What's been a backwards step in technology for you?

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tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
Once upon a time a torch consisted of a couple of batteries, a bulb and a switch so I could have it either ON or OFF.

Now with my modern torch I need to cycle through a load of silly flashing modes that nobody needs before I can get a steady light. If I am switching on my torch it is because I want to see something, not because I want to give myself epilepsy by looking at some sort of strobe effect.
 
Location
Rammy

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
LOL we have an oven, which has a clock/timer, everytime there is a power cut it gets reset, we can never remember the sequence of buttons to reset it.
Cookers that require the clock to be set before it'll work, just let me cook something!

I simply turn the oven controls on and then mash the clock buttons until the oven starts heating up.
I have been living in a rented house for the past five and a half years and the electric oven has one of those multi-button control panels and a display which shows a digital clock. The first thing I did was to try to set the clock but not only failed to do that, but also managed to disable the oven. (It probably still worked but was set to come on in 4 days time or something! :laugh:) It took me an hour of random button presses to get it to come on...

I am pretty good with technology so for a design to defeat me this badly takes an impressive level of crapness!

I don't actually need to use the timer but it annoys me that the time shown on the oven's clock oven does not match the one on the microwave.
 
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swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Half the times I want to use our microwave/oven it's to heat plates, so I have to turn it on (blip) use the top buttons to get from the default - microwave - to oven (blip blip blip) then use the bottom buttons to change the time (blip, blip-hold) then the temperature (blip, blip-hold).

It's second nature now, needless to say, but it's a bit of a faff. I could probably program all that in - it has any number of options we've never used/looked at - mostly combinations of microwave + oven - but TBH I've always been quite pleasantly surprised that I can get it to do my bidding at all. The woman I bought it from couldn't. Her son sold it and its partner oven to me on ebay, basically new, for half price, because she couldn't get along with it. "I want one with knobs you turn." Yes mum.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
The early low energy bulbs. I’ve seen brighter and longer lasting matches.

Whilst I agree, modern LEDs are genuinely good, which is certainly an advance.
The early pre-LEDs were a right pain as they didn't even come on for ages. You'd have to turn the light on, wander off then come back later when the light was on. You'd often get distracted so the light would get left on for an hour, but those ild fashioned lights that came on straightway, you be in the room, found whatever it was and be done in 2 minutes. Green? hardly
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Half the times I want to use our microwave/oven it's to heat plates, so I have to turn it on (blip) use the top buttons to get from the default - microwave - to oven (blip blip blip) then use the bottom buttons to change the time (blip, blip-hold) then the temperature (blip, blip-hold).

It's second nature now, needless to say, but it's a bit of a faff. I could probably program all that in - it has any number of options we've never used/looked at - mostly combinations of microwave + oven - but TBH I've always been quite pleasantly surprised that I can get it to do my bidding at all. The woman I bought it from couldn't. Her son sold it and its partner oven to me on ebay, basically new, for half price, because she couldn't get along with it. "I want one with knobs you turn." Yes mum.

Household hint #456 - splash a bit of water on each plate in the stack, stick in microwave for two minutes - plates hot !

I'm being serious by the way.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Half the times I want to use our microwave/oven it's to heat plates, so I have to turn it on (blip) use the top buttons to get from the default - microwave - to oven (blip blip blip) then use the bottom buttons to change the time (blip, blip-hold) then the temperature (blip, blip-hold).

It's second nature now, needless to say, but it's a bit of a faff. I could probably program all that in - it has any number of options we've never used/looked at - mostly combinations of microwave + oven - but TBH I've always been quite pleasantly surprised that I can get it to do my bidding at all. The woman I bought it from couldn't. Her son sold it and its partner oven to me on ebay, basically new, for half price, because she couldn't get along with it. "I want one with knobs you turn." Yes mum.
In my case:

My super-microwave (microwave/fan/heater element) oven is mainly used for baking spuds. The sequence of control actions is Jacket Potatoes - Start! The oven does some clever jiggery-pokery and works out whether it is a big spud or not and adds or subtracts cooking time accordingly. Late in the cycle it turns the elements up to brown the skin. It cooks to about 95% of the quality of a spud baked perfectly in a conventional oven but only takes 25-30% of the time. I'm very happy to save an hour for a tiny loss in quality. I'm about to go and bake one now!
 
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