Originally published at: Watch: Top 5 most annoying computing things | Boing Boing
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Most annoying thing #1, putting content into a video when it would be better suited as a list in text.
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I’m surprised the Halting Problem didn’t make the list.
Another top annoyance they missed: O(n!) algorithms.
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Folded, stapled, or otherwise mutilated punchcards.
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Websites for brewpubs (or anything alcohol related) that ask for your birthday.
You don’t need to ask so, STOP ASKING!
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I really hope that all five list items are variations on “Watching someone else use a computer”.
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#2, making those videos auto-play.
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The thin scrollbars gripe is baffling. Using scrollbars for scrolling was always bad UX, so now that we have wheel and gesture-based scrolling, Apple demoted scrollbars to serve as a visual indicator only. I can’t imagine what he means by saying this is “less accurate”, unless it is specific to Linux window managers that wouldn’t know UX from a hole in the ground but ape the visual appearance of anything Apple does in cargo-cult fashion.
Micro HDMI seems fine to me but whatever.
Automatic updates are generally good in software that is only updated to improve it (browsers and OSes), and bad in subscription software that exists as an ad for itself (all Adobe products since they pivoted to being dogshit rentiers). The automaticness isn’t the problem.
On cookie popups, though, I agree wholeheartedly. It’s literally something people do in order to indignantly insist the EU requires them to do it which is categorically untrue
Bloated web pages are bad, but I don’t care about the bandwidth so much as websites being so “advanced” that they fail to work as well as a Geocities page from 1995. In particular, The Verge (and other Vox sites) have contrived to make the Back button in my browser not work, with monotonous regularity, for years.
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I have yet to figure it out, but I am convinced that Microsoft intentionally designed their update mechanism such that the more updates which are pending, the more the system misbehaves. Eventually you will restart your computer out of frustration.
There must be some mechanism for it. Maybe libraries with a pending update slowly start failing to load. I dunno. I don’t recall this ever being an issue with Vista (which shares all the guts for updates with later OS’s). It really was Windows 7 that it seemed to start.
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I’ve worked on products that used the very space efficient micro-hdmi port as a system testing / firmware update connector. Convenient, in that we could use bog standard HDMI to micro-hdmi cables to connect from the test/update gear to the product. Less convenient in that we had to keep a generous supply of spare cables on hand as they tended to break after a few days worth of plug / unplug cycling in spite of us treating them gently.
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Ain’t that a funky image…? It’s typically given as a “1954 model of a ‘home computer’ of the year 2004”. With the (typically clipped) caption below but according to snopes that’s not right. The image somehow got lifted by Popular Mechanics and re-purposed as that, but it was originally a mock-up for a submarine control panel; for which the steering wheel (and dials various) makes a lot more sense.
Scientists from RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a “home computer” could look in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
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Were you using plenty of HDMI Insertion Ointment?
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Penny wise, pound foolish. Plenty of budget for more micro HDMI cables, no budget whatsoever for ointment. 
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I’ve heard that it can cause irritation of the sensitive RF membranes, or even full-blown data prolapse
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Don’t forget spindled!
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Rule number 1 of UX: “Other users are not you.” If there are users using and liking scrollbars, then scrollbars should be fully supported and have good interaction design for that purpose.
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