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A Mythbuster's Biggest Tech Headaches (and Solutions)

An anonymous reader writes "The Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman shares his top tech annoyances. Hyneman runs down the little things that bug him about everything from tools (exotic chargers) to cars (useless features). He also notes that there's a lot of room for improvement on PC desktops: 'In addition to being buggy ... extra features tend to bog down your system by demanding more processing power and memory. Computer-makers: Don't load up operating systems with features and then make us sweat to figure out how to get rid of the fat ... There's another solution available to consumers: Switch to a Linux-based OS such as Ubuntu. Since most Linux OSs are free, there's no business reason to bloat up the system with feature frills.'"

27 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Geekgasm by Stanistani · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mythbusters and Linux? What a Slashdot combo!

    Jamie's the one who tries NOT to get hurt on the show, of course.

    1. Re:Geekgasm by bwcarty · · Score: 2, Funny

      Jamie's the one who tries NOT to get hurt on the show, of course.

      Of course, when he does get hurt, it looks more painful than Adam's frequent miscues. That shot he gave himself when cutting the line to his handheld grappling hook winch was rough...it almost ranks up there with Adam putting his lips in the vacuum motor.
    2. Re:Geekgasm by beluv · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course, when he does get hurt, it looks more painful than Adam's frequent miscues. That shot he gave himself when cutting the line to his handheld grappling hook winch was rough...it almost ranks up there with Adam putting his lips in the vacuum motor. No way. The most difficult moment to watch on this show is when the Tori/Grant/Cari trio played a prank on Adam and shocked him with the ark or whatever that was. I will not watch if that episode is airing.
    3. Re:Geekgasm by TigerNut · · Score: 1, Funny

      No way. Tori's bicycle face plant takes both of those, hands (and face) down.

      --

      Less is more.

  2. Bloat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since most Linux OSs are free, there's no business reason to bloat up the system with feature frills.

    But Mandriva have never let a little thing like that stand in their way.

    1. Re:Bloat? by yoyhed · · Score: 4, Funny

      Since most Linux OSs are free, there's no business reason to bloat up the system with feature frills.
      Are you kidding me? I've always thought that the eyes that follow your mouse around were an essential feature to an OS.
      --
      WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
  3. Adam by cruff · · Score: 5, Funny

    I though for sure his top tech annoyance would have been Adam Savage. :-)

    1. Re:Adam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'm also surprised that LOLCats (http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/01/15/funny-pictures-welkum-to-mythbusters/) don't make the list :-)

  4. Re:No offence, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    it seems like the paragraph or two that mentioned Linux was the only reason for this article to be relevant

    I would say "you must be new here", but I doubt you are.

  5. So if Jamie represents Linux... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...and Adam seems to like Apple, who gets Microsoft?

    My guess is Buster.

    1. Re:So if Jamie represents Linux... by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think Buster's had a chair thrown at him just yet.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  6. Corrected for him... by InsaneMosquito · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I want to be nagged in my car, I'll bring my wife.

  7. Re:Obligatory... by chubs730 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't even count on my two hands the girls I know personally who are as good if not better looking than she is.
    This is to be expected, it can be difficult to stretch a value of zero across ten fingers.
  8. Re:No offence, by SQLGuru · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you want devices to be single function, always look for the ones endorsed by the AARP.

    Layne

  9. Re:Obligatory... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Kari is pretty much average.

    Granted, she's not Catherine Deneuve, but hot body+cute face+understanding of physics and engineering is not average, not by a long shot. Either you spend too much time in your basement or you're banging Playboy models on a regular basis.

    I'll leave it up to the reader to decide which is the most likely scenario ;)

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  10. Well, if they ever get low on cash... by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    It says of her on the Mythbusters website: Sculptor, painter, actor and one-time-only backside-model.

    I guess that was the airplane toilet episode. I wonder whatever happened to that model Jamie made...

    I can only imagine what that'd bring on eBay.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  11. Re:No offence, by samkass · · Score: 4, Funny

    And ironically, I had to click away a jumping JavaScript pop-in window in order to see the page talking about bloat and loading up an interface with crap.

    --
    E pluribus unum
  12. Mod parent down! by eugene+ts+wong · · Score: 2, Funny

    Honestly, what did Buster ever do to you? Leave him out of this.

  13. Re:non standard screws by businessnerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Amen to that!

    Just recently I came home to find a cockroach in the LCD panel of my microwave. A true "That's disgusting, but how the hell did he get in there!??!!" moment. Well of course my first thought is to grab can of raid, a screwdriver and open the microwave up. As I get to screw number 3, I realize that this is not your typical screw. In fact, there is no way for my multi-headed screw driver to unscrew it! So now I have no way of being able to look inside my microwave and see if it's just one roach, or if it's a whole nest.

    --
    "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
  14. Re:Obligatory... by everphilski · · Score: 2, Funny

    at the late niiiight, double featuuure, picture show!

  15. Screw *ALL* OS's! by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Personally, I decided to forgo BIOS's and OS's altogether and just work directly in Assembly.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Screw *ALL* OS's! by Gat0r30y · · Score: 2, Funny

      Assembly is for wussies! Real men code with punch cards. And we had to walk barefoot in the snow uphill both ways to the lab just to test our programs. Seriously dude, there are some pretty good compilers out there nowadays. jump on the bandwagon. all the cool kids are doin it.

      --
      Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
    2. Re:Screw *ALL* OS's! by Max+Littlemore · · Score: 2, Funny

      I do use a keyboard instead of C++, you insensitive clod!

      --
      I don't therefore I'm not.
  16. Going to make some guesses here without RTFA by BeeBeard · · Score: 4, Funny

    His chief complaints are:

    1. Electric mustache trimmers far more newfangled than the reliable steam-powered models.

    2. Local beret dealer insists on selling them in outlandish, inefficient colors such as "blue" and "red" instead of the more streamlined "black" model.

    3. Technological advances in promulgating human rights laws make it no longer possible to keep hyperactive co-host safely chained to a radiator in the basement between tapings.

  17. Re:New Myth to test...! by 3dr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hmm, surely there's been at least one useful post and one accurate summary before.

    Therefore, I mod this +1, Plausible.

  18. Re:No offence, by zobier · · Score: 2, Funny


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    --
    Me lost me cookie at the disco.