Life's great mysteries (things that make NO sense)

[Bystander]

The "Watchman" ad, barefoot gallop along a dock/pier by an elderly gent barely missing rusty, badly driven crooked nail-heads.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Why are there camouflage reading glasses ? I bought a pair because they were on sale cheap. Now I can't find them.

 

[some bloke]

Here's another, common one: Scissors which come in packaging which requires scissors to get them out!

 

[DrGreg]

Credit card numbers are always quoted in groups of four digits like this:

1234 5678 9012 3456​

So why do most websites reject a number if you include the spaces? Have programmers not worked out how to ignore spaces?

 

[phinds]

Credit card numbers are always quoted in groups of four digits like this:

1234 5678 9012 3456​

So why do most websites reject a number if you include the spaces? Have programmers not worked out how to ignore spaces?

Even more to the point why are date inputs SO touchy on many systems and so variable from system to system?

I mean, credit cards at least are a specific application but dates are used with lots of applications.

 

[DaveC426913]

Have programmers not worked out how to ignore spaces?

The ones who listen to their Usability Specialists have.

 

[phinds]

The ones who listen to their Usability Specialists have.

Which is to say, very few of them.

 

[Keith_McClary]

The ones who listen to their Usability Specialists have.

Do they agree with the Security Specialists?

xkcd

 

[jrmichler]

Yes, this is for real. A company in Kentucky.

 

[some bloke]

Yes, this is for real. A company in Kentucky.
View attachment 284817

Alas I have no picture of it, but for several years where I used to work (presumably since fire escape signs were mandatory) they had a fire escape sign on a wall with no door. No arrow, just a sign indicating that there was a fire escape there. There was no bricked up door, there simply was never a door there to begin with!

 

[DennisN]

Yes, this is for real. A company in Kentucky.

The exit is in superposition.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Yes, this is for real. A company in Kentucky.
View attachment 284817

You can buy these signs.

 

[gmax137]

I worked at a power plant in Maine for a while. There was a long walk from the contractor parking to the gate. There was a short cut through a patch of woods; with a sign that said "This path is not a walkway" Ha, I wish I had snapped a photo but this was pre-cell phone days.

 

[phinds]

I worked at a power plant in Maine for a while. There was a long walk from the contractor parking to the gate. There was a short cut through a patch of woods; with a sign that said "This path is not a walkway" Ha, I wish I had snapped a photo but this was pre-cell phone days.

Reminds me of a story I read about the most intelligent walkway layout I've ever heard of. I forget the university, but back when it was founded there were several buildings and they couldn't decide where to put the walkways.

SO ... they didn't. They let it go for the first year and then looked to see where the students had beaten down paths in the grass. That's where they put the walkways.

 

[rsk]

That reminds me a bit of those stories (true or not?) about drivers who, when passing a deer crossing sign on the motorway, complain that the deer crossing should have been built elsewhere.

 

[Bystander]

Reminds me of a story I read about the most intelligent walkway layout I've ever heard of. I forget the university, but back when it was founded there were several buildings and they couldn't decide where to put the walkways.

Not certain that this is not an "urban myth," just saying...

 

[rsk]

I think it would be a good idea though. You see beautifully designed gardens and paths, with worn patches through the gardens where people have taken the short cut. If you made the paths fit the most likely route in the first place, there'd be no sense in trampling through the gardens.

 

[Rive]

Not certain that this is not an "urban myth," just saying...

The story is told many different ways, but the idea got 'official' recognition anyway.

Ps.: by this article, the story @phinds referring to might be about Michigan State University

 

[strangerep]

I just bought a new Breville electric blanket (not cheap).

From the instruction manual:

NOTE: It is not recommended that you sleep with the heated blanket switched on.

 

[Keith_McClary]

I just bought a new Breville electric blanket (not cheap).

From the instruction manual:

The "Benefits of Electric Blankets" section here is very short (and includes "The electric blanket also creates a mild magnetic field that helps repel dust mites." ).

I had one, can't remember why I bought it, or why I stopped using it long ago.

I wonder what those resistive wires are made of.

 

[strangerep]

The "Benefits of Electric Blankets" section here [...]

That article also says: "You should also never sleep or lie on top of an electric blanket [...]".
Sheesh, I've been doing that for decades: mattress, then e-blanket, then woollen under-blanket, then sheets, then upper blankets...

 

[TomGo]

This is an open discussion for people to voice their thoughts on things which just make no sense to them. And for others to possibly elucidate for them to help them understand.

I'll open with this: Touch screens in cars.

Who decided that this was a good idea? Particularly when the touch screen also controls the radio?

Case one: old fashioned car. I want to turn the volume up, so I reach over until I feel the volume knob, and I turn it, all whilst avoiding someone who just stepped out into the road.

Case two: modern car. I want to turn the volume up, so I look over to my touch screen, which has no haptic feedback so I have no idea what I'm pressing unless I look, and I press the button for the volume to go up, and there's a loud thud as somebody hurtles over the bonnet because I'm looking at the screen for my radio and didn't see them.

Just why? what was wrong with controls you can operate without looking? who decided that a RADIO needed to have a SCREEN? do you know what you call a radio with a screen? a Television.

So, what is it in this world that makes absolutely no sense to you?

Man after my own heart :)

Check here. I'm digging it for a while, in spare time
Several tries on some HUD versions, none really successful, I'm on this forum actually researching optics .

[link deleted by the Mentors]

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This is an open discussion for people to voice their thoughts on things which just make no sense to them. And for others to possibly elucidate for them to help them understand.

I'll open with this: Touch screens in cars.

Who decided that this was a good idea? Particularly when the touch screen also controls the radio?

Case one: old fashioned car. I want to turn the volume up, so I reach over until I feel the volume knob, and I turn it, all whilst avoiding someone who just stepped out into the road.

Case two: modern car. I want to turn the volume up, so I look over to my touch screen, which has no haptic feedback so I have no idea what I'm pressing unless I look, and I press the button for the volume to go up, and there's a loud thud as somebody hurtles over the bonnet because I'm looking at the screen for my radio and didn't see them.

Just why? what was wrong with controls you can operate without looking? who decided that a RADIO needed to have a SCREEN? do you know what you call a radio with a screen? a Television.

So, what is it in this world that makes absolutely no sense to you?

They put screens in cars to stop people from looking at their phones while driving. But for obvious reasons they should be called touch screams because you will only have time to scream when you look back up at the road.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

10 hot dogs to a pack.
8 hot dog buns to a pack.

 

[phinds]

10 hot dogs to a pack.
8 hot dog buns to a pack.

Oh, that makes perfectly good sense. They want you to buy 4 packs of dogs and 5 of buns. I mean, who wants to sell a piddling 1 of each?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh, that makes perfectly good sense. They want you to buy 4 packs of dogs and 5 of buns. I mean, who wants to sell a piddling 1 of each?

Okay then why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?

42

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If a corporation in the US is legally a person and therefore protected by the Constitution, then how do we put one in jail?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Could a massless black hole travel at the speed of light? And how could you know if they did?

 

[phinds]

Okay then why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?

I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure it's for the same reason that "palindrome" isn't spelled the same way backwards as it is forwards.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure it's for the same reason that "palindrome" isn't spelled the same way backwards as it is forwards.

Are there meetings where people decide these things?