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[Varche]

Might just be a getting older thing.

Periodically our TV flashes up a message saying it is going to switch off in 60 seconds unless you press OK.  No pattern to it and cant figure out why even with google.

Lets listen to some BBC radio as we drive along. How hard can it be to get it up on the app and bluetooth it to the in car radio.? After all U2 automatically starts playing whenever my mobile gets in the car.

I get out of the running car to let the dog out. Can’t get the tailgate open. Try various random sequences and success. Other days do same process and tailgate opens fine.

Not looking for solutions, just highlighting what must be a universal problem

I used to joke that one day we will get up and nothing will work because the tech doesn’t recognise you. I am thinking that it is all downhill for older people as we understand less and less how anything works. And either waste time trying to fix things that aren’t right OR just put up with stuff not working like my Dad does.

Anyone else driven mad by stuff that doesnt work as it should.?

[STEMO]

The tv auto off will be under the energy saving settings, or at least it is on our samsungs.

[Doctor Gollum]

Get ther wyfe to read the instructions...

[Andy B]

The tv auto off will be under the energy saving settings, or at least it is on our samsungs.

Our Samsung telly doesn't but the Samsung surround sound box does .... I wouldn't mind if it warned you first ....  but it doesn't 

[Varche]

The tv auto off will be under the energy saving settings, or at least it is on our samsungs.

Yes, tucked away in our Samsungs is “ auto off if no user input for Four hours”  No wonder it doesn't happen very often. Now disabled.

[YZ250]

A lot of TV's default to switch off if no activity is sensed within two hours. Any input from you, whether it be volume up/down or channel change will start the two hours again. What we tend to forget is that we have additional boxes attached, so this can apply to them as well if settings are not changed.

On modern cars, a running car is designed to lock the doors/tailgate. Before you get out to let the dog out, pop the lock button or press it on the remote if keyless. The remote should work if you are stationery. 

The one that catches me out is car door sensors. I very often open the car door to see how close I am to something (old habits, even though I have cameras with directional lines  ) and it throws it out of reverse for safety reasons. It also applies the EPB when you open the drivers door with the engine running, so you go to readjust the cars position and it won't move. 

[Varche]

Yes, I have figured out quite a few of those. Like electronic handbrake goes on if you open the door. Auto handbrake doesn’t work without seat belt on.

The tailgate is a new one as we have been opening it to let the dog out for a couple of years now. Maybe some bizarre interlock with position of gear lever, footbrake, wind direction , headlights not on, ashtray full.....

Life goes on.

[Kevin Wood]

Technology switched a few years back from being for the benefit of those who purchase it to being for the benefit of the large corporations who developed it, unfortunately.

[Varche]

I think you are right.

I do like quite a lot of tech like exterior/interior lights staying on for a a few seconds on opening or leaving your car. Some things though just seem to be there to bloat the list.

[Nick W]

Technology switched a few years back from being for the benefit of those who purchase it to being for the benefit of the large corporations who developed it, unfortunately.

it doesn't help that adding useless features to a computer controlled device is easier than making the mechanical parts work properly.


Controlling them through complex sequences of four buttons is something that really annoys me, especially when entering numbers when a keypad would make the thing efficient to use. I mentioned this at a lecture on the underlying maths of electronic dividing, and the lecturer seemed genuinely surprised that actual users of the tool considered scrolling through several layers of menus to be a poor interface!

[Lizzie Zoom]

Ah, yes, technology!!

It is meant to make life easier?

But, no, I have spent a lot of time sorting my daughters tech out on her PC, mobile phone, landline, and my grandchildren's i-Pad's and tablets.  All kinds of problems with passwords, systems that do not talk to each other, and frankly humans who are being led by these "advances" in human abilities without understanding all that they do, or can do, with or without human input

The most recent example is one of my grandsons playing the game Klondike on his tablet.  He, a 9 year old, was really enjoying getting rich and spending his gains in computer 'money'.  His mother was not so happy when she suddenly realised her bank balance was not what it should be.  In fact it was £420.53 light due to her son making 27 separate transactions in December whilst playing the 'game'!!

One transaction alone was for £71.99, and all had been charged to her debit card whose details, somehow, were accessible to the lad!  He did not know what he was doing, and was just playing an enjoyable game!

I spoke to Google Play in the States, but they said, even with the circumstances, it was not their policy to refund on these transactions, but advised me to speak t the developer of the game.  I wrote them an email, and subsequently communicated with Klondike through a portal in their game.  But, no surprise, they said the transactions had been made, the 'money' spent within the game, and it was down to the debit card holder to control such spending.  Legally I had no argument, so my daughter has accepted it as a bad mistake of life. I have introduced blocks / limits on the grandsons ability to charge anything to 'the card', and of course deleted the said game!  He has learnt by this mistake

It really emphasises though how tech is now leading us in directions we may not want, and how all of us must wake up to the fact we have to take back control before the machines take over, as in the Terminator films!

Bloody tech. Arghhhhhhhhhh!!