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Thursday, December 07, 2006
Quieten down, ye appliances
Glenn Reynolds writes in TCS Daily:
Ditto my Aquaguard. Once one turns it on, it beeps every couple of minutes to indicate its readiness to be of service. How much easier it would be if all these machines simply had a button to the effect of "no warning beeps." We're the consumers, we own them things, we should be in charge.
Needless to say, I wouldn't be blogging right now if my laptop wasn't beeping furiously. "You haven't been blogging enough," this recorded robotic voice said after beeping eight times. "Get to work right away."
I've noticed that over the past few years, more and more of my appliances want to tell me things, whether I want to hear them or not, something they accomplish via a variety of beeps and buzzes.Well, that's precisely how many of my appliances behave as well. If I put something to heat in my LG microwave, it beeps when the heating is done. And then again after a few seconds if I haven't taken the dish out. And then again. And again. Immense irritation ignites.
My Bosch dishwasher beeps to tell you that the dishes are done. It then tells you, again and again, with five piercing beeps every five minutes, until you open the dishwasher and cycle the "power" button to the off position. Don't want this feature? Tough. There's no way to disable it, short of ripping it open and cutting the wires, something that has crossed my mind more than once. It must be one of those Teutonic discipline things: Ve haff vays of making you unload the dishes.
Ditto my Aquaguard. Once one turns it on, it beeps every couple of minutes to indicate its readiness to be of service. How much easier it would be if all these machines simply had a button to the effect of "no warning beeps." We're the consumers, we own them things, we should be in charge.
Needless to say, I wouldn't be blogging right now if my laptop wasn't beeping furiously. "You haven't been blogging enough," this recorded robotic voice said after beeping eight times. "Get to work right away."
