Minor things that bother you

[Mapmikey]

Misuse of the word "wonky" to mean crooked or out of kilter. A wonk is someone with extensive knowledge about an often-obscure-or-arcane but important topic. No one disputes that. A wonky book, article, or discussion is one that laypeople might find hard to follow, but which is elucidating and worthwhile for those who can. Wonky, then, is an important word that should not be casually debased. Because it has been, ignorant people might hear or read a reference to "a wonky debate" and completely, diametrically misinterpret the nature of the exchange. Not good.

The obvious alternative is "wanky," which has the same satisfying crunch but no other meaning to confuse the issue. One friend objected that "wanky" seems to allude to a colloquial British term for male masturbation, which... is that really a problem? I think not.

The use of 'wonky' that way is a little hinky...

[CtrlAltDel]

Misuse of the word "wonky" to mean crooked or out of kilter.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of wonky to mean, "Of a person: shaky, groggy; unstable. Of a thing: faulty, unsound; unreliable," dates to 1919, while the use of wonky to mean "Bookish, studious, "˜nerdy'. Also (Politics): excessively concerned with minute points of policy," dates much later, to 1978.

[Bruce]

Posting this comment while watching soccer. They just had a substitution and the on-screen graphic came up to say who was coming on and who was being replaced. Yet despite that graphic, the broadcaster still felt the need to cut to the fourth official holding up the sign with the red and green numbers. What for? Why do we need to be shown that sign when the on-screen graphic is giving us the same, and actually more, information (the graphic includes the players' names)?

It's tradition and it fills dead time that would otherwise be occupied by cameras lingering on players waiting around for the change or (in American sports) an ad break. And since ad breaks are not what we watch soccer for, it's not much of an issue to cut away to the substitution happening. Sometimes there's a nice handshake or hug between the players, other times they get a little ovation from the crowd, or it's a good time to bring up the last time they did X on Y at Z.

Sometimes it can be a hugely emotional moment, like when a fan favorite returns from injury (but isn't at the level where they can start).

(For context, Steve Zakuani broke his leg while playing against the Colorado Rapids, the team he is substituting against here, from a horrific tackle. His career was ultimately cut short by the injury and some complications later, but he still was able to play a few times for the Sounders until retiring)

Same thing applies to showing the fourth official holding up the stoppage time sign.

I think this one has to do with tradition as well, but I'm not sure.

On a similar note, the stoppage time is not shown on in-stadium clocks (to not influence the referee, who has full discretion over timekeeping), so many of us whip out our phones to run the timer and glance at it every so often. Of course it rarely matters since stoppage time isn't accurate and often is cut short.

[snowc]

Hotel fees.

It's bad enough that the hotel taxes are much higher than the sales taxes, probably to help fund some entertainment venue. However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.

I stayed at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA last December. There was no charge for the "basic" internet access, but there was a limit of two devices, and the transfer speed was limited to 1.5 Megabits. After that, if you wanted higher speed or additional devices, there is a per-device daily fee. Now, please understand what devices I carry with me when traveling:

• My own personal mobile phone
• My mother's personal mobile phone
• A personal tablet
• My work laptop which I have to take with me even on vacation in case of an work emergency

I don't know about you, but 1.5 Megabit would have been considered high-speed access almost 20 years ago. In this age of streaming media, that is tortoise slow. I also dislike watching hotel TV, and prefer to listen to music or watch programming from my personal Plex server. At least I had pre-downloaded several movies prior to taking the trip, and, in a pinch, I would use my phone as a WiFi hotspot.

Last week, I stayed at a local Marriott while my mother had some surgery, partially because I didn't want to drive in DFW morning rush hour traffic. There, they had "basic" internet for fee, but if you wanted streaming, it was $4.95 per device. I was able to VPN to work though.

Same here. I had recently stayed at the Sheraton in Greensboro, and they required an account or else you pay money for internet. And in April, my family are heading to Asheville (anybody heard of Omni Grove Park inn?) We are also going to the Outer Banks, and even going to the zoo! 

[snowc]

Something that annoys me roads wise is when people use "interstate" to refer to any kind of freeway. Just because it's a freeway doesn't mean it's an interstate.

US 421 -> I-685. 
However, I70 -> Breezwood is NOT an interstate! 

[snowc]

I just sat down on the couch next to our cat. Holy shit, she must have ripped a huge fart while I was in the other room. What a stench.

My cat does this too!

[snowc]

"Tell your doctor if you have [name a condition] before taking [latest wonder drug with loads of side effects]."

Shouldn't your doctor be diagnosing your disease, instead of you telling him/her?

Yes, I find that so odd too. Isn't it more normal to list your symptoms and the doctor decides what medications you need? The large number of pharmaceutical ads is really jarring when I watch American TV channels, and they seem like such odd things to advertise. Not to mention the comically long list of side effects that take up over half of the ads.

This also is a pain to watch. Every daytime soap opera contains one or two of medication ads for Jardiance, DuPixent, and Embrel.

[snowc]

Does anyone else hate that feature from Google where you visit a page and it says "You've visited this page on date"  ? For some reason, this is really annoying, at least for me. Are they trying to judge users for viewing pages?

I actually like this feature! This feature helps me along with Timeline, to see what places I've went before.

[gonealookin]

Hotel fees.

It's bad enough that the hotel taxes are much higher than the sales taxes, probably to help fund some entertainment venue. However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.
...

I would add to this, the difficulty of comparing the bottom line price when shopping for a hotel room.

I need a hotel room in Reno before a 5:30 a.m. flight.  Looking at Priceline, there's an "Express Deal" for the Atlantis, with a headline price of $52/night, which when sorted by price is #7 lowest out of 73 listings.  What you don't see until you have chosen a room and get to the payment page:  "Taxes and fees" of $18.97 (part of that being Priceline's commission) and an "Additional Mandatory Fee" (the "Resort Fee") of $39.55, so that $52 is actually $110.52.  The $39.55 "Resort Fee" appears to include "standard wi-fi"; I'm sure higher-speed wi-fi that would allow video streaming is additional.  Anyway, there a quite a few places showing up lower in the ranked-by-price listing that I can get for less than $110.52.

The same thing happens when trying to make a rental car reservation.  Some sites do give you the all-in price on the first page (for example if you're reserving a Budget Rent a Car through the Costco Travel site); others just show the base price on the first page and don't give you the all-in until after a couple more clicks (if you're looking at Budget's own site at Budget.com).

[kkt]

Yes.  I would argue that such deceipt is actually fraud and not a minor thing.

[abefroman329]

The same thing happens when trying to make a rental car reservation.  Some sites do give you the all-in price on the first page (for example if you're reserving a Budget Rent a Car through the Costco Travel site); others just show the base price on the first page and don't give you the all-in until after a couple more clicks (if you're looking at Budget's own site at Budget.com).

avis.com gives you the option to show prices with taxes and fees included.  Which is really handy, given the sheer amount you'll pay in taxes and fees at a major airport.

[1995hoo]

Hotel fees.

It's bad enough that the hotel taxes are much higher than the sales taxes, probably to help fund some entertainment venue. However, on top of advertised hotel fee is the so-called "resort fee" for items that I'm probably not going to be using if I'm staying overnight. Does that include Internet access? No.

I stayed at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, LA last December. There was no charge for the "basic" internet access, but there was a limit of two devices, and the transfer speed was limited to 1.5 Megabits. After that, if you wanted higher speed or additional devices, there is a per-device daily fee. Now, please understand what devices I carry with me when traveling:

• My own personal mobile phone
• My mother's personal mobile phone
• A personal tablet
• My work laptop which I have to take with me even on vacation in case of an work emergency

I don't know about you, but 1.5 Megabit would have been considered high-speed access almost 20 years ago. In this age of streaming media, that is tortoise slow. I also dislike watching hotel TV, and prefer to listen to music or watch programming from my personal Plex server. At least I had pre-downloaded several movies prior to taking the trip, and, in a pinch, I would use my phone as a WiFi hotspot.

Last week, I stayed at a local Marriott while my mother had some surgery, partially because I didn't want to drive in DFW morning rush hour traffic. There, they had "basic" internet for fee, but if you wanted streaming, it was $4.95 per device. I was able to VPN to work though.

Same here. I had recently stayed at the Sheraton in Greensboro, and they required an account or else you pay money for internet. And in April, my family are heading to Asheville (anybody heard of Omni Grove Park inn?) We are also going to the Outer Banks, and even going to the zoo! 

Regarding Internet access at a hotel, I carry a mobile hotspot with me and I use that if I want to do anything work-related (this per our IT security rules) or anything personal that's more than basic stuff like reading the news or the sports scores. I certainly don't do online banking via hotel wifi, for example.

Regarding the Grove Park Inn, I know my parents went there, though I don't remember when it was. Has to have been quite some time ago because I believe they played golf there and they largely stopped playing golf in 2002. I think they spoke highly of it in general. I've been to Asheville (for a job interview in law school on my own nickel, so I stayed at the Super 8) but I haven't been to the Grove Park Inn. I'd like to go sometime–might be a nice anniversary trip some year–but it's quite a haul for us just for a weekend trip.

[Scott5114]

One thing that's really funny is the suckier of a hotel you stay in, the better the wifi is. If you stay in a Comfort Inn or something like that, the wifi is free and works just fine. This is probably because someone staying at a Sheraton or a Marriott is more likely to be on business and thus expensing everything, where as someone staying in a Comfort Inn is more likely to be paying for themselves and thus be aggrieved by non-free wifi.

[ethanhopkin14]

One thing that's really funny is the suckier of a hotel you stay in, the better the wifi is. If you stay in a Comfort Inn or something like that, the wifi is free and works just fine. This is probably because someone staying at a Sheraton or a Marriott is more likely to be on business and thus expensing everything, where as someone staying in a Comfort Inn is more likely to be paying for themselves and thus be aggrieved by non-free wifi.

Never thought of it that way, but I have noticed, the crappier the hotel, the free-er the wifi. 

[snowc]

AndroidOS vs microSD cards.

So, let me give you some background on this... despite how much storage is on your device, it is never enough. I know we live in the age of "the cloud", but there are times where you want to rely on your media rather than try and stream it through a bad Internet connection or weak carrier signal. In some cases, you have NO usable internet and/or you don't want to pay through the nose for access, such as flying on a plane or vacationing on a cruise ship. This is where storing some audiobooks, music, movies, or TV shows comes in very handy.... along with a noise cancelling headset.

My previous phone was a Pixel 3, and it had two choices for storage: 64GB or 128GB. I took the 128GB storage. Last fall, when I ordered it's replacement, I had a choice between 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB.... except that the 512GB version was simply not available, and the 256GB version had a two month waiting period. I took the two month waiting period as my Pixel 3 battery gave my phone less than 2 hours battery power. Neither phone has a microSD slot, as Google believes in the Cloud storage solution.

Now comes my Android Tablet. It isa Samsung tablet that I purchased on sale last fall from Costco, and great for watching streaming media in bed. At the moment, 16GB of the available 24GB is being used. At least it has a microSD slot, so I added a 256GB card. It is working out pretty well, except that some of the apps won't allow themselves to be transferred to the microSD card. OK, that's understandable, the app size isn't that big. However, some of the media streaming services that I have a subscription to, in the name of "security" and "digital rights management", won't allow you to save a offline copy of the movie/show to the microSD card. That means my tablet can only have two movies from applications such as HBOMax.

Grrrrr......

Use Force2SD if you want movable apps moved if you have root.
Also, Link2SD is a great app for root users. Sadly, the Pixels DO NOT have root!

[snowc]

DRM should be banned. It is simply not something that benefits anyone except people who have way too much money, trying to set themselves up for a situation where they have way, way too much money.

Fortunately the open-source software I tend to use usually simply disregards DRM restrictions. I think there's some program I have where "Follow DRM restrictions" is even a check box on in the config menu. Who would ever turn that on?

Use Calibre with dedrm if you want books without this feature!

[Scott5114]

DRM should be banned. It is simply not something that benefits anyone except people who have way too much money, trying to set themselves up for a situation where they have way, way too much money.

Fortunately the open-source software I tend to use usually simply disregards DRM restrictions. I think there's some program I have where "Follow DRM restrictions" is even a check box on in the config menu. Who would ever turn that on?

Use Calibre with dedrm if you want books without this feature!

I normally don't have much use for epub and similar file formats (I tend to use either pdfs or dead trees), but Okular is capable of opening them, and it turns out it was the program I was thinking of where you can turn DRM off:

[snowc]

One thing that's really funny is the suckier of a hotel you stay in, the better the wifi is. If you stay in a Comfort Inn or something like that, the wifi is free and works just fine. This is probably because someone staying at a Sheraton or a Marriott is more likely to be on business and thus expensing everything, where as someone staying in a Comfort Inn is more likely to be paying for themselves and thus be aggrieved by non-free wifi.

That's weird, because Sleep Inn in Syracuse (owned by Al Barbagallo) has one option for basic WiFi, and its free! 

[jlam]

Something that has bothered me for ages: When people use apostrophes to pluralize words.

[snowc]

DRM should be banned. It is simply not something that benefits anyone except people who have way too much money, trying to set themselves up for a situation where they have way, way too much money.

Fortunately the open-source software I tend to use usually simply disregards DRM restrictions. I think there's some program I have where "Follow DRM restrictions" is even a check box on in the config menu. Who would ever turn that on?

Use Calibre with dedrm if you want books without this feature!

I normally don't have much use for epub and similar file formats (I tend to use either pdfs or dead trees), but Okular is capable of opening them, and it turns out it was the program I was thinking of where you can turn DRM off:

So, you are not a Calibre user? 

[Scott5114]

Never even heard of it until today. As I said, I don't find myself in possession of epub files often. I generally don't believe in paying for digital files, so if I spend money on a piece of writing generally it's by acquiring a paper book.

[Bruce]

One thing that's really funny is the suckier of a hotel you stay in, the better the wifi is. If you stay in a Comfort Inn or something like that, the wifi is free and works just fine. This is probably because someone staying at a Sheraton or a Marriott is more likely to be on business and thus expensing everything, where as someone staying in a Comfort Inn is more likely to be paying for themselves and thus be aggrieved by non-free wifi.

Can confirm. The best hotel internet I've ever used was the free wi-fi at a no-name motel in Portland that was $60/night. Got over 70 Mbps and decent enough latency to play some games on.

Worst was a Westin in Vancouver, which was "complimentary" because of the room cost but struggled to load Wikipedia, let alone any site with ads and trackers.

[1995hoo]

Something that has bothered me for ages: When people use apostrophes to pluralize words.

Heh, my mother was an English teacher (she's now retired), so I had grammar and punctuation drilled into me and what you note is the sort of thing that drives me nuts. One of my cousins used to send a Christmas card with her family's last name "pluralized" with an apostrophe (e.g., "Merry Christmas from the Smith's"). It looked so stupid, but none of us wanted to come across as rude or snobbish by pointing out the error.

Then there's this, although it's amusing to note it contains a punctuation error itself.

[JayhawkCO]

Four of them to be exact.

[formulanone]

One thing that's really funny is the suckier of a hotel you stay in, the better the wifi is. If you stay in a Comfort Inn or something like that, the wifi is free and works just fine. This is probably because someone staying at a Sheraton or a Marriott is more likely to be on business and thus expensing everything, where as someone staying in a Comfort Inn is more likely to be paying for themselves and thus be aggrieved by non-free wifi.

Eh, there's not a lot of rhyme or reason. Best bet for speed is a mid-sized or larger hotel with low occupancy. Hard to tell that in advance, but if the lot is empty at 8-9pm, it's rarely going to get full...unless a few buses of high schoolers suddenly park there for the night.

Could be in a big city or small town, and the speed varies. I was in San Jose last week and the service was unreliable, and tethering off a 4G signal was erratic...and that's in Silicon Valley. Stayed at one hotel outside Toronto that was incredibly slow (vaguely 3G/dial-up speeds), and tethering was going to be too expensive. Just chose a different hotel for the following week. As I said before, worst I do is upload files to the cloud and that's where I see the weaknesses; not all upload speeds are even half of download speeds, they might be a tenth of the downstream rate.

That said, it's been a long time since I had to pay for hotel internet; though we can expense it. Some of them will comp it if you have a mid-tier status with their chain, but half the time they charge it to the room, and you have to still have to rectify that before you leave. I've rarely noticed a difference in the up/down speeds when a hotel offers "premium internet".

While we're on similar annoyances; many hotels have a 24-hour pass for their internet connections; you don't get much of a warning when it stops, but it's always at a point where you didn't need it to cut out or act weird. This is even more troublesome on a VPN, because you have to cut internet connection entirely (airplane mode), cease the VPN connection which is still looking for an internet connection, try again with a site that isn't secure (hey, AARoads.com), which then allows you to plug in your stay information again on the hotel's secure site, login to your VPN again, and finally get back to work. It's so much better if they either set it for the length of your stay, or actually just cut you off after 8-10 hours. Nobody can remember the 24-hour limit, and you can't just reset it.