Peeve of the week

[Bill]

In the constant battle to force conformity and standardization in technology in which some class of consumer always lose -witness the VHS vs. Sony Beta or HD vs. Blu Ray- one might think that an effort could be included to enforce standards across technology platforms. 

Earlier today, mid-morning actually, I was attempting to reheat a cup of coffee in the microwave and realized I was pushing the timing buttons without actually thinking about it and the incessant flashing LED kept coming up wrong.  It finally occurred to me that this was not a computer keypad or a calculator but the equivalent of a telephone pad. Why does it have to be this way?  Both have 9 numbers and a zero but they are configured in reverse causing us to maintain 2 memory images when it could have just as easily be one.  As it is, typing a phone number on a computer is the reverse of actually making the call. 

IMO, a dumb situation.  Maybe voice activation will eliminate this once and forever.

Bill

[Ace]

Voice Activated microwave combustion.  Now there's a suggestion.

I could see everyone warming up a cup of coffee turn into Chef Gordon Ramsey:

"Whaaa??? You Stupid Donkey!! What the heck are you doing you piece of tin pile of crap I didn't say defrost the dang thing you moron I said warm it up what part of warm it up don't you understand you foreign made oblivious hunk of folded scrap metal you can't even make a stupid bag of popcorn even with a stupid "Make Popcorn" button I suppose you need a special yellow "Warm Up Coffee But Try Not to Also Bake a Chicken or Defrost a Bag Of Haddock, Too Stupid" while you're at it.  Not to mention asking you to just warm up some burrito shells without also nuking them or some innocent bystanders too.  I'd compare your seemingly simple but way too complex keypad to a dang phone, except that I figure trying to call out on you would result in microwaving my brain but not yours, since you obviously don't have one.  Stupid."

Voice activation indeed.  I'd suggest clenched fist or hard toe shoe activation.  You notice in that new "Terminator" movie where machines take over the world they don't show a microwave going down the street eliminating humans, or a touch tone phone taking out a family in Jersey.  I mean, for those to enter into the battle would be a quick surrender for everything mechanical.  Like North Koreans launching an ICBM, which turns lazily in the sky and winds up heading back to the launchpad at full speed....  "Ooh; there it go... oh oh.  Oooh, here it comes."

Ace; Makes you want to cook a baked potato in the thing... wrapped in aluminum foil.

[halokid]

I understand your frustration Bill, But communism just doesn't work ;D

joking partly aside, standardization sounds good to me... as long as its open source on

the software side of things and agreed upon by all manufacturers on the hardware side

of things.. but then i start to think about differences and if it could be a good thing.

Kinda like a natural selection of the best tech. I mean sure this might take longer for

progress, but could having variety help refine tech.. ?

Halokid: Two technologies cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.