

Drive thru's which block you in so you can't get out when you find out "Our ice cream machine isn't working". ARGH!!!!!!!!

Similarly, dying of thirst, driving around for 40 minutes obsessively trying to hunt down an Icee (must have!), soooooo happy you've finally found a place that sells them, then being told the machine is off because it's "sort of cloudy today".

And

A drive thru where you literally cannot understand a word they say over the loudspeaker!
Cashiers, please: You can talk too fast, string all your muffled words together into one long incoherent sound, or have a really thick accent. But all three and I'm lost. Add to that the usual crappy sound from the speaker, it gets annoying.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #147 on:** May 30, 2009, 10:57 PM »

Quote from: Josh on May 30, 2009, 09:20 PM

Drive thru's which block you in so you can't get out when you find out "Our ice cream machine isn't working". ARGH!!!!!!!!

Never happened to me, but that sure does sound annoying! The schadenfreude in me is making me chuckle as I think about it... It might have made a nice little sub-plot on the old Seinfeld show - I can envision George Costanza doing something pretty funny in that situation. They had one about a standoff over a parking spot, so why not this?

nudone · « **Reply #148 on:** June 02, 2009, 09:28 AM »

i've just remembered something that really does annoy me:

bloggers (well, any online writers) that don't put the publishing date on their articles and posts.

they may believe their content to be so important that it's going to be valid until the end of time - personally, i'd like to know when it was created so i can put it into context with any other articles i may look at.

my blood is starting to boil just thinking about how inconsiderate it is to not bother including the date.

nudone · « **Reply #149 on:** June 02, 2009, 11:10 AM »

i'm still having an annoying day...

i find this very annoying - and dumb:

online videos that only have two zoom/view settings, i.e. small, on the page that contains them or full screen.

how about having them resizable or, at least, being able to select something other than full screen.

how long has video been around on the web, and it's still only got two viewing sizes - this planet is retarded!

edit:
right, i've found you can insert "_popup" after the word "watch" in youtube urls so they'll fit to the insides or your browser window.

another edit:
i've realised there's a universal way of doing this for all onilne vids that have embed tags see here: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18575.new#new