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

[Mr Celine]

Cookers that require the clock to be set before it'll work, just let me cook something!

The oven light bulb blows.
I switch the power off, replace the bulb, turn the power back on, light still doesn't work. Turn power off, remove bulb, confirm it works, replace it, turn power on, light still doesn't work. Repeat several times. Eventually read the manual, nothing works until the clock is set. FFS.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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

Oh I quite agree And as we know leds have transformed bike lights beyond recognition.

 

[Profpointy]

Oh I quite agree And as we know leds have transformed bike lights beyond recognition.

That's true nowadays certainly.

Back in the day, an "early adopter" friend had bought an LED caving light and was extolling its virtues. Another friend responded "I prefer those old fashioned lights you can see by" Granted it had a tiny battery pack which went on the back of the helmet, compared to the heavy waist mounted batteries of the miners' lamps the rest of us had but it was a pretty dim light.

These days all my lights are LED - caving, cycling, petzl headtorches even my very impressive dive light, and if course nearly all the lights in the house

 

[Milkfloat]

The oven light bulb blows.
I switch the power off, replace the bulb, turn the power back on, light still doesn't work. Turn power off, remove bulb, confirm it works, replace it, turn power on, light still doesn't work. Repeat several times. Eventually read the manual, nothing works until the clock is set. FFS.

I had that - the kitchen fitters messed around with our new oven which was previously working. The top oven worked fine, but the bottom one stopped working after they had been. For 4 days we used just the top oven only, just as I was about to contact the manufacturers I had a 'I wonder' moment and set the clock - as soon as I press the first clock button the main oven kicked into life. My only assumption is that they do this on purpose to make sure that you take the instructions out of the oven before you turn it on and burn them.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Car sat navs have led to more traffic in back lanes than there should be. Time all sat navs had those roads set to 10 mph so they never pick them.

 

[mustang1]

Bike lights operated by a bluetooth connection on your phone.

 

[Blue Hills]

Bike lights operated by a bluetooth connection on your phone.

i feel blessed that i didn't even know such things existed.

 

[mustang1]

i feel blessed that i didn't even know such things existed.

I cnanot recall the name of company but you can alter the brightness, the flashing modes, things that youo could by pressing a button, you can now also do using your phone. Actually I thought of a cool feature that would sense if there is a cyclist right behind you then change the flashing red light to solid dim mode.

 

[Blue Hills]

I cnanot recall the name of company but you can alter the brightness, the flashing modes, things that youo could by pressing a button, you can now also do using your phone. Actually I thought of a cool feature that would sense if there is a cyclist right behind you then change the flashing red light to solid dim mode.

madness of course - and related to both this and the point above about masses of modes to cycle through, I'll stick with kraut good sense and my Ixon IQ plus.
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy...MImZLbkung6wIVFIfVCh1q8AU_EAQYASABEgIGyPD_BwE
unlike some lights where I can never remember the mode sequence, and getting to a mode you want may involve cycling through lots of others (including FFS off!) when this is on and you are riding along a dark lane, simple button presses simply switch between two modes - low and high - no off. Switching the light on or off requires a long press. It's a simple joy - and I can get on with enjoying the ride/avoiding potholes.

 

[Black Sheep]

The oven light bulb blows.
I switch the power off, replace the bulb, turn the power back on, light still doesn't work. Turn power off, remove bulb, confirm it works, replace it, turn power on, light still doesn't work. Repeat several times. Eventually read the manual, nothing works until the clock is set. FFS.

The mistake here is bothering to change the bulb, ours hasn't worked for a couple of years, during which time we've had the heater coil changed at least once (chap came 10am Christmas morning as it went the evening before!)

Bike lights operated by a bluetooth connection on your phone.

I've got some lights with a touch button on the unit to turn them on, 50/50 chance of it actually working, what's wrong with a clunky rubber covered switch like on my CatEye?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Not read the whole thread.

Have we had the Devil's spawn of electronic handbrakes yet?

 

[Oldhippy]

Automatic braking in cars!

 

[Profpointy]

Totally agree on over-complicated cookers. Many's the time I've been in holiday cottages and can't get the cooker to come on without a huge faff. They have half a dozen modes, seemingly intertwined with the clock in some arcane way like a puzzle in Tomb Raider. FFS I just want "getting hot" mode ! We once had a (perfectly straightforward to be fair) multi-setting cooker and we always just used it on fan-oven mode in any case. In one cottage I even had to ask the landlady for help getting an induction hob to work. Turned out I needed to reboot it like a PC as it had got its knickers in a twist and was never going to get hot just using the controls.

 

[Oldhippy]

Alexa and similar.

 

[ColinJ]

Alexa and similar.

What's wrong with them...?