BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: 53
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 08:45 AM

I agree.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 11:05 AM

With what?

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: 53
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 11:34 AM

I have an electric pencil sharpener that is very easy to use.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 11:37 AM

That's because it is modeled on prior familiarity....


A

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 01:29 PM

Which is a familiar priority...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Kim C
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 01:37 PM

Sorcha, I actually have TWO wind-up pocketwatches. One is an antique I picked up at the flea market for the low low price of $35 - it's about 100 years old, and runs like a dream. Mister bought me a nice Russian hand-painted watch one year, too.

Trouble is... I don't always wear pockets... maybe I will have to make me one that I can attach to pocketless garments. ;-)

When I got married my mother tried to convince me I needed an electric can opener. I told her the Ecko hand-crank can opener (which cost about $2 back then) was just fine. To this day I have never owned an electric can opener.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 01:39 PM

Get a brooch and a fob; hang it from your dress.......I had an electric can opener once--lasted about 2 mos and I tossed it and never bought another one.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Grab
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 02:32 PM

All this stuff comes with manuals. And I know there are a few translated-Japanese manuals going round, but they're exceptionally rare for anything costing more than £20 or so (if you buy a cheap £2 digital watch, don't moan that it's crap! ;-) So read the manual, and it'll work.

Setting the clock on the video, for example. The manual will say, "Press button 1, press button 2 for the number of hours, press button 1 again, press button 2 for the number of minutes, press button 1 again". You'd never guess that, but any fool could follow the instructions to do it - it's just a shame so few fools do. Even where it's less clear (eg. "button 1=time set, button 2=hours, button 3=minutes"), just play with it for a minute and anyone can work it out. And when you've got no manual at all (eg. borrowing a video camera) then just play with it a bit and see what all the buttons do - again, you'll work it out in time.

I've yet to buy *any* piece of equipment which I couldn't work out how to use completely from the manual. (Note that doesn't mean I've always had stuff working first time - but if you don't pay attention to the manual properly then you lose. ;-)

Havinng said that, I'm perfectly willing to say that there's some stuff that's built really clunkily with bad user interfaces. I hate that, bcos it implies that the designer hasn't put any thought into their work, and as an engineer that gets me annoyed. But it's never stopped me using stuff, it's just made it a little more difficult.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 02:35 PM

I am still concerned about the drop-down menus which stop working after you hit the first invisible "Off" button.

What can we do about this?


A

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 02:53 PM

Not my video, Grab. I followed the manual closely and it started similar as yours. Easy to follow and I did it slowly and methodically. Until I came to that instruction that said 'Now set the ...dial (number 32 in Figure 4) to the wanted value (you have five seconds time for that, after five seconds the system returns to the original state)'. I was too slow to find Figure 4 in that time not to speak of number 32 dial, so I had to start from scratch and had to write the instructions down on a paper for otherwise I never would have been quick enough due to reading time alone.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Kim C
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 03:23 PM

Sorcha, I will try that. Not only would I have my wind-up timepiece handy, but I'd also be making a fashion statement. :-)

Speaking of manuals... is it just me or do the Microsoft "Help" files totally blow? One day I was working in Word, and I was trying to insert a picture with some text or something - I don't even remember now - and followed every single step outlined in the Help file, and it Still Didn't Work!

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 03:25 PM

What bugs me is that every little thing on our stereo is small, black and discreet, it has a snug, flat front, the CD drawer slides away neatly, the cassette doors form a delicate smoked front, and it's all topped off by a volume knob the size of a tuna fish can sticking out of the front. The stupid thing is, it needn't be there that size. Why not a neat little sliding jobby or push button like the graphic equalizers or the tuning for the radio? No. It has to be the biggest and most awkward bit on the whole damn machine.

And it's a slightly different shade of black so you can't miss it!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 05:47 PM

Ah, yes, manuals...fine and good. But what do you do if the device in question was purchased by someone else at some prior time and the manual is nowhere to be found?!!! Often as not, this is the case. It is certainly the case with the microwave from hell, which is probably going to meet a well-deserved end next Monday. I have decided that death by shotgun isn't good enough for it, and am going to toss it in a live volcano instead, if one can be found around here. If not, there's always those handy cliffs down by the lakeshore. It should make a lovely splash.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 08:50 PM

Geez, LH, you'd be much happier with a working microwave -- why not just ask a 12-year-old??

A

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 09:19 PM

I don't have access to one at the moment. Maybe I should just phone up George Bush...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 08:43 AM

You're the tenth person I've told today. There's no demand for them.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Guessed
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 10:46 AM

Bat Goddess - that camera without a battery - er call me a pedant but --- does it have a flash?
Dangerous stuff that magnesium sulphate!   **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 04:19 PM

To paraphrase the joke about the funeral procession: Of course you can borrow my kid, just join the line.

A big part of the problem is that the cost of labor is approaching a large proportion of the cost of making inexpensive items. When you have to pay someone $15 to look at a $20 item, of course it's annoying. It's also a reflection of how inexpensive manufacturing has become.

I came across another wrinkle in the problem last week, lack of standardization. We had gone on a business trip to Jamestown, New York and videotaped a technical process on EP speed. When we popped the tape into a VCR, the picture was unusable. In an effort to get a usable copy of the tape, I hit 4 different video stores. Each showed a different degree of distortion on its test screen. Not one had a really professional unit that could be fudged to go slightly faster or slower. When I got home, just for the heck of it, I tried my home VCR and it worked perfectly, so I ended up lugging the whole into the office.

Go figure.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Bert
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 04:44 PM

I had to hook up a new DVD player a VCR and TV last week. Each one of them needed a flashlight to read the plug ins at the back. And neither the DVD player or the VCR had enough finger room to screw the leads in.

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: jimmyt
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 10:50 PM

I have spent the better part of 2 days trying to get cordless headsets installed on my office telephones "for convenience" They still don't work right!

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Oct 02 - 11:01 PM

If it's any comfort, Jimmy, they probably never will! This is part of the fun of using modern phone accessories. Think about getting a cellular and a couple of pagers, as well, and installing a microphone on your computer, plus a little webcam, for live chats via the Net. The fun just goes on and on...

I wonder when they will market little collar-mounted pet intercoms, so you can talk to your dog from five miles away and tell him to "get off the couch!"? (You'd also need a remote surveillance camera, of course, to see if he obeys or not. Hmmm. Sounds like a whole new field for lucrative profits here to me. Isn't marketing wonderful?)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Kim C
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 10:02 AM

I have said this before on other threads, but I'll say it again here, just for fun.

My daddy grew up in West Virginia (you hear that, Bobert!?) in the 1930s-40s. People were still farming with mules and horses, and grannies were still wearing those old dowdy sunbonnets. (hey, if it ain't broke...)

One time he said to me, y'know, we come up with all these modern time-saving conveniences, and what happens? We save so much time that we cram more things into a day, then we don't have time to do anything! Why, when I was a boy, your grandma did the laundry by hand once a week, and hung it out to dry, and we always had clean clothes to wear. [course I have to throw in, they probably didn't have many clothes to begin with!] Now, nobody has time to do the damn laundry.

And I thought that was just Daddy being funny. But I got to thinking about it, and by golly, he's right.

I have since heard others make the same comment.

And this reminds me of something else.... anyone got the Monsters,Inc. DVD and seen the little short film, Mike's New Car? Mike gets this swank new car with all these bells and whistles on it, and fiasco ensues. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 10:34 AM

Absolutely, Kim! Cuba was a spectacular example of what you're talking about. Just about everything is done the old-fashioned way there by most people, and you know what I noticed? There was more time for everything, life was much more relaxed and friendly, and it seemed like on any given day you had maybe 3 things to do at the most, instead of 50, and a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment in doing them. Plus more socializing, more fun, more conversation, more shared activities with friends.

You won't necessarily find this out, however, staying at a tourist hotel. You would have to live with some ordinary Cubans, which I did.

I highly recommend the non-modern lifestyle to anyone lucky enough to find an oasis in which it is still happening. The intention behind our "labour-saving" devices has not so much been to save labour as to increase production and profits.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: Kim C
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 01:19 PM

It's really my day job that makes me not have time to do anything. ;-)

Just this morning I saw a little plaque in a catalog that read, How wonderful it is to do nothing and rest afterward...

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 17 Oct 02 - 01:24 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Why don't they make simple appliances?
From: YOR
Date: 18 Oct 02 - 01:08 PM

This has been a fun thread to read!

I see that Brita has come out with a water filtering pitcher that contains a digital meter to tell you when to replace the filter. Let me get this straight, a water pitcher that requires a battery, huh!

I bought two cheap princess style phones, one for the night stand and one for the kitchen wall. The least little bump or brush with your sleeve as you go by and the phone jumps off the hook onto the floor. I'm old school I thought products are supposed to improve over time.

My replacement/second microwave has 1/5 the features of the old one and it cooks food just great, and 1/3 the cost.

Darn, lunch break is too short, Roy