Minor things that bother you

[texaskdog]

This is my theme for Toastmasters tomorrow

Minor things that bother you or problematic coin designs?

Minor things

[US 89]

Think of the coin edge as one of the original ADA requirements, which allowed blind people to know which coin they were handing, and how to tell the difference between a penny and dime, and nickel and quarter.

If you're talking about the grooves on the edge of any US coins worth more than a nickel, those were added long before the ADA, all the way back before 1800. They were originally intended to prevent people from shaving off the edges of the higher-value coins, with a side benefit of making them harder to counterfeit.

[bulldog1979]

You can easily tell the difference between a quarter and a dollar coin (2000 or later) by feeling the edge.

They also have a noticeably different "ring."

If they stay with the brass color, they will look different even at casual glance.

The gold dollars were designed to be compatible with the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins. The alloy used, although gold/brass in color, has the same electrical resistance value as the older SABs, and the outer diameter is the same. When I worked in a cash office at a Walmart store, our coin counter counted and sorted both types of dollar coins together. It would reject silver coinage, because that has a totally different resistance value from the cupronickel alloys used since 1965. Vending machines can use the same concepts to count the coins inserted as well.

[Scott5114]

Old slot machines that used coins had a pretty clever way of dealing with changing coinage. There was a device on the inside of the door called a comparator that had a slot in it. The game techs would stick whatever sort of coin or token the machine was supposed to accept into the comparator slot and start the game. Then, whenever someone would insert a coin, the machine would check if the electrical resistance matched the coin in the comparator, accepting it if it was the same or kicking it out through the coin return if not. The beauty of this device was that a nickel machine could become a quarter machine just by opening the machine and replacing the nickel in the comparator with a quarter.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Spain uses a phone numbering plan consisting of 9 digits, usually written in the forms xxx xx xx xx or xxx xxx xxx. Until 1998, the area code wasn't required if calling within the same province. However, some provinces (namely Madrid, Barcelona, Biscay and Valencia at first, later on also Seville, Malaga, Alicante and Asturias) have two digit area codes and seven digit subscriber numbers rather than the usual 3-6 pattern used elsewhere as they are more populated and thus needed more numbers. What gets me out of whack, is how phone numbers in those provinces are written: 91 xxx xx xx, which doesn't fit the usual patters. It's too hard to put the first digit of the subscriber number together with the area code (i.e. 91x xx xx xx) and thus fit the pattern used in other provinces? This only affects landlines, as cellphones use a different range of numbers which is, unlike what happens in North America, entirely independent of geography.

[1995hoo]

.... This only affects landlines, as cellphones use a different range of numbers which is, unlike what happens in North America, entirely independent of geography.

The geography here means a lot less than it used to. The area code is theoretically assigned based on geography, but it's presumably based on where that phone number was first issued because you can keep a mobile number when you get a new phone, even if you're in a different part of the country. You see a lot of younger people whose phone numbers don't match where they live. Thankfully, almost nobody pays for long-distance calls anymore, so this is less of a problem than it would have been 20 years ago. (Of course, to some degree VOIP numbers are similar, so it's not just mobile phones. I think Vonage and Google Voice will issue you a phone number in another area code if you want one.)

[MNHighwayMan]

The geography here means a lot less than it used to. The area code is theoretically assigned based on geography, but it's presumably based on where that phone number was first issued because you can keep a mobile number when you get a new phone, even if you're in a different part of the country. You see a lot of younger people whose phone numbers don't match where they live.

True for me. It also is great for filtering out robocalls/spam calls, since they match my area code and no random number (i.e. one not in my contacts) is worth my time answering from that area code anymore.

[roadman]

.... This only affects landlines, as cellphones use a different range of numbers which is, unlike what happens in North America, entirely independent of geography.

The geography here means a lot less than it used to. The area code is theoretically assigned based on geography, but it’s presumably based on where that phone number was first issued because you can keep a mobile number when you get a new phone, even if you’re in a different part of the country. You see a lot of younger people whose phone numbers don’t match where they live. Thankfully, almost nobody pays for long-distance calls anymore, so this is less of a problem than it would have been 20 years ago. (Of course, to some degree VOIP numbers are similar, so it’s not just mobile phones. I think Vonage and Google Voice will issue you a phone number in another area code if you want one.)

Old slot machines that used coins had a pretty clever way of dealing with changing coinage. There was a device on the inside of the door called a comparator that had a slot in it. The game techs would stick whatever sort of coin or token the machine was supposed to accept into the comparator slot and start the game. Then, whenever someone would insert a coin, the machine would check if the electrical resistance matched the coin in the comparator, accepting it if it was the same or kicking it out through the coin return if not. The beauty of this device was that a nickel machine could become a quarter machine just by opening the machine and replacing the nickel in the comparator with a quarter.

Some old subway turnstiles used the coin or token to physically complete an electrical circuit, allowing the patron to then open the turnstile.

[ozarkman417]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

[texaskdog]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

[jeffandnicole]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

[roadman]

The basic problem with media weather forecasting is that they broadcast their predictions for a given day too far in advance (like announcing next weekend's weather on Monday morning), and tend to emphasize the worst case scenario when they do.

[kphoger]

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

...or meteors.

[DaBigE]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

Taco Bell can be controlled. Weather is far from controlled (unless you're part of the tinfoil hat/chemtrails club), and can still throw a curveball at the last minute. Based on your logic, we should be bitching more about traffic forecasters being wrong. They're also college-educated and using computer models to do their work. Get one developer to change, and the whole thing blows up.

[jeffandnicole]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

...Weather is far from controlled (unless you're part of the tinfoil hat/chemtrails club), and can still throw a curveball at the last minute. ...

Often times, they're not curve balls.  They're predictable results.  When weather forecasts have called for 1 - 3 inches of snow with a low of 35 degrees, something ain't gonna be correct.  That's occurred a few times this year for Philly's forecast.  If it snows heavy enough you can get a little accumulation at that temperature, but when the 1 - 3 inches is supposed to occur above freezing over several hours, it's not going to happen.

[DaBigE]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

...Weather is far from controlled (unless you're part of the tinfoil hat/chemtrails club), and can still throw a curveball at the last minute. ...

Often times, they're not curve balls.  They're predictable results.  When weather forecasts have called for 1 - 3 inches of snow with a low of 35 degrees, something ain't gonna be correct.  That's occurred a few times this year for Philly's forecast.  If it snows heavy enough you can get a little accumulation at that temperature, but when the 1 - 3 inches is supposed to occur above freezing over several hours, it's not going to happen.

I see your point there. I thought you were referring more to large snow predictions that don't pan out because the system shifted onto a slightly different track or because the upper level temps didn't drop far enough fast enough to produce more snow. I also recall a couple days around here when they predicted huge severe weather outbreaks that ultimately didn't occur because the atmosphere remained capped and didn't allow any large storms to develop.

[texaskdog]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

Yeah you can't predict everything, but you don't need an advanced degree to get that accuracy rating.  Like when the football shows talk about their percent of correct picks and only hit 50%, well you can flip a coin and get that.

[hotdogPi]

30% chances should happen 30% of the time.

Here's something to do: Every time a forecaster predicts a 30% chance (or a 70% chance, which is a 30% chance of not happening), note it and see if it happens. Over a large enough sample, it should be somewhat close to 30%. You can also choose 20%/80% or 25%/75% if you want.

I don't know how close they actually are, but I would imagine them to be somewhat in the ballpark.

[kphoger]

30% chances should happen 30% of the time.

With a caveat.

The probability of precipitation (PoP) is actually the product of...

(confidence that precipitation of at least 0.01 inch will occur somewhere in the forecast area)
x
(percent of the forecast area that will receive measurable precipitation, if it occurs at all)

For example, if a meteorologist is 80% sure that your city will get rain, but only three-quarters of your city is supposed to get that rain, then the forecast for your city will be a 60% chance.  Just because your neighborhood didn't receive any rain at all, that doesn't mean the meteorologist was wrong.

Here's something to do: Every time a forecaster predicts a 30% chance (or a 70% chance, which is a 30% chance of not happening), note it and see if it happens. Over a large enough sample, it should be somewhat close to 30%. You can also choose 20%/80% or 25%/75% if you want.

This would only possible if you knew both numbers in the formula above, plus how much precipitation was recorded at all points within the forecast area.

[sparker]

People who leave shopping carts right in an open parking space rather than at least move it to an unobtrusive area where it isn't blocking a space or passage.  Adjunct complaint:  major stores who scrimp on the number of cart "corrals" -- often resulting in incidents of my first complaint. 

[kphoger]

People who leave shopping carts right in an open parking space rather than at least move it to an unobtrusive area where it isn't blocking a space or passage.

As long as I haven't personally witnessed the person leaving the cart there, I like to think he or she must have trouble walking.  That makes it irritate me less.  Probably not true most of the time, but it works for me.  Of course, I can't do that if I see a perfectly able-bodied but apparently lazy individual leave the cart the middle of the lot, but usually I just notice ones that were previously left there, so I can pretend.

[wxfree]

Dollars million

People write "$43 million" to say "$43,000,000."  That can make sense for larger numbers, due to numerical illiteracy (innumeracy?), but that reads to me as "forty three dollars million."  I've written it in this format: "43 million dollars," but that looks wrong, too.

This makes me think of the Beverly Hillbillies, who were paid in a new kind of dollar.  They knew of silver dollars and paper dollars, but had never heard of million dollars.  To me, an elegant solution is to modify the symbol, writing "[million dollar symbol]43."  Put a small letter M somewhere around the $, and make another one for billions, and for trillions for when we talk about government debt.  I doubt if that would be a popular solution, since no one else seems to mind reading about dollars million.

A less elegant solution would be "43 $million," which would read "forty three million dollars" to me.  But that would confuse people more than either the current way or writing out the full number.

[texaskdog]

People who leave shopping carts right in an open parking space rather than at least move it to an unobtrusive area where it isn't blocking a space or passage.  Adjunct complaint:  major stores who scrimp on the number of cart "corrals" -- often resulting in incidents of my first complaint. 

Yes, lazy asses who can't be troubled to walk it to the corral. 

[1995hoo]

People who leave shopping carts right in an open parking space rather than at least move it to an unobtrusive area where it isn't blocking a space or passage.  Adjunct complaint:  major stores who scrimp on the number of cart "corrals" -- often resulting in incidents of my first complaint. 

I do not consider this to be a "minor thing"! I regard it as a mega-annoyance, especially at the shopping center nearest to our house where they don't have ANY cart return corrals.

[Rothman]

NOAA: "winter storm coming to the Springfield area"
Me: "Good, I can use the snow day to catch up on some work"
it doesn't snow
Me the next morning: 

The fact that we've gone from weathermen to meteorologists...AND WITH THEIR DEGREES THEY ARE NO BETTER AT PREDICTING THE WEATHER

I often complain about the weather forecasts, and get nothing but brushback.  "Oh, they tried their best"..."It's just a prediction"..."You can't control the weather"...etc.  Yes, all of that is true, but at the same time that is their job...to predict the weather.  Time and money ride on their predictions. 

There's many people out there that'll throw chairs at the 17 year old who didn't put enough meat in their taco at Taco Bell, yet will tell everyone that their favorite, college educated meteorologist, tries hard to put together a good forecast that was woefully incorrect.  And then bitch that the school district shouldn't have closed schools because it didn't snow, even though their favorite meteorologist said it would.  Misguided blame is preventing weather forecasts from improving.

Based on your logic, we should be bitching more about traffic forecasters being wrong.

That would be his point, yes.