Your #1 tech-related pet peeve?

[bkribbs]

I share several of the ones on just the first page!

As someone else said, what really gets me is iTouch. Especially when its on professional flyers. The other day something was listing devices that could use their service and iTouch was there. Gr.

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Oh boy, don't even get me started.

My #2 gripe is when people have loads of malware installed, after clicking crappy ads or not learning to untick options in installations. Their reply? "You installed antivirus before it was delivered to me, obviously that program isn't good enough."

This.

 

[JoeG4]

One of the most annoying is people that think buying a phone makes them special.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I think that most tech minded people fail to realise that - for most non-tech minded people, - tech related matters are approached more in something of an a-la-carte manner rather than with a desire to absorb the entire table d'hote tech menu.

On other words, people learn what they need to get by, rather than mastering the entire field. And, if this is so, why should that be a matter for such disdain?

 

[citizenzen]

On other words, people learn what they need to get by, rather than mastering the entire field. And, if this is so, why should that be a matter for such disdain?

It's the context of the discussion: share your pet peeves.

If a writers group got together and shared their writing pet peeves it wouldn't mean they disdain anybody. And I imagine that you'd have a few things to add to that discussion.

It just means that in any given field there are things that create annoyance specific to that field.

I may roll my eyes at people who think that .001% of Cyan makes a difference in the color they created in their document, but it doesn't mean I think less of them as a person.

 

[Old Muley]

I'm always bothered when people select desktop photos that are of a low resolution and "expand" them to fill their screen, use "stretch" or use "tile". I'd say 90% of my coworkers desktop backgrounds are squashed, squished, pixelated abominations. Fingerprints on screens, dirty keyboards/mice and manufacturers stickers all rank right up there too.

 

[Huntn]

Automated corporate phone answering systems especially when those systems keep trying to answer your question from their database of answers when they can't, and they resist when you keep asking for "rep-re-sent-a-tive!"

 

[rdowns]

Automated corporate phone answering systems especially when those systems keep trying to answer your question from their database of answers when they can't, and they resist when you keep asking for "rep-re-sent-a-tive!"

http://gethuman.com

 

[VI™]

Here's something I can't stand. When you buy a laptop, there's like 50 stickers on there telling everyone what CPU and GPU and OS you have. Like anyone gives a ****.

IIRC, I remember reading somewhere that companies like Dell and HP do this because of their dealings with parts suppliers.

Here's an article on the matter:
http://www.switched.com/2010/09/05/why-companies-plaster-ugly-stickers-all-over-our-immaculate-lapt/

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People that use the wrong vocabulary and refuse to learn or change, even after being corrected. It sounds petty, but it's so annoying and I play dumb half the time not helping them until they agree with the word I'm using. It's not even so bad as arguing over computer, tower, or cpu, but stuff like this:

I work with a woman who calls our external hard drives fiar wiars (spelled Fire Wire, for those not fluent in redneckese). They do have a fire wire port, but we haven't had computers in our building with fire wire ports in probably 5 years. Every time she asks me if she can had a fiar wiar or I can fix a fiar wiar, I ask her "do you mean External Hard Drive?" and she replies, "Yeah, the fiar wiar."

I've also had people tell me that their hard drive isn't working and when I plugged their loose monitor cable back in, they thank me for fixing their hard drive and tell me that they were worried that they would lose everything. We use business dells and monitors, no AIO devices.

And it's not that I want to call people stupid, but it's ignorance and a refusal to learn that frustrates me. It would be different if I was dealing with a plumber that asked about a home computer, but when it's a person who works on this equipment day after day and can't even learn the basics. I'd hate to see these people trying to talk to the help desk and try to describe their issues to a person that's 1000 miles away...

 

[MattG]

When people set their monitors to resolutions that don't match their screen ratio. Is it just me??? Whenever I see someone using a 16:9 screen set to 1024x768 or whatever...how does it not make you crazy with everything looking "smooshed" like that?!

Also, messy A/V and computer wiring. FFS, people: go to Home Depot and spend $30 on some Wiremold or at the very least some velcro ties, or, in the case of a flat panel, do it the right way and send your wires through the wall, even if you have to pay someone an hour's worth of labor! I don't get spending thousands of dollars on equipment only to have it look like this.

 

[Michael Goff]

"Is that an iPad?"

Regardless of what tablet it is. Or some reference to how it is "just like an iPad" after I explain what it is. No, not all tablets are the iPad or just like an iPad.

 

[iBreatheApple]

*snip x99


Why not, instead, view such ignorance as an opportunity to teach those who lack such knowledge? None of us were born knowing these things. Someone, somewhere, had to teach us, preferably in a way that made us wish to learn more about it all.......

Perhaps because we're human and sometimes silly things just frustrate us. I think you took this thread way too seriously. It was more of a curiosity than an invitation to truly vent. I am "the computer/Apple guy" and I love doing it (albeit tiring at times). Many of my doc friends beg to pay me and we get into arguments about it. I simply won't accept payment for something I enjoy doing for friends; it feels wrong. That doesn't mean there aren't things that frustrate me and get on my nerves.

 

[mrsir2009]

I hate seeing browsers with third party tool bars. Especially those who have like five of them stacked on top of each other.


Image

One for every piece of free anti-virus software

 

[asleep]

Why do they put these water fountains so low???

 

[ppcg4mac]

Ad popup malware (greatsaver)... got my first "real computer" (as my dad calls anything running windows). At least i know how to remove that crap now, still trying to track down where i got it in the first place.

 

[JoeG4]

When people set their monitors to resolutions that don't match their screen ratio. Is it just me??? Whenever I see someone using a 16:9 screen set to 1024x768 or whatever...how does it not make you crazy with everything looking "smooshed" like that?!

What about businesses that make a point to go get a big 70" LCD TV, and then run it on an SD feed? Drives me nuts XD The worst I've seen was one where someone hooked their 2 LCD TVs up to a single receiver with coax splitters. it was awful. I can understand the economics behind it, but I dunno..

 

[MyMac1976]

People who believe that the fastest computer is necessarily the best.

 

[TheAppleFairy]

Why do they put these water fountains so low???

Image

Lol nice

 

[MattG]

What about businesses that make a point to go get a big 70" LCD TV, and then run it on an SD feed? Drives me nuts XD The worst I've seen was one where someone hooked their 2 LCD TVs up to a single receiver with coax splitters. it was awful. I can understand the economics behind it, but I dunno..

Yeah, that too. Beyond my control but at my organization, we have all these flat-panels mounted in one of our student areas, and they've all got "basic digital" cable on them. Who knows how many of thousands of dollars for all these big flat-screens, and not even running even basic HD. It looks pretty sorry

 

[impulse462]

People who will search in google or yahoo for a website and then use the link to click on the website. For example, my dad wanted to visit the wall street journal so instead of typing wsj.com (wallstreetjournal.com redirects to it anyway too!), he goes to yahoo and types wall street journal and then clicks on the first link in the search results.

My dad and an ex-roommate (non traditional student, was in the military before) do this all the time and it drives me insane, and I don't even know why since I shouldn't care at all but damn.

 

[Michael Goff]

People who will search in google or yahoo for a website and then use the link to click on the website. For example, my dad wanted to visit the wall street journal so instead of typing wsj.com (wallstreetjournal.com redirects to it anyway too!), he goes to yahoo and types wall street journal and then clicks on the first link in the search results.

My dad and an ex-roommate (non traditional student, was in the military before) do this all the time and it drives me insane, and I don't even know why since I shouldn't care at all but damn.

I do that, anyone who uses Bing should do that. It's easy to get free Bing Reward Points that way.

 

[Erendiox]

People who will search in google or yahoo for a website and then use the link to click on the website. For example, my dad wanted to visit the wall street journal so instead of typing wsj.com (wallstreetjournal.com redirects to it anyway too!), he goes to yahoo and types wall street journal and then clicks on the first link in the search results.

My dad and an ex-roommate (non traditional student, was in the military before) do this all the time and it drives me insane, and I don't even know why since I shouldn't care at all but damn.

To be fair to these people, not all domains are obvious… my mom once wanted to visit the website for dick's sporting goods. She typed in what seemed like the obvious domain and got an eyeful… most search engines would have saved her in this instance…

 

[APlotdevice]

I hate when technology conspires against me.



I'm on to you Printer!!!

 

[three]

My biggest tech related pet peeve is anger. I sometimes have to help my Dad with minor issues that he is having with his computer. As I'm working on figuring out / solving the problem he is continually getting more and more angry. At that point, I'm already pretty annoyed that he's so angry about such a small issue.

I wont even go on about when I bought him a new printer. That was a fun one.

 

[senseless]

What about businesses that make a point to go get a big 70" LCD TV, and then run it on an SD feed? Drives me nuts XD The worst I've seen was one where someone hooked their 2 LCD TVs up to a single receiver with coax splitters. it was awful. I can understand the economics behind it, but I dunno..

Yes, I notice this all the time. A lot of the fault lies with the cable guy.

 

[mobilehaathi]

People who get harshly judgmental about the tech choices people make.