When Technology Fails Us

I feel that we have become entirely too dependant on "new technology" to make our lives easier. This has made our lives lazier too. We no longer need to get up to change the channel on our tv's,cell phones and cordless phones mean we can sit and stay there, now many of us "tele commute" at least one day a week (work on the computer from home)... I could go on forever.

It is killing our kids too. My 11 year old son can't remember anything other than how to use the latest video game console( I do not buy these things for him, my very near future X-wife( no I am not bitter!!!) likes the kids to be out of the way, so she loves these things).He can't even remember to eat.

We have been irresponsible in allowing this new tech to become more of a necessity than a helping hand.

I need to stop here, this is a touchy area for me. ( don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!) Sorry, sometimes the voices take over.

What bugs me is the loss of control when things are automated and don't include a manual alternative when the shaggin thing breaks down. Picture the public washroom where you stick out your hands to get water to flow and again for the air to dry them. No tap to turn on, no button to push to start the machine at will. The exasperation when they just don't happen to work today is enough to confirm the uneasy feelings even when they do.

Even the TV remote is a problem when they stop putting controls on the box itself... I KNOW where the TV is, for gsake. I can ALWAYS find the TV....

Some time ago my cable provider brought in a voice activated telephone tree to answer my every need... if only it could understand a single thing I said. ... how many times do you swear at it before hanging up... That has to top the list of the worst: speech recognition that doesn't work, implemented by a major company thus blocking all incoming client calls..... At least when I get a call from 'my Captain' or some other recorded message I can hang up. Quick, just as I want it, by hand.

Video games and computers in general are addictive. When it starts to be unhealthy for the kids, it's a worry. I was never a strict parent and rarely interefered with my son's choice of how to spend his time, but at that age he was so absorbed in the computer that I persuaded and insisted on getting him into the local softball program. Twice a week we drove to practice or to games. I sat in the bleachers and cheered. The drive to and fro gave us some one on one time. By the time we got home, he had a good appetite. I have no regrets about taking that road.

I think that when they "automate" something where the benefit solely accrues to their benefit, rather than to everyones benefit. Autodialers. Automatic spam. Automatic phone answerers when you call in to a company and you have to hear their line of crap and then do the work of figuring out who you want to talk to. Phone systems where you have to enter all your data, and then by the seventh level when you finally get to a human, the data that you entered isn't retrievable by them. That sort of thing.

The use of 'auto' anything to shift time, cost, and inconvenience to us as opposed to "them" is where I despise technology.

I Absolutely Agree on those automatic paper towel dispensers. We have them at our gym. They run on d cell batteries. There's a waste. I figured out how to get a longer towel. It leaves last one out; i give a short partial tear of about an inch then let go; that resets the machine, which I then wave my hands below the sensor and it then feeds out another short ration of towel. Then I repeat for as many times as I feel the need to. Eventually I tear it off to use.

But my last one for the day I leave about a three or four footer hanging almost to the floor, and then they call the maintenance guys to come fix the dispenser. OF course it isn't broke. And they aren't competent any how. So thats my Luddite revenge. "How's that cost savings variance looking on the new paper towels and batteries system you decreed would save thousands of dollars a year, there Mr. Penny pincher Accountant? Aww, really? That's too bad..."

I'd love to hear other Engineer's revenges while we're on this subject.

Nice Post TexasCharley!

milo

lets go to the very begining of technology....as we have learnt technology was meant to make work easier...once we had built machine 1(lever probably) we went on to investigate other needs...once that was done we moved onto our luxury and to polish the "neccesary" technology that we already had....i guess this brought about engineers....then came a huge market for new ideas that would help the human go about life...with a market that big...ideas came more from luxurious imagination and less from genuine need...among these ideas...in these markets....someone forgot the difference between a (needless) luxury and a genuine need.....we all have different verions of the original idea....with the current market anything marketed under new tech and able to "help" the human do less...is readily accepted (or the "helpful" (secretly complicated) device is forced on by advertismnts)...........

eventualy technology is our creation.......we sometimes get annoyed by its 1/1000 failure that we forget its 999/1000 success?...

thats my bit.

RAM.

I'm in total agrrement to you guys. Back in the old days we are happy of getting out and play the whole day under the sun.. Now my son is always inside of the house staring at the computer and TV.. the worse things is my wife is urging me to buy Nintendo Wii because the games can be used as a sort of an exercise. I bought my son a bike to encourage him to go outdoor but he told me I should have bought him an electronic bike....well you can never satisfy kids nowadays

I agree with you Eric. My 5 year old like to play the Wii (lots of fun on inclement days...). However, He doesn't get enough exercise. I bought him and his little sister bikes for Christmas. They like to ride them, but you have to pry them from in front of the TV. The other day, however, I hit the jackpot...I made my kids some stilts! (OK I made some for me too...)The kids spent hours outside palying with them!

I hate remotes with a zillion button's with many function nobody uses anyway

same with new appliances , many extra functions nobody needs.

I HATE!!! the Window dialog, do you really want to shutdown? copy move etcetera.

what if it was on every appliance in the house it would drive me postal, Do you really want to turn on the light? Do you really want to switch on the TV, Do you really want to Turn off the Heater?

12 years ago and while helping me re-do the shop, my very teenage daughter dropped her Spice Girls (or whatever the craze was at the time) singing alarm watch behind the drywall.

It has been set at daylight savings time. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years. It sings a little song. Three times a day. For twelve years.

Hahahaha. If you ever retrieve it let me know what kind of batteries are in it!

ahem...........to continue my train of thought..........It dawned on me that by taking the band off and applying some strong two-sided sticky tape to similar watch type I had the means to supremely irritate (I won't use the word sabotage) those persons who irritate me.

By gluing said instrument to say, underneath their desk or, behind their filing cabinet I am blessed with the satisfaction of knowing that it's driving them NUTS!

My favourite are the beep beep types.

Drywall saws are cheap.

Drywall saws are cheap.

Sledgehammers are more fun! Just ask Kris, or read his neverneverending bath breaking thread.

Some years ago, an electronics magazine had a device which chirped like a cricket, but solar cells charged a battery when it was light and the circuit only allowed it to go off when you switched off the lights.

Supremely irritating

Yaeh, tell me about it...my car central locking has a mind of it's own, one minute I can lock the car next minute it sits going beep..beep..beep and won't let me lock because it thinks I've left the ignition on/not in park/left the key fob in the car/doesn't like my choice of music...
It's a wonder I haven't stuck an arrow through the damn thing.

Of course, if I drove to a garage it would be fine...or if it wasn't they'd change about a dozen things charge me £1000 and it would fail again 6months 13 months later when the warranty ran out.

Ahhh, I feel better for that.

Del

I went to bank to get cash they did not give me as Server had failed. I tried to get from ATM it did not give as it was empty of cash as many people drained it off. I was working on my project suddenly my Monitor went blank. Other day my P.C could not start as Mother Board had failed. Once I was struck at Airport as all computers had stopped. Once I was operating ATM it debited my account but did not give me money. I had tough time with bank to get my account credited. If it rains cats and dogs my T.V set up box would go blank as there is no satellite signal.

These are my personal experiences with Technology.

There are so.....o many technological things that bug me, that I would rather not go there. It would drive me nuts to think about them. I'm sure you won't run out of peeves from others.

Sometimes Things are improved past their optimum state.

The sensor driven sinks, towel dispensers & toilets are good examples.

The original intent was to decrease water use & cross contamination of hands of food workers.

A foot operated valve for the sink or toilet, is a better solution operationally

But it costs more to install, but less in yearly maintainance.

Bean counters only worry about todays money, there's no incentive to worry about long term implications....

Battery operated towel dispensers, certainly save money, since they rarely work...

There is really no excuse for not having at least basic controls on things w/remotes, except the beancounters want to keep the cost down by leaving off the buttons.

Garthh said

"There is really no excuse for not having at least basic controls on things w/remotes, except the bean counters want to keep the cost down by leaving off the buttons"

How about some of the new cars and trucks?

Some of them have only ONE keyhole on the exterior of the vehicle so when the remote battery craps out and the lock is frozen or broken you are in a fix. This recently happened to a coworker - one of the linkage rods inside the door fell off and of course the battery in the fob was dead. The auto manufacturer is saving a lot here - no locks and linkages and no die punched holes and assembly labor. God bless the bean counters. They are serving us well. Ed

Amen Brother! My wife's minivan only has one keyhole. I don't like to carry the dang remote in my pocket since I already have enough junk on my keychain. I like to unlock the passenger door first out of manners and chivalry for my wife, but I can't because there's no stinking keyhole on that side! So what happens? She has to stand in the rain while I unlock my side so I unlock her door!

What you are talking about is a "caught 44". No hope at all, ever.

These guys don't have that problem........

I agree with all of the above, but here is one of my many pet peeves related to waste of taxpayer dollars for technology that has questionable use:

On the US Interstate system, particularly in metro areas, there are sensors and cameras everywhere, designed to be hooked up to a traffic awareness system.

Soooo, why is it that almost every time I see one of those associated traffic message boards, it displays nothing but a high speed flashing dot in the lower right corner...

...While I'm sitting in bumper to bumper traffic behind a major accident that I wasn't aware of because the message board wasn't working, and I don't have a gps traffic avoidance subscription, and I can't find the radio channel that the hovering traffic helicopter is broadcasting to, and I don't know how to get traffic reports on my cell phone cause it has too many features to keep up with, and, and, and...

Hooker

Now that you have brought up our interstate highways, it brings to mind a glitch in our local system. A few years ago large reader boards were erected on each side of our town. Of course the intent of these info boards is to warn motorists of impending weather and road conditions.

One of the major problems that high profile vehicles (semis with large trailers, large motor homes, trucks towing modular homes, etc.) have is dealing with the strong winds that blow through the area. So, the state highway department installed a wind meter along the highway, but it is not located in the area with the strongest winds. And, the wind meter information is relayed to the state motor vehicle department, over a hundreds miles away. Then, when strong winds are detected, the MVD has to phone a local office, so the reader boards can be programed with a warning message. So, what usually happens is... after the third truck has blown over on its side or ended up in the ditch (seriously), the sheriff closes the highway, diverting traffic through town.

The authorities wonder why no one pays any attention to the message boards....
Maybe 'cos they are wrong 99% of the time?

You are stopped in a jam and the warn you to slow to 40mph.
Clear blue skies... they say fog ahead.... no fog.

Best I ever saw was the ominous LONDON CLOSED at the time of the bombings, of course London wasn't closed, if the Luftwaffe couldn't close London, then a couple of bomb weilding nutters and a few roadsigns isn't going to do it.

Del

You missed one. Shimano and Campagnola are both hot one fire to get an electric shifted 11 speed bicycle out and running by the Tour De France. I recently back dated all my bicycles to the older friction shifting. I find the manual detente shifters now very common to be less than acceptable. Can't wait to see how well the electric version pleases me.

TexasCharley

If you except bottled water as a technology it is the one that annoys me most. In countries were tap water is good enough to drink some paranoid people spend a fortune an the stuff. Its really stupid!!

At least 10% of the profits these companies make should go to help some poor bastards in third world countries.

Battery powered children toys are right up there. The energy wasted could power some thing much more useful. And then the disposing and replacing. Ridiculous.

When I turned up at my Grand childrens place with a home made six foot high and wide Punch and Judy Boot (no batteries included), you should have been there. And, you know, the adults were as fascinated as the kids. Had the entertainment cut out for me but to see these kids interacting with puppets as if they were alive was something I will behold for a long time.

Just my drop worth, Ky.

I share the sentiment on all those points. Bottled water is a good one.

Perrier (aka Nestle).........big hulabaloo their opening up a plant in this part of the woods....keys to the town stuff.

Emptied the aquifer in one year and moved on. Capillary structure of water bearing rock collapsed upon depletion = no future recharge possible of aquifer!

Keep these bastards out! In India they and others like them have caused severe water shortages.

Hey,

do you have a link to news stories about this? It is scandalous, and since the issue of water bottling enterprises is often raised in our neck of the woods, it would be helpful to have some documentation at hand when the next one comes knocking.

Thanks

It was years back 93-95. I'll see if any links still exist. Judgement went against the town.

I've heard the real bad one occured in Michigan a few years back. Huge shallow aquifer collapsed.

Owen Sound and all parts south have severe problems with water bottling plants.

Where are you?

I'm in Newfoundland. All we have is rocks and water (more or less..) so there's a fair bit of interest and debate about the commercialization of water. A business proposal was put out a few years ago, to drain aquifers into tankers and ship elsewhere for bottling: it was rejected. This sort of thing has been typical of 'resource development' in this area: extract with minimal local return: ship elsewhere to add value; abandon when resource destroyed. Since then there is some local water bottling enterprise afaik it is on a relatively small scale so maybe sustainable. It's always the big companies that crush renewable and unrenewable resources and then move along to the next trough...

Sadly the fact remains that to protect these resources the town must use the services of geophysicists and hydrologists to determine the geologic nature of the aquifer and whether it is rechargeable in the event of being drained.

In many cases it is quite safe to 'mine' the aquifer but assurances must be forthcoming that no permanent damage will result.

It was a small mom and pop bottling company that was built here. It operated for years until some p---k of a ceo issued public shares. The shares were immediately snapped up and the deal was done...town never saw it coming.

Very sad. No more Ducks on the pond. A time will come when making profit and causing misery on others will be punished. It is against the law to harm others but when a profit can be made and taxes be paid all moral standards go out the window.

May there be change and the culprits punished, Ky.

Town is still without good water. The aquifer was uphill from the town and no pumps or filtration was needed to fill the water tower. A couple of small steams and many delicate seeps dried up.

All this in the interests of projecting an image of 'being with it' on the corporate level?! The council didn't even charge property tax to the company in exchange for the distinction of having attracted them.

And for what?

Most serious problem was when there were floods in Mumbai India, "Santro" cars mfd. by Hyundai had problems of locked doors which could not be opened even manually.Their electronic locking system got jammed due to water seeping inside the cars. Car owners could not even smash the windows and died due to flooding. I advise my friends to carry a hammer which can at least smash the windows in such situations.

I carry, and have carried for years, one of these...

very low tech.

OK...I hate electric can openers. They don't work nearly as well as the hand crank model I have. As a matter of fact I have even found one that has a crank with enough leverage that my wife and kids can use it quite easily...

...now automated call centers...I have found that if you get ticked, and beat on the keypad on the telephone...or randomly press numbers that spell out obscenities...the computer gets confused and kicks you over to an operator... then you have to sit on hold for 15 minutes and when you finally get to talk to someone who doesn't even speak English the call drops and you have to start all over again...*!%()@#!

Here's another...

I know I need to wear my seatbelt. I'd really prefer to not die if I have a collision. Why in the world did Ford put those dang beepers in that beep if you don't buckle your seatbelt?

Here's the scenario: I'm helping my dad eradicate hogs. We're driving up on a herd of them rooting up the latest crop. I point my rifle out of the window and...ding ding ding ding...the beeper goes off to tell me I need to buckle my seatbelt?!! At 3 mph?! In the field!?...the hogs hear it and are gone in a flash...Looks like it's time for some wire cutters.

I have noticed that the cords on everything seem to keep getting shorter and shorter. Now, it is common for me to get a new item - say, a toaster - and the cord is like 4" long!

That irritates!!

I now feel obligated to add this...here...to the list

Yep!.

milo

Your inventory of base morphemes plus their combinations with derivational morphemes has obviously lead to a linguistic lactation the likes of which accomodate neither the spoken word nor the word spoken by either.

Thankfully there's Canadian.......eh!