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

tomos · « **Reply #150 on:** June 02, 2009, 11:29 AM »

Quote from: nudone on June 02, 2009, 09:28 AM

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

software revision pages that dont give dates for the updates

Darwin · « **Reply #151 on:** June 02, 2009, 12:43 PM »

Quote from: tomos on June 02, 2009, 11:29 AM

Quote from: nudone on June 02, 2009, 09:28 AM
bloggers (well, any online writers) that don't put the publishing date on their articles and posts.

software revision pages that dont give dates for the updates

Good one - I can't stand this either

er,

40hz · « **Reply #152 on:** June 02, 2009, 03:45 PM »

Twitter.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #153 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:12 PM »

Telephone based services where, upon connection, an automated system collects ALL details -- account #s, name, address, phone etc. -- and then connects you (after a little phone-pad fandango) to a human who proceeds to ask you for account #s, name, address, phone etc.

Josh · « **Reply #154 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:18 PM »

People who break their air conditioner while working on book cases for the plethora of books they save....oh wait....that's mousey

J-Mac · « **Reply #155 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:21 PM »

Don't know how I forgot about this: Facebook!

I signed up on Facebook last year when a small number of DC members thought it would be a good idea to join and create our own software group. But no one ever actually went any further with, AFAICT.

Then late last year my dear, lovely, non-techie wife - for whom I purchased her own PC with high expectation, only to see her use it exclusively for PC games - decided to join Facebook at the behest of a friend. And now she lives Facebook. From the moment she arrives home she is logged into Facebook, pounding away on her keyboard. When she arises in the morning she immediately signs in to check her "wall". If she wakes up through the night to visit the bathroom, she stops in the office and, well, you guessed it. $:-\$

Actually it's better than just using the machine for nothing but games, I guess. Except now I receive a constant barrage of notification emails from Facebook, which by now has my entire extended family on it. The messages are requests from family members to join any or all of the rancid, junk ad-generated clubs/groups/IQ Tests, etc., etc., etc. This has more than doubled my daily ration of regular spam; Facebook is really a giant spam generator, nothing more. I actually am pleased now when I receive a good old Viagra or "get a bigger body part" solicitation - it's not from Facebook!

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #156 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:24 PM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 02, 2009, 05:12 PM

Telephone based services where, upon connection, an automated system collects ALL details -- account #s, name, address, phone etc. -- and then connects you (after a little phone-pad fandango) to a human who proceeds to ask you for account #s, name, address, phone etc.

This reminded me...

I did a little research and a lot of esoteric calculations last year and found that approximately 2.6 million employees of large corporations now know my mother's maiden name, the high school I attended along with its location, and my first pet's name. Any can easily be me with a couple of clicks.

Jim

SKesselman · « **Reply #157 on:** June 02, 2009, 05:32 PM »

Quote from: nudone 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.

This one kills me, too!

Although I often see the month and the day, or worse, only the time, the year is always missing! I think it's the blogging software that's partially to blame, but you'd think the bloggers would fill us in on the rest. Now, I always check the date first. If it's missing, at least I know that in advance.

SKesselman · « **Reply #158 on:** June 02, 2009, 06:08 PM »

Here's a fun one:
Bank fraud protection services, and the way they work.

If you try to make a large purchase with your card, & the bank denies you, at the register, because they suspect your credit card has been stolen. Not only do they decline that purchase, they freeze your card until you've called them and jumped through all their hoops, verifying your attempted purchase amount, the amount of your last deposit, etc. and even though they say you're clear after that, it can go on for days where you'll find yourself getting declined, calling the bank, verifying yourself, etc., etc.

All this with a so-called $3,000 per day spending limit, and $1,000 overdraft protection!

This is embarrassing, frustrating, & depending on what you're trying to buy, infuriating.

Last time this happened to me, I was at the pharmacy. My insurance has me pay 100% due upfront for prescriptions, so my transactions can be large. With more than enough money in the bank to cover the purchase, and no pending transactions, I got declined because of this stupidity.

I'm not really going to suffer if I have to wait until the bank opens to get my prescriptions, but OMFG someone else might! What if I were diabetic or something, or very elderly, and it was Saturday afternoon? One month the transaction goes through, the next month it doesn't...that's crazy!

Annoying to me, but for others, it could be life-threatening. Sadly, I think someone's going to have to die & banks are going to have to get sued before this changes.

f0dder · « **Reply #159 on:** June 02, 2009, 10:53 PM »

J-Mac: sounds like you need to start blocking applications (and for some of the worst offenders, all application requests from those persons), edit your privacy settings, etc

Darwin · « **Reply #160 on:** June 02, 2009, 11:36 PM »

OK - totally, TOTALLY, agree with this:

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 02, 2009, 05:12 PM

Telephone based services where, upon connection, an automated system collects ALL details -- account #s, name, address, phone etc. -- and then connects you (after a little phone-pad fandango) to a human who proceeds to ask you for account #s, name, address, phone etc.

and this:

Quote from: J-Mac on June 02, 2009, 05:21 PM

Don't know how I forgot about this: Facebook!

I signed up on Facebook last year when a small number of DC members thought it would be a good idea to join and create our own software group. But no one ever actually went any further with, AFAICT.

Hear, hear (or is it "here, here". Crap. Trying to figure that out bugs me as well. And don't even get me started on my shoes - only had 'em three weeks and the heels are worn right through...).

Grorgy · « **Reply #161 on:** June 02, 2009, 11:50 PM »

Even worse than being asked again all the questions you've just answered by typing them in on a phone (old klutz fingers here hates using phones for that) is getting a recorded message saying they are not there anyway!

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #162 on:** June 03, 2009, 12:13 AM »

As a professional businessman, I would have to say regulations that make no sense and only burden us with unnecessary forms and filing dates.

Specifically, as a Trucker, it would have to be the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration and their inane lack of understanding concerning HOS (Hours of Service) they foist on us.

Since most of you do not know what I am talking about, the HOS state that a driver in the USA may...

A: Not drive after being ON DUTY for more than 70 hours in 8 days.
B: Not drive after commencing being ON DUTY 14 hours prior.
C: Not drive after DRIVING more than 11 hours.
D: Can drive if he/she has had 10 consecutive hours OFF DUTY or in the SLEEPER BERTH as long as he/she does not violate A, B or C above.

I actually do not mind the last bullet. After 11 hours behind the wheel dodging speed bumps, er, cars I am ready to shut down.

The thing the HOS does not take into account is...

#1. A driver has been held up at a shipper/receiver for 13 hours, but the driver was able to get a good 8 hours(or more) sleep while waiting. Legally, this driver can only drive 1 hour due to the 14-Hour Rule ("B" above) even though he/she is physically and mentally adequate to drive a whole 8-11 hours.
#2. Conversely, a driver who has been kept awake all night due to excessive noise at the shipper/receiver is perfectly legal to drive according to "D" above, even though the driver is neither physically nor mentally prepared due to sleep deprivation. Also, since this driver "has hours," it is very common for companies/dispatchers to pressure the driver to drive anyway. After the first time this happened to me, I refused. Losing my job was a whole lot better than losing my life and/or taking another's.

Sound confusing and nonsensical? Well, welcome to the life of a Professional Truck Driver.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #163 on:** June 03, 2009, 12:52 AM »

Quote from: Grorgy on June 02, 2009, 11:50 PM

Even worse than being asked again all the questions you've just answered by typing them in on a phone (old klutz fingers here hates using phones for that) is getting a recorded message saying they are not there anyway!

You get a message? Lucky devil!

I get 25 minutes of the worst canned 'music' known to man, periodically interrupted by a recorded voice telling me that my call is really important to them, the proof of which comes with the dial tone that follows. Go to step A.

Quote from: Darwin

the heels are worn right through

Leaving you with but a sole source of support?

Darwin · « **Reply #164 on:** June 03, 2009, 03:33 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 03, 2009, 12:52 AM

Leaving you with but a sole source of support?
[/quote]

CodeTRUCKER · « **Reply #165 on:** June 03, 2009, 06:29 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on June 03, 2009, 12:52 AM

Quote from: Darwin
the heels are worn right through
Leaving you with but a sole source of support?

The ambiguity is delicious!

wraith808 · « **Reply #166 on:** June 03, 2009, 03:39 PM »

MS Flight Simulator X and other software like it that assume that you are pirates so much their software is incompatible with you having CD Imaging Software on your system.

For a long time, my son's DVD drive didn't work, so I was taking his games and using VirtualDrive to image them so that he could mount them and play them. He plays mostly older games, so it didn't really matter. Enter Flight Simulator. I couldn't copy it, so broke down and took a DVD drive out of a non-working case and installed it in his system. He installs- the first DVD installs perfectly, but the second one won't mount (I guess it's the play disc). No matter what, or how many installs, we get errors- even a blue screen! I look it up online, and on several sites, including the MS site, there is an indication that if you have *any* imaging software (Nero, etc) installed, it won't install!

How far will DRM go to inconvenience their paying customers!

f0dder · « **Reply #167 on:** June 03, 2009, 04:13 PM »

wraith808: cases like that suck. The pirates get a much smoother ride than normal paying customers.

Took me 2 hours getting Battlefield 2142 working... and unfortunately, that's one of the cases where you can't apply a crack for that nice customer satisfaction, since most servers require the crappy PunkBuster über-validating service in order to let you play. Why bother with copy protection on a game that requires a valid cd-key in order to play online, anyway? It's so D-U-M-B! >_<

bob99 · « **Reply #168 on:** June 03, 2009, 07:27 PM »

Quote

wraith808: cases like that suck. The pirates get a much smoother ride than normal paying customers.

The pirates play with the innocent until proven guilty card.

Quote

How far will DRM go to inconvenience their paying customers!

DRM uses the guilty no matter what card, even if you can prove you are innocent!

SKesselman · « **Reply #169 on:** June 03, 2009, 11:15 PM »

Vista annoyances:

When I download files & Windows asks me where I want to save the files, then other times it doesn't ask me at all. Were it not for FF download manager, I don't know what I'd do, because sometimes they end up in Downloads, & other times they don't. I save downloads to specific places on my drive so I can find them when I need them. Grrr...

When it does ask me where I want to save it, and I have to type the path in myself...but other times I don't: Autofill takes care of it with just a couple of keystrokes. Inconsistency annoys me.

Downloading, installing, & keep track of a thousand little utilities just to make your computer manageable. Well, this ones a combo - I guess I'm lucky these utilities are made in the first place. It's just that I usually roll my eyes when I find that I can't work this magic somewhere in Windows options.

I think those are all the gripes I have for today, thank you for listening...

Josh · « **Reply #170 on:** June 03, 2009, 11:22 PM »

Restaurants which offer discounts, 5$ off, for filling out a survey and then say you have to visit in XX number of days. If I take the time to fill out your survey, give me the coupon and let me decide when I want to go!

SKesselman · « **Reply #171 on:** June 03, 2009, 11:24 PM »

Quote from: mrainey on May 30, 2009, 01:50 PM

Grownups saying "Woo Hoo!!!!"

I missed this one...this never annoys me, though. I just get really embarrassed for them.

SKesselman · « **Reply #172 on:** June 03, 2009, 11:48 PM »

(Sorry. Apparently, I'm not done yet, today)

Speaking of surveys, I get so annoyed with corporations that hire online survey companies.
I'm not a public beta tester, and unless I know you really well, I'm probably not going to work for you for free.
Do like your predecessors did back in the day, and implement an R & D department.

As for the lame survey companies tyring to recruit the hapless consumer:
Do not insult me. The 1 in 10,000 chance that I might earn 5 points to go towards the 50,000 needed to buy anything from you just doesn't cut it for me, and it shouldn't for anyone else. 20 minutes of my time is worth much more to me than a few meaningless points.

20 minutes. That's like, 2 "What annoys you to no end?" posts!

f0dder · « **Reply #173 on:** June 04, 2009, 06:06 AM »

Quote from: SKesselman on June 03, 2009, 11:15 PM

When I download files & Windows asks me where I want to save the files, then other times it doesn't ask me at all. Were it not for FF download manager, I don't know what I'd do, because sometimes they end up in Downloads, & other times they don't. I save downloads to specific places on my drive so I can find them when I need them. Grrr...

Your problems sounds a lot more like FireFox than Vista issues to me?

Josh · « **Reply #174 on:** June 04, 2009, 02:16 PM »

I think this was mentioned already but....Review sites which post review articles in multiple pages without a central navigation system requiring you to click next on every page. I HATE THIS! I will boycott any site that uses this method!