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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Crap Design

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14:31 / 07.02.06

Thinking a bit about your digital watch thing, FP. It’s a lot easier to work out what time it will be in half an hour, say, with an analogue dial, isn’t it? I’m sure that appeals to mathtards like me.

14:47 / 07.02.06

That is true - you know it's quarter to, twenty to etc.

14:47 / 07.02.06

I find watch/clock faces much nicer to look at, and they do the job just as well as a digital. There's also something nice about seeing the time *physically* divided up. It's like diagrams vs. raw data. Much more friendly.

21:32 / 07.02.06

I know I've posted this before (and possibly nobody's going to agreee), but... catalytic converters. A temporary measure that apparently will never go away. It's like putting putty on a leaky sink basin and then, instead of fixing the mistake at the factory that leaves that basin leaky, they just keep slapping putty on them.
And the half-slip, which is the catalytic converter of clothing. I'm stuck on the notion that you should just wear a skirt of thicker/stiffer material if you're worried about it pulling up. Or wear longer skirts.
Again, why a half-measure rather than just going to the source and fixing it?
Oh, and the REDCAT still annoys the hell out of me and is horrible to get around when it's mostly dark and you need a restroom desperately. The building hasn't exactly stood the test of time, but I get the feeling it'll be there forever and a day longer than I can stand it.

Tryphena Absent

21:36 / 07.02.06

As a driver I prefer a manual. I use the gears to slow the car down because I don't like to rely on a break pedal when I'm going down a hill or coming up to a junction. When I'm driving in bumper to bumper traffic I don't use my accelerator at all I simply ease up on the clutch to edge forward (if I'm on a flat/downhill road). Automatic cars have a slower response time so at traffic lights they take more time to start moving. All in all I dislike them and think they're a silly invention. Give me my clutch any day, it's a wonderful invention and it means I, the driver, have added control of the vehicle.

23:42 / 07.02.06

Okay, my own personal pet design peeve is that part of the human anatomy where the breathing tube and the eating/drinking tube intersect. A recipie for disaster. Even after decades of practice most of us routinely find ourselves choking on less than a spoonful of whatever just because we forgot to close that flap at the back there. Intelligent design?

All Acting Regiment

06:32 / 08.02.06

Hmm. But on the other hand we'd suffocate if we could only get air in through the ickle nostrils. Ideally we want a big hole for eating, and a big hole for breathing, connected to two different tubes, each tube going ot the lungs and stomach respectively. Like dolphins.

11:03 / 08.02.06

However iirc correctly the chance of choking is the price we pay for being able to talk. So I guess in the long run, it works. Not if you were designing from scratch, but it makes sense in evolutionary terms.
Manual vs automatic: For city driving automatics are much easier, but they aren't as satisfying to drive imho. Not that makes a huge difference, but I can see why people prefer manual drive. Automatics are also more expensive, less fuel efficent and produce more CO2, so they do have drawbacks.

10:52 / 09.02.06

Shoes!
What really is the point of them anymore?

Shoes were invented at a time when they were a really useful and necessary thing and now, I think, and have thought for years, and explained this view to anyone who would listen, that they are an almost completely redundant item (or pair of items).

Think about it. Thousands of years ago everyone was trapped in their respective caves unable to explore very far afield for fear of stepping on something pointy or squishy or slimey or poisonous or hot or cold or just generally nasty and not foot friendly. Shoes were just the ticket! A positive boon for those exploratively minded souls who wanted to know what was on the other side of that mountain or glacier or desert.

But now everything, or every place where you might be likely to need to set foot, has been covered with concrete or grass or paving stones or linoleum or carpet. Hardly scary stuff for the average foot. We've done with the exploring thing.

OK there is rain and snow and generally wintery things and scorching bitumen in summer but these are relatively rare events where I live (Australia). Even in other parts of the world there has to be at least 80% of the time when nearly all traversable surfaces are relatively foot friendly on any given day.

Shoes are pointless now, nearly all of the time, except for fashion reasons and I refuse to accept that as a valid excuse for anything.

11:02 / 09.02.06

Broken glass? Used syringes?

11:31 / 09.02.06

Dog poo? Sharp grit? Wood splinters & thorns? Wonky paving slabs to stub your toes on?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:30 / 09.02.06

USB ports/plugs.

Considering the ports for usb devices are often in hard to reach places and out of sight places on desktop computers I hate the fact that they are required to be plugged in a specific way. I dont know why thet would design USB to be dependent on being rightside up, rather then square or round so it doesnt matter which way they are plugged in. I'm no engineer but there must be a way to do this.

19:52 / 09.02.06

Shoes may be useless in Australia but in the UK, or Scotland at least, I need them to stop my feet freezing off.
Elijah: You're right about USB ports, though more modern computers are beginning to have them on the front.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

04:17 / 10.02.06

Yes, in the front.

However, for me second crap design I submit the Dell (and other brands) trying to streamline the look of desktop pcs by adding hinged doors covering the front ports. They LOOK ok, but they never open quite far enough to get at what you need 100%, especially if, like me, your computer is below your desk.

08:01 / 10.02.06

OK there is rain and snow and generally wintery things and scorching bitumen in summer but these are relatively rare events where I live (Australia).

Scorching bitumen is a rare event in Australia? In which part do you live? The Australian sector of Antarctica?

14:25 / 10.02.06

I completely concur with the flaps on the front of Dell computers. I look after lots (in the order of hundreds) of Dells, and those flaps come off all the time, and generaly serve no useful purpose at all. Dell seem to like funny flappy things, though, they stick them on everything. You could probably submit them as examples of general bad design, in fact.

On a more personal note, I'd like to suggest that furniture which is too small, and scales poorly (narrow seats in cars with delusions of performance, beds which have a big foot at the end so you can't even stick your feet out) for height. It doesn't take a genius not to add things that make it really difficult for someone not dramatically bigger than the population at large to use your furniture. Just try it on someone over 6' tall.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

17:49 / 10.02.06

I'm with you on the tall thing nameinuse.

I never understood why anyone would put a footboard on a bed, let alone a twin. I almost proke my ankle during..relations.. because the bed had a footboard kind of like this one. My fot went through it, then we started to roll over, a bad scene indeed.

On the topic, what about the lack of any male birth control other then the condom? Hasn't science been able to come up with something better then a tiny trash bag to avoid pregnancy?

19:05 / 10.02.06

hmmm, while I agree that the condom is hardly a masterpiece of design, I do believe there are a number of reasons for the lack of workable alternatives. If you want more details wikipedia has a nice summary of some of them.
Besides all the side-effects of current proposals, one mooted problem is the issue of lack of trust: If you're the one who is going to actually get pregnant, are you going to believe the guy when he says "don't worry, I'm on the male pill"? I'm not saying that is or isn't a valid worry, but you can see how it might be an issue.

19:52 / 10.02.06

There is also the issue of preventing the transmisson of STDs.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

20:20 / 10.02.06

on the STD thing, I of course would heartily recommend condoms if there is a risk of spreading any genital ick around.

I was more thinking of a couple in a relationship long term, where they are both tested and trusting.

Nice wikipedia article, by the way, thanks for the link.

22:17 / 11.02.06

On the gears thing, Nina's point aside (and a very good point it is), it all depends what you think driving's about. I mean, if you like to be in control of your car - in the egotistic, vain, domineering, I'manamazingdriver sense of the word "control" - then automatic gearing is clearly out the window.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

22:51 / 11.02.06

On the topic of cars again,

Why the hell do your headlights stay on when you turn off the engine? How hard would it be to put in a switch so, if need be, your lights can be turned on when the engine is off, but otherwise kills the lights when you take the key out?

11:35 / 12.02.06

European made cars seem to turn the headlights on and off with the ignition (well, the VWs and Fiats I've driven certainly do) but Japanese cars don't. I assume it's down to laws or tradition where they're made. Possibly combined with the fact that anything that puts more stress on the electics in a Fiat is clearly a bad idea.

Also, VWs have that rather funky parking light thing, where the light only goes on one side, which is a legal requrirment of parking on the road in Germany at night, or something. You turn it on by pressing a little button near the ignition and turning the key one notch in the wrong direction.

They should ban beds with footboards you can actually get your feet through, they're just asking for trouble.

Tryphena Absent

23:17 / 12.02.06

if you like to be in control of your car - in the egotistic, vain, domineering, I'manamazingdriver sense of the word "control" - then automatic gearing is clearly out the window.

I have no problem admitting that this is also true of me. Climate change and clutch control aside I just love driving and automatic gears make it less fun. I'm a vain, domineering, makes me feel amazing, "why is the person in front driving at 20mph" kind of driver. I would probably clock anyone who suggested taking gears away from me. If you don't love driving than stick to public transport.

06:03 / 13.02.06

I'd suggest that, in the UK at least, you're not considered a proper driver unless you can drive a manual.

21:26 / 13.02.06

The manual/automatic thing seems to come down to can and do, though. As in, don't walk 'til you can crawl or something.
And we should all be on car trains, anyway. Flying car trains. For when we aren't walking. Or, considering it's two thousand six and I'm impatient, flying. Just because you can do something doesn't mean there aren't easier or more efficient ways to handle it. You don't pick a lock if you have the key, carry buckets of water when you can pipe it, and so forth. But you should be capable of such things, just in case, and to give yourself a more useful awareness of a thing.

20:10 / 14.02.06

Manual transmission has less moving parts, is less complicated mechanically, and has less chance of breaking down over the life of the car. And because the automatic transmission is a sealed unit, it's a bastard to work on and is invariably incredibly expensive to fix. And the fucking car never runs quite the same again after replacing the tranny.

Automatic transmission is, as far as I'm concerned, a needless overcomplication. Frankly, I can't understand why anybody opts for it.

20:22 / 14.02.06

Why are we still making one button mice?

Are the mono-button people having difficulty making the tranistion to a dual-button mouse. I don't want to hold cmd, I'm sick of it. Stop making them. They're obsolete.

08:16 / 15.02.06

Automatic transmission is, as far as I'm concerned, a needless overcomplication. Frankly, I can't understand why anybody opts for it.

The hard work of fixing it aside. Laziness?

08:31 / 15.02.06

Tsk, Boboss, it’s because of people like you that gear boxes are now burdened with synchromesh and no one can double declutch anymore.

11:06 / 15.02.06

The good old days:

11:54 / 17.02.06

On the subject of cars: I'm actually a bit surprised that there hasn't been more experimentation in looking outside the four-wheel paradigm.

Another design that bothers me is pants. Why the heck are they still popular? They're terribly suited to warmer weather, especially since most of the pants here in the US are made from incredibly heavy materials.

Tryphena Absent

23:17 / 17.02.06

Now Boboss this thread has come up with all kinds of reasons why manual is better than automatic: environmental, technical, practical, which suggest to me that the reason automatic cars are favoured is out of laziness.

As to pants, Nolan, do you mean trousers or underwear?

00:44 / 19.02.06

I think he means trousers. That's one Americanism I really hate... and pantyhoes, panties, and underoos are three more.

16:09 / 19.02.06

That's pantyhose. As in hosiery. It's a single garment that combines the panty (or pants, you'd say) and the hose. I mean, what else would you call it?

"Underoos" is actually a brand name for a specific product—matching T-shirt and underpants sets (or, for girls, camisole and underpants), made for young children and featuring superhero designs. Introduced mid-1970s, advertising tagline: "The underwear that's fun to wear!"

I wasn't aware that it had acquired a less-specific meaning.

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