Minor things that bother you

[texaskdog]

When there's two lanes, and one of them ends just beyond a stoplight, and everyone lines up single file at the stoplight, like as if the second lane doesn't even exist. 

Opposite for me, when they sit in the right lane and are not right turning and prevent everyone else from right turning

I'm mostly referring to freeway interchanges, where the traffic exiting the freeway is coming from the right and therefore, nobody is turning right.

As for the situation you describe, I will use my judgment on a case-by-case basis as to whether to use the right lane if it's empty. If the line in the left lane is long enough that there's a risk of missing the light, then I will certainly use the right lane, or switch to the right lane when the light changes. If it's three cars or less, I usually won't, unless I can see far enough back and nobody's coming that might want to turn right.

Agreed.  but when its the FIRST guy who pulls up to the light and gets into the right lane, those people have no souls.

[kphoger]

When there's two lanes, and one of them ends just beyond a stoplight, and everyone lines up single file at the stoplight, like as if the second lane doesn't even exist. 

Opposite for me, when they sit in the right lane and are not right turning and prevent everyone else from right turning

No stoplight required.  Here's an example with stop signs instead.  Why six drivers line up in the right left lane but leave the left right lane open for me, I'll never know.

[webny99]

No stoplight required.  Here's an example with stop signs instead.  Why six drivers line up in the right lane but leave the left lane open for me, I'll never know.

Whoa. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone actively choose an empty right lane over an empty left lane in that situation, much less a right lane with other cars in it. Unless, of course, some of them were turning right.

(With that said, there should probably be a stoplight there if all those lanes really are needed.)

[kphoger]

No stoplight required.  Here's an example with stop signs instead.  Why six drivers line up in the right lane but leave the left lane open for me, I'll never know.

Whoa. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone actively choose an empty right lane over an empty left lane in that situation, much less a right lane with other cars in it. Unless, of course, some of them were turning right.

(With that said, there should probably be a stoplight there if all those lanes really are needed.)

Got that backwards.  Fixed it in my post.

[Scott5114]

My own clock pet peeve: when a digital clock has no way of running the clock backward, only forward. This makes sense when you're setting an analog clock because the mechanism only goes in one direction and running it backward could cause damage, but a digital device is just storing a number of seconds in memory so running it backwards doesn't hurt anything.

Likewise, a device that _could_ just display or use an existing number keypad (like a microwave) to directly enter the time, but instead makes you use "minute advance" and "hour advance" buttons like it's a 1970s clock radio.

Devices that want to know whether a time is AM or PM when they don't have alarm or date functionality, the ability to display 24-hour time, or any other reason to care whether it's AM or PM. In the rare instance that I can't tell whether it's AM or PM (disorientation due to sleeping at a weird time) I have plenty of devices (like a phone or computer) that know.

When you can see 2 digital clocks at the same time (like on an oven and microwave right above it) and they aren't exactly synched.

This is often inevitable because neither of them have a resettable or even displayable seconds hand, and clock interfaces are inconsistent about whether advancing the minutes will also reset the seconds, which is non-orthogonal, but there is often no other way to do it. (That is, if I press the "add minute" button at 17:39:23, will the time become 17:40:24 or 17:40:00? Often there's no way to tell.)

In this specific situation, where the microwave and oven both have clocks (and really I don't need both), I will set one of them (usually the microwave) to the correct time and just let the other one stay showing whatever time it got the last time the power went out. Thus, one of them will be clearly wrong because it will be off by six hours or so. Although a few times a power outage has occurred close enough to midnight or noon that it is still confusing which one is right, so I have to fix it.

When you can see 2 digital clocks at the same time (like on an oven and microwave right above it) and they aren't exactly synched.

oh God  I could live with my car clock being an hour off but 1:02 off this morning was too much.  and I have to synch them all to the official time.  https://time.gov/

My clock in my car is traditionally about 8 minutes fast, since at my last job 7 minutes was the maximum tolerance for tardiness. Thus the time on the clock was essentially timed such that if I rolled up in the parking lot with it showing 2:30, I would be on time after turning off the car, collecting my stuff, going into the building, and clocking in (the time clock wasn't right by the entrance to the building).

I usually don't bother resetting the time in my car for standard time, but that's mostly because I always forget where the time controls are (they're in a menu that I always forget how to activate) and it's too complex to mess with it while I'm driving. Of course, by the time I arrive at a destination, I'm focused on doing whatever it is I want to do there and forget to stop and mess with the clock. Usually, the only reason the clock gets reset for standard time is because I was driving my wife somewhere, and it bothered her that it was off an hour and she fiddled with it on my behalf.

[kphoger]

I will set one of them (usually the microwave) to the correct time and just let the other one stay showing whatever time it got the last time the power went out. Thus, one of them will be clearly wrong because it will be off by six hours or so. Although a few times a power outage has occurred close enough to midnight or noon that it is still confusing which one is right, so I have to fix it.

Digital cable set-top boxes in the Cox system used to (still do?) display 5:00 when they're not getting signal.  Sometimes, though, it's not that there isn't signal coming in, but rather than they need a signal "hit" sent to the device from the headend to refresh it.  I used to be the guy on the other end of the phone when field techs called in about that kind of thing.  I once had a guy call in, unable to figure out why he couldn't get signal to his customer's box.  It was showing 5:00 on the display.  Fortunately, before we went much further, I informed him that the current time was actually 5:00.  Sure enough, it soon changed to 5:01.  He had fixed the customer's problem but thought he hadn't.

[Scott5114]

That seems like a clever way to indicate the problem, although it could lead to confusion in cases like the one you described. I wonder why they didn't design it to display a clearly impossible time (like 8:88 or 33:00 or 0:99) to prevent that from happening.

[hotdogPi]

Places that claim they sell things for .99¢ (or .25¢, etc.), which is less than a cent in reality. (Unless they really are less than a cent, which can happen in unit prices for things such as paper clips.)

(edit: paper clips aren't that cheap)

[texaskdog]

Places that claim they sell things for .99¢ (or .25¢, etc.), which is less than a cent in reality. (Unless they really are less than a cent, which can happen in unit prices for things such as paper clips.)

Fake dollar stores.  Dollar Tree is $1.  Family Dollar and Dollar General are not.

[hotdogPi]

What's going to happen to dollar stores due to inflation? Will five dollar stores be next? Five Below sells everything at $5 or under, but I don't know of any stores in the US where everything is the same price with that price being more than $1 + tax.

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

[kevinb1994]

What's going to happen to dollar stores due to inflation? Will five dollar stores be next? Five Below sells everything at $5 or under, but I don't know of any stores in the US where everything is the same price with that price being more than $1 + tax.

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

That's why the Five Dollar Footlong stopped existing after Subway eventually realized that it wasn't going to last.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Also "enplane" and "deplane"

So when did Tatoo speak become standard?

DEPLANE! DEPLANE!!!

I've decided that, when I eat my dinner, I am actually 'deplating' my food.

Without further ado......has anyone ever said "with further ado"?

what's the right amount of ado? i mean, is there a measurement unit for it?

[jeffandnicole]

What's going to happen to dollar stores due to inflation? Will five dollar stores be next? Five Below sells everything at $5 or under...

You must've missed the news (and haven't been in a Five Below for a while).  They started selling items up to $10 last year.

The logo is still Five Below, but their secondary logo is $1 to $5 to $10.  https://www.fivebelow.com/info/company .  They label things up to $10 as "Five Beyond".

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Because that would be a hit to their bottom line.  They are working on volume, so having to take a loss on some things they sell would make many things not even worth selling.  Also, they wouldn't have an incentive to open up in high tax areas, where sales taxes can rise to a total of 11% or so.

[kphoger]

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Because that would be a hit to their bottom line.  They are working on volume, so having to take a loss on some things they sell would make many things not even worth selling.  Also, they wouldn't have an incentive to open up in high tax areas, where sales taxes can rise to a total of 11% or so.

I'm glad someone saw the obvious answer to that question.


(Hey, why not pay all their employees $.... [rescinded])

[kphoger]

I will set one of them (usually the microwave) to the correct time and just let the other one stay showing whatever time it got the last time the power went out. Thus, one of them will be clearly wrong because it will be off by six hours or so. Although a few times a power outage has occurred close enough to midnight or noon that it is still confusing which one is right, so I have to fix it.

Digital cable set-top boxes in the Cox system used to (still do?) display 5:00 when they're not getting signal.  Sometimes, though, it's not that there isn't signal coming in, but rather than they need a signal "hit" sent to the device from the headend to refresh it.  I used to be the guy on the other end of the phone when field techs called in about that kind of thing.  I once had a guy call in, unable to figure out why he couldn't get signal to his customer's box.  It was showing 5:00 on the display.  Fortunately, before we went much further, I informed him that the current time was actually 5:00.  Sure enough, it soon changed to 5:01.  He had fixed the customer's problem but thought he hadn't.

That seems like a clever way to indicate the problem, although it could lead to confusion in cases like the one you described. I wonder why they didn't design it to display a clearly impossible time (like 8:88 or 33:00 or 0:99) to prevent that from happening.

Different things on the display mean different things.  88:88 means something else.  Other times, it displays a specific error code.  Of course, this is all based on my recollection from back when Cox used non-MoCA boxes.  For all I know now, not being a troubleshooter anymore, the newer boxes are different.

[ethanhopkin14]

On the subject of clocks, this time of year (return to daylight savings time), I hate when I correct the clocks in the house, but forget about that one clock and don't realize it's wrong for a month. 

[kphoger]

Hard-boiled eggs that get torn to bits when you peel them.

[hbelkins]

Around here, the term "dollar store" was never meant to imply that all items cost only $1. It was meant to describe a discount store.

Two of my irritants involve the number nine (9). One is gas being priced at $N.NN9 per gallon. The other is the snooze button on alarm clocks giving only nine minutes of respite between alarms instead of 10 minutes.

[Big John]

^^ Along that line, something with a price that ends with a series of 9s, such as $299.99.  Do people really think that it is significantly cheaper than $300?

[Scott5114]

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Can't be done in the US, because sales tax rate varies tremendously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Here in Oklahoma, different places in the same city can even charge different tax rates, because cities can cross county lines and different counties have different tax rates too. And these tax rates change over time, too, as various laws are passed by city councils and voter referendums. You can basically only include sales tax in the purchase price if you operate in one physical location that never does business outside of that location. For a national chain like Dollar Tree, any individual item would have a thousand different profit margins depending on where and when it was sold, which makes accounting practically impossible.

It is much simpler to simply add a surcharge of the tax amount and record "we owe $X in taxes to Y jurisdiction" as a liability, then settle up at the end of the month.

In other countries, sales tax can be included as part of the purchase price because they tend to have a uniform VAT or other tax mechanism that works on a nationwide or at least province-wide level.

[texaskdog]

On the subject of clocks, this time of year (return to daylight savings time), I hate when I correct the clocks in the house, but forget about that one clock and don't realize it's wrong for a month. 

Hate to say it but I never changed the one above the door and now it's correct again

[Scott5114]

^^ Along that line, something with a price that ends with a series of 9s, such as $299.99.  Do people really think that it is significantly cheaper than $300?

You only need to make enough extra sales to cover the penny of lost profit on each sale for it to be worth it.

[CtrlAltDel]

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Can't be done in the US, because sales tax rate varies tremendously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

It most certainly could be done, albeit potentially with some difficulty. I suspect that the main reason it's not is due to lobbying, so as to make prices seem lower than they are (as with the $.99 thing).

[texaskdog]

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Can't be done in the US, because sales tax rate varies tremendously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

It most certainly could be done, albeit potentially with some difficulty. I suspect that the main reason it's not is due to lobbying, so as to make prices seem lower than they are (as with the $.99 thing).

I think all tax should be included in the prices. 

[CtrlAltDel]

(And for dollar stores, why can't they make their taxed items come out to a dollar after tax instead of before tax?)

Can't be done in the US, because sales tax rate varies tremendously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

It most certainly could be done, albeit potentially with some difficulty. I suspect that the main reason it's not is due to lobbying, so as to make prices seem lower than they are (as with the $.99 thing).

I think all tax should be included in the prices.

I do too, as, I suspect, is the case for most people. The lobbying, though . . .