Minor things that bother you

[webny99]

Chicken wings.  There isn't nearly enough meat on there to make it worth the price.  I'll take a menu item that's less than 45% bones please.

Chicken wings are (a) less than 45% bone and (b) much tastier than boneless wings or other alternatives i.e. tasty enough to be worth paying for -- if you get them at the right place. It helps that the chicken wing market is a highly competitive one in upstate NY, so restaurants have an incentive to ensure their wings aren't a joke. If they're tiny/unmeaty, customers will find out or hear about it from their friends and get their wings elsewhere.

[kphoger]

Chicken wings are (a) less than 45% bone ,,,

You sure about that?  I looked at a couple of sources before posting.

[kphoger]

When an Amazon driver pulls up to a business, finds the doors locked because it's after hours, and just leaves the package outside the front door to sit there till morning.

[webny99]

Chicken wings are (a) less than 45% bone ,,,

You sure about that?  I looked at a couple of sources before posting.

For flats, I'm absolutely sure. For drums, it's harder to say for sure because there's more variance. They have a bigger bone, but can be really meaty if you get a good one.

If 45% is an average, I would say 40% bone or less is probably what I would consider a "good" chicken wing. Then again, to my original point, I can usually get another 15-20% off of what some would consider a finished wing. 

[tchafe1978]

When you're at a red light, with another car stopped next to you, and the other driver does a jackrabbit start to get ahead of you. The lanes either drop from 2 to 1 and they are turning at the next driveway, or they merge over in front of you to take the next turn. This forces me to slow down behind them when instead they could've just stayed behind me and made their turn. Makes no sense. It means more wear and tear on the cars with the jackrabbit starts and hard braking.

Also a similar situation when on a freeway when someone passes you only to immediately take the next exit. If your exit is coming up in the next mile, why not just stay behind the guy in front of you instead of zipping past and then forcing me to slow down for you to exit?

[Big John]

When you're at a red light, with another car stopped next to you, and the other driver does a jackrabbit start to get ahead of you. The lanes either drop from 2 to 1 and they are turning at the next driveway, or they merge over in front of you to take the next turn. This forces me to slow down behind them when instead they could've just stayed behind me and made their turn. Makes no sense. It means more wear and tear on the cars with the jackrabbit starts and hard braking.

Also a similar situation when on a freeway when someone passes you only to immediately take the next exit. If your exit is coming up in the next mile, why not just stay behind the guy in front of you instead of zipping past and then forcing me to slow down for you to exit?

I call it "cut and brake".  Very irritating.

[Bruce]

I think that's the first time I've seen the Å" ligature on a road sign. FHWA Series doesn't even have that one.

Coeur d'Alene signs would look much weirder if they were allowed to use it.

[elsmere241]

When caps lock flip-flops on the computer–or even in only one program–so that it's on when the light is off, off when the light is on.

That happens to me all the time when I'm porting from my laptop at home to my desktop at work, something I do three days a week these days.

[Scott5114]

When caps lock flip-flops on the computer–or even in only one program–so that it's on when the light is off, off when the light is on.

That happens to me all the time when I'm porting from my laptop at home to my desktop at work, something I do three days a week these days.

I hope you guys didn't pay good money for that OS.

[elsmere241]

I didn't pay for anything - it's all from my work.  The problem is when it flips because I start typing something the wrong way, and I can't fix it from the laptop at home.

[vdeane]

Computers do odd things when remoting in.  Or at least Windows does.  The fact that I "only" had to move Outlook and related windows back to my second monitor and fix the size of Excel after working from home for the snow on Tuesday is a massive improvement over the way it was during COVID when it felt like I'd have to restore half my display settings.

[kphoger]

When you're at a red light, with another car stopped next to you, and the other driver does a jackrabbit start to get ahead of you. The lanes either drop from 2 to 1 and they are turning at the next driveway, or they merge over in front of you to take the next turn. This forces me to slow down behind them when instead they could've just stayed behind me and made their turn. Makes no sense. It means more wear and tear on the cars with the jackrabbit starts and hard braking.

Also a similar situation when on a freeway when someone passes you only to immediately take the next exit. If your exit is coming up in the next mile, why not just stay behind the guy in front of you instead of zipping past and then forcing me to slow down for you to exit?

I call it "cut and brake".  Very irritating.

I don't mind at all, as long as I don't have to brake when they make their turn.  But yeah, if I have to brake, then it's irritating.  On the other hand, sometimes it's easier to jump on the gas when the light turns green than to merge into the line of cars.

When caps lock flip-flops on the computer–or even in only one program–so that it's on when the light is off, off when the light is on.

That happens to me all the time when I'm porting from my laptop at home to my desktop at work, something I do three days a week these days.

I hope you guys didn't pay good money for that OS.

It's usually my work computer.  And actually, it's usually not the whole OS:  it's just one application within it, which is accessed via WVD.  For example, I can type in Notepad and it works just fine, then switch over to that application and it's flip-flopped, then switch over to Word and it works just fine.

[kphoger]

Another computer one.  On our home computer, sometimes the keyboard stops working, and we have to unplug it and plug it back into the USB port.  Except sometimes that happens while the computer is asleep.  So we'll move the mouse to wake the computer up, then notice that it's gotten hung up at some point during the wake-up process, and hit a key on the keyboard to encourage it along.  Wait, wait, hit a key again, wait, wait, hit a key again, wait, wait, and only then notice that the Num Lock indicator isn't lit up, which means we've been hitting a key on a dead keyboard the whole time.

[webny99]

When you're at a red light, with another car stopped next to you, and the other driver does a jackrabbit start to get ahead of you. The lanes either drop from 2 to 1 and they are turning at the next driveway, or they merge over in front of you to take the next turn. This forces me to slow down behind them when instead they could've just stayed behind me and made their turn. Makes no sense. It means more wear and tear on the cars with the jackrabbit starts and hard braking.

Also a similar situation when on a freeway when someone passes you only to immediately take the next exit. If your exit is coming up in the next mile, why not just stay behind the guy in front of you instead of zipping past and then forcing me to slow down for you to exit?

I call it "cut and brake".  Very irritating.

I don't mind at all, as long as I don't have to brake when they make their turn.  But yeah, if I have to brake, then it's irritating.  On the other hand, sometimes it's easier to jump on the gas when the light turns green than to merge into the line of cars.

There's a traffic light where I do this all the time, except that I'm not turning afterwards. I take the right lane (which ends just past the intersection and is usually empty), and can usually get at least a 2-3 second head start on the cars in the left lane just by paying attention to the opposing traffic light. It's often not even that close and I can clear the lane merge before the car on my left has even cleared the intersection.  The only time I've failed to be first in line was when a Tesla was first in the left lane and zoomed past despite my headstart, only to then annoyingly slow down to speed before turning at the next signal. They obviously cared only about showing off their fast starting speed and showed no comprehension of courtesy by slowing back down afterwards.

I do try not to cut and brake, but I am guilty of doing it when I'm in a hurry and there's a traffic light at great risk of going red (particularly when staying behind a slow driver leaves a high risk of them going through on yellow/red while I'm stuck waiting). I almost never do it on the freeway, although if I do, I try to do it seamlessly without braking until I'm clear of the main lane, even if it means entering the ramp at higher than usual speed.

[hbelkins]

Chicken wings.  There isn't nearly enough meat on there to make it worth the price.  I'll take a menu item that's less than 45% bones please.

The popularity of chicken wings is a testament to the power of marketing in the United States. A throwaway part of a chicken becomes popular.

[mgk920]

Chicken wings.  There isn't nearly enough meat on there to make it worth the price.  I'll take a menu item that's less than 45% bones please.

The popularity of chicken wings is a testament to the power of marketing in the United States. A throwaway part of a chicken becomes popular.

Dissecting a chicken wing is a great distraction while sitting a a bar and watching a sports something on the screens.  However, I've cut way back on them over that past couple of years due to the cost (the bird flu epidemic that has swept through the poultry industry the upper Great Lakes area).  I do remember a remark that I heard several years ago where someone in the poultry industry said that we'd be rich if we could breed a chicken to grow six wings . . .

Also the popularity of baby cut carrots.

Mike

[kkt]

Another computer one.  On our home computer, sometimes the keyboard stops working, and we have to unplug it and plug it back into the USB port.  Except sometimes that happens while the computer is asleep.  So we'll move the mouse to wake the computer up, then notice that it's gotten hung up at some point during the wake-up process, and hit a key on the keyboard to encourage it along.  Wait, wait, hit a key again, wait, wait, hit a key again, wait, wait, and only then notice that the Num Lock indicator isn't lit up, which means we've been hitting a key on a dead keyboard the whole time.

USB is kind of a flakey protocol.  Keyboards connected to serial ports never had that problem!

[kphoger]

USB is kind of a flakey protocol.  Keyboards connected to serial ports never had that problem!

Believe me, I wish I could plug the PS/2 keyboard into that computer!

[JayhawkCO]

When companies don't train their people. I just spent almost 90 minutes at Lowe's trying to purchase a dishwasher and get an installation scheduled. I would have just purchased it on the website, but they are offering 0% financing for 12 months if you finance it through Lowe's. I have an account I've had paid off for several years but I didn't have the physical card. When trying to purchase on the website, it needed the CVV which I didn't have, so they told me I had to go to the store.

I get there, get an associate right away, give him the item number I want to purchase, and because Lowe's apparently got a new software system this week and no one had been trained on it at all, I was left to just hang out with my 15-month-old getting restless for 86 minutes, when this should have been, at most, a 10 minute transaction. I hadn't brought food or diapers since from leaving the house to getting back would have been 20 minutes.

[roadman65]

My pet peeve with all businesses is when they zap in a recorded message before the call saying " This call May recorded or monitored for quality assurance purposes."

I know if they record a call by law they must disclose that particular message, but some businesses are straight forward and what could recording your call serve a purpose for?

[kphoger]

I get there, get an associate right away, give him the item number I want to purchase, and because Lowe's apparently got a new software system this week and no one had been trained on it at all, I was left to just hang out with my 15-month-old getting restless for 86 minutes, when this should have been, at most, a 10 minute transaction. I hadn't brought food or diapers since from leaving the house to getting back would have been 20 minutes.

The last time we picked up an appliance, it was at Menards.  They had us drive around to the loading area in back of the store and just wait in our car for the guy to bring it out.  No waiting around in the store required.

[kphoger]

My pet peeve with all businesses is when they zap in a recorded message before the call saying " This call May recorded or monitored for quality assurance purposes."

I know if they record a call by law they must disclose that particular message, but some businesses are straight forward and what could recording your call serve a purpose for?

As they said:  quality assurance.  It's so, if an agent treats you badly and you complain about it, they can actually pull up the recording and use disciplinary action against that agent.  It also stops a lot of customers from issuing bogus complaints about the agents, because pulling up the recording would prove the customer wrong in that case.  Having been on both sides of such inquiries (a field tech at my company once complained I treated him badly on the phone, and I once investigated a complaint between someone at our company and an outsourced vendor), I can say that such recordings are very useful for quality assurance purposes.

[hbelkins]

The only thing that exceeds the marketing success of chicken wings is the marketing success of bottled water.

[kphoger]

The only thing that exceeds the marketing success of chicken wings is the marketing success of bottled water.

At least I understand it in areas that have bad-tasting or improperly treated tap water.  But, in a place where the tap water is perfectly safe and flavorless, I'm with you there.

[JayhawkCO]

I get there, get an associate right away, give him the item number I want to purchase, and because Lowe's apparently got a new software system this week and no one had been trained on it at all, I was left to just hang out with my 15-month-old getting restless for 86 minutes, when this should have been, at most, a 10 minute transaction. I hadn't brought food or diapers since from leaving the house to getting back would have been 20 minutes.

The last time we picked up an appliance, it was at Menards.  They had us drive around to the loading area in back of the store and just wait in our car for the guy to bring it out.  No waiting around in the store required.

In this case, there is delivery/installation/hauling away of broken one all included. There weren't any of the model I purchased in stock located in the store itself.