January 31, 2006 02:14 PM

Broken: Textual annoyances

Rant mode on...

Some things that irritate me when I read them in news articles, blog posts, and other textual media:

• "jaw-dropping" and variations thereof - "This music is jaw-droppingly good." No, your jaw didn't drop. You mean it's very good. Say so (or find some less tired cliche to help).

• "wait for it" - "The movie was, wait for it, King Kong." As though writing that phrase makes you extra witty - get it? You're making the reader literally wait for the end of the sentence, since they have to read your annoying phrase first. (BTW, misuse of "literally" is also annoying.)

• "some" in amounts - "There are some 300 houses in that neighborhood." As though you don't know whether it's more, less, equal to that number, and "about" is just too declasse - maybe "some" will sound academic and extra-smart!

(Yes, these are just irritating to me, not necessarily to anyone else... no need for a long discussion in the comments section about whether it's technically broken. But please let me know what other textual annoyances are your pet peeves.)

(Rant mode off.)

Broken: Hotel rooms sign

Harriet R. Goren submits a picture of a sign at a hotel:

If you were staying in this hotel, which direction would you go to get to room 1519?

If you said "right," you're wrong.

The absence of a dash caused me, and I'm sure many guests before me, to stumble confusingly down the wrong corridor until realizing we were supposed to read the sign across, not down.

January 30, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Dishwashing soap

Clayton A. of Topeka, Kansas points out:

This dishwashing liquid was found by my Russian teacher while she was in Russia.

According to my teacher it isn't just a typo, because there was a whole shelf of them.

The bottom reads, "With fantastic action removes grease."

January 28, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Microsoft SQL Server 2000

Chris Lieb writes:

I know that I'm new at SQL, but with messages like this, I doubt I'll ever advance past the level of novice.

Really, is this good, valid T-SQL, or is something so wrong with it that it confused Microsoft SQL Server 2000?

January 27, 2006 09:03 AM

Broken: Air conditioner control panel

Ready to set the A/C settings in your room at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel?

Hope you have a mechanical engineering degree!

Broken: Embassy Suites training

A picture from the Embassy Suites Town Lake in Austin, Texas:

This was taken a few years ago - I thought it was strange for a hotel to offer harassment training...to its own employees, no less!

(I'll add that it was a very nice place to stay - good location and good service. Of course, that was before the training...)

January 26, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Rose Bowl parking stub

Gary Edstrom writes in:

I received this ticket when I parked at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for an event a few months ago. Notice at the top of the ticket that it has a place to write the area in which you parked. But at the bottom of the ticket is the statement that the ticket must be placed on the dashboard.

So what good is writing down your location on the ticket if you can't take it with you?

Please note that this is a single piece ticket. It doesn't have a detachable stub.

January 25, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Interesting napkin

Hotea Horwitz points out:

I got this napkin one day with my sandwich from a deli.

I am wondering, are one armed nuns the only ones who are allowed to throw this napkin out?

January 24, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Resealable sock bag

Bob Sifniades points out:

Fruit Of The Loom sells socks in a resealable bag. I can't think of a good reason for this. It won't keep water out for long, because the bag intentionally has holes punched in it to let out trapped air.

Maybe it's to keep the unused socks from falling out, but I think most people would just throw all the socks in a drawer after opening the bag.

Just for fun, I tried using the resealing bag feature. No matter how or where I pulled, the plastic around the zipper tore, and the zipper never opened.

January 23, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Wendy's order screen

Joe Crawford submits a picture of a Wendy's order screen taken while traveling through Utah:

I don't think the screen worked quite as well as they hoped.

January 21, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: First or Second Church of Christian Scientist

(Just for fun..) Daniel points out a church whose banner, saying "First", covers the stone etching of "Second."

January 20, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Departure gates sign

Richard Sedley submits a picture of a sign taken at the Dusseldorf airport in Germany:

This sign appeared on a stairwell telling you that the departure gates were down the stairs.

It does make for an interesting icon, but can't say how helpful it would be if you were in a rush to find your gate.

January 19, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Used tires ad

Ron Dylewski submits a picture of an ad spotted along Route 28 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

I assume they mean "Brand new AND used tires," but I'm not entirely sure!

January 18, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Sears coupon

Andrew Shieh submits a coupon from Sears:

I placed an order at Sears.com, and received this message when the order was received:

"As a thank you for your purchase, we would like to offer you a $5 coupon to use on your next in store visit."

I looked at the coupon and read the details. First, it said $5 off of $25. Ok, that's not unreasonable.

Then I read the fine print, which read, "Savings [...] apply to merchandise only when you use your Sears Premier Card or Sears Premier Gold Mastercard."

This bait-and-switch tactic is broken. I did not use a Sears card to place my previous order, so this is a sneaky fine-print method to get unwitting customers to use the coupon and sign up for the Sears credit card.

It is broken to try to mislead your existing customer base.

January 17, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: "No pets" sign

Tom McGahee sends in a picture of a "No pets" sign:

This sign is at the South Carolina Welcome center.

Are pets allowed if one follows the restrictions?

Or are pets not allowed at all?

January 16, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Cingular phone and customer service

Greg Kloiber writes in:

My phone calls on my Cingular service have been breaking up and dropping out.

When I went to the Cingular site to tell them, it suggested: "For faster service, we can best help you with this question over the phone." And then it told me to call them on my Cingular phone... which is dropping calls.

January 14, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Do Not Enter sign in Delaware William E. Smith submits a picture of a Do Not Enter sign: This sign is at a church parking lot near Oceanview, Delaware. Should I follow the arrow or the sign?

January 13, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: University of Michigan form letter

Dan Hennes points out:

A few years ago I took the GMAT and opted in to receive emails from different MBA programs. I recently got a form email from the University of Michigan MBA program (Go Blue!).

As you can see, they tried to auto-fill the recipient's name in the email, however since they didn't have mine, it came out as "Dear No Value,".

I can see they really value their relationship with me.

January 12, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Donato's breadstick order portion

Jim Kovalsky writes:

We stopped at Donato's, a local pizza place in Lexington, Kentucky. We were looking at an order of breadsticks on the menu which said:

Full Order
6 sticks

Half Order
2 sticks

Since when is two half of six?

January 11, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Netscape 8 on Mac OS X

Adam Christianson points out:

If you try to download a new version of Netscape 8 for the Mac, the site tells you that a Mac version is not available. However, on the Netscape site, it states:

"For now, Mac users can download the Windows XP Version."

That is interesting, since last time I checked, OS X could not run a Windows application.

January 10, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Restroom signage

Andrew Koch points out the bathroom sign at Jack's Bar in Warren, Rhode Island - with a much newer "men" sign under an older "ladies" sign. Which is it? Both? Are you sure?

January 9, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: NCR card swiper

I notice this NCR card swiper every time I check out at Whole Foods. It asks me "OK?" and I reach for the "Yes" button, but then I notice it also tells me "Press Enter".

Why ask "OK?" if you're not going to let the customer answer the question?

January 7, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Office for Mac component removal screen

Michael Batey writes in:

Well, as an appetizer, it's totally broken that you have to remove the trial version of Office before installing the full version of Office for the Mac -- especially since the trial version of Office is preinstalled on many Macs.
 
Second, what are we to make of this screen? It says, 'Select the check boxes next to the components you want to remove.'
 
Then, there's an indented check box that says 'Don't remove files I created.'

Hang on; didn't you just say 'Select the check boxes next to the components you want to remove?'
So now, I'm checking a box to identify the components I don't want to remove?
 
Okay. Now there's another box that just says 'Preferences.' Can that mean keep my preferences?
No, it must mean remove my preferences. Or does it?

January 6, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: CPL Petroleum password recovery

Ian Chard writes:

The CPL Petroleum website has somewhat missed the point of having a security question and answer as a password recovery mechanism. The problem: it doesn't let you see the question.

January 5, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Best Buy interior column

Aaron Tang writes:

I headed over to the Best Buy in Boston to buy some printer paper and found myself jammed between a huge metal column and a shelf in order to reach a stack.

If there's going to be a huge metal column in the way, don't put any products behind it. I had no clue how much each stack was, nor could i reach certain ones. 

Perhaps it's a marketing trick, cause the stack of 500 sheets that I managed to grab cost me $10.

January 4, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: LG refrigerator doors

Daniel Brown writes:

As part of our kitchen remodel, we purchased an LG refrigerator. The refrigerator is split with two vertical doors, the freezer is a single drawer on the bottom. (Freezer on the bottom should have won an award of some kind for usability.)

However, this device has one of the worst kinds of usability issues - the kind you don't notice for about a week. The doors, unless forcefully closed, do not close themselves. In fact, they actually hold themselves open about an inch. (This is part of the magnet mechanism that seals the doors to each other as well as to the refrigerator itself.) Hence, unlike nearly every other refrigerator door, these must BE CLOSED rather than relying on gravity to do the job for you.

To add insult to injury, the unit will beep at you indicating that a door was left open.

January 3, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Digitas job response via Monster.com

An anonymous reader writes:

I recently submitted my resume online via Monster.com for an opening at Digitas for a Senior Interaction Designer.  The submission process was easy; no complaints there.  

The problem arose when I received an auto-reply that my submission was received at 5:56 pm and then another reply at 5:57 pm saying, "While your qualifications are impressive, we do not feel they are a strong match for our current needs."  

What?!?

Obviously, no human being could have read my resume and turned me down in a minute.  I guess that it was keyword searching my resume for relevance, but there are many terms in our industry for the same thing. So, I tried to reword my resume and resubmit (not lie - just better match my language to be consistent with the job posting).  I got the same response a minute later.  I know I'm qualified to be considered for this position based on the job description, and yet no human eyes will ever see my resume.  

What happened?

January 2, 2006 12:03 AM

Broken: Vending machine dispenser

Andrey Radak points out:

You know there is a design flaw in this vending machine when several people can't get at their product.