Engineering annoyances.

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
I am too "big" to make babies with a female.

Every try to put a magic marker in a keyhole?

Sounds like a problem Chris Hansen would like to talk to you about.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

£290.11 plus vat to change a bulb??

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Crusty
The problem isn't the directly related to the difficulty of using the machines it's the lack of standards for the methodology of recording and collecting the votes.

There are different companies making different machines that all have a different way of doing each task. If instead every single voting machine made had the exact same interface and steps to record and tally votes you can now educate the people how to use them on a large scale.

You're talking user interface standards... things like that are prescribed by state or local government agencies conducting elections. They specifically define how buttons look and appear, what text appear (be it ballot text, instructional text, user interface control buttons, etc), how wide/narrow buttons/races/candidates are, etc. If a state wanted to make it uniform, they could. I can't blame tabulation equipment manufacturers for tabulation interface standards... the gov't needs to define it.

That said, if we want to discuss voting equipment, lets take it to another thread. Or PM.

 

[tk149]

My Cingular 8125 PDA/phone.

Touchscreen - good.
Miniscule virtual keypad for dialing - bad. The keypad uses about one-third of the available touchscreen space. Each key is half the size of a chicklet. Some tiny asian dude or gremlin designed the software for this thing.

Plus a mobile phone should NEVER show a frickin' hourglass.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

The 2003 Chevy Impala is a nice car. But its security system is based on a computer that can turn off gas flow to the engine, which prevents you from starting it. The bad thing is that sometimes the computer will simply refuse to let you start the car. The manufacturer/dealerships still haven't figured out what causes this, and unplugging/reattaching the battery doesn't reset it. The only way to fix it that I've found is to press the panic button a couple times to turn the alarm on/off. So basically my car thinks I'm stealing it sometimes.

Cars shouldn't have computers, maybe except for the radio.

 

[FeuerFrei]

On some recent BMWs (not sure what model) there's no oil dipstick.
To check oil levels you take the car to a dealer so they can drain and measure it. :roll:

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: BlackTigers
Isn't there a Chrysler, a recent one, that requires the removal of the tire, or a bumper for removal of the battery?

Yeah, that's bad.

LOL you cant be serious. That's pretty lame hahaha.

 

[HN]

Originally posted by: FeuerFrei
On some recent BMWs (not sure what model) there's no oil dipstick.
To check oil levels you take the car to a dealer so they can drain and measure it. :roll:

I bet it's the '08-'09 BMW M3 with the truly amazing 4.0L V8.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: HN

Originally posted by: FeuerFrei
On some recent BMWs (not sure what model) there's no oil dipstick.
To check oil levels you take the car to a dealer so they can drain and measure it. :roll:

I bet it's the '08-'09 BMW M3 with the truly amazing 4.0L V8.

Wow you must be psychic or something, because I was thinking the same thing!

/sarcasm

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: BlackTigers
Isn't there a Chrysler, a recent one, that requires the removal of the tire, or a bumper for removal of the battery?

Yeah, that's bad.

whoa really? thats insane.

Renault Megane's require you to remove the tyre to change a headlamp bulb...

Edit: For your viewing pleasure -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=...e.xml&nocache=0&up_tit

Every owner of that car should be permitted one whipping of the engineer(s) who devised that method, as well as anyone who signed off on it.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
iPod - no FM radio. This is truely mind-boggling.
~1989 Mazda 626 - engine removal required to change cam belt

If radio didn't suck, I wouldn't have an ipod.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: videogames101
Volvo 850, the A/C light is lit green for cooling off, and off for cooling On!

WTF???

Our new TV is like this. I am embarrassed to say that I spent well over an hour troubleshooting it and called tech support (which didn't do any good since I didn't want to wait another hour) before I figured it out. Why would anyone make something this way if they weren't from bizarro world?

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: Crusty
The problem isn't the directly related to the difficulty of using the machines it's the lack of standards for the methodology of recording and collecting the votes.

There are different companies making different machines that all have a different way of doing each task. If instead every single voting machine made had the exact same interface and steps to record and tally votes you can now educate the people how to use them on a large scale.

You're talking user interface standards... things like that are prescribed by state or local government agencies conducting elections. They specifically define how buttons look and appear, what text appear (be it ballot text, instructional text, user interface control buttons, etc), how wide/narrow buttons/races/candidates are, etc. If a state wanted to make it uniform, they could. I can't blame tabulation equipment manufacturers for tabulation interface standards... the gov't needs to define it.

That said, if we want to discuss voting equipment, lets take it to another thread. Or PM.

That's exactly my point, there are no standards for any of it. Different institutions have their own few standards for everything but it's not defined from start to finish in one concise manner. It's just a mess.

 

[morkman100]

Originally posted by: tk149
My Cingular 8125 PDA/phone.

Touchscreen - good.
Miniscule virtual keypad for dialing - bad. The keypad uses about one-third of the available touchscreen space. Each key is half the size of a chicklet. Some tiny asian dude or gremlin designed the software for this thing.

Plus a mobile phone should NEVER show a frickin' hourglass.

First off, the keyboard/interface was designed for stylus interface, not finger touching. Just a hold-over from the PDA market.

And 2nd, get rid of the stock software...
XDA Forums
Play at your own risk!

 

[SoulAssassin]

97-06 Jeep Wrangler, they designed it with the power steering box hanging out below the front bumper. In a vehicle that is designed for offroading they might as well have put a big sticker on it that says 'run me into a rock'.

surprised no one said no mentioned copy/paste on iphone

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: halik
Voting machines

As someone with a CS degree, I'm astounded no one can make those things work right.

The old voting machines in NY (the lever machines) work just fine. I've never heard of voting problems. Our towns machine "broke" - the curtain wouldn't close when you entered the booth & pulled the big lever. A farmer brought some baling twine in from his tractor & they fixed it so that it'd work.

Farmer's mechanical ability + 1950's technology > Voting machines made by people with CS degrees.

 

[halik]

Originally posted by: BlackTigers

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: halik
Voting machines

As someone with a CS degree, I'm astounded no one can make those things work right.

So design something better. Really.

Make it open-source, too, while you're at it.

And have thousands of American citizens use it.

Remember, you have to make something that the public can use. Factor in the fact that half(ish) our population has mental issues, and good luck.

People don't have problems using ATMs, do they? It's basically the same functionality

 

[ICRS]

Originally posted by: BlackTigers
Isn't there a Chrysler, a recent one, that requires the removal of the tire, or a bumper for removal of the battery?

Yeah, that's bad.

Some BMWs require removal of the bumper to replace a headlight.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
iPod - no FM radio. This is truely mind-boggling.
~1989 Mazda 626 - engine removal required to change cam belt

If radio didn't suck, I wouldn't have an ipod.

:thumbsup:

 

[stinkynathan]

Ford Escapes (at least the 2002 that I have) require that you pull the bumper to change the front turn signals. Luckily you can change the headlight bulb easily enough from under the hood, though.

On my 1996 S10 the gear shift would hit a bottle of pop in the front cup holder.

The cup holder on 2001 Jettas. When in use it blocks control of the radio and blocks the center vents.

 

[IronWing]

Black on black. Stereo/Home Theatre components in black w/ black controls.


Desktop PCs w/o internal USB ports or internal components designed to plug into USB ports, one or the other is lame.

 

[TwiceOver]

Almost every car I have ever driven: There should be a vent speed between 3 and 4.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
iPod - no FM radio. This is truely mind-boggling.

no, it's perfectly logical. apple wants you to fill your ipod with lots of imusic purchased from itunes. an fm radio would cost them money up front and on the back end.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: morkman100

Originally posted by: tk149
My Cingular 8125 PDA/phone.

Touchscreen - good.
Miniscule virtual keypad for dialing - bad. The keypad uses about one-third of the available touchscreen space. Each key is half the size of a chicklet. Some tiny asian dude or gremlin designed the software for this thing.

Plus a mobile phone should NEVER show a frickin' hourglass.

First off, the keyboard/interface was designed for stylus interface, not finger touching. Just a hold-over from the PDA market.

And 2nd, get rid of the stock software...
XDA Forums
Play at your own risk!

1. It's a frickin' PHONE. Who the fvck designs a phone that you can only use a stylus on? The fact is that whoever designed the software could have easily doubled or even tripled the size of the phone keys just by using more of the available touchscreen. The touchscreen itself is easily 1.5 times bigger than my landline phone keypad! Just bad design is all.

2. Thanks for the link but it's a company phone. Not allowed to play too much.

I'm tempted anyway :evil:

 

[slpaulson]

Originally posted by: halik

Originally posted by: BlackTigers

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: halik
Voting machines

As someone with a CS degree, I'm astounded no one can make those things work right.

So design something better. Really.

Make it open-source, too, while you're at it.

And have thousands of American citizens use it.

Remember, you have to make something that the public can use. Factor in the fact that half(ish) our population has mental issues, and good luck.

People don't have problems using ATMs, do they? It's basically the same functionality

I bet a lot of old people would have problems with ATMs.

Personally, I think voting machines should be kept simple. I think they should just stick to paper and scanners. Anything controlled by a computer will have vulnerabilities and crashes.