What modern technological equipment baffles you?

[classic33]

Why isn't it called 'the tin' then?

Down to the weather conditions at the time. They said it's all up there, pointing to the cloud floating past.

 

[DaveReading]

ePassport gates at airports. I've never been successful getting through one anywhere in the world.

 

[Markymark]

Bookface

 

[Yellow Fang]

Did you mean Grinder?

Do not.

 

[Randomnerd]

May I be the first to point out that the whiff of stale Fray Bentos pies is starting to make this place smell a bit....studenty?

 

[Randomnerd]

I’m not yet ready to discuss it, Doctor. My Brazilian Gristle fetish appals me; just darent jump from the Amazonian Gravy Train, doc.

 

[cyberknight]

Selfies

 

[Tin Pot]

I've tried to eliminate these from my life. Haven't printed anything since ~2011.

I did. I “went paperless” and in fact “cashless” back in 1998.

Had to buy printers for my wife/kids though.

 

[Drago]

Folding deckchairs.

 

[Tin Pot]

Printers are bastards.

Eighty years and they still can't make the shitting things work properly? Honestly, I work with loads of high tech lab equipment and the thing that gives me the most grief is sodding printers.

Can’t wait until there’s a 3D printer in every house...oh, wait.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

indexed gears

 

[Andrew_P]

Selfies

Beat me to it, I have spent the last 52 years avoiding where possible having a staged photograph taken yet everyone these days are forever taking pictures of themselves then sticking them up on the internet one of the most bizarre things in the modern world

 

[Tin Pot]

Folding deckchairs.

Ha ha - you reminded me, my daughter destroyed one last week after wrestling with it for ten minutes.

 

[Tin Pot]

The Cloud.

Then. You sir are fully qualified to be a CIO.

 

[colly]

I can't get my head round how sewing machines and printers work. They work so fast and are so efficient in producing excellent results every time, it is just a miracle for me.

Having used one almost every working day for 30 odd years I can relate to that. A sewing machine engineer did say to me once that no matter what the machine is doing, no matter how complex the stitching appears, whatever it does, it does it in one single revolution.

It used to baffle me that the thread could be inserted through one side of the fabric with the end of the thread nowhere in sight and yet form a stitch with another length of thread underneath the cloth.

I still don't 'quite' get it but essentially what happens is that the two threads are twisted together ( by the bobbin carrier I think) so that the twist in the two threads comes right in the middle of the cloth. So the top thread dips into the cloth and comes out again rather than actually going right through. The same for the bottom thread. The twist links them together.

Thusly:

Other mechanisms are available.

Edit: In addition to my sewing machine I also have an over-locking machine which oversews the edges of cloth that is liable to fray. It uses 3 threads at once ( 4 thread over-lockers are available too) and 3 needles all at odd angles and one of which is curved. It uses quite a fine thread and is an absolute bugger to re-thread. The thing is it works at a phenomenal speed without snagging or breaking the threads and it also trims the cloth at the same time. That really is a mysterious business.
It's an old machine, maybe 50 years old. Still works beautifully.