Little things that annoy the hell out of you

[BareKnuckleRoo]

They're only going to end up losing their audience at this rate. The changes are obviously an attempt to force YT users to shift to G+, which is a horrible site frankly, and it even worse in the way it tries to be integrated with YouTube. Why do I need a separate inbox from YouTube to see stuff relating to YouTube? It's the worst design I've ever heard of.

[Lord Satori]

I hate companies that revolve around marketing. Marketing is supposed to help your creation to sell once it's finished, not build the entire damn thing from scratch.

People who say "literally" in a situation where it doesn't make sense.

Subtitles with spelling errors.

[Skykid]

When you're in a restaurant and you've barely had one bite before a waitress comes over and asks "is your food ok?".

[Lord Satori]

When you're in a restaurant and you've barely had one bite before a waitress comes over and asks "is your food ok?".

"no, it has this annoying bitch next to it."

[Skykid]

When you're in a restaurant and you've barely had one bite before a waitress comes over and asks "is your food ok?".

"no, it has this annoying bitch next to it."

:thumbs up:

[Moniker]

People who say "literally" in a situation where it doesn't make sense.

This absolutely kills me. An insane quantity of people use the word "literal," when they actually mean the word "figurative," which just so happens to be its antonym. Unacceptable. "Literal" is not a synonym of "very."

The other gaffe that really gets to me is the misuse of fewer/less. If it's an indefinite number, less is Ok. But if you have an actual number, you need to use "fewer." The more you know! The worst violation was on one of TNT's promotions: "More Movies, Less Commercials." Obviously, I could not continue to watch cable after that campaign.


Edit: I expect some nudes to follow Skykid's current avatar. Just sayin'.

[iconoclast]

Subtitles with spelling errors.

Even worse, subtitles that desync half way through a movie.

and fuck google+

[Lord Satori]

When google chrome spontaneously deletes all of the useful extensions I was fucking using.

Websites that have links that aren't actually links and expect you to highlight it and paste it in the fucking address bar.

Captchas.

[AntiFritz]

People who say "literally" in a situation where it doesn't make sense.

This absolutely kills me. An insane quantity of people use the word "literal," when they actually mean the word "figurative," which just so happens to be its antonym. Unacceptable. "Literal" is not a synonym of "very."

The other gaffe that really gets to me is the misuse of fewer/less. If it's an indefinite number, less is Ok. But if you have an actual number, you need to use "fewer." The more you know! The worst violation was on one of TNT's promotions: "More Movies, Less Commercials." Obviously, I could not continue to watch cable after that campaign.


Edit: I expect some nudes to follow Skykid's current avatar. Just sayin'.

I can't stand this either. It also annoys me that dictionaries now do this crap https://www.google.com.au/#q=literally Look at that second "meaning"

[Formless God]

Shortlinks. Anyone who uses that can go fuck themselves. I have no way to know if your bit.ly link will lead me to the page I want or to hotwhalesex dot com. What's worse, some sites are now smart enough to hide the real link from the page source so that I have to temporarily lift my NoScript to make their rigged GO TO PAGE button work.

Websites that have links that aren't actually links and expect you to highlight it and paste it in the fucking address bar.

Eh, that's usually safer for you because you won't accidentally open links. Plus it's entirely possible to pull something like this:
http://www.cave.co.jp/

[Jonst]

Misuse of the word 'epic'.

[Ed Oscuro]

People who say "literally" in a situation where it doesn't make sense.

This absolutely kills me. An insane quantity of people use the word "literal," when they actually mean the word "figurative," which just so happens to be its antonym. Unacceptable. "Literal" is not a synonym of "very."

99% of the time "very" seems to have no concrete meaning, too. Same thing with words like "interesting" and the peculiar phrase "quite the [x]."

Not so much an annoyance as a constant source of amusement, Stanley Lebergott's footnote on his interpretation of unemployment in the 1930s. Did you catch the part where he called the WPA similar to forced labor in Germany?

[emphatic]

When I update an application and it insists on removing the shortcut I've made for it from the taskbar. Every fucking time, iTunes!

[drauch]

Misuse of the word 'epic'.

Literally and epic are both making me go insane. Anytime I used the word literally now (correctly, even) I shudder and feel embarrassed like I've done something wrong.

[Jonst]

Yeah,epic seems to be used in such childish way to describe un-epic crap stuff by immature fuck zips...

[BulletMagnet]

Not so much an annoyance as a constant source of amusement, Stanley Lebergott's footnote on his interpretation of unemployment in the 1930s. Did you catch the part where he called the WPA similar to forced labor in Germany?

Ah, how little has changed.

On a related note, I'm also endlessly amused by those who shout to the heavens about how government spending under pretty much any circumstances (but especially when lots of folks are hurting) always fails to help, because what the economy really needs, all the time, is deficit reduction (excepting tax cuts for rich people, of course); they tend to ignore the pesky fact that the "Roosevelt recession" (the noticeable upward tick around 1937-38 in the chart you linked) occurred exactly when the "deficit hawks" of his day persuaded him to cut spending. Not that we have any modern-day parallels with global reach or anything, of course...

[Ed Oscuro]

Not so much an annoyance as a constant source of amusement, Stanley Lebergott's footnote on his interpretation of unemployment in the 1930s. Did you catch the part where he called the WPA similar to forced labor in Germany?

Ah, how little has changed.

Reading a bit more on the subject, a few interesting things fall out:

1.) The practice of not counting people employed by the government as the "right" kind of employment (which is not unreasonable in of itself) predates Lebergott; he just has the misfortune of attaching his name - and a rather questionable rationale - to this long-standing process.

2.) The practice comes from the National Industrial Conference Board (which has apparently sought anonymity since those early days by renaming itself "The Conference Board"), a research group formed by business interests in the aftermath of public outrage over early 1910's events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the Ludlow Massacre.

3.) It seems reasonable to say that what you want is for there not to be a depression in the private sector, so people can be easily hired here. However attaching this caveat complicates things (do people at the WPA act as if they are unemployed? Do they look for a job or stop spending?) and it also raises the spectre of private sector jealousy towards public sector jobs. Having people in the public sector costs money (taxes or debt) and makes labor less affordable for the private sector - both things they don't like. In a time like the Great Depression, however, it's a reasonable tradeoff, and what is quite interesting is that a "horrible Socialist" like FDR actually wasn't trying to create a permanent gigantic government jobs and works agency, but an emergency one, once you get past the sizable bump in the size of government needed to administer the New Deal and related programs (that were meant to be permanent).

So there are some concerns there on the part of business, but while I would call them legitimate, I'd also say it's legitimate for the average worker to say "I don't give a fuck" and ask that emergency jobs be counted as real employment.

[Specineff]

This is not so much an annoyance, but it still kind of rubs me the wrong way when I hear someone say "a period of time". What else can a period be made of? (No jokes about menstruation, please.). I may be mistaken, but it feels kind of redundant to say it that way.

[Ed Oscuro]

Sounds like the redundancy I try to remind myself to blast from my writing. For example, I found it strangely difficult not to open that last sentence with "the type of redundancy." Two words here and there make a difference; of course, rethinking what you're writing from the top is even better.

[BulletMagnet]

I recently added some new songs to my iPod for the first time in awhile...and from the first moment I did so I've been wondering "Have I become completely tech-illiterate, or is iTunes a hundred times more insufferable than it was last time around?" When I'm having an easier time finding my way around freaking Windows Media Player I'm in it pretty deep.

It's been some time since I last messed around with it, but back then I seem to recall being able to basically say "okay iTunes, here's the folder where I keep my mp3s, now copy those to the library so I can sync my player to it." Unless I'm missing something huge, there appears to be no easy way to do this anymore; moreover, attempting to do so has rendered my existing mp3s "invisible", and if I can't find a solution I'm going to have to rebuild my music collection from scratch. Again.

That said, does anyone know of a viable music player alternative to the iPod? My first mp3 player was a no-name model, and while it didn't do anything fancy I could simply place my music folders in it and play; since I got an iPod it's a fair deal more complicated, but my library has grown, and nobody else that I've found seems to make a "basic" mp3 player with more than a few gigs of storage space in it. Heaven knows I'd switch in a moment if I could.

[hecheff]

Misuse of the word 'epic'.

Literally and epic are both making me go insane. Anytime I used the word literally now (correctly, even) I shudder and feel embarrassed like I've done something wrong.

It could be worse, like the new misuse of the short-form of "swagger".

[brentsg]

It's been some time since I last messed around with it, but back then I seem to recall being able to basically say "okay iTunes, here's the folder where I keep my mp3s, now copy those to the library so I can sync my player to it." Unless I'm missing something huge, there appears to be no easy way to do this anymore; moreover, attempting to do so has rendered my existing mp3s "invisible", and if I can't find a solution I'm going to have to rebuild my music collection from scratch. Again.

File.. Add to Library..

What am I missing? I've been using iTunes for over a decade and haven't had to rebuild anything.

Regarding annoyances, I'm kinda sick of my kids school sending homework that's clearly intended for the adult to do.

[null1024]

I recently added some new songs to my iPod for the first time in awhile...and from the first moment I did so I've been wondering "Have I become completely tech-illiterate, or is iTunes a hundred times more insufferable than it was last time around?"

This, 200x. I remember being able to just drag files right from my iTunes Library right onto my iPod way back when I had one. I can't do that anymore [to do what I want, I've ended up with a 'put on device' playlist and autofilling from that when my parents bug me to put a CD on their iPhones, blah].

I pretty much use my phone or PSP for mp3 playback now. The PSP is problematic [it decides not to play files once it believes they are corrupted, even if they are pretty much fine, bit of a problem when dealing with stream rips], but my Galaxy S3 works great for listening to music. And I have a tiny GoGear Raga [with 23 hour battery life, which is the absolute best]. Only 4GB though, which is a shame.

but the best thing about those is that they all just have you drag your songs into /Music and enjoy

[BulletMagnet]

File.. Add to Library..

That much I'm aware of, but I coulda sworn that there was a more efficient way to do it all at once...doesn't iTunes do some manner of initial scan when you first set it up? I recall being able to just make it re-scan selected folders to look for new music to add...and my search for that option led to my massively screwing up my library, not to mention that iTunes' display of my albums is even more messed up than it appears on the iPod itself. As far as I can tell nothing's been "lost" outright, so I guess "rebuild" isn't really the applicable term, but sorting everything out is gonna be a royal pain in the neck.

[Aleksei]

I recently added some new songs to my iPod for the first time in awhile...and from the first moment I did so I've been wondering "Have I become completely tech-illiterate, or is iTunes a hundred times more insufferable than it was last time around?" When I'm having an easier time finding my way around freaking Windows Media Player I'm in it pretty deep.

It's been some time since I last messed around with it, but back then I seem to recall being able to basically say "okay iTunes, here's the folder where I keep my mp3s, now copy those to the library so I can sync my player to it." Unless I'm missing something huge, there appears to be no easy way to do this anymore; moreover, attempting to do so has rendered my existing mp3s "invisible", and if I can't find a solution I'm going to have to rebuild my music collection from scratch. Again.

That said, does anyone know of a viable music player alternative to the iPod? My first mp3 player was a no-name model, and while it didn't do anything fancy I could simply place my music folders in it and play; since I got an iPod it's a fair deal more complicated, but my library has grown, and nobody else that I've found seems to make a "basic" mp3 player with more than a few gigs of storage space in it. Heaven knows I'd switch in a moment if I could.

I've had my 16 gb ZEN mp3 player since 2006 and its still going strong. It has the easiest interface for adding music as well, go to my computer, click on the disc image, put the files in the correct folders, sync up, done. Fuck itunes - for almost 8 years now.

[hecheff]

Been using a 32GB Walkman (NWZ-A) for around 3 years; love the built-in NC features though finding replacement earphones is a pain (need to stick to retail ones).

[AntiFritz]

I dunno what cowon make these days but I've had my 16gb cowon s9 for like 5 or 6 years now and I can't see myself changing anytime soon.

[emphatic]

If your iPods are compatible, you can install: http://www.rockbox.org/ on it.

[Aleksei]

oh yeah the new acquisition of youtube by google, making everyone use google+ and fucking up comments and just generally making everything worse and big/pop ups/and FUUUUU, you can't even name your channel anything relating to communism, I tried. I ended up renaming my channel to youtubeisdeadthanksalotgoogle.

[Ed Oscuro]

Google has owned YouTube since 2006...you will enjoy this, though:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... to-comment