Products that fail to live up to expectations....
.... in my case for unforeseen, but plain to see in hindsight reasons.
Ceramic bladed peeler - like this.
It just does not work for the simple reason that the blades do not flex enough to fit the veg in hand.
So very disappointed.
What marketing traps has anyone else fallen into?
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
Blackberry bold - first one didn't allow me to hear the caller. Screen has touch screen capability but is too small to use. Keyboard is too small to use. It is very difficult to type numbers because you have to use a modifier key. Operating system and applications are cheap nasty and unusable.
HP laptop. Somebody thought it was a good idea to integrated a vertical row of function buttons to the right of the keyboard. Ina use of the enter key means that the cursor jumps around unpredictably turning typing into drudge. Half my attention has to be given to making sure that the document is properly typed rather than concentrating solely on the complex content of technical documents. The laptop is heavy but fragile and I have already had one fail.
Windows 7. Somebody though it would be a very bright idea to add task bars that reduce the usable vertical height of the screen. The task bar/ribbon at the top changes perpetually in an attempt to provide contextual information. This might work if the machine was clever enough to understand how I work but it doesn't. Using the interface then becomes an unpleasant drudge and much of my valuable time is now spent trying to find functionality which used to be in a predictable place but now isn't. Once again I am forced to spend more time looking for functionality than working the effort of which destroys my train of though. This is an operating system written by people who have absolutely no regard or care for producing usable equipment or for my mental wellbeing whilst I'm using it.
I have to use this excremental system for work. One reason I dream of winning the lottery is that I can buy this dreck from my employer, beat it to within an inch of it's life before consigning it to a fire.
You seem to be referring to Office 2007/2010 rather than Windows-7. It is possible to run the older version of Office (2003) under Windows-7. However, I agree with your points about the changes in Office. Personally, I think MS should have allowed users to switch between menu mode (old-style), and the newer "ribbon".Originally Posted by Harry Tuttle
The interface of Windows-7 itself really isn't much different to XP. But if you dislike that, wait until you see Windows-8 with Office-2013!
I have to use this excremental software because it, and the lamentable HP laptop it is installed on, are work issue, so I don't really have a choice about the version of Office I have to use.
This evening I spent a miserable 3 hours trying to make an iPad mini I brought for my partners birthday work with my router. I failed. This means that to make a birthday present work I will have to buy a new router. Of course there is no guarantee that this new router will work either.
Every time I buy some form of new technology I have to upgrade something, or replace another piece of equipment. If I buy a new camera the chances are that it won't work with my current copy of photoshop. But to upgrade photoshop I'll need an upgraded OS. The upgraded OS won't work on my current hardware so I have to buy a new computer. The new computer no longer supports older connection types which means I can't physically connect my very expensive film scanner, but that doesn't really matter because the manufacturer has gone bust anyway and no longer produces software for the device. Of course I can buy third party software but it costs a fortune. I have drawers in my room full of SCSI, USB 1, USB mini, firewire 400 and firewire 800 leads. I have connectors for several generations of mobile phones. I have midi leads. I have old floppy drives, and cds and dvds.
In short I'm drowning in junk.
I'm a slave to products that always promise the world and seldom even deliver the minimum of functionality. I suffer a four hour commute everyday to finance this stuff. I sit on a train surrounded by the living dead glued to their phone or plugged into their smart phone.
And I've had enough. I'd like to have written something more witty, something funny about all of this, but it's got to a point that its no longer a laughing matter.
I purchased a copy of a DVD entitled "Bald and Barely Legal."
While it turned out to be rather informative on tyre tread safety issues it was not exactly what I had in mind...
Awesome !
Too funny.
I'll totally concur with that. I suffered through two of them as work phones. Total junk - I've never understood the appeal. Using the keyboard was so ridiculously fiddly, and for some reason if you pressed a character for more than two nanosecond it repeated, and repeated and repeated... rrrrrrrr!
For two years my work text responses were a maximum of "ok" and more usually an abbreviation of that, "k". Or kkkkkkkk.....
I've had an iPhone since the first one came out, and the difference was like a fine cognac compared to a bottle of WhiteDiamond Tramp Special.
I can only assume they appealed to people initially because of the integration with Outlook and the Blackberry Messenger which really came into its own for organising riots a couple of years back.
Horrible, horrible, hooorrriiibbblle.
So clever my foot fell off.
Going back a few years,- Beamish and Cafferty's.
Big advertising campaigns for run-of-the mill bland ale.
I had one similar, but the blade kept popping out of the clips. It was quite good otherwise. Not as sharp as the steel one I replaced it with.Products that fail to live up to expectations....
.... in my case for unforeseen, but plain to see in hindsight reasons.
Ceramic bladed peeler - like this.
It just does not work for the simple reason that the blades do not flex enough to fit the veg in hand.
So very disappointed.
What marketing traps has anyone else fallen into?
@Win 7. Turn the Task Bar off. I've been using Win 7 since it came out and don't recognise the issues you're having. I've never seen a ribbon at the top and the bottom Task Bar has auto hide.
Last edited by Glamdring; 21st February 2013 at 18:56.
Black and Decker steam mop. Total crap. Never produced enough steam to clean the.floor properly. Went through 3 under warranty as they all stopped actually bloody steaming after 3 goes and just became an expensive way to dribble hot water on my floor.
I know my wife is not technically a product but..................
Other people.
Those circular 'easy cut' hair clippers. Totally fell for the 'much easier to use to do your own hair' hype. Reality is it doesn't deal with the bulk of the head any better than normal clippers and is rubbish around the ears, in the nape of the neck etc. Ended up using them about four times before I worked out it took longer than my old trimmers and I still got those out to finish off any way...
Oh and any paint which claims to be 'one coat'
Any Remington product, don't seem to be able to handle my stubble/ beard, shit battery life, broken returned couple times gave up; no wonder Boots do them "half price".
Lynx!
Microwave ovens.
Dyson vacuum cleaners, great for a few months then my Ł20 Tesco special has more "suck".
Don't you just love thread juxtapositions ; )
Cheers,
Gary
+1.....didnt get harassed by fit birds and gave me a rash....
for me anyway.
I thought only teenage boys wore that, and by wear I mean a "can a pit" application, so it's like being tear-gassed when you walk within 10 feet of them.
This. ^^
Bloody Victor Kiam
those crappy stainless steel teapots that you get served tea in, in cafe's.
shite! all they have to do is pour tea, but no- it goes anywhere but the cup!
I bet these are an "in joke" with the chinese who make them!
grrr!
A design seemingly unchanged since the depths of time (or least since I was a kid) - how are the still selling the damm things.
You need a saucer with these as most of the tea ends up in the saucer (you can then pour it into the cup ...).
?
Your post has reopened a deep, traumatic wound that I thought I had managed to bury.
When I was around 11 or 12 my mother fell for one of those TV ad's from K-tel, or perhaps Ronco, for a do-it-yourself hair trimmer - 'no more money wasted at the barber's or hairdresser's, save yourself a fortune, etc., etc.'. Essentially it comprised of two comb-shaped pieces of plastic with a double-edged razor blade sandwiched between.
Anyway, I was put on the kitchen chair, and a towel was wrapped around my neck in a most professional manner. And then, with a single maladroit stroke the back of my head felt suddenly chilly and a large lock of hair lay on the kitchen floor. But that was not all, dear mater then started to try to repair the damage, by 'evening it up'.
Then school the next day, with my the back of my head shaved like a neuro patient.
Similar here, I had a big week coming up and was going to be manning a stand at a trade fair, on the Sunday before I cut my own hair with the clippers - number 4 all over,so far so good.
All she had to do was tidy up around the back, so I took the guard off and explained "no guard - blah blah", so she carried on talking to her mum and ran the clippers straight up the back of my head almost to the crown.
What followed was some swearing, stifled laughter and the wife, her mother and 3 kids trying to convince me it didn't notice.
To make matters worse she told some colleagues and some customers that she knew so people were going out of their way to find out why my hair was so short.
It sometimes comes up in conversations and she thinks its hilarious, I still have not seen the funny side yet.
Definitely a Dyson and latterly a Miele. Oh yeah a Triumph with a chocolate gearbox. When it worked it was great.
Not sure I'd be laughing either.
I had a similar experience when I went to a barbers recommended by my wife. Apparently, the husband of a friend of hers 'went there regularly'. God knows why - it looked like a dingy excuse for an establishment with inexperienced staff but as it had been recommended - and I needed a haircut before a pitch I was giving - I went in.
The first cut took off almost all the hair at the front of my head. As I sat there, I was reminded of the joke:
"Barber - I need my hair cut badly."
"Well, you've come to the right place, Sir."
Things went downhill from here and my blood pressure rose for the next 20 minutes as the ineptitude of the tonsorial blagger became more prominent.
I met my wife afterwards. I could see she was trying not to laugh as she walked towards me.
"So..."
**tries not to chortle**
"...how did it go?"
"Yes, I'm glad you asked. As you can see, I was attacked by a mentalist with a blunt spoon."
**more stifled laughter**
"Oh, it's not too bad - at least it looks neater now."
"Yes, neater. Stylish? No. Even? No. Professional? Certainly not. The good news is they've plenty of room in the diary so I've booked you in there for your next cut instead of the salon. I need to find a hat I can wear indoors. "
love the replies about the hair trim. all gave me a good laugh.
Marriage...
You have my sympathies. My father maintains that the difference between a good and a bad haircut is two weeks and there may be something in that. My worst experience was in what used to be the basement salon in Brown Thomas's in Dublin (the Regents in Fownes' St was shut). Having given what, I thought, were quite adequate instructions the result was announced as a "new look" amidst several voilas; my father's maxim was true enough. SWMBO (who's a translator by profession) insists that specifying a haircut is in the very top end of linguistic achievements and as a result I have never risked a haircut in Germany.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
In a word - DYSON.
Of course, anyone who owns one already knows this.
Or soon will : )
......and here's me been thinking for all these years that my mother was the only one to purchase one of those torture trimmers from hell
That's interesting because I love mine. Saved a fortune on blades. Only used 3 since I go it over a year ago.
for me anyway.
Maybe it's your technique or you have super stubble! :)
I think it might be me.
So what's your favourite technique
Any Kettle.
A bugbear of mine, all they have to do is boil water and pour it. They boil it fine, but i'm yet to find one that pours it satisfactorily without some dribbling, or coming sideways out of the spout, or running down the front of the kettle.
Aaaaargh! I was about to have a Coffee, but now i've reminded myself, I just don't need the stress!
- - - Updated - - -
Any Kettle.
A bugbear of mine, all they have to do is boil water and pour it. They boil it fine, but i'm yet to find one that pours it satisfactorily without some dribbling, or coming sideways out of the spout, or running down the front of the kettle.
Aaaaargh! I was about to have a Coffee, but now i've reminded myself, I just don't need the stress!
I have a DēLonghi, works a treat!
As for stuff that doesn't work... Those scrapers that are supposed to help you remove silicone/sealant. Why don't they just admit that you can't remove it?!
Any Vax product. Utter crap. I have a carpet cleaner which is almost useless.
Quite happy with Dyson and Remmington, which have been mentioned already.
A cheap Chinese tap and die set that I once bought. I didn't have particularly high expectations, but I didn't buy it to cut any new threads - just to clean up existing ones. It was a comprehensive kit - but absolutely none of the threads were correct (they all had the wrong pitch), it was also made from metal so soft that a standard 8.8 bolt could cut a new thread in the dies.
AEG hyper-expensive washer-dryer. Bought about 8 years ago on advice of 'expert'. Lasted exactly 53 weeks then broke down irreparably.
Jimmy Saville felt the same about Fox Kids. Allegedly.
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
Interesting, I have found it has saved me a fortune on expensive blades!
for me anyway.
Google Nexus 7. Up until Android insisted on updating to 4.2.2 it was fine, great even. Now it has the power reserve of a firecracker and reboots itself at random intervals. Useless.
Any Windows product.
Any Blackberry product of the last few years (well any cellphone for that sake)
Toshiba laptops
Expensive off-the-peg suits
Corporate organization, the most
Energy drinks.
Don't know how they get away with that TV ad with everyone on treadmills where the black fella with the energy drink outruns all the others who are on plain old water.
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