Our RV Adventures

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I spent the morning working on the Knife website until I ran out of things I could do. I finally stalled out with a bunch of questions that I need answers to before I can go any further. But my client is at a knife show this weekend, so he hasn’t been able to answer me.

So I started back on sorting stuff into GO/STAY piles for the storage room, and then sub-sorting the GO stuff into STORE until needed and STORE until next winter. Then the STAY stuff I’m trying to sort into TOOLS, PARTS, RIG PARTS, etc..

All I can say is it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, maybe just off the streets. Seems like I still manage to get in trouble, no matter what.

As far as my Peeves, I’ve got a bunch of them, and seem to be gathering more all the time.

First up is Software/Apps that seem to maintained and updated on the “Peter Principle’. From a book written in the late 60’s, it’s formally written as “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”

Putting it in simpler form, a guy does a good job at work, so he gets a promotion. Then if he does a good job in that position, he gets another promotion. But eventually he’s going to be promoted into a job that he’s not very good at. Of course he’s not bad enough at it to be fired, especially since he has all those promotions on his resume. So there he sits until he retires or dies, doing a crummy job.

Now think about it. Doesn’t that explain what’s wrong with pretty much every organization, government or corporate? But it seems to happen with software too.

My first example is an app called ‘Flixster’ A touch of a key would show you all the theaters in your area, the movies they were showing, and the times they were showing at. You could even buy your tickets through the app.

And if you wanted to see a particular movie, another touch of a button and you’d see a list of movies showing and then the nearest theater that was showing it. All there in big bold tabs. But now you have to hunt around trying to decipher tiny little icons, and it now takes several extra steps to buy your tickets.

They’ve basically ‘improved’ until it’s not as useful any more.

And then there’s useless products.

The first one is a car backup camera called Zus. I saw it at Sam’s Club the other day priced at $99.00. It’s big attraction is that it operates through and displays on your cell phone so it doesn’t need a monitor But since it’s short range, it disconnects from your phone as soon as you leave the area of your car.

So when you come back to your car, you have to get out your phone, start the car, connect up with the camera, and then hold it or place it so you can see it while you’re backing out.

And making things worse, according to the reviews, it can take as long as a minute or two for your phone to connect with the camera.

So exactly how is this useful?

The last one I’ve only seen on TV, but it still looks stupid. And it costs a lot of money extra. It’s the LG InstaView Refrigerator.

On the commercial a kid goes up the refrigerator,  knocks twice on the door and the inside lights up, showing the contents through the normally darkened glass. Then the kid opens the door and gets out what he wants.

Now your first thought is that this ‘saves energy’ right?  But not really. Unless you keep the door open long enough for the food inside to actually warm up, it only takes a few cents to cold down the little bit of warmer air that got in. And the kid still had to open the door anyway.

And how much does it cost you to save these few cents? According to online, maybe as much as $1000. The retail on one of these fridges starts at $4299.

Ouch!

I’ll save the rest of my peeves for another blog.

Thought for the Day: 

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