Trivial things that make you annoyed beyond expectations?

[Asa Post]

My kitchen scales.
I'm trying to weigh out 40 grams of mashed potato flakes. It gets to 39, and stops.
I add a tiny amount of flakes. Still on 39.
I repeat the addition a number of times. Still 39.
I add a few more flakes. 41 grams!
And it happens time and time again. The bloody thing's sentient.

 

[Alex321]

The phrase "this last week". Wth does that mean?... This week, or last week?

Neither.

It means the 7 days leading to now.

Whereas if you say "this week" today (Tuesday), you mean the week running from Monday ( yesterday), and if you say "last week" you mean the week ending on the Sunday just gone.

 

[Mike Ayling]

My kitchen scales.
I'm trying to weigh out 40 grams of mashed potato flakes. It gets to 39, and stops.
I add a tiny amount of flakes. Still on 39.
I repeat the addition a number of times. Still 39.
I add a few more flakes. 41 grams!
And it happens time and time again. The bloody thing's sentient.

I could live with 39 or 41. Either will not affect your recipe

 

[Beebo]

I could live with 39 or 41. Either will not affect your recipe

My analogy scales measure in 50g intervals. So accuracy to anywhere near 50g is tricky.

I can’t see the need for 1g accuracy unless the OP is in fact weighing out cocaine and not potato flakes. 😁

 

[Mike Ayling]

My analogy scales measure in 50g intervals. So accuracy to anywhere near 50g is tricky.

I can’t see the need for 1g accuracy unless the OP is in fact weighing out cocaine and not potato flakes. 😁

Agree

 

[Alex321]

My analogy scales measure in 50g intervals. So accuracy to anywhere near 50g is tricky.

I can’t see the need for 1g accuracy unless the OP is in fact weighing out cocaine and not potato flakes. 😁

I agree that 1g accuracy is not needed for normal household purposes, but 50g is ridiculous - that is almost 2 oz in old money, and that is a big chunk of the quantity of many ingredients in many recipes.

I would say that for cooking, unless you are always cooking large quantities, you need accuracy to within about 10g.

7g is 1/4 oz, and most balance scales come with 1/4 oz as the smallest weight.

 

[matticus]

Non-digital scales avoid most of these problems 😇

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

This can happen with mechanical scales controlled by a spring system

advantage is that the battery has not run out every time (i.e. every 6 months!) that you come to use them

solution is to press the scale gently with your finger to quickly compress the spring a little bit and let it spring back
this gets it past any small amount of frictional resistance

 

[Asa Post]

I could live with 39 or 41. Either will not affect your recipe

I can’t see the need for 1g accuracy unless the OP is in fact weighing out cocaine and not potato flakes. 😁

Agree

I know that you're all correct, but my OCD won't accept approximations.

[This is not an attempt at humour]

 

[ColinJ]

advantage is that the battery has not run out every time (i.e. every 6 months!) that you come to use them

My digital scales have no difficulty weighing at g intervals. I can add raisins one at a time and it clocks up 1 g every 2 or 3 raisins.

I have never checked the calibration of the scales but the readings are consistent and convincing so I am happy.

I bought the scales so long ago that I can't remember when but it must be at least 15 years now, maybe 20+. I have never had to replace the battery!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I realised yesterday that if I could claim back every second that I have used up over the last 30 years working out how to prevent web sites storing cookies - and clicking on the right option for all the security warnings and options

Then I would have gained several week worth of life

and saved a lot of stress when I just want to check one simple thing but have to spend 5 minutes just to get onto the web site!!!

which is annoying

 

[Chris S]

Having to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve. If I go to bed earlier then I'm only going to get woken up by fireworks.

 

[Chris S]

Ebay will be charging a buyer protection premium from February this year. This will be 4% of the sale price plus 75p. Most of the things I buy are only a few pounds so it will be quite a big percentage increase in their price.

It's just another money spinner for them.

 

[DaveReading]

Ebay will be charging a buyer protection premium from February next year. This will be 4% of the sale price plus 75p. Most of the things I buy are only a few pounds so it will be quite a big percentage increase in their price.

So buy as much as you can in the next 13 months?

 

[Chris S]

So buy as much as you can in the next 13 months?

Sorry, I've corrected the typo. I suppose posting the wrong date on forums it the digital equivalent of writing last year's date on cheques.