Well, I just verified that there is indeed a detent in the off position.
Nevertheless, I stand by my assessment. With formal training in “lefty loosy, righty tighty” as a Navy nuke steam plant operator, valve behavior is so ingrained in my head that these go against the grain. No valve should increase flow before it shuts.
But that’s just my opinion, and I will happily stay away from the stove.
Naw, you’re right, it would be better to standardize this along with all the other valves in history, but I think the design issue here is the lack of a pilot light and the need to ignite very quickly, lest logic-addled housewives and househusbands think something is wrong and start to fiddle with the natural gas system. So the bad design is probably a good design given the limitations of, and lack of training for, the creatures using it.
However, this is a good time to note: With the purchase and restoration of the annex across the street, the Museum has been thinking of adding a lecture series about debatable cases such as this. Seems as if there would be some interest!
Oh, I know that one! Is it not the metal tea pot where the handle gets boiling hot, because it is too short and close to the body of the teapot and metal is an excellent heat conductor? You pour the tea all over the place and get blisters on both sides of your fingers.
Then there are the napkins made of non-absorbing glossy paper. Every Spanish bar has them and they are no good at all.
Back in the dark ages, I spent a regrettable summer as a cashier for the now defunct Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. This was way back when you had to do things like type in the cost of each item. We did have the modern convenience of the conveyor belt, though. To activate the belt, one would step on the conveyor belt pedal. Lift your foot, and the belt stops. We foolishly thought this was pretty good.
Now, stores are equipped with automated belts that utilize a Magic Eye rather than the ridiculous foot pedal. In this way, when the groceries are far away and the cashier wants the belt to move, they reach over to the on/off switch next to the belt. Then, when the groceries are close to them, they reach over and turn the switch off.
The battery is under the driver’s seat…under the floorboards. Accessing it was such a convoluted process, not to mention a complete pain in the ass, that I took it to the dealership to have it done. It took them over an hour.
Anyone remember the software code sheets that were printed in dark red ink on slightly lighter red paper? I’m sure the red on red was to make it difficult to photocopy. It also made it a lot more difficult to read in anything but bright, bright light.
On mine, it’s true that you have too turn it all the way up to light it, but you can turn it off by turning it all the way down.
How about the (very common) Drop-Down List - as presented when you have to enter the US state as part of your address? The display has room for about 8 state names.
You can avoid scrolling through the full list by entering the first letter of your state. But then the display typically shows the 7 names that precede those of interest, followed by the first one that starts with that letter.
So (for example) if you live in Minnesota, you enter ‘M’ - a fairly clear indication that your state name begins with that letter. What you’d like to see is this list:
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
But what you usually get is this:
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Mine were green. Never saw a red one.
And not just mercury-laced, but until recently, beryllium-laced as well.
The pitch must have been successful (or else someone stole their idea) because you can now buy these and I have two in my car. It’s kind of a kludge but they do work reasonably well.
As someone who lives in Minnesota, they are almost always set up to step through the states every time you hit the initial letter so I’ve gotten pretty good at whanging the M key 5 times and then tabbing to the next field.
I had a couple games with the red-on-red code sheets. Another annoying copy-protection feature were the games where you had to look up and enter the word on page X, line Y, word Z from the manual.
Speaking of stoves, another thing that I always thought was a bad design is the way the controls for many are across the back, next to the wall. Makes sense from a manufacturing standpoint, since the connections for power and gas hook up to the back, but it forces the user to reach over hot pots and pans to operate them.
Good to know. I live in Florida, which is the only state that starts with “F”, but every once in awhile they’ll have “Federated States of Micronesia” in these drop-down lists that I end up landing on instead.
Steve Jobs and Johnny Ives are rightly renowned for the excellent design of a great many Apple products, but they’re also responsible for the hockey puck mouse of the original iMac. It’s difficult to overstate just how atrocious a design the puck mouse was. It was ergonomically awful. It was just flat uncomfortable to use for more than 5 seconds. And worse, it would inevitably end up at an angle in your hand, which you wouldn’t realize because there was no tactile difference between holding it straight and holding it crooked, and then your mouse pointer would move wonky.
How about dedicated function buttons on devices that are not meant for usability but instead meant to push a product onto the user. The Samsung Bixby Button for example. I remember a computer keyboard that I had with a physical America Online button. The Bixby Button is one of the worst because it is easily pressed accidentally.
Same with the Audi Q7. The battery is a different shape, weighs a ton, and costs a ton.
Our new washer has a locking lid. Fine, you don’t want me lifting it during the spin cycle. (The old one turned off the spin and slowed things down fairly quickly. But apparently not fast enough.)
But it’s locked all the time. Can’t easily throw something in or check on something even during a drain or fill cycle.
And heaven help you if the thing is out of balance and you want to shut it off NOW! Before I just raised the lid, waited two seconds, pushed things around, lowered the lid. Now I have to press and hold the so-called “pause” button. And wait and wait while the machine is trying to tear itself apart. Then when I finally have things balanced, pushing the pause/start button starts the entire wash cycle over from the beginning! To avoid that you have to figure out where it was, set the machine to a suitable start point, then restart. And of course remember later to put the dial back to the normal starting point before the next load (which is not a 100% guarantee).
The Hardball II code wheel can be seen here… the game would ask you how many doubles Willie Jackson hit in 1972 or whatever.
Yep, Zakk McKracken had copy protection like that, and yes it made it pretty much impossible to photocopy.
I have a current one that just hit me today. I was trying mail.com as an alternative for my comcast email. Here are the issues with logging in:
Well, it’s free after all, so I get what I pay for.
