331–340 of 443 posts
Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.
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Things like this make me glad I'm not an audiophile. What you describe seems very annoying, but thankfully I've never noticed anything like it.
I don't think there's much benefit to being an audiophile, unless you're so rich you can actually enjoy your insanely expensive setup in your sound-proofed room with your specially-purchased lossless audio sources. Luckily, very few people who claim to be audiophiles can actually hear the difference in a blind test. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/...
It doesn't require you to purchase overengineered or overhyped technology any more than being a cycling enthusiast requires you to weigh your accessories in grams. :)
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Every microwave I have ever owned have been under $30, purely because I didn't want to go digital. Analogue egg-timer knob - good enough accuracy, and instantly pliable
I've never understood why microwaves have an alarm that can't be disabled. They actually make me angry every time I fail to stop it manually at <10s.
Saved (fallible) me from a lot of cold meals.
My current microwave doesn't have that and in ascending order of silliness I have 1) forgotten food and eaten it cold 2) gotten hungry and gone to heat up something only to find there was something already in the microwave 3) (worst) opened the microwave to find something there from the night before.
Nothing will ever come close to convenience of analogue volume knobs. They give both immediate action and infinite granular control. Same goes for kitchen stoves. All the modern touch controls with step-based control is the absolute nightmare in terms of UI.
Every microwave I have ever owned have been under $30, purely because I didn't want to go digital. Analogue egg-timer knob - good enough accuracy, and instantly pliable
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I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off. It is incredibly hard to find this. I have one somewhere, but the knob was a little silly: https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX I think a better design would be a ring around the circumference that you twist. But I agree - when it came to putting a good stereo in my car (when you used to be able to do such a thing) I always kept looking until I foun…
> I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off... a ring around the circumference There is one: the Jetbeam RRT-01, at least certain iterations of it. Most designs use a separate power switch. This isn't more common because there's a patent covering using a Hall effect sensor in a ring around a flashlight body for this purpose, and the patent holder, Surefire has sued several manufactu…
Funny that I didn't see one from surefire. They should be cleaning up.
I have encountered the opposite problem. Some speakers turn themselves off automatically when they don't detect any sound on the line for a certain amount of time. So when you want to have your monitoring application ring the alarm on the speaker, you need to be aware of it so you don't miss it. Depending on the speaker you may need to be continuously playing some very low volume audio to prevent them from auto-turni…
I have this issue with a subwoofer - coupled with a bad amplifier/grounding/(something?) it creates an immense WOOOOF every time it turns on and off. This causes my house to shake 15 minutes after I go to bed, just as I'm about to fall asleep. Have definitely considered auto-starting something that played a continuous low tone to prevent it from happening.
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At least microwaves with digital controls actually have full numpads. Every digital-control oven I've ever had the misfortune of using only has increment/decrement buttons. Want to set the oven to 450F? Have fun pressing the increment button twenty times for five degree increments starting at 350F. It's an abomination.
The best microwave I've ever used didn't have any numpad at all. Instead, it has a horizontal sliding touch pad. It sounds stupid, but it works SO WELL. Move your finger slowly and it increments one second at a time, move it quickly and it jumps faster. On the front there are only two buttons (stop/clear and start/+30sec) and the touch slider and screen. If you open the door there are a few more buttons for setting p…
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> I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off... a ring around the circumference There is one: the Jetbeam RRT-01, at least certain iterations of it. Most designs use a separate power switch. This isn't more common because there's a patent covering using a Hall effect sensor in a ring around a flashlight body for this purpose, and the patent holder, Surefire has sued several manufactu…
maybe when the patent expires in a few years this will become common then. Funny that I didn't see one from surefire. They should be cleaning up.