The simple things in life that annoy us. (1 Viewer)

[Yee-Ming]

I also think the playability of a DVD depends on the DVD player. When CDs first came out I went to check it out at the local music store. For the demo, he dropped the CD on the floor and ground it under his heel. He showed me the CD and I could tell it was not the first time he did this to show someone how great the new system was. He then played it in the CD player with out issue. I used that player for many years and never found a CD that it wouldn't play. CDs that wouldn't work on new players always worked on it. Finally it bit the dust when the drawer stopped opening.
The same holds true for many of the DVDs that I get from BB. There are many DVDs that won't play on my 1080 up converting DVD player that my first generation PS2 has no troubles with. I thought way back when CDs and DVDs first came out, one of their big selling points was how they could be abused and still work. I guess lowering the cost of manufacturing also effected the quality of the player.

Oddly, I get the impression that it's the cheapo DVD players that will play badly scratched up discs. My Pioneer 969 (Elite 59 in USA) would freeze on some crappy discs, but the DVD player of the LG HDD recorder would somehow manage. And this follows from anecdotal evidence that cheapo Shinco players (the $29 players you'd get from Wal-Mart) play anything you care to throw at it, including *ahem* "budget" discs from China.
My theory on that is that higher end players 'try harder' to read the bits accurately, so on troublesome discs they keep getting errors, try to recover the error, and then get stuck. Cheapo discs just spit out whatever they managed (or not) to read first-time, even if the image comes out pixellated or has obvious gaps in the information (e.g. big green blocks).
I seem to recall back in the earlier days of CDs that better CD players were always said to have 4X or 8X 'oversampling', which I was told meant they read the information 4 (or 8) times to get an accurate read, before sending the bits to the DAC. Was that correct? If so, assuming higher end DVD players do the same, I can see how a higher end player would get stuck if it read a disc 4 times and got different info each time, whereas the cheapo player would read once and just output whatever it had read.

 

[TonyD]

People who can't take the few seconds to sign their name legibly on a credit card slip or touchscreen.
.

umpossible, can't be done, i've given up trying.

 

[ZacharyTait]

umpossible, can't be done, i've given up trying.

If you're talking about the touchscreen, yea I can see that. I've gotten some touchscreens where my signature ended up looking like a Rorschach blob.

 

[TonyD]

In target the other day i started to sign the screen.
before the pen thing even touched the screen my signature started to appear.
I didnt even try a little bit to make it look legible after seeing the squiggle
that appeared by magic before i touched the screen.

 

[drobbins]

umpossible, can't be done, i've given up trying.

I have too. My handwriting is atrocious and has been my entire life. Even after many remedial writing classes throughout my schooling, it is still bad. The reason I don't think it can be changed, is it is a reflection of someones personality. Thats why there are those who analyze handwriting in order to "profile" their personality. I can write "text book" if I want, but it takes 4-5 times as long. Why should I waste that much time on a receipt that no one will read? Also my signature is clearly mine and very hard to forge.

 

[MarkHastings]

If you're talking about the touchscreen, yea I can see that. I've gotten some touchscreens where my signature ended up looking like a Rorschach blob.

This past weekend I was signing on a touchpad that was SO unresponsive that my signature looked like I did it on an Etch-a-Sketch!!!

 

[Steve_Pannell]

I have signed touchpads before that didn't even show your signature while you were writing it. It just stored it electronically. You just had to hope you were getting it right.

 

[Jay H]

One of the grocery stores near me has a touchpad with a "pen" where the tips are all missing, so imagine trying to sign your signature with a hollow straw????

The cashier told me that the parent's kids play with them all the time and break them so most of them are like that... Sheesh!

Jay

 

[Scott Strang]

1: people that pull out in front of you and then drive like snails. I especially love this when it's raining and they wait until you are only a few feet from them and they pull out in front of you. Only in Louisiana.

2: Go to McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's etc. and trying to get a hamburger that is plain (read meat and bun only) and always receiving anything but. I've been through a McDonalds drive through 3 times trying to get a 1/4 pounder plain and they kept putting cheese on it. My wife said it's as if they are obsessed with cheese. And don't give me this crap about getting what I deserve for not having self respect and going to a fast food joint. I'm still a customer and so what if I want it plain.

3: People that listen to 128kbit mp3's and say "it sounds good to me."

Either they're def or they need to be slapped and re-educated. Same applies to people that think Sirrius sound good. Are you kidding?

 

[Jay H]

That stupid Subway commercial... five.... five... five dollar foot looooooonnnggggggggg,...... AAAAAAAAYYYYYYEYEEEEEERRGGGGGGGGGHHHGG

Jay

 

[drobbins]

I had a thread about this one a few years back - the computer always asking "Are you sure you want to..." whenever I do anything. I was trying a few things on my computer last night and I must have been asked 10 times for conformation. You go to install software and get permission questions from the firewall, windows, the registry, AVG, etc... and then you go through it again if you don't like the software and want to remove it. Vista was totally unusable until I found how to turn 1/2 of them off.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Here's a guy who really annoys me. This guy is an archtype: the kind of greed and hubris that makes him speculate stupidly in real estate, slack off at work to manage the properties, and then when he gets fired, comes back and shoots the CEO and two others. I'm sure he viewed himself as an "innocent victim". :rolleyes
Suspect in triple-slaying owned 19 properties

Company officials said Wu had been fired for poor performance but declined to elaborate. He was arrested Saturday.
Records show that Wu and his wife, Jie Zheng Wu, went on a property-buying spree starting in 2004.
From June to October 2005, they bought two rental homes and five vacant lots for $526,000 in Hot Springs Village, a retirement community of nearly 15,000 people and nine golf courses. They took out at least $330,000 in bank loans to pay for the properties, records show.
The couple also bought at least five homes and six lots in Washington north of Portland, in the communities of Anderson Island, Vancouver and Ocean Shores. In California, they bought a modest home in Elk Grove (Sacramento County) and a bare lot near Lake Shastina in Siskiyou County.

 

[Martino]

1. Cell phones and the people who are just addicted to them. I’m sorry if any of you fall into this category, but I’ll show you why these bug me so much…

1a. I keep seeing these jerks driving and talking, and I keep saying to myself “I’m sure the person you are talking too would like you to get to where you are going safely – hang up your phone and drive your car."

1b. I went to rent a u-haul truck to move – and they would not let me rent the truck without a cell phone number. I told them I didn’t have one, but they would not budge – so I just wrote a bogus number to get the truck.

1c. I can see there being some good reason to have a cell – but for me there just isn’t, so I don’t own one. Most of my friends are so addicted it is scary. They can’t go to the store without calling to make sure they got the correct item. I make a list, and if there is a decision to make, I make it without calling my wife first.

1d. when riding in a car, I don’t want the driver on the phone. I had a friend who would call his wife after a 10 minute trip to let her know we were coming back – he could have waited 5 minutes and just been there (we were not late or on any type of schedule – it was a lazy Saturday)

1e) I think that cell phone commercials are almost as annoying as the phones themselves. They are on all the time. “It’s only $99.00 a month for unlimited everything…” like spending $1200 a year on something you really don’t need is a great deal. Enough of the stupid 1200 support guys hiding around the corner – I don’t care if “Can you hear me now?” is ever answered…

1d) As bad as the phones are, the text addicts are even worse. My 14 year old niece will go to a family party, plop down in a chair, and spend the whole party texting to her friends. If she was so interested in talking to these folks, just invite them to the party.

Ie) Despite multiple signs and announcements – people can’t seem to turn off their cell phones, and must interrupt everyone with their annoying ring tones going off at the worst possible times – like in a movie theater or a church.

 

[drobbins]

1d) As bad as the phones are, the text addicts are even worse. My 14 year old niece will go to a family party, plop down in a chair, and spend the whole party texting to her friends. If she was so interested in talking to these folks, just invite them to the party.

My 14 year old daughter dropped her phone in the sink and t stopped working. She was far more upset about the phone than she was about breaking up with her boyfriend. :rolleyes

 

[PeterK]

those stupid "Say something!" smileys all over the internet. OMG I just wanna punch my effing screen in whenever I come across those things
YouTube - Say Something, What?

 

[Marianne]

I just bought another DVD that said it was anamorphic on the case but it wasn't!!!
I think I'll take it back to Target (not their fault) even though it was only $7.50 and complain. I'll say: "It says on the box that it's anamorphic but it isn't - I want my money back." Then see how they react.