May 31, 2005 08:45 PM

Broken: Things that need to STOP

From my Good Experience newsletter, here's my latest column: Things that need to STOP.

1. Cell phones that make a noise when they power down
2. Requiring a password to check voice mail from one's own phone
3. The increasing use of light-gray-on-white text by hip website "designers"

Case in point for #3, the attached image shows the Philips homepage. The new Philips slogan is "sense and simplicity", and what says simplicity more than light grey text on a white background? I don't get it. Is black text too complicated for users? If so, let's start reprinting all the books in all the libraries across the world - not to mention newspapers, flyers, bills,... gray text rules!  -mh

Broken: Recycle Bin message

Ptolmey, and several other readers, have pointed out this puzzling activity in Windows. Ptolmey writes:

Just curious, I decided to click "Empty the recycle bin" when the recycle bin was empty. The Recycle Bin, having nothing to empty, apparently submitted itself instead (see screenshot at left). Of course I don't want to delete Windows!

May 30, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Yahoo word verification

Connor Broaddus's submission also appeared in a recent Popular Science. Nice work, Connor!

Connor writes: "This is a Yahoo word verification, but what does it say?"

May 27, 2005 12:13 AM

Broken: Lexar EULA

Sumit Paul-Choudhury writes:

Attached are two screenshots of the dialog box for the End User License Agreement that popped up when I tried to install Lexar's (free) ImageRescue software on my PC. Doesn't give me much confidence about the quality of any images I might recover with the software...

Broken: Pepsi vending machine sign

Ciarán Bohane sends in this photo from a motel in Dunedin, New Zealand, and says: "I was thirsty, but not that thirsty." (Punctuation counts!)

May 26, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Print Screen button

Steve writes:

I'm not sure if this qualifies, but every PC keyboard ever shipped includes a "Print Screen" button. In days long since passed, I think this button may have actually printed what was on the screen. In modern times, though, the "Print Screen" button just copies the screen to the clipboard. The contents of the clipboard must then be pasted into a graphics program and printed from there.

Shouldn't this button be labeled "Copy screen to clipboard, paste into graphics program, and then print"? Or maybe just "Copy screen to clipboard"?

I have no screenshot because I'm on a Mac and I'm assuming that at least one This is Broken fan can rustle up a PC keyboard.

May 25, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: British traffic lights

OK, just one more on international traffic signage...

Andrew Rollason writes:

I took this picture of a set of traffic lights when I was back in London a few weeks ago.  There are many like this, and this is not the worst example by far.

This combination of lights means "at this time you may go forward, but you should wait to turn right (but not in this lane)".  It must be part of a scheme to separate locals -- who have learnt to respond to the patterns of light instinctively -- from everyone else -- who can be seen screaching to halt at the red light, much to the chagrin of the locals and my amusement from the pavement/sidewalk.

While the logic is technically correct (if you know that green arrows have priority over red circles which in turn take precedence over green circles) it's not particularly intuitive and it just doesn't feel right to pass the red light without slowing or stopping.  If you do make it past, don't look to your right as you'll see another signal for the same junction indicating a "stop" in all directions.

May 24, 2005 08:40 PM

Broken: Commuter train warning

Sign on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train (which goes in and out of New York City).

Broken: (question) Words on pavement

Simon Trew poses a question for TIB readers:

In the UK, when text is written on the road surface, if several lines are needed then they proceed in the normal fashion from top to bottom (the top line being farthest away). In the US and Canada (and I think I have seen this elsewhere in continental Europe) they are written so that the nearest line is the start of the message. Being British I always find this rather strange since I read the message backwards, although no doubt the reverse is true for Americans, Canadians etc.

I can see the logic in each (write it as you would on the page; write it so the first line is seen first). Which is better?

May 23, 2005 10:48 AM

Broken: (For fun) homage to Flickr

Take a look at lickr, my homage to Flickr. It's a sort of best-of of This Is Broken... if you have friends who haven't yet checked out TIB, send them to lickr:

lickr: http://markhurst.contagiousmedia.org

Broken: Yoplait yogurt container

Laura Decker writes:

There are two things wrong with the Yoplait yogurt container.

Problem 1: the seal.

To open this  container, you have to pull off a metallic seal.  These metallic seals used  to have tabs on them so that the seal could be easily pulled off.  But, for  some reason, the company stopped making the seals with tabs!  So, instead of merely just pulling a tab,  you must now either dig under the seal with your fingernails or your spoon,  which is more difficult and time-consuming.

Problem 2: the shape of the container.

Notice that this container is tapered at the top.  The yogurt  containers of other companies are tapered at the bottom, which makes perfect  sense.  With this container, it's hard to get a spoonful of yogurt from the container to your mouth without  some of the spoonful being caught by the edge of the container.   Ugh!

It's not necessarily "broken," but poor product design nonetheless.

May 21, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: United Airlines' penalty policy

Jason at 37signals points out United Airlines' penalty policy: NONREF/CHANGE100PLUSFAREDIF//CXL...

May 20, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: FedEx truck drop-box

Deena writes:

I put an envelope in the drop box of a FedEx truck one week ago. It contained important tax-related material that needed to get delivered.

I just found out that it wasn't delivered. In fact, I've discovered that FedEx actually lost the priority overnight envelope. I contacted FedEx and spoke with two people about the situation. They still haven't found the envelope.

The second person I spoke actually told me that he was surprised that we hadn't lost something through FedEx before. He said we should never drop stuff in the box on the sides of their trucks. He said we'd been lucky. (!!)

I have to contact FedEx again today because the driver of the truck never called me like he was supposed to.

[This is a pretty incredible story, so I've verified that it's all true. If anyone from FedEx would like to get in touch, I'm at mark at goodexperience dot com. -mh]

May 19, 2005 12:02 AM

Broken: Orbitz search results

Scott Palmer writes:

This screenshot from Orbitz shows some results for a flight I was trying to book online from Baltimore to New York.  This is a simple hop, a commuter flight.  Both results shown in the screenshot require an overnight stay and a stopover in Salt Lake City, Utah!

This turns a trip that's only 170 miles into one that's over 3800 miles - amazing! There has to be some "common sense" in the process; no human travel agent would have come up with these flight options.

May 18, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Cotton swab package warning

Brian Davidson writes:

After flipping over a box of generic, Qtip-like cotton swabs, I found a disclaimer saying, "CAUTION! Do not insert in ear canal." What else are these for?  Oh wow, it answered my question - for baby care, beauty, and "arts and crafts."

May 17, 2005 02:24 PM

Broken: Star Wars gift bag

Boing Boing reports on a disappointing gift bag at a Star Wars premiere event.

(They should have seen the awesome Gel 2005 gift bags - books, music, magazines, magnets, ...!)

Broken: AdvantEdge discount coupon

Robert McLaughlin points out this AdvantEdge nutrition bar coupon for .50 cents off... what a deal!

Broken: Sequence of hours in the day

Aaron Feaver writes:

This is broken. Why is it that we count AM or PM beginning with 12, then dropping down to 1 and continuing logically from there to 11? How illogical is it that 12PM follows right behind 11AM? I realize it's probably not going to change. Still, I'd sign a petition.

May 16, 2005 12:05 AM

Broken: Atlanta parking garage sign

Sean Romer writes:

An Atlanta parking garage provides information that, while perfectly accurate, is practically useless. The added information with the cashiers' schedule is easy to overlook without stopping, and even then it doesn't really help in making a decision.

Remove the "Park" sign (this is a parking garage after all), and provide two exit signs that indicate which streets you exit onto.

May 14, 2005 12:06 AM

Broken: Voice mail prompt

Steve Jackson writes:

When I check my voice mail at the office, I often do it via speaker phone. Today when entering my password, I hit one key off at one point, resulting in an error. Instead of simply telling me that I'd entered an incorrect password, it starts reading off to me exactly what I'd input: "1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 is not a valid password" (nor is it my actual password, of course). If I hadn't picked up the handset right away, anyone wandering by could have heard my entire password, with the exception of the one character I screwed up.

And, yes, I realize it's partly my own fault for listening to voice mail on speaker. But repeating back to me the incorrect password accomplishes nothing. Just tell me it's wrong and prompt me to re-enter.

May 13, 2005 12:01 AM

Broken: Prius check engine light

Paul Schreiber has a problem with his Toyota Prius:

according to the dealer, i have to drive the car for at least 20 minutes 2-4 times for the car to believe the gas cap really is fixed.

stupid computer!

Read Paul's full entry.

Yes, he's already read the previous TIB post on the Honda CRV.

May 12, 2005 12:04 AM

Broken: OCR preferences panel

Thanks to Jessamyn West: Here's the picture of "the entire preferences panel for some of the worst OCR software I have ever tried to use"...

May 11, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Cafe toilet

Ji Kim writes:

These are from the bathroom at the Muddy Waters cafe in San Francisco. It took a while to figure how I could flush the toilet..... :)

May 10, 2005 12:07 AM

Broken: Microsoft Word read-only document

Paul Schultz writes:

After viewing and printing a read-only MS Word document, I tried to close it, and was asked if I'd like to save my changes. Which changes would (or could!) those be, since it was read-only?

May 9, 2005 12:02 AM

Broken: Braille room number

Jeff Pierce writes:

While staying at the Contemporary Resort in Disney World last year, we spotted this. While walking down the hall on our way from our  room to the main lobby, my nine year old - who had just learned to read Braille - pointed to the room sign and said, "See, that's Braille. The first symbol tells you it's a number and... wait a minute. IT'S WRONG!" he  shouted. For readers of Braille, there are two rooms numbered 7304 at the Contemporary.

[Sure enough... check here. -mh]

May 6, 2005 11:05 PM

Broken: Blue notepads

Bill Fridl writes:

Am I the only one who thinks blue telephone message pads don't make sense?

Two of the four available colors--red and blue--are almost too dark to write on!  (Black ink shows better than blue, and whiteout sort of has a chance...)

May 5, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Stop sign

Well worth a look: a contradictory stop sign.

May 4, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Expedia "new rate" quote

Chris Zarate writes:

Expedia.com really had me puzzled on this one.  I had just completed entering all my credit card info, and hit submit, only to be greeted by this silly message.  I almost canceled the whole process out of fear that the new rate wasn't showing up, but really was higher.  It ended up working out fine, but how hard could it be to do a number compare before freaking out a potential customer?

May 3, 2005 12:02 AM

Broken: "Secret question" error

Royce Holmes writes:

But this is my father's middle name! Is having a middle name that is less than 5 characters bad?

May 2, 2005 12:03 AM

Broken: Dell keyboard ad

Ron Chen points us to this Dell ad. Ron adds, "Note the keyboard and the phrase 'Easy as Dell'."

Look closely...