I made that mistake in a rental car once. My regular car at the time had auto headlights, so when I picked up my rental after dark, started it up, and saw the instruments illuminated and the daytime running lights illuminating the pavement in front of me, I assumed it must have automatic headlights, too. So I drove off, and on the well lit roads around the airport I could see just fine. Then I got onto the highway and realized I couldn’t see worth a damn. So I tried to turn on the high beams, and they just flashed but didn’t stay on. And then I realized what the problem was.
I don’t think so. I have a setting for permanent press. And if I use the regular DRY the clothes are dry, never damp. 
The iMac hias been mentioned a couple of times above. Thanksfully I haven’t even seen one in the flesh since the early naughts, but I remember having to work on one for a year or two at work. The thing that killed me was the reset button that was located inside the case. Literally. If the machine froze up and you had to force restart, you had to unbend a paperclip then stick it through a pinhole in the side of the case (which had maybe heated up enough to fry an egg by then). Someone with a degree in computer engineering designed this and it made its way through to the consumer. That’s baffled me for years.
My understanding on DRY vs VERY DRY is that there are temperature and humidity sensors which the machine uses to judge doneness (sort of like how a rice cooker uses the boiling-water ceiling to deactivate itself). Very Dry is hotter than Dry, and that heat can damage elastic, among other things. If you’re drying a lot of underwear with the waistbands, you may prefer to avoid Very Dry. But t-shirts and other less-fragile garments would be fine.
I’m sure that I’ve heard Jeremy Carlson hazing James May for not spending enough time fiddling with his headlights like a real man.
I don’t recall in my time in Florida that anything ever got any drier than “somewhat damp”.
This is far from the stupidest product design, but it’s still stupid: manufacturers who put their liquid product into an opaque container or fully cover the container with a label that makes it impossible to see how much of the liquid is left. I understand practical considerations about the type of packaging material used; as I understand it, the opaque HDPE that is typically used for detergents is impact-resistant, light-sensitive liquids are generally packaged in dark glass, etc. However, it’s really to the manufacturer’s benefit to let me see how much product is left in the bottle so I’ll go out and buy more! (Looking at you, the empty Jet-Dry bottle with the full-wrap label.)
*Clarkson
With my 2010 Dodge this is standard. Surprised it’s not industry standard. I have to say that truck’s user interface is by far the best I’ve encountered in terms of ease of use and user controlled features (like not having the horn honk when you lock the fucking truck).
Here’s a new entry that I just happened upon. We bought a new printer/scanner, a Canon MB5420. I just finished setting it up, and the paper trays will not close all the way if there is paper in them. The drawer sticks out about two inches. I looked it up, and yes, it’s by design.
So we can either leave the paper in the tray, and have it open all the time so that dust gets in there. Or, we load the paper in each and every time we need to print something, and remove it when we’re done.
I read a few reviews before choosing this printer, and none of them mentioned this. I would’ve picked a different make and/or model had I known.
My car is something like 16 years old now, and it still has that feature. I don’t think I even know how to de-auto the headlights. Good design.
I think that rain usually triggers the sensor, too (however it works).
I can’t remember all of the details now, but I was in a rental car once (not as the driver) where the instrument panel was OPPOSITE to the headlights: The panel lights would only come on when the headlights were off, and vice-versa. Sure hope you don’t need to see how fast you’re going at night!
I’ve experienced that where it was a backlighting issue. During the day when headlights are off (obviously) the backlight is bright so the display is visible in the sun. At night when the headlights are on (obviously) the backlight dims so it isn’t blinding.
Turning the headlights on in the day means the backlight dims, and is not visible.
I think my old VW had the LCD displays like that. If the headlights were on in bright sun, the radio and clock displays were invisible. I might be thinking of another car, though.
My fridge has some controls like that but they require a long press to activate. So, brushing against them makes the fridge beep that something has been pressed but nothing happens unless you keep pressing it for a few seconds. Since you rarely ever change those settings pressing and waiting for three seconds to make something happen is fine.
No. Every time you bring your car into the shop for anything, they turn it off. And you get to discover this the first time you drive after dark after that appointment and your headlights haven’t come on. Happens everywhere I take my car: the dealership, VIP, Town Faire Tires…
My last Hyundai has a pillar next to the windshield that blocked the view of the left lane if you were on a curve. Very disconcerting when a car came out of nowhere. It must have been a common problem, since I saw an article about someone who came up with a system to put a camera and screen on the pillar to show what was being blocked.
My new Hyundai has changed the location of the pillar slightly, so it’s no longer a problem.
Yes, this! And it happens at the car wash too!
My wireless headset can store the dongle in the one earpiece. After taking the headset to the hospital when my wife was in there for a week, I spent 20 minutes searching my bag for the dongle, thinking I’d lost it! Not the product’s fault, tho.
The wireless mouse I use on my laptop has a socket in the bottom for holding the dongle and, knowing it was there, I found it easily the first time. Unfortunately when I pushed it back in, something went, ‘crick,’ and socket no longer has a friction fit – you turn the mouse right side up, the dongle falls out. Therefore it has taken permanent residence in a USB port on the computer.
I have a wireless mouse with a socket in the bottom, inside the battery compartment. Which is fine, I suppose, but it is also friction fit, and with the battery in there, I can’t get the thing out. So every time I want to set it up I have to take the battery out first.
My husband’s tractor wouldn’t start last weekend. He was upset, thinking he’d have to replace the starter (about $600). However, thanks to Youtube, he found out that a temperature monitor could be the source of the issue, because if it was bad it would cause a fuse to blow, causing the starter to fail. And yep, that was it! The temperature monitor was a lot cheaper to replace, too. Seems to me it was a bad idea to have that fuse affect the starter, since the tractor can be used without the temperature monitor, as long as you can MAKE THE DAMN THING GO.