Weekend Open Forum: What really grinds your gears?

[Shawn Knight]

Some things in life just really tick me off, rub me the wrong way or make me cringe. You know, pet peeves. Personal examples include people popping bubble wrap, barking dogs while I'm trying to be productive, the widespread misuse of apostrophes and touching paper after a shower (yeah, don't ask).

With this week's open forum, we're interested in hearing about what grinds your gears. Do fingernails on a chalk board drive you mad? Or maybe it's people that use the word "like" way too often in a conversation. Whatever it is, sound off in the comments section below!

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57827-weekend-open-forum-what-really-grinds-your-gears.html

 

[veLa]

Posers, conformists, phonies, hotshots, and greek life.

 

[Alpha Gamer]

Icons instead of words

 

[SNGX1275]

greek life.

Heh. My nick comes from my fraternity, chapter, and initiation number. Some fraternities suck, some schools have a bad greek system. There are plenty of others that are complete opposite of every stereotypical thing you see and give a lot back to the community. Mine was one of those and my school (Univ of MO-Rolla then, now Missouri University of Science and Technology) was one with a really strong greek system that does a lot for the community. We also were rated the #3 engineering school in the nation, above MIT, in a recent USA Today report.

What grinds my gears are people that talk about things like they know them and don't This doesn't just apply to the above though, in general people thinking or pretending they are experts on something without really having some credentials to back it up.

 

[Guest]

One+ One marketing scheme

 

[dividebyzero]

What grinds my gears are people that talk about things like they know them and don't This doesn't just apply to the above though, in general people thinking or pretending they are experts on something without really having some credentials to back it up.

This.
I'd add:
People who think the entire computing industry should conform to their own personal desires and usage profile.

 

[Guest]

The tendency of some people to hate everything related to Apple, just because it's "cool" to do so in certain environments. And one great example it this very website.
The constant bickering will do nothing to chnage the fact that Apple is a wildly successful company, and does appel to an enormous portion of the general public. But many people on tech sites have difficulty understanding points that do not revolve around big spec numbers (ie. "it has a dual-core processor, so it must be slow" despite the fact it's faster than the quad-core Snapdragon 600 used back when it was released, or "it has an 8 MP camera, my Android has 16 MP" despite the fact Apple uses a sensor just as large as Android flagships, only with higher sensor sizes instead), as well as the fact that the general public doesn't care for "power features".
And most ironic of all is the use of the term "iSheep", disregarding the fact that these people are doing the exact same as said iSheep, only on the opposite direction. That behavior is just as senseless and annoying as being an Apple fanatic.

 

[Experimentongod]

What really grinds my gears is that people make too much NOISE everywhere: neighbors upstairs moving furniture all the time (?), kids playing soccer kicking the ball really hard (next to my window), annoying coworkers hitting the tables for no apparent reason and laughing really loud... the list goes on.

 

[SNGX1275]

What really grinds my gears is that people make too much NOISE everywhere: neighbors upstairs moving furniture all the time (?), kids playing soccer kicking the ball really hard (next to my window), annoying coworkers hitting the tables for no apparent reason and laughing really loud... the list goes on.

Oh man. I live in a 4-plex apt. I got lucky and above me was vacant for over a year, now 4 college guys live up there (2 bedroom apt). Luckily they aren't as bad as you would expect. However, the ground floor neighbor has 2 young kids that are the worst kids I have ever been around, and the parenting is just as bad. They don't conform to regular hours. I think the sleep 3x a day for about 2 hours each, the rest of the time is hell. Screaming that goes on for 15 minutes at a time, apparent superhuman strength by toddlers (sounds like they are lifting and dropping couches frequently). No sense of the small common entrance area being an area where you should be in and out of quickly and quietly. Kids that have no sense of boundaries or property (if I'm outside working on my car or bike the kids are in my face all the time and playing with whatever I have out there (spinning bike wheels if I have it upside down working on something)). UGH.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Icons instead of words

Seriously? I can look for a copy Microsoft Dos 3.0 if you wanna go back to that.

If the icon has you guessing what the hell it's for then it's a poorly designed icon. I would agree with you then. But in general I think pictures (can be) worth a thousand words.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

What grinds my gears are people that talk about things like they know them and don't This doesn't just apply to the above though, in general people thinking or pretending they are experts on something without really having some credentials to back it up.

This.
I'd add:
People who think the entire computing industry should conform to their own personal desires and usage profile.

Sounds like your a Windows 8 lover but you are ashamed to admit it? Hard to know the context of your statement. The computing industry should conform to their target audience. You can't make money by pissing off your target audience. So it's in the best interest of the computing industry to bow to the request/demands of their customers.

 

[at0mic_Mike]

People too into their cell phones. the ***** boxes of the 21st century

 

[tipstir]

31 traces daily of Online Pest like "-ad.doubleclick.net-" (aka "-.google.com/doubleclick-")

 

[Railman]

My next door neighbour cutting his lawn with a very noisy ineffective electric lawnmower. He only has a small lawn but it takes him an age to cut it! He is a total sh!t as well.

 

[ArdvarkMaster]

What grinds my gears is the iSheep not understanding I don't like Apple products for my own unique reasons. It is my personal preference. I don't need to purchase any product, let alone an iProduct, as a fashion accessory. I purchase them for my personal reasons. Quit pouring your personal iBaggage into why I don't buy Apple. I don't give an iCrap that you overspend on your products, stop assuming I am consumed with your decision to follow the iHerd. Buy whatever iBaubble you want, but stop demanding I be interested in it.

 

[TomSEA]

People who text while driving. 'nuff said.

 

[davislane1]

You know what really grinds my gears? People who want to know what grinds my gears, when they don't even really care in the first place. That's right: You people sit at your workstations, all high and mighty, playing compassionate, acting like you actually give a damn what we feel, while shamelessly ripping off Family Guy to compensate for your own lack of creativity. You know people are pissed off about something – As First Worlders, it's part of our culture. And you exploit that reality for hits, without even so much as a 'thank you.' Furthermore, even if you did care, what the hell do you think you're going to do about it? Are you going to change the world so I can have a better day? Are you going to go out of your way to make me feel just a little bit better about my petty quibbles? I didn't think so.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what grinds my gears.

Back to you, Tom.

 

[KupKaa]

What drives me nuts is the rate at which new products come out, making the existing ones look old or obsolete. Why can't we all just have a global 'New Products Release Summer' every 4 years or so, so we can get on with our lives for a while and then take a summer easy to pause and refresh and upgrade to what we need at that time and then get on with our lives again. I know I can do this even now - there's no reason I shouldn't wait 4 years, but them new products in my face every single day is just PLAIN MADDENING I TELL YA!

 

[dividebyzero]

People who think the entire computing industry should conform to their own personal desires and usage profile.

Sounds like your a Windows 8 lover but you are ashamed to admit it? Hard to know the context of your statement.

Really? I would have thought that the word "personal" would have been a dead giveaway?
Hypothetical case:
"I WANT a budget Core i3 with unlocked multiplier and a TDP to fully utilize it - therefore Intel need to make it - it should also have 16 cores 'cos I NEED CORES because [uses single threaded application as example]"

The computing industry should conform to their target audience

I'm talking about individual posters, you're talking about a group. Group individual posters and you may have a broad base for consensus, but the individual requirements wont be identical.
I'd also add that many of these wish lists and personal must haves don't actually conform in any way to real life/real world economics or technology development.

Sounds like your a Windows 8 lover but you are ashamed to admit it?

Something else that I should have added to my list of peeves - people who ascribe motivation based upon little or no actual evidence.

And for the record, OS usage/distain/acceptance/whatever is largely a subjective affair when the software functions as intended. Whatever my experience is, I recognise it as personal to my usage and don't spend a whole lot of time trying to convince others that my subjective experience warrants more attention than someone else's subjective experience.....as for Win8...New build and MS offered me W8 Pro for $39.99. Count me in. Thanks for taking the time to check out my system specs before beginning the baiting- I'm sure the site owners appreciate the extra page clicks.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

The fact that most electronic devices are non repairable by design.

 

[cliffordcooley]

The fact that most electronic devices are non repairable by design.

OK, now you are stepping on what grinds my gears. The thought that we create products that continuously need repairing is only a marketing concept by design.

 

[Rippleman]

What grinds my gears is the iSheep not understanding I don't like Apple products for my own unique reasons. It is my personal preference. I don't need to purchase any product, let alone an iProduct, as a fashion accessory. I purchase them for my personal reasons. Quit pouring your personal iBaggage into why I don't buy Apple. I don't give an iCrap that you overspend on your products, stop assuming I am consumed with your decision to follow the iHerd. Buy whatever iBaubble you want, but stop demanding I be interested in it.

little known fact... no one cares...

 

[Guest]

Stupid people who think they are clever.

 

[Guest]

What grinds my gears is the iSheep not understanding I don't like Apple products for my own unique reasons. It is my personal preference.

There is nothing wrong with your personal preference. What's wrong is the slew of unbased Apple insults that came right after that.

I don't give an iCrap that you overspend on your products

Apple phones cost the same as Android flagships. So, in other words, you're saying "you spend your money wrong, Android is the only right way to spend your money". Or, even more accurately, "stop liking what I don't like".
It's a shame, though. You'll be a much less unpleasant and arrogant forum user the day you begin to understand that people don't want to pay just for big (and mostly pointless) spec numbers. Apple offers higher build quality, a more user-friendly OS (Android is miles behind iOS and Windows Phone in that aspect), a more controlled environment (which, for normal people who are not "power users", is a good thing) and the status associated with the brand (the simple fact you think that is not important shows a complete lack of understanding of human nature). It's a perfectly valid approach.
Android, on the other hand, comes in larger variety, more price ranges, with better specs and much higher versatility (and, by consequence, complexity). If you want that, that's completely fine. But that does NOT mean it's the only approach that has value, it does NOT warrant all the pointless criticism Apple get from people like you and many others on this site.
Again, reading comments like yours is exactly as annoying as seeing people fervorously supporting everything Apple does and waiting in line to get the new model on day one. You're not any better than the "iSheep" you love to criticize.

 

[Darkshadoe]

The tendency of some people to hate everything related to Apple, just because it's "cool" to do so in certain environments.

On the the other side of that coin, there are people that BUY Apple products because it is "cool" and "trendy" to do so. *****s that will pay 2.5 to 3 times the cost of some product just because it says APPLE on it.