Tuesday, April 11, 2006

8 Technologies I Hate (in spite of my livelihood depending on them)


The fact that I am an owner of a technology company leads some people to think that I like technology. This is untrue. Here are 8 technologies I hate but am forced to work with on a daily basis.
  1. Wifi
    I don't care what anyone says, wifi simply doesn't work. It craps out constantly. I'm going out this afternoon to buy two 25 foot ethernet cables so I never have to use wifi again.

  2. iPod
    Everyone holds this up as the pinnacle of design, but like Wifi it just doesn't work very well. Adding a song to the playlist is kludgy, and I always play the song now when I intend to play it later. I hate iTunes too, and my iPod doesn't work with subscription music services, which are the only logical way to buy music. (Just to bait the mac users, I'll add that I feel the same way about almost all Apple products.)

  3. Printers/Print Drivers
    Getting something to print at the right size, in the right colors, with the right page orientation is way too difficult. I still get it wrong about half the time. And I don't think I'm the problem -- HP, Microsoft, Adobe, and Sony should be able to sit down and work this out for me.

  4. Email
    Why do people still reply to the whole list instead of just the sender? (I, like all mortals, am occasionally guilty of this.) I hope somebody is working on creating a new email system from the ground up.

  5. Mobile Phones
    Ok, I'm starting to feel like a curmudgeon. I love my phone.

  6. The Internet
    People often ask me for help with the internet. I'm not very good at the internet. It's too complex, and it breaks all the time. The only reason I'm able to use it is because I've memorized a bunch of arbitrary steps.

  7. The Subway Ticket Machine
    Why does BART (the SF subway) hate change so much? After 5 years riding it I haven't figured out how to go into the station with a $20 bill (the only currency that american bank machines distribute) and leave with the one dollar and two quarters required to transfer to the bus.

  8. Electric Lighting
    When the overhead lights in my office are on this grey box near my desk makes a buzzing noise.

    Nobody is still reading this.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i am i am. I hate iTunes, and i hate it when MSWord formats stuff i don't want it to touch. :|

9:51 PM, April 11, 2006  
Blogger Michael Bean said...

I'm in a curmudgeonly mood this morning and this is scratching me right where I itch!

I'm guessing you wrote this from your desk at work after listening to your ipod on BART. You got to the office, turned on your buzzing lights, had trouble connecting to the wifi. After you finally got connected you got a bunch of crap email from some idiots who hit reply all. Then tried to print without success...

I'm out East for work this week and I noticed how much more efficient NYC's MTA is than BART. The biggest advantage is: they take debit cards for amounts under $20. Also you can refill your card. Mass transit in SF is a mess.

5:26 AM, April 12, 2006  
Blogger Nick Douglas said...

In some stations, you can't get from a $5 bill to a ticket. When I discovered this, I was so bewildered I begged the ticket lady for help. She told me to go above ground and get change at a store.

Stupid ticket lady.

11:17 PM, April 18, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ammo for the iPod haters at iDont

4:49 PM, May 23, 2006  

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