If they’re like the microwaves I’m familiar with, you have to press Cook or Cook Time to manually enter a number, because just pressing 1, 2, etc. will immediately start cooking for that many minutes. So, it’s supposedly a time saving feature, because you can just put in your stuff and hit 2. I do agree though, that I prefer the old way.
I’ve only seen dual-flush toilets in 2 places: public restrooms in Durango, CO, and in a friend’s house in NM. The problem in NM was that I had never seen one before, and it wasn’t labeled. I didn’t know how to use it. After seeing the ones in Durango, I knew how to use the one in NM, except I didn’t know which one to push because it didn’t say.
I’ve never seen one anywhere else.
But the design of /closed captions/ is not entirely the same as the design of /sub titles/, and for historical reasons and international markets, most receivers and many sources contain and or display a textual representation as well as the bitmap representation.
You could say that people are just too cheap to allow full user control of the display, but of course the more options you support, the more things go wrong or don’t work properly, and even very high end consumer equipment doesn’t ever support/display all the options.
I have never read so much about flushing a toilet as I have in this thread. 
So they flush up? :eek:
Whether you call them closed captions, subtitles, whether they’re embedded in the original file or sent through teletexto… it doesn’t matter, the reference is the picture and not the screen. That way you don’t need to control the text with one set of parameters and the image with another.
According to long-distance research conducted by Dr. Bart Simpson of the International Drainage Commission, the water flows clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
My dishwasher did this by default, but there was an arcane way to hold buttons down to make it not work.
I called up tech support and had them walk me through it.
Time traveling bakers?
For mine: our dryer has a child-lock that disables the buttons until you do a specific thing. Which is great, because we have small children who like to press buttons. Except: it doesn’t disable the power button. Which is the largest button and flashes while the dryer is running. Aaargh.
The microwave at my work is some heavy duty one that automatically turns on a fan to air out the microwave whenever the door is open. But the fan is so powerful that anything that isn’t a regular plate gets blown out, so since you’re at work if you try to put a paper plate or a layer of paper towels to warm something up they’ll automatically get blown out of the door unless you weigh it down.
One thing I’ve never understood is the USA insistence on having bedside lights activated by a tiny clicky wheel that you have to reach up under the shade to twist.
Why? I’ve never seen it used anywhere else in the world.
What? I’m in Canada, but that’s an extremely ubiquitous switch.
Right, I’m not sure why you are quite so surprised, if I’ve never been to Canada I’m unlikely to have seen it there. The fact remains that I’ve travelled pretty widely and the USA is the only place I’ve ever seen it and it is an idiotic design. It is like a hold-over from the oil-wick adjusters on lanterns of days gone by.
One thing I cannot understand is automobile designers. Do they all live on the Equator, in a tropical climate?
Where I live, we get winter; real winter. When it is -20C (below 0F), and you’re bundled up in a parka, and you’re wearing thick gloves–why are the “seat belt release” buttons so tiny? You cannot get them to disengage while wearing a parka and gloves–you have to, at the very least, take the gloves off, and touch the very cold release button with bare hands. Then, once outside the car, try hitting the “Lock” button on the key fob while wearing winter gloves. The folks who came up with these obviously never lived in a cold climate.
Not to mention the “Ice possible, drive with care” message that appears on the dashboard, when the temperature dips below freezing. Gee, it’s -20C, do you really think ice is possible? No, it’s more of a certainty. I wish I could get rid of that stupid message.
I’m curious. What type of lamp switch are you used to at home?
I’ve got several different types in my house, and I don’t find the type I think you’re talking about any harder to use than any of the others.
Pretty sure you mean something like this?
It’s been pretty standard for as long as I can remember. It’s just basically a connector between a two strand wire and a light bulb with a switch. What is more common in other countries? Is the switch somewhere along the cord? Is the fixture the same but the switch is a pull chain or flip switch?
Pretty much always a rocker-switch in line with the cord or on the base. Certainly never-ever the rotating clicky-type that I find in the states.
For the inline switch I use a single finger, one press, “on” or “off”.
For the rotating switch you have to either look for it, or feel for it up in the lampshade (near the hot bulb). When you find it you have to rotate it in the right direction. In some cases you have to rotate, regrip, then rotate some more. When reading in bed with the first type I can position the switch for easy access, for the rotating type I can’t. I definitely think it is more awkward to use. If you had never seen a bedside lamp before and had to design a switch for efficiency, the rotating type would be bottom of the list.
That’s the fella
sure, I know what it is, just don’t know why that is considered to be a useful solution. What is the benefit in getting people to reach up under the lampshade?
Riocker switch inline or on the base is by far the most common that I see, though more and more “touch” control is becoming more common. As I say, I can’t ever recall seeing that rotating version outside of the States.
I’m an American who grew up with the “clicky wheel” switches or the similarly located stick that you poke switches. Both are annoying because you have to reach under the lampshade and fiddle with something you can’t see. It’s a pretty dumb idea even though cooler light bulbs have solved the heat problem.
The rocker switch inline with the cord is generally worse. The switch for a floor lamp is on the ground. With a table lamp, the cord is often routed behind the table so the switch is both invisible and less accessible than an under-the-lampshade switch. Or, if your outlet is close enough, you can leave enough of the cord on the table to expose the switch but this just highlights the unsightly cord and takes up table space. The best solution is the light switch on the base of the lamp. I usually see these in hotels but not generally in home lamps.
Tired and Cranky speaks the truth. A clearly visible rocker switch at the base of the lamp on a table lamp, or high enough that you don’t have to bend over to reach it on a floor lamp is the best lamp switch type.
Ah.
I have cats. I really don’t want light switches that are easy, or even reasonably possible, for the cats to turn on. I do have one lamp with a touch button on the base; but it’s in a use in which I unplug it whenever not actually using it.
I also don’t like switches inline because I always have to hunt along the line for them.
ETA: It’s actually my theory that that’s why we have doorknobs instead of levers. Cats (and many dogs) could easily use the levers; they can’t get a grip on the doorknobs, though I’ve seen some cats try to. Even when I want to let the cats out, they won’t shut the door behind them.