The "modern life is rubbish" thread

[rogerzilla]

Not a rant or even a grumble, just observations on how some corporations just aren't making an effort.

Badly-dubbed TV adverts.

TV Adverts where they join another one onto the end - "And now, new Toilet Duck a l'orange!*"

Slightly smaller chocolate bars in multipacks.

Modern pop singles where all the singing sounds vocoded because it's been produced by a cretin.

Disposable propelling pencils.

More than two cup holders in the front of any car.

Any own-brand electrical fittings from the major DIY chains, which have screws that strip and have apparently been designed by someone who never tried to wire them up.



*if they don't make it, they should.  I want royalties.

[AndyK]

Open ended American 'dramas' with massive production values but zero content.

[Chris S]

Good thread - but it's very much along the lines of the book "Is it me, or is everything just shit?"; to which of course, the answer is always "Yes - so?".

One of my favourites from that particular book - Serving Suggestions, such as - on a box of tea bags, a picture of a cup of tea.

[AndyK]

Safety warnings printed on abso-frickin-lutely everything.

[Ian H]

One of my favourites from that particular book - Serving Suggestions, such as - on a box of tea bags, a picture of a cup of tea.

Well, you wouldn't want someone buying it thinking it included hot water and a cup, would you?

[dasmoth]

On the whole, I'm a fan of modern life...

...but I do sometimes wonder when I think about some of the great engineering projects of the past.  Aerospace certainly comes to mind: within 20 years of the Wright brothers, flying passengers around was getting pretty routine.  The pace of development of military jets after WW2 was little short of stunning, and once rocketry got of the ground that moved pretty quickly for a few years too.  But the last three decades?  I'm struggling to think of any real innovation, short of the JSF avionics apparently breaking the 10M-lines-of-code barrier.

(STS-1 flew in April 1981.  First flight of a production stealth aircraft a few months later.  Someone please think of a major landmark since then?)

[spesh]

On the whole, I'm a fan of modern life...

...but I do sometimes wonder when I think about some of the great engineering projects of the past.  Aerospace certainly comes to mind: within 20 years of the Wright brothers, flying passengers around was getting pretty routine.  The pace of development of military jets after WW2 was little short of stunning, and once rocketry got of the ground that moved pretty quickly for a few years too.  But the last three decades?  I'm struggling to think of any real innovation, short of the JSF avionics apparently breaking the 10M-lines-of-code barrier.

(STS-1 flew in April 1981.  First flight of a production stealth aircraft a few months later.  Someone please think of a major landmark since then?)

The next landmark will be a single-stage-to-orbit, fully reusable space launch vehicle. The BRITONS could have been first with HOTOL, but that got nixed for a variety of reasons. The Yanks have been tinkering with SSTO for years, but their last attempt, the Venturestar project, effectively died a death when the X-33 technology demonstrator was cancelled due to weight/fuel fraction issues in 2001. In many ways, it was what the Space Shuttle should have been in the first place...

Interestingly, a number of the guys who worked on HOTOL and its engine went and formed Reaction Engines Ltd., a company that's got an interesting project called Skyon on the go.

[spesh]

Oh, and while we are at it, where's my jet-pack?

We were promised jet-packs... and bacofoil suits, and robot butlers...

The future sure isn't what it used to be.

[BrianI]

Good thread - but it's very much along the lines of the book "Is it me, or is everything just shit?"; to which of course, the answer is always "Yes - so?".

One of my favourites from that particular book - Serving Suggestions, such as - on a box of tea bags, a picture of a cup of tea.

Perhaps some people may purchase tea bags to chew on like chewing tobacco?

[Pedaldog.]

Good thread - but it's very much along the lines of the book "Is it me, or is everything just shit?"; to which of course, the answer is always "Yes - so?".

One of my favourites from that particular book - Serving Suggestions, such as - on a box of tea bags, a picture of a cup of tea.

Perhaps some people may purchase tea bags to chew on like chewing tobacco?

Norwegian SNUS is what you are thinking of.

http://www.swedish-snus.com/

[Cudzoziemiec]

Good thread - but it's very much along the lines of the book "Is it me, or is everything just shit?"; to which of course, the answer is always "Yes - so?".

One of my favourites from that particular book - Serving Suggestions, such as - on a box of tea bags, a picture of a cup of tea.

Perhaps some people may purchase tea bags to chew on like chewing tobacco?

Or to use as bedding material for plants.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Badly-dubbed TV adverts.

I like the way they manage to use actors who could plausibly be from anywhere between Tokyo and Iceland. What they fail on, apart from the dubbing, is the 'lifestyle' background - certainly watching them in Poland is odd because although all the characters could pass as Polish individually, put them together in the advert living room or wherever it may be, and no way do they resemble a Polish household. I suppose if this was POBI I could draw a moral about society from this, but it's not, so I won't.

[smurphboy]

Disposable propelling pencils.

Just wrong. Clutch pencils are the only acceptable form.

[Tewdric]

Oh, and while we are at it, where's my jet-pack?

We were promised jet-packs... and bacofoil suits, and robot butlers...

The future sure isn't what it used to be.

POTD

[Torslanda]

A 3 inch soft toy with a 6 inch 'CE' safety label . . .

Silica gel labelled 'DO NOT EAT' . . . FFS!

[Canardly]

Anyone remember Tommorow' s World and the wonder material from the then British Steel, 'BAM'?  Could have been April 1st thinking about it in retrospect.

[rogerzilla]

Everything (like crisps and chocolate bars) wrapped in plasticised foil that isn't biodegradable or recyclable.

Bicycle brake pad refills that cost ten quid a pair.  It's a small block of rubber FFS.

eBay listings that say "from China" or "from USA" when you're on the UK site and haven't selected the international option.  Have they never heard of punitive shipping, duty and VAT costs?

Starbucks coffee, which tastes like strong Happy Shopper instant with some burnt toast grated into it.

Trains without enough luggage space.  Even for normal luggage, not bikes.  This isn't the 1980s any more, when you could safely assume a cross-country train would only be half full.

Most Microsoft software.  Excel jumped the shark after 5.0, Word after 2.0 and Windows after XP.  Now it's just eye candy that gets in the way.

[Bledlow]

Trains without enough luggage space.  Even for normal luggage, not bikes. 

Trains without luggage space & which terminate at an airport, FFS!

[dasmoth]

Hey, rocket science was far more fun than grumbling about crass materialism.  Ah well.

Back into the spirit of things: organisations that require interaction via voice telephony.

[Basil]

Noise.  Frickin noise.

Even the cafe in Llandysul. 
I'd like to relax with the papers.  How am I supposed to relax when every coffee you serve involves that sort of noise?  And then you decide that you need to set off the bloody coffee bean grinder.
Has anyone ever taken a db meter into one of these places?  I reckon the staff who are in there all day are in danger of hearing damage.

[Arch]

Trains without enough luggage space.  Even for normal luggage, not bikes. 

Trains without luggage space & which terminate at an airport, FFS!

This this this this!

And on the subject of trains. Why aren't platforms and train steps at the same height? How hard can it be to make it so that there isn't a seven foot chasm to negociate?

Shops that have their doors open in all weathers, and heaters blasting over those doors. Even more, shops that have doors closed, feeling they have to have a notice on the doors saying "yes, we are open, please push the door...."

[Arch]

And the way the future seems to have gone backwards. I was looking at a book with nephew Oli (4) a while ago, his Doring Kindersly book of Things That Go.

"Oh, look" I said, "that's Concorde, that flies, er, flew, really fast. And that's a Harrier. That flies, er, flew, straight up and down."

Turn page.

"Oh. That's the Space Shuttle...."

 

[why1040]

...Even more, shops that have doors closed, feeling they have to have a notice on the doors saying "yes, we are open, please push the door...."

LOL to be fair, I spent about 10 minutes stood outside a pet store in Fishguard cos when I pushed the door, it didn't open, so I assumed the proprietor had gone for lunch or something...only to find when someone else arrived that the door was just rather stuck!   

[Pingu]

Patio heaters 

[Basil]

Patio Universe heaters 

FTFY