Missing Features

Missing Features

Many systems are very handy, but could be a much handier if the implementers had given some thought to extending them a little. I have complained about a number of these issues in the past, but the goal here is to highlight them as unfinished implementations of good ideas.

When I started working at IBM, long ago, the second-system effect had recently been described by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month. This is the tendency to take small, useful systems and add features that sound good but add so much complexity that the systems become worse, not better. 

But some new features are very useful and worth some complexity. It's a line to cross carefully.

Phones - clocks

The time on a phone clock is generally given in the local time zone. If you don't know what time zone you are in, that is not enough information. The phone knows what time zone it's using, but this information is generally not displayed.

And a phone clock should include the next alarm time. I need to know at a glance when the alarm will sound.

Phones - always on lock screens

My comments on clocks apply to always on lock screen clocks too.

And the always on lock screen should be visible in any light. But with my Samsung phones, the display text is often too dark read. I guess they are trying to increase battery life. But what is the point of the always on screen if I can't read it?

My Google phones (from years ago) handled these issues. Why not Samsung?

And Apple still hasn't figured out that an always on lock screen is an important feature.

Cars - sticky switches for driving modes

Car manufacturers have apparently forgotten the value of sticky switches - switches that keep their contents when the car is turned off. Most notably on my Subaru Crosstrek, auto stop/start and sport/"intelligent" driving mode. Why can't it leave my settings alone instead of going back to default every time I start the car?

Cars - wake up - the line is moving

The Crosstrek has a neat feature that beeps for you when you are stopped and the car in front of you moves forward. That's in case you fall asleep in line at a stoplight. But it is not helpful if you are at the front of the line. With all the image processing in the automatic cruise control system (Subaru uses a pair of cameras, not radar), you would think that the car could tell you if the stoplight turns green. Or maybe this is crosses into the second-system effect.

Cars - backup cameras

Backup cameras in cars are great. I often would like to see the backup camera display when not in reverse. For example when going forward while parallel parking. That should be trivial, just a screen button.

Cars - daytime running lights

Daytime running lights seem like a good idea. But why only on the front of the car. Especially in fog, I want all four corners lit.

(My solution - I leave the headlights on all the time. This includes the corner lights. I have LED lights that don't use much power and last a long time.)

Cars - automatic headlights

Automatic headlights - another great idea except - they need to turn on at dusk, not when it is dark. And they need to turn on in the rain and fog. The light sensor could be adjustable so that it catches dim/cloudy/rainy conditions. And the car could turn on the lights whenever the windshield wipers are on.

Also, if you need to turn on the headlights when in automatic mode (because the car doesn't) - how about a separate button for that instead of having to change the mode? That way it could change back to automatic automatically.

As noted above, I just leave the headlights on all the time.

Cars - turn signals

Turn signals - how do you signal a U turn? A simple addition would be another blinking sequence - short, off, long, off, ... could signal a U turn. A bit more difficult would be the driver's switch for this.

Computer Mice

Mice would be much better if they could be put in horizontal or vertical only mode. On Amazon, I see a lot of mice with variable resolution. This sounds very useful. I will have to try one.

Stereos - tone controls

I guess my usage of stereo dates me. But I have found no point in having more channels for my sound system. And as my hearing deteriorates, high fidelity seems pointless. But as my hearing deteriorates, I need better tone controls. Specifically, more important than bass and treble is upper midrange, also known as presence. It adds clarity to speech (consonants) and timbre (the sound of an instrument that makes it unique). But this is seldom found on home stereos. I could add an external equalizer, but just a presence knob would handle most issues.

Incidentally, you could probably get rid of the treble control. Adding or subtracting with a 10 KHz shelf filter is completely pointless to me, and probably the vast majority of people that spend their life in the noise pollution of America. (This morning I did a one mile walk underneath a circling helicopter. It's hard to express the anxiety and frustration this causes.)

More On Sports

More On Sports

The Chess Clock

The chess clock was a brilliant invention. This is two stopwatches, each with a flag that falls after a set interval. Only one clock runs at a time. To start the game, the clocks are zeroed and the first clock is started. The first player makes a move and hits a button that stops the first clock and starts the second. The second player makes a move and hits a button that stops the second clock and starts the first. And so on until either the game is won or a flag falls. If your flag falls, you have exceeded your allotted time - you lose.

It should be used for more than just chess. Scrabble and similar games would be improved. You might need more than two timers, but that's easy with a phone app.

How about using it in debates to ensure equal talk time? Your microphone would be turned on only while your clock is running. Perhaps after your flag falls, the interval would be set for just 10 seconds to allow for short responses.

How about group discussions? An enhancement might be a "waiting" button to get in line to talk. And a "go to the front of the waiting line" button to get priority to talk - but this should probably cost you by reducing your time allotment.

Frisbee Golf

Frisbee golf looks fun. I've never tried it. But I wonder, why just Frisbees? What other object would be fun? Baseball, golf ball, dart? Corn hole bag, horseshoe, nunchucks? Paper airplane? Maybe punted football golf would be interesting.

How about any object golf? I wonder what would dominate - Frisbee, baseball, golf ball, dart? Certainly not a basketball, football, or shot (as in shot put).

Volleyball

Volleyball - why six players on a side? Beach volleyball games get by with two players on a side. Maybe part of the game is coordinating traffic.

I was going to ask why only the serving team get points for winning a rally. I investigated and found that there are now two types of scoring in use. In "side out" scoring only the serving side gets a point for winning a rally. In "rally" scoring, introduced around 2000, either side wins a point for winning the rally. Rally scoring makes a lot more sense to me.

Auto Racing

My favorite automobile racing was the Can-Am series from 1966 to 1974. Almost anything goes cars. Two seats, wheels enclosed by the body. This made it a technology race and the cars were very interesting. Unfortunately, each year, usually, one team had a technology advantage that led to domination. Can-Am saw wings (driver adjustable, attached directly to the suspension until they realized how dangerous that was), active ground effects aerodynamics, turbocharging, titanium. Now we have NASCAR with fake family cars, Indy cars are all the same car with a couple of engine choices. Formula 1 allows a lot of innovation, but tends to outlaw things that are too good. One change that I would like to see for all open wheel race cars is to reduce the allowed width significantly to make passing easier.

A New Class of Auto Racing

How about a new sport? Auto racing with self driving cars. The cars should be standardized to emphasize the driving. And probably be restricted to low enough power that aerodynamics is not a major issue. Maybe with standardized sensors - cameras, maybe radar. And maybe a standardized computer. Download each team's software into random, nominally identical cars right before the race.

This would be a great way to speed development of self driving cars. The goal of the cars would not be quite the same as an on the road self driving car, but pretty close. Drive a number of laps on a road course. Do not crash.

An interesting possibility would be alternate routes. The cars could track the current traffic conditions on the different routes and choose the best. Roundabouts would be another interesting addition.

I wonder if you could get a human driver to compete with the self driving cars?

The End of Streaming TV

The End of Streaming TV

For many years, I have used TV streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Peacock, HBO) on a rotating basis. (Actually Prime is part of Amazon Prime so I always have it). I like finding a long series and watching it start to finish. I have seen some great shows that captured my interest quickly (some slow starts) and kept it for the entire series. In alphabetical order -

  1883
  1923
  After Life
  As We See It
  Atypical
  Better Call Saul
  Bosch
  Breaking Bad
  Dead to Me
  Deadwood
  Enlightened
  Firefly (old antenna TV)
  Game of Thrones
  Hell on Wheels
  Justified (Lexington KY connection!)
  Longmire
  Mad Men (slow start)
  Nurse Jackie
  Orange is the New Black (slow start)
  Ozark
  Peaky Blinders
  The Queen's Gambit (Lexington KY connection!)
  The Sopranos
  Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
  Yellowstone (slow start)

Some other shows have kept me going - let's say good, not great -

  Disenchanted
  The Good Fight
  The Good Place (old antenna TV)
  The Handmaid's Tale (great book, The Testaments too, okay TV)
  House (old antenna TV)
  Monk (old antenna TV)

But now, there is nothing. I've tried an uncounted number of Star Trek series, Wheel of Time, The Man in the High Castle, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Witcher, The Mandalorian, Carnival Row, The Rings of Power, The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, The Expanse, Sneaky Pete, Mozart in the Jungle, The Flight Attendant. Highly rated shows - blech, boring or stupid.

Ten to fifteen dollars each month was good value for relaxing entertainment. No more.

Three Useful Products

Three Useful Products

Inmaker shoe laces

These are very short silicone laces, each one binds one side of the lace holes to the other side. They come in sets of stepped length, two sets to a package. There are several brands - they all look alike to me. The neat aspect of these laces, other than not needing to tie them, is that you can get a different tension at each position.

My goal was to tighten the front-most hole pairs to prevent my foot from sliding to the outside of the shoe, but keep the rest loose and comfortable. There were no pieces that were long enough for second part of the goal, so I have three Inmaker laces and a shortened regular lace for the rest. (I'm working on a way to splice two laces.)

These work well, although I don't know how long they will last.

Amazon search on "inmaker no tie shoelaces" on Amazon.

Roller blade desk chair wheels

The are soft rubber wheels mounted on standard desk chair hardware, easy to substitute on most desk chairs. They are quiet, smooth, and work well on hard surfaces with no mat. Most are three inch diameter and noticeably raise the chair - probably good for carpets but not probably not good for people under 5 ft 8 in. Hirate makes 2 inch wheels that have a robust looking steel mount with swivel ball bearings. Amazon search on "hirate office chair caster". Other 2 inch soft wheels are double wheels on plastic mounts with no ball bearings on the swivel - these might be great, I don't know.

Symple Stuff Aliceville Office Chair from Wayfair.com

A simple desk chair with one hard to find feature - knee tilt. By tilting "at the knee", really about eight inches in front of the seat mount strut, when you tilt, your feet stay on the floor, pretty much. Otherwise a pretty standard desk chair - cushion bottom, mesh back, height adjust, tilt, tilt tension adjust, lumbar support, lumbar height adjust, arm rests with height, angle, and width adjust. The arm rest angle adjust is annoying - it needs to lock in place. The chair works very nicely for me (5 ft 7 in). Except - the lumbar support angle lets it bite into my back. I used two zip ties around the lumbar mount (two oval plastic loops that let the support slide up and down). These squash the top of the oval loop to get the support angle where I need it - no more biting. This chair is way better than anything I could find locally.

I did not want to buy a chair without sitting in it first. At Office Depot, Staples, and a local office supply store, I found one chair that felt good. I bought it, assembled it, sat in it. After about ten minutes it hurt badly. A couple of days later it was worse. I disassembled it (a major pain) and returned it.

Wayfair was easy and shipped quickly. And I got lucky that it works for me.