What is your top tech annoyance?

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#414904 9-Dec-2010 10:20

my pet hate , the price of printer ink , when it is cheaper to buy a printer with the ink included than just replace the cartridges then someone is really getting ripped off, i now have 4 printers sitting at home

Common sense is not as common as you think.

dolsen

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#414932 9-Dec-2010 11:14

vexxxboy: my pet hate , the price of printer ink , when it is cheaper to buy a printer with the ink included than just replace the cartridges then someone is really getting ripped off, i now have 4 printers sitting at home

Most of the ink supplied with those printers are just teaser / demo ink, they don't last as long as a proper ink cartridge.

I don't like things that are slow. Also, the kiddie lock on my fridge that you have to hold down for *ages* (5 seconds) to unlock. Perhaps I'm just impatient?

paragonOfGeek

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#414942 9-Dec-2010 11:46

I noticed many DSE comments.....my Mum asked me about 6 months ago, to recommend a computer for my little bro, I recommended a good machine that would meet his needs well and it was on special that came with "free" office 2007 student edition. She went into DSE to buy it and was promptly sold a "better" machine that had a worse graphics card and no free software for $20 more. He is doing architecture the main reason I recommended this machine was on the strength of the graphics card.

As a rule I assume sales people know nothing at all, this way I am pleasantly surprised when I come across one that does.

Commercial software that I have to use for work that ONLY runs on WinXP, I run VM's under Win7 to get around this limitation. But really people even the latest version (2009 vintage) wont even run on Vista let alone 7.

On that note Win7...oh the disappointment, used Ubuntu and various other distributions for years at uni and exclusively at home. I had great hopes for Win7....it just didn't live up to them I guess.

There are many more, slow computers (Win7 on my NEW Alienware mx15 work computer...seriously)

But my number ONE pet hate...computer security....the user name and password paradigm is so retarded for most "normal people" (my Mum and other non-computer people). There needs to be an easy way to secure all your user details, I think a USB key disk that holds a cryptographic key that will unlock your user details that will log you into stuff. If you lose your key disk just make a new one, which invalidates the old one, there would obviously be some stringent requirements for making a new one, but that is just details.

Support the Pirate Party -

Also :)

fab

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#414946 9-Dec-2010 11:50

My pet hate, that's been going on since Win98 came out (?)

You are installing/setting up XP/Vista/Win7/Server 2008 etc

MS asks you what country you are in. I tell it I am in New Zealand. Next step, what language do you want? MS assumes it is US English. No, I have to change it to English NZ.

So, what time zone are you in? MS assumes the US. No, I must change it to New Zealand.

And there's another step there where yet again I have to change it!
Doh!

If I start off installing a product and tell it I am in a certain country, I would expect (after this many versions) that it would just default all my settings to whatever country/language I asked for in the first place.

And then to kick me in the guts, MS installs the language bar and includes US English on it! And to remove the language bar is hassle, and can't be done via GPO (please, someone tell me otherwise...).

vexxxboy

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#414953 9-Dec-2010 12:13

dolsen:
vexxxboy: my pet hate , the price of printer ink , when it is cheaper to buy a printer with the ink included than just replace the cartridges then someone is really getting ripped off, i now have 4 printers sitting at home

Most of the ink supplied with those printers are just teaser / demo ink, they don't last as long as a proper ink cartridge.

I bought a cannon printer cost me $58, to replace the ink $90, still a ripoff

Common sense is not as common as you think.

SepticSceptic

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#414975 9-Dec-2010 12:52

vexxxboy:
dolsen:
vexxxboy: my pet hate , the price of printer ink , when it is cheaper to buy a printer with the ink included than just replace the cartridges then someone is really getting ripped off, i now have 4 printers sitting at home

Most of the ink supplied with those printers are just teaser / demo ink, they don't last as long as a proper ink cartridge.

I bought a cannon printer cost me $58, to replace the ink $90, still a ripoff

Aye - I just dumped 2 MP190's at the recent e-waste day. Wasn't me that purchased them - I just get handed them when they get the sticker shock for new inks .. especially for the 4-in-1 carts that have all the inks in one cart. Not good when only one ink runs out.

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kiwijunglist

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#414980 9-Dec-2010 13:00

vexxxboy:
dolsen:
vexxxboy: my pet hate , the price of printer ink , when it is cheaper to buy a printer with the ink included than just replace the cartridges then someone is really getting ripped off, i now have 4 printers sitting at home

Most of the ink supplied with those printers are just teaser / demo ink, they don't last as long as a proper ink cartridge.

I bought a cannon printer cost me $58, to replace the ink $90, still a ripoff

yup this kinda stuff is really terrible for the environment, buying a new printer instead of buying a new ink cartridge. have you tried the aftermarket refil kits where you refil the oem cartridge with aftermarket ink?

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

richms

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#414981 9-Dec-2010 13:00

tardtasticx: The free view ads annoy me

+10 here...

Richard rich.ms

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#414986 9-Dec-2010 13:05

kiwijunglist:
vexxxboy:
I bought a cannon printer cost me $58, to replace the ink $90, still a ripoff

yup this kinda stuff is really terrible for the environment, buying a new printer instead of buying a new ink cartridge. have you tried the aftermarket refil kits where you refil the oem cartridge with aftermarket ink?

I dont believe that they sell the printers at a loss like some claim either. Just that they massivly markup the tiny volume of ink in them.

Also the sizes of the cartridges are another gripe for inkjets - what do you get out of them? 50-60 photos? Its crap. Why cant they be like 200 ml or so, so that you are not constantly swapping one of them out, priming the ink etc etc. Seperate ink tanks and their claims about saving ink is another thing that annoys me since they _know_ that people will be swapping them one at a time and just purging even more ink than if they swapped them all at once, therefore filling up the sponge in the printer making it decide to stop working with zero warning.

Richard rich.ms

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#415006 9-Dec-2010 13:31

HDD manufacturers believing that the base10 number system is what a computer uses 1GB does not = 1000 Megabytes

DishTV thinking I'd be OK with installing an update via RS232 cable that should have gone over the air erm my PC doesn't have any legacy ports no rs232 no lpt and no game/midi port and for that matter no IDE or floppy

sales reps in the likes of Harvey Normans and bond n bond thinking they know better than me about my hardware pfft yeah right

dolsen

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#415032 9-Dec-2010 13:57

Before I moved to 2 Degrees, trying to do anything on my account using the Vodafone website...

Also, being charged $1 due to problems with their systems and not getting it refunded (ringing up as their system was broken, not because I need help with some setting etc).
Grrr.

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nate

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#415119 9-Dec-2010 16:06

I didn't have one until today. Trying to setup a prepay sim with Telstra in Australia.

Buy the sim card ($2), then go through the prompts (you have to pick a plan, why can't it just default one?), once you get sick and confused of these, then you try the website.

The site won't let you put in an international address, and after 3 wrong tries it locks you out.

Call their helpdesk, spend 20 mins trying to talk to their Manila call centre (who ask for your passport number as ID), then they enable your SIM. They don't tell you though that enabling it isn't instant, you wait 10 minutes, then when you get a SMS, then it's active.

I'm currently trying to figure out mobile broadband. What a drama, makes NZ prepay a dream in comparison.

richms

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#415175 9-Dec-2010 18:04

On the subject of cellphones, with voicemail, I have messages left, yet I cant listen to them till I chose a pin, record a name and then a greeting.

I dont want a name or a greeting and there is no way to get to the messages without those steps being taken.

Richard rich.ms

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#415381 10-Dec-2010 08:59

Athlonite: my PC doesn't have any legacy ports no rs232 no lpt and no game/midi port and for that matter no IDE or floppy

We have this at work, heaps of gear installed in the field with serial comms but such a mission to find an 'approved' laptop with this. The computer world has moved on but there's a big assumption that now nobody uses this any more. And add to that the stupid usb to serial adaptor that's touch and go.

Computers not getting any faster. This really yanks my crank. Still takes roughly the same sort of time to load stuff as it did back in the day. Every new operating system requires higher computer specs to just start etc.

DSE selling slow as computers 'on sale' so your average user thinks it's a great deal. Just adds to the slowness mentioned above.

Printers, the cheap ones being cheap and nasty too. Seems to be a new printer model every other week. The ink is a problem, like razor blades for instance.

Actually brings me to cheap entry level equipment in general. There's always a trade off obviously but a lot of people don't twig to this until they've got it home. Some of the base models almost shouldn't be offered anyway I think. Sometimes the sales guy actually has a point to go to the next model, but that ends up coming off like he's just in it for the up sell money.

But the world is not all doom and gloom aye.

plas

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#415504 10-Dec-2010 12:55

It would have to be printers, I hate them.

Closely followed by call centers that are overseas and use some horrid phone system that makes it sound like they are calling from the other side of the solar system. The accent is bad enough at times but then add static and dropouts into the mix. :(

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