Bossy Gadgets
Glenn Reynolds hits the nail on the head with this rant about
Bossy Gadgets:
Keep It Quiet
I've used this column in the past as a means of issuing impassioned pleas to product designers. Now it's time for another, at least as heartfelt as the ones in the past: Please, keep things quiet. Or at least give me the option of doing so.
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.
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.
Likewise, I have most of my more sensitive electronics -- TVs, computers, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, cable boxes, etc. -- all hooked up to uninterruptible power supply devices, so that they'll keep going even if the power fails. (One nice side effect: With my DSL modem and wi-fi router on a 1500VA router, I can continue to have wireless internet access for days without outside power.)
The downside is that every single one of these devices thinks it has to tell me when the power's out by emitting a series of loud beeps. This seems silly: Generally, if I'm awake, I notice when the power goes out (the lights going off are a major indicator), and if I'm asleep I certainly don't need to be awakened with that news. The computers know to shut themselves down if the power's off for too long, and the other stuff doesn't matter. But not one of the UPS devices I've got has a simple switch or button to shut off the beeping. With some of them, it can be shut off via software commands if you've got a computer hooked up and the proprietary software installed, but that's a really poor substitute. The product designers saved fifty cents by not putting in a simple "off" switch for the beeper, but I'm paying the price -- and I'd happily pay ten times that much extra for one that would keep quiet.
Creeping featuritis. They already have the beeper for emergency situations and they have a CPU with some spare cycles but panel indicators and switches are expensive. The outcome is #1) - the control panel is very difficult to work easily as each button has several different functions and #2) - the beeper is used for every imaginable thing under the sun. The dryer shuts off and there is one missing sock. Beeeeep! A leaf falls outside. Beeeeep! Your neighbors dog is pregnant. Beeeeep! Gimme a break!!!
Posted by DaveH at December 7, 2006 8:44 PM