GregHowley.com

More Annoyances

April 30, 2008 -

When I run out of things to write about, I still find that I haven't run out of things to be annoyed at. It's actually kind of sad - I'd actually rather run out of things to be annoyed at.

  • People who spell rogue "rouge" - "I've got a fourteenth level rouge!" - This always makes people come off like idiots, and I've seen it so many times on internet discussion boards.
  • Use of "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun - Unless you're speaking in the plural, don't use the word they.
  • Wireless networking
  • Red Shells
  • Use of the word "my" as a variable prefix in code. - Example: MyDataReader, MyKeyPress. It just annoys me.
  • My freaking garage door - Every morning, when I leave for work, the sun is at just the right angle that it hits the sensor on the garage door opener perfectly, and the door won't close - somehow it thinks that there's something blocking it. So I've got to pull the garage door opener off my visor, get out of my car, and stand between the sun and the garage door sensor until the door finishes closing so that the sensor is in my shadow. Then, as I get back into my car, I'm lucky if I don't accidentally hit the button and re-open the door. Yeah - that's happened.
  • Stupid people
  • Leaking Baby Bottles - Every so often, the lid on a bottle won't be threaded quite right, and when you tip it, milk or juice will leak out everywhere.

Thank you for joining us for this month's installment of annoyances. Be sure to join us again next time.

Comments on More Annoyances
 
Comment Wed, April 30 - 11:30 AM by tagger
I couldn't agree with you more about the first item. I use and tv.com a lot because I like old movies and TV programs. In many cases, reviews and episode information are clearly being posted by teen aged illiterates. Or, by people who write as if they were teen aged illiterates. Programmers and gamers are the worst, followed closely by people with college degrees who think "interface" is a verb (Yuppie-speak).

I admit to flinching when people use "gender" when they mean "sex." "Gender" is a grammatical term, which doesn't apply to English as much as it does to the so-called "romance" languages. The "male female" boxes on forms used to say "sex," but someone seems to have decided that "gender" sounds better. Since Webster has caved, we're stuck with that one as well as with the various nouns-as-verbs vulgarities.

Seems to me you could fabricate a shade for the garage door sensor, or move the sensor, if that's an option.

The baby bottle issue is self-repairing unless, of course, you plan to keep having new kids.
 
Comment Wed, April 30 - 1:43 PM by tagger
A postscript on the garage door problem--If your garage door remote uses an infrared beam and sensor, you'll find that silicone is transparent to infrared and opaque to visible light (the EM spectrum comprises about 80 octaves, of which you can see one).

Seems to me that I recall from my photography days that Polaroid invented a filter back in the 1950s that passes infrared radiation while blocking visible light. You can probably find a cheap one if those in a camera store or on-line.

Sorry to go on so--I'm an engineer--it's genetic--my dad passed the gene to me.
 
Comment Thu, May 1 - 8:09 AM by Brandon
I have a 14th level rouge. It's a very nice color of red, plus it has +4 Concealment. ;)