Technical features, you can really do without?

[Trenchfriend]

Another good thing:
The typical "bassbooster"-features on hi-fi-equipment. Who ever really needed that? When I'm enjoying the music, I don't want to stay up and turn this on and off. Crap...

 

[tonyb]

Another good thing:
The typical "bassbooster"-features on hi-fi-equipment. Who ever really needed that? When I'm enjoying the music, I don't want to stay up and turn this on and off. Crap...

Over here in God's Country, comrade, lives a certain subculture that distinguishes itself with car stereos with window-rattling bass. An uninitiated observer (me, for instance) would be left thinking that distortion was the aim.

I understand liking LOUD music. Certain genres of popular music are made for it. But, damn, is a car that audibly buzzes from the amplified bass vibrations adding anything to the experience?

 

[vitanola]

I'm no kind of mechanic. But even I could diagnose and address most problems that came up with the cars I owned in my early driving days.

New cars don't breakdown with the frequency the old ones did, but when they do, be prepared to shell out some serious scratch. Very rarely is the problem something your average motorist can make right on the side of the road.

I understand that one cannot repair a faulty main or connecting rod bearing with a piece of one's belt on these new cars, nor can an Indian head nickle stand in for a freeze plug.

 

[tonyb]

I understand that one cannot repair a faulty main or connecting rod bearing with a piece of one's belt on these new cars, nor can an Indian head nickle stand in for a freeze plug.

True, dat. I attempt very little by way of repairs on modern automobiles. Chances of REALLY messing things up is just too high.

 

[GHT]

Automatic transmissions. Pfpht!

With automatic transmission you can't double declutch, a very handy way of slowing down when six inches of snow will slew your car round under conventional braking.

 

[Old Mariner]

I happened to have recently bought a backlit watch (timex indiglo). I had one for years and it went through quite a bit - cracked and scratched glass cover, repeated accidental washings, and so on - but that danged thing kept working. I must have worn out the light that lit up the face because that stopped working. I had wanted another, but for a long time couldn't find one. The one I recently got is a bit more classy (no 24 hr face), so I have decided to save that for decent occasions, and keep my more "bulked up" one (non-indiglo) for everyday use. I was curious to see how the new one lit up, and it is different than my old one...but with it being used less, it should last longer.

As for other technology -

I don't keep a microwave, and I am really reluctant to get another, if only because the last one I had died after only 2 years. I don't have that kind of money to throw away. Yet, at the same time, it seems like more and more frozen dinners are now microwave only. >_> So, I look for ones that I can heat up in the oven ok by removing them from their non-oven compliant container. I love the steamers dinners but I don't think they can really work well in a standard oven.

I keep no radio. I would rather pick my own music out and play it (usually on a laptop) - cuts out the commercials. I do have a playlist on my phone.

My cell phone is my only connection to the outside world. Internet and all. It's handy to be able to pay bills online when one is laid up recovering from a big surgery (and it's also more cost effective - no stamps and no money orders). I have no newspaper or magazine subscriptions, nor any online ones. My kindle library is on my phone as well.

I have no TV either.

So, for me, with technology - there's a reason why I have what I have. My (new) laptop won't be used for online stuff but more for printing my own labels and pictures. The Kindle I have - reading, but use that for web browsing when out (or my tablet).

I cannot say I really fight much with technology (or am annoyed by it) as I interact with it so little and only for specific purposes.

 

[belfastboy]

Gadgets and gizmos in automobiles are things I dislike. I drive a base model, standard tranny Hyundai SUV and love it. I have rented cars, last one in Scotland last autumn, and it was a pain in the ass. Especially the lane monitors...driving the narrow backroads of Scotland the warning beep was always going off. Unbeknownst to me I could have turned it off.....but then I would have had to read the directions. Takes me back to the days of driving my all time favourite car, my 1967 Beetle. Unlike my 1965 the '67 had a gas gauge but that was about it for features. I loved it, got me to where I was going, good on gas, I could pull over to the side of the road and fix just about anything on it. I miss it.

 

[Nobert]

Any electronic device that tries to talk to me, including my answering machine that probably dates from the 90s.

Digital washing machines that have the whole programable cycle controlled, and that constantly beep at you. Actually, anything that beeps, blips, electronically chirrups or plays little maddening snatches of repetitive bland music that make the theme to All Things Considered sound like a Brahms concerto by comparison.

Duvets-nothing but obese quilts.

Uber: Get a cab! But with your phone! It's disruptive!

E-books: There's already more reading material in traditional pressed-tree form than I could hope to absorb if I lived to be 500. Enough in my house to keep me occupied for a few years.

Televisions everywhere. At gas pumps, for pity's sake.

Flip-up toothpaste caps. Keeping track of where one left the cap after the brush has been summarily loaded is one of the ways we keep our lives in some kind of vague order. Also, those little disposable floss forks. And heavy-metal-looking, 37-blade shaving razors. And toothbrushes with swirly, curly, grips and futuristic streamlined doodads. Whenever I look at the massive selection for a simple model I think, "I just want a toothbrush, not a sonic screwdriver."

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the 394 variations of toothpaste each brand now has available.

Squeezable bottles of eveything.

Living room furniture so bloated you lose a house pet in the cushions.

 

[Old Mariner]

Squeezable bottles of eveything.

Now that you mention it... I am reminded of the sweet relish I tried out in the squeeze bottle form. Needless to say, there are some condiments that are not meant to go in such bottles. Relish being one of them.

The whole thing is self defeating. There's the tiny squeeze hole out of which the relish is supposed to come. It does not work well because the relish being large and small pieces. Usually what happens is an oozing of juice followed by an exposion of relish pieces. I got so fed up that I emptied it into a jar and now just use a fork to put relish on my hotdogs.

No more squeeze bottle relish for me. Now if it's cheaper to buy it that way, then I will still get it in that container and just empty into my relish jar.

 

[Nobert]

Now that you mention it... I am reminded of the sweet relish I tried out in the squeeze bottle form. Needless to say, there are some condiments that are not meant to go in such bottles. Relish being one of them.

I almost specifically mentioned relish, that was the one that inspired the notion.

I remember going to a high-school girl-friend's house and annoying her because I was derisively amused by the fact that her family had butter in plastic squeeze bottles.

I also think of the episode of Q.I., when the American comic Reginald D. Hunter was going off about the British condiment Marmite, to which Stephen Fry archly replied, "This from the country that invented spray-on cheese."

 

[Zombie_61]

...Takes me back to the days of driving my all time favourite car, my 1967 Beetle. Unlike my 1965 the '67 had a gas gauge but that was about it for features. I loved it, got me to where I was going, good on gas, I could pull over to the side of the road and fix just about anything on it. I miss it.

My first car was a 1961 Beetle. It had a gas gauge, but the original owner must have paid extra for it because the car still had the fuel reserve tap handle on the bulkhead just forward of the pedals and passenger footrest; that was discontinued in '62.

Back to the main topic, I suppose almost all of the "applications" on my cell phone qualify. Unlike most people, I mostly use my cell phone to make phone calls. Every once in a while I'll receive a text that requires a response. That's pretty much it. I don't even know what all of those "apps" do except take up space.

 

[Old Mariner]

I almost specifically mentioned relish, that was the one that inspired the notion.

I remember going to a high-school girl-friend's house and annoying her because I was derisively amused by the fact that her family had butter in plastic squeeze bottles.

I also think of the episode of Q.I., when the American comic Reginald D. Hunter was going off about the British condiment Marmite, to which Stephen Fry archly replied, "This from the country that invented spray-on cheese."

I'm guilty of attempting the butter too. Needless to say...that didn't last long either, and I eventually switched from butter to margarine spread altogether. It's just more practical for my living situation/circumstances.

 

[Bushman]

Many of the ones in my car would be preferably gone if I could figure out how. There's a feature that keeps track of my tire pressure, and of course it was the first thing to go faulty. So, now every time I turn on my car, it tells me to get it fixed. I check my tire pressure on my own volition often enough that I don't need nor want to spend money to have it fixed.

I also have a built in OnStar system that on occasionally lets me know it's not set up. Again, another feature I'll never use nor want, and has simply become nothing more than a nuisance.

 

[belfastboy]

My first car was a 1961 Beetle. It had a gas gauge, but the original owner must have paid extra for it because the car still had the fuel reserve tap handle on the bulkhead just forward of the pedals and passenger footrest; that was discontinued in '62.

Back to the main topic, I suppose almost all of the "applications" on my cell phone qualify. Unlike most people, I mostly use my cell phone to make phone calls. Every once in a while I'll receive a text that requires a response. That's pretty much it. I don't even know what all of those "apps" do except take up space.

I had a '59 Ghia, a '64, 65, 67 Beetle, a 69 Van. The van and the '67 were the only ones I remember having the gas gauge but the '65 may have had one. I was notorious for using the reserve tank, forgetting about it and then truly running out of gas. Horrible feeling reaching down with my foot to flip it and feel that it had already been flipped.
I have a $10 a month to month plan....talk only. Most of the time I don't know where my phone is located.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The first time I saw a gas pump with a television on it, I found myself reaching for a jack handle. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to put it back in the trunk.

 

[navetsea]

I wish there is refill pack of everything with peel-able sticker so I can transfer the sticker onto the pump bottle or other container I use in case I need to read the direction and to quickly find out what is what.

 

[Bushman]

Cruise control that automatically reduces your speed to that of the car in front of you. I guess its important if you're texting or dialing with the tiny touch pad Lizzie mentioned (also my pet peeve). The guiding principle that chips are cheap so give the customer a bunch of value-added features they don't need or want. Obviously no profit in the KISS approach.

I've never used cruise control, and I doubt I ever will. I like the feel of actually driving, not the car driving itself and me just making sure it doesn't hit anything like some babysitter with a toddler. I used it once when learning to drive, never cared for it, and never used it since. Drove from Chicago to Eureka, California and back without touching it once.

 

[GHT]

I understand that one cannot repair a faulty main or connecting rod bearing with a piece of one's belt on these new cars, nor can an Indian head nickle stand in for a freeze plug.

I never did believe the well known trick of substituting a broken fan belt with a lady's stocking until that particular disaster struck. It was very late at night, middle of nowhere, no cell signal and to cap it all, atrocious weather. But I managed to get my wife's stocking taught enough to keep the pulley wheels rotating and it got us home. I felt quite pleased with myself that night, even if I did get soaked.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When I was a car driver, I always prefered "basic models" without any bullshit.

"What's not at the car, that cannot get broken!"

That's one of the reasons, why the Dacia are the ultimate bestseller in Germany. They are basically 90s cars.

My favorite example of unnessary gadgets in Germany is still the electronic-controlled automatic A/C.
What a waste of (partly unreliable) electronics, just for the few days of inconsistent german summer!

The classic, simple ventilation/heater, with the A/C button to put the compressor on and off, would be totaly sufficent to me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I loathe -- absolutely hate with the flame of a thousand suns -- power windows. Whoever invented these monstrosities and foisted them off on a suffering humanity never lived in a climate with cold winters -- where the window freezes closed at the slightest provocation and will not budge unless you risk breaking it by prying it open with a screwdriver.

Hatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehatehate power windows. There is no justifiable reason for them to exist.