the bane of my existence

[mejeep]

'ya know what gets my goat? Minor yet recurring annoyances such as

• leaky batteries. I scrub the corrosion out of something every week. Happily, alkaline batteries do not corrode the contacts and nearby metal as horribly as zinc-acid.
• items missing one of the rubber feet.
• items missing the remote control
• "value engineered" devices with no buttons, or

Comments

[porsupah]

My feet are falling off. =:P Well, Hazel’s are, strictly speaking. It doesn’t make a lot of practical difference, given it spends its days on my bed, but I’d like to see to them anyway, just out of principle. ^_^

[mejeep]

If rabbits' feet fall off kinda like antlers, then the "lucky's rabbit foot" keychains are a renewable resource :-)

[scritchwuff]

It feels like the quality of everything has gone down in the last 10 to 20 years. So much "cost optimization" and "Walmartification" that it has become a headlong race to the bottom.

My pet peeve lately are that it's hard for find large containers of olive oil that aren't in plastic bottles. And the lids are so cheap that they barely stay on. And don't get me started on the "Supermarket Shrink Ray"...

[mejeep]

re: Walmartification: it's a sad reality how manufacturers are FORCED to cheapen their products to meet Walmart's price-point. It's legalized extortion and exploitation :-( HP and other computer makers add a "-W" to the model number for the WalMart version. It LOOKS the same, but there's more plastic inside whereas the NON-W version is a little more rugged

[tjcoyote]

Alkaline = Alkaleak. Every now and then I'll replace alkalines with either Eneloops or lithiums.

Universal remotes do need to be updated periodically to deal with the latest devices, unless you get the kind that can read an existing remote.

Barrel connectors - thanks for educating me on that, I didn't know there was a standard. I mostly stick to 5.5mm on anything I've made, generally 12v, but I've violated that to use whatever connector is already on the power supply in question. (eg. I have a 24V supply with the same barrel connector as the common 12V ones)

[mejeep]

re: barrel connectors:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_power_connector
   that seems to list the intended sizes, voltage and power
   
   https://forum.digikey.com/t/measuring-power-supply-barrel-plug-id-2-1mm-vs-2-5mm/401
   clever hacks to measure barrell connectors' ID (inner diameter)
   
   
2. I too stocked up on 5.5 mm plugs and jacks.
   

My main frustration is the way USB hubs want 5V
but use the SMALLEST barrel connector for that!

And whatever is on my bench today
that requires a connector that matches NONE of my power wall-worts :-(