Needless technology
Im not any kind of mormon technophobe, but I really do think things are getting a bit silly with the level of electronic crap in our lives.
Who thought it would be a good idea for the car to decide when to switch on the wipers or headlights? Surely this is going to make drivers even more lazy and complacent? Never mind the extra expense of sensors and computers and stuff....and i dread to think what it will cost WHEN it breaks. Had a look under the bonnet of a modern car? you can hardly see the engine anymore due to the amount of little black boxes full of electronic voodoo in there.
Fly-by-wire throttle - how can variable resistors, a computer system and a stepper motor possibly be better than a bit of wire cable? ever had a snapped throttle cable? you could bodge it to get you home with your shoelace or something else to hand, then a few quid for a new cable and 30 minutes to fit it and you were back in business, but once your electronic throttle packs up nowadays its a tow-truck to the dealership for a technician to plug it into a computer, then replace some modules that cost a few hundred quid. Progress?
Electric handbrakes? I hired a Passat a while back with this. When it works, its useable, but in 2 days it failed to release on hill-starts several times, leaving me looking a right nob. Why is this better than a handbrake lever?
People moan about poor mpg from their cars, when engine efficiency is generally much better than it was a few years go, but if they werent weighed down with all this useless nonsense, fuel consumption would be significantly better.

Its not just cars though....my deep fat fryer packed up last week. How hard can it be to fix?a thermostat and a thermal cutout....but no, its controled by a circuit board and microchips. why? how is this better? I cant fix it now, it has to go in the bin.
I need to buy a new mobile for my job (i dont have a personal one anymore, havent needed one for a few years now) but can I find a reasonably priced phone with just decent signal and audio quality, and possibly a simple camera?, no they are all laden with GPS, mp3, wap, wifi, whatever else...all rubbish I have no use for.
My washing machine doesnt have an off button! this very morning it very nearly melted. I washed a duvet and when spinning, it has a sensor that detects if the load is unbalanced in the drum, so it slows the spin right down to allow the contents to redistribute and hopefully be better balanced. The duvet was well within its capacity, but it got stuck into a loop of spinning up and being out of balance so slowing down, then spinning up and being out of balance again. It must have been doing this for over an hour before I noticed. Normally, you would switch it off and take the duvet out, but it doesnt have a chuffing off switch! pulling the plug was the only option.

Technology is great, but its not the be-all and end-all of everything and we DONT need electronics in every aspect of our lives.
(dave likes cheese, Mon 5 May 2008, 18:58, 3 replies)

KISS principle.
Keep It Simple, Stupid!

As an engineer I say that again and again. Yet do they listen?

*sigh*
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 5 May 2008, 19:27, closed)

I agree
In fact I posted a similar car-related rant earlier. Forgot about the electric handbrake thing though. That's another thing that gets on my wick.

As for phones, Nokia should bring back the 6310i, perhaps with a slightly better screen and maybe a camera. They'd fly off the shelves.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 5 May 2008, 20:06, closed)

Agreed
I made a similar rant. If you needed to replace a part in a Morris Minor it would be a couple of spanners worth or work and a simple remove and replace. Modern Cars you can't get near the part for all the electrical gubbins packed into the engine bay. It all requires trips to specialist garages so they can charge you a new mortgage for a fix.
(stubbledchin, Tue 6 May 2008, 14:54, closed)