this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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For example, I'm incredibly confused about how you're supposedly to measure liquid laundry detergent with the cap. At least the kind that I have sits on it's side, so if you measure it with the cap it just leaks everywhere and makes a mess.

Or at my parents house they have a bag of captain crunch berries that has a new design, where instead of zipping along the top of the bag like normal, it has a zipper in the front slightly beneath the top. That way when you poor it you can't see what you're doing cuz the bag is in the way. Like what the heck who's idea was that?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I have a truck where the oil drain plug is directly over the axle. I have to strap an offset funnel under the drain to get it to not splash all over the fuck, and of course, it's not easy to get that stay put so inevitably I have oil everywhere. Same truck has the oil filter tucked up where I need a special oil filter wrench with a ratchet and extensions to remove it, and when you pull the filter out, you have to tip it so it spills the oil inside everywhere.

I had an idea a long time ago of a website where you can crowdfund a private investigator to find engineers that do shit like this, and a crew to go over to their house and beat them halfway to death.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I learned long ago when something like this bothers me that it is irrational to get angry at objects, then I connected I am not angry at the object, I am angry at the dumb ass turd who designed it.

btw, I drill a hole in my oil filter before I remove it to drain it so it doesn't spill all over the front of my engine.

Maybe all engineers should have to sign their work. Like have their license number or something embossed on it. That way we can find them and inform them of their idiocy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

I will often drive a screwdriver into the bottom a filter, but this one is impossible to get to and even if I did, it would dribble on the exhaust pipe.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (3 children)

US can openers. In other countries, they cut the sides of the can not the top, so the lid has no chance of falling in while dulling the edges. It also allows them to be much smaller and easier to use.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/how-to-use-a-can-opener

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

You can buy good can openers and bad ones in any country.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

I bought this can opener after watching a Technology Connections video, and I kinda love my can opener.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Came here to say can opener too. Not for the same reason as you mentioned just that more often than not a can opener is just plain shoddy. Slips, doesn’t fully cut, hard to grip, etc….

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago

Alec from Technology Connections is known for his extensive rants about household appliances: https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections

As for me, I'm just trying to avoid things in general, and things I don't enjoy in particular. Perhaps the only things that I find annoying at my home are:

  • An awful flow-through gas water heater, which requires me to wait for like a minute before water gets up to temperature every time I need hot water (I'd go with an electric one myself, but unfortunately I'm a renter for now). It's also a poor design because it's going to fuck over humanity in a couple decades via climate change.
  • Packaging on almost all processed food. I don't need everything I buy to be in a plastic bag. It's an incredibly poor design because it is almost always non-recyleable, either because it has a thin foil layer or it's a mix of plastics or both, filling the landfills forever and contaminating everything with microplastics.
  • Poor window frame design, combined with inevitable building settling, has resulted in a cracked window twice within the last year.

I have many more gripes about things, some of the most prominent:

  • Most modern smartphones just suck. Gimme back the headphone jack, an SD card slot, and a back that I can open with my fingernails! (thankfully my current phone has all of those despite being only a couple years old and very cheap)
  • Generally everything that has a battery which I can't replace
  • Bluetooth headphones without a headphone jack or at least audio-over-USB are an awful design, it would cost the manufacturer like a dollar do add that functionality that can come in really handy and yet they don't
  • Fuck clothes without pockets!
  • Cheap plastic crap from wish.com or similar that's designed to fail after one use, it just shouldn't exist. I hope CPC bans this shit soon. (although I find it fun to pull out broken christmas lights from recycling, fix them and then get free christmas lights for every New Year's)
  • "Teflon" or similar frying pans. Just get a cast iron one. Lasts forever, doesn't poison you, also allegedly enriches your food with iron
[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

There are many, but my current bugbear is the wireless Apple mouse. It has a built in rechargeable battery and and a tiny little port for you to plug the recharging cable in. The port is mounted on the bottom of the mouse rendering it useless while it's being charged. I guess it's to make it look nicer but it's so stupid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Planned obsolescence. When the battery finally dies, you can't use it wired.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

That was a design decision by Steve Jobs to keep people from using them as wired mice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

If this is true what a dumb reason. Basically decided to make a device that could be used 100% of the time unusable for some fraction of time just because it looks the way he wanted it too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

It's like that to push you to buy two of them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 hours ago

cups, glasses, bowls, anything that doesn't have a spout and makes a mess every time you transfer liquids

Every time I spill something I'm reminded how much better lab glassware is (beakers etc)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

Garlic crushers. All of them suck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

I've found one that seems to suck less. It is at least sensibly designed, easy to clean, and hefty enough where I'm not going to break it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WHLDMNX

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

Buy jarlick. Join us in convenient garlic-in-a-jar nirvana.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Keep looking. Find one with a thick stainless steel construction. I have two that you could break a window with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

I switched to using a microplane (or similar super fine grater) for garlic a few years back, it's far easier to clean and I like it for ginger, nutmeg, hard cheeses etc.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

When I was a kid cereal didn't have no zippas! We rolled up the one end of the bag and watched it partially unfurl when we let go, and we were satisfied with that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Roll the bag. Flip the box upside down. Put it in going up. Hold it in place and flip the box back over. Gravity holds the bag closed. This is a bad idea if anyone else accesses the box and isn't on the same page as you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I just fold it up and use a clothes peg ha ha

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Y'know, I bought a bag of bag clips from Ikea years ago and I'm only now realising that they're less suited to the job than a clothes peg. Smart.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

How do you hold closed the bag that holds the bag clips?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Stupid question. With a bag clip bag bag clip, obviously.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

The gravity-assisted bag roll is a staple for me. Cereal, bread, veggies, anything too big for a bag clip.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Laptops with no intake dust filters.

Actually, no, any computer with fans that doesn't have a dust filter is a terrible design.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

My laptop doesn't have dust filters, but the fan almost never runs anyway. Like the heatsink is way overbuilt for the CPU it's attached to. It's actually quite nice. I've never seen it hit 70 degrees. I've cleaned it maybe three times since 2016. It really only spins the fan up when I'm watching 60 fps YouTube videos or playing games. And even then, it kicks hard for a very short time and shuts off again.

And again, I bought this thing nine years ago. It's just a little Acer. And it's not even a nice one. I paid like 500 bucks for this thing.

Now, my wife's MacBook that she games on....yeah, I need to figure out how to get the back off so it can get a proper dusting. Fuck you, Apple. Let me work on my stuff, dammit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

A twelve year old computer in 2013 would have been utterly useless. Doesn't matter how good is was in 2001 it would die under even a modest 2013 workload. But a decent computer from 2013 is still useful today. Not for triple-A gaming, VR, or 8K video editing, but still a decent productivity and media machine. I just bought my first handheld gaming PC and I made sure it had eGPU support since that's the likely bottleneck in the future (i7 and 32GB RAM, so that should be good for a long while) and I fully intend to get a decade out of it. There's no real appetite to upgrade your machine regularly any more, and the manufacturers hate that.

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