Things people still do that because of technology/science are no longer necessary.

(In before go to mass/believe in a god and all the other predictable ones)

My mother unplugs the tv every night for safety and energy-saving reasons. However, according to this guy it's not necessary with the technology in modern tvs:

'In the old days, when TVs had tubes and valves in them, which had heaters, they did used to use a lot of electricity on standby to keep the heaters running - this was so the set would start up quickly when you pressed the remote control. If it had to start up from cold it might take several minutes. This type of Standby did indeed use a lot of juice.

Modern Sets Have Changed All The Rules
Sets manufactured more recently have electronic flat screens, no tubes, no valves, and when on standby all that is active is the little LED light on the front of the set, and a small piece of circuit that stays awake to pick up commands from the remote control to turn the set back on when needed. When in Standby, TV’s and Satellite boxes use, on average, about half a watt. What does that mean?

Well, electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt hour is one watt for 1000 hours. A kilowatt-hour currently costs around about 16‑17p. If you have Economy Seven cheap night-time electricity, a kilowatt-hour costs about 7p from around 1am - 8am....

Technology has moved on. A modern TV has no heaters in it, no high voltages, and only needs a two-wire connection to the mains. This means it is what's known in the trade as "intrinsically safe". If an electrical gadget is dangerous, it has an Earth wire in it as well as the two-wire mains connection. TVs are now so safe, that they no longer need this Earth wire... (he does, however, concede it's still necessary for safety reasons to unplug the tv in a thunderstorm)

Any other things?

Tin Foil Hat

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

Jack the Stripper

Ride just AI.

MilesMorales1

I unplug my tv at night as well. Unplug everything, safety reasons.

One eyed Jack

There's shopping channels dedicated to this sort of stuff, some of it is genius, some of it is tat, all of it is expensive.

Chopping vegetables manually with a knife, how quant!

Senna

But saving electricity isn't the only reason to turn stuff off at night, especially in old houses with old wiring. It's hardly a stupid practice, mostly unnecessary, yes, but not bad practice.

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

Some people like a real fire? If your mind boggles, you should see a doctor about that.

joebloggs32

Voting with a piece of paper and a pencil

Cantona's Collars

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I unplug my tv at night as well. Unplug everything, safety reasons.

A mate of mine unplugs his TV and Sky box every night,he complained as to why he couldn't record stuff at night.The mind boggles.

Barry Badrinath

Toilet paper.

3 seashells is the way to go.

B.A._Baracus

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

How tho?
Nothing wrong with a cosy fire. Sure you can even burn cardboard and other suitable things when you're at it. Stuff that just would have went in the green bin or more important the black bin when the green was full.

Saves you money actually if it would have just went in the black bin.

Lady is a tramp

Queueing in banks.

judeboy101

Have sex

Cantona's Collars

Buy the daily papers. Breaking news at your finger tips,why read yesterday's news?

andekwarhola

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

I'll continue to forgo the time and money for winter aesthetics, cheers.

Noddyholder

Writing letters with pen & paper.

Noddyholder

Washing clothes by hand .

Odelay

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I unplug my tv at night as well. Unplug everything, safety reasons.

Do you unplug the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine too?

Why do people pick on the TV and leave other items plugged in?

Tin Foil Hat

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

How tho?
Nothing wrong with a cosy fire. Sure you can even burn cardboard and other suitable things when you're at it. Stuff that just would have went in the green bin or more important the black bin when the green was full.

Saves you money actually if it would have just went in the black bin.

They're hugely inefficient. The convection current literally sucks the warm air from your house and pumps it up the chimney, making the rest of your house colder. They tested this on Mythbusters.

B.A._Baracus

Odelay wrote: »

Do you unplug the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine too?

Why do people pick on the TV and leave other items plugged in?

Simple logic my good man. If something doesn't need to be plugged in then it's a waste.

A fridge has to be plugged in all the time. It's the purpose of it. But a TV doesn't need to be plugged in when not watching.

Cantona's Collars

Odelay wrote: »

Do you unplug the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine too?

Why do people pick on the TV and leave other items plugged in?

Poltergeist has a lot to answer for.

Stoner

Odelay wrote:

Why do people pick on the TV and leave other items plugged in?

Well. You might have a dish or an aerial connected to it and your fridge wouldn't.

Also CRT TVs were not particularly heavy on juice, and they were not left on they were turned off. Modern TV's have a standby mode.

If lightning hit your aerial the earh connection via the earth pin on your TV was seen as a potential path to ground
So people unplugged them.

Outlaw Pete

Hand wash dishes.

MilesMorales1

Odelay wrote: »

Do you unplug the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine too?

Why do people pick on the TV and leave other items plugged in?

Well the fridge has to be on, or the food would go off date, and the stuff in the freezer would defrost. My tv doesn't properly turn off with the remote, just stand by mode, and its not needed while I'm sleeping, thus I pull the plug out at the wall.

B.A._Baracus

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

They're hugely inefficient. The convection current literally sucks the warm air from your house and pumps it up the chimney, making the rest of your house colder. They tested this on Mythbusters.

I do like me some mythbusters. I guess they are insufficient.

But I dunno, see a good thing about a fire is you're just heating the room you're in. Am too lazy to switch off all the rads just to leave the one on.

So they're handy like that. Gas and oil gets to expensive using them all the time.

wakka12

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

Yes, but its very visually comforting in the winter time. If Im sad I light a fire for an hour or so.

wakka12

And theres a difference between necessary and preference! Its not necessary for me to do my drawings for my college course by hand as its probably easier by computer but I just prefer it and its easier for my to visualise

Its not necessary to bring money around with you anywhere as almost every place will let you pay by card yet almost everyone still does

Its not necessary to send typed printed letters at all usually when emails send and deliver immediately and notify people when theyre received

Its not necessry for me to wear big heavy jumpers and wrap up in blankets when I could use the central heating but I like it and its good for the environment

uch

When they can get some doodah to pick the crusty boogers out of me hooter I'll be satisfied

paleoperson

Stoner wrote: »

Also CRT TVs were not particularly heavy on juice, and they were not left on they were turned off. Modern TV's have a standby mode.

CRTs were heavy on juice, that was one of the big draws of LCDs.

Also the vast majority of CRTs had a standby mode, every one that was being produced from the 90s onwards.

tomwaterford

Landlines phones and fax machines....they love the fax machine where I work

Despite a scanned beside it,which send the stuff stright to email....if atal possible....they'll always choose the fax machine option

Tin Foil Hat

Despite a lot of people using cards all the time I still take out a good bit of cash from the ATM and then and use that for my spending, I prefer it to using cards. When it runs out I take out another round of cash and so on.

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

Light open fires on houses with oil or gas central heating. Mind-boggling waste of time, energy and money.

What a nonsensical and clueless post.

Why would I waste money on gas when I can burn free timber? Also the heat is better from the fire than the radiators, even with the rads on the room isn't properly warm until the fire is burning.. It also makes a room much more cosy. On top of all that if I'm in one room why would I want to be spending money having heat running all over the house all evening when the fire will keep the room nice and warm for close to no cost.

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I unplug my tv at night as well. Unplug everything, safety reasons.

Madness, I don't even power off my sky box or other media devices never mind plug them out. They are designed to be on all the time and are doing things like recording tv shows etc. It's also bad for them. I couldn't live with a person who plugged things out it would drive me insane.

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

A fridge has to be plugged in all the time. It's the purpose of it. But a TV doesn't need to be plugged in when not watching.

It does if you don't want the torturous job of plugging it in every time you watch tv, also most stuff like TVs you don't even have easy access to the plug, I know I don't as all wiring is hidden.

Yourself isit

joebloggs32 wrote: »

Voting with a piece of paper and a pencil

Voting with pen and paper is open and transparent. We don't have to replace all older technology for no reason.

Guy:Incognito

Yourself isit wrote: »

Voting with pen and paper is open and transparent. We don't have to replace all older technology for no reason.

How is it more transparent? For as long as there's been elections there's been stuffing of the ballot boxes . how would anyone know if someone binned 1000 bits of paper and replaced them ?

Also for "pen and paper" read "pencil and paper" . your foolproof system can be undone by a rubber.

Yourself isit

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

How is it more transparent? For as long as there's been elections there's been stuffing of the ballot boxes . how would anyone know if someone binned 1000 bits of paper and replaced them ?

Really how common is that in stable democracies?

It's more transparent because the counting is visible to all - including tallysmen. The counting on an electronic device is not transparent. Everywhere electronic counting happens there are accusations of fraud. Happened on the US this year.

Also for "pen and paper" read "pencil and paper" . your foolproof system can be undone by a rubber.

So use a pen

Guy:Incognito

Yourself isit wrote: »

Really how common is that in stable democracies?

So fraud doesn't happen in stable democracies? No issue with electronic voting so .....

Most recent elections here and the UK have had people alleging fraud, backing themselves up with footage from the news they claim shows counters cheating . pen and paper isn't safe so if allegations of rigging are made......

Why can the tallymen not be part of the fraud BTW?

RabbleRouser2k

joebloggs32 wrote: »

Voting with a piece of paper and a pencil

That's because those e-voting machines were about as trustworthy as a guy from limerick, wearing a tee shirt with a 'they call me stabber' slogan on it, whilst brandishing a knife that is covered with blood.

RabbleRouser2k

wakka12 wrote: »

Yes, but its very visually comforting in the winter time. If Im sad I light a fire for an hour or so.

Yourself isit

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

So fraud doesn't happen in stable democracies? No issue with electronic voting so .....

Most recent elections here and the UK have had people alleging fraud, backing themselves up with footage from the news they claim shows counters cheating . pen and paper isn't safe so if allegations of rigging are made......

Why can the tallymen not be part of the fraud BTW?

The tallymen are looking over the shoulder of the counters and are from all political parties. They tend to share results too (why hide at that stage).

So you would need a corrupt counter (or multiple) and corrupt tallymen from all parties agreeing to lie to benefit one party.

A machine could just have corrupted software. Takes one guy.

It's not just that it could have bad software but there's no way of telling either way. There is no transparency. And for what? Speed?

The new parliament won't meet for weeks. The president if he is American won't assume office for months. What matters if the vote takes a day rather than an hour.

B.A._Baracus

came across this video during the week regarding electronic voting and why good ol' pen and paper cannot be beaten. If you got 8 minutes to spare check it out as he explains it pretty well...

4068ac1elhodqr

Lighting a fire is an excellent way of receiving the health benefits of far-infrared heat, just take care with eye exposure.
If it's good enough for mankind (or ladykind) for the last few hundred million years, then its good enough for him now.

Del2005

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I do like me some mythbusters. I guess they are insufficient.

But I dunno, see a good thing about a fire is you're just heating the room you're in. Am too lazy to switch off all the rads just to leave the one on.

So they're handy like that. Gas and oil gets to expensive using them all the time.

For the price of a bag of coal you get a lot more heat using gas or oil.

Even if you have free fuel, which you spend hours cutting and/or drying an open fire is wasting your energy, stick a stove in and you'll get the same heat with less fuel.

Junkyard Tom

joebloggs32 wrote: »

Voting with a piece of paper and a pencil

We still have analog paper trails in Aerospace manufacturing, medical device manufacturing and so on. It works.

B.A._Baracus

Del2005 wrote: »

For the price of a bag of coal you get a lot more heat using gas or oil.

Even if you have free fuel, which you spend hours cutting and/or drying an open fire is wasting your energy, stick a stove in and you'll get the same heat with less fuel.

I get what you're saying.
But I think it's good to have both fireplace and central heating system like gas or oil. Best of both worlds.

You can use the central heating to heat the whole house up or you can use the fireplace to heat that room your in. Plus the adding bonus of burning stuff (cardboard boxes, junk mail, packaging etc)

But there is nothing wrong with free fuel my good man. Even if it did take hours to cut a month's worth of wood it still didn't cost a cent to do so

Manic Moran

Manually Change gears in a car.

As to fire efficiency, my fireplace has a cast-iron insert. The flames heat the metal, which then radiates the heat outwards.

Capt'n Midnight

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

How is it more transparent? For as long as there's been elections there's been stuffing of the ballot boxes . how would anyone know if someone binned 1000 bits of paper and replaced them ?

Also for "pen and paper" read "pencil and paper" . your foolproof system can be undone by a rubber.

Oh dear.

It takes a conspiracy of lots of hands on people to affect pen and paper.
Which makes it harder to do for foreign powers. People just might get suspicious if North Koreans (even if they pretend to be Japanese) start showing up all over the place.


evoting machines are only used once ever few years, so by definition they are obsolete and have outdated security the next time they are rolled out. Our ones weren't as powerful as 1980's home computers, no emf shielding either.

And that's if they were security hardened in the first place, and so far the list of design flaws is just impressive, and not in a good way. Who thought that having all the machines using the same key was anything other than a backdoor ? Bonus points for it being an easy to pick furniture lock, extra bonus points for having spare keys orderable online for a euro.

Why would the Russians or Chinese or US or UK bother hacking us ?
It's not like we have an EU veto.
€13Bn wouldn't tempt Apple or the other tech companies here would it and it's not like they have the technology ?
It's not like we ever have close elections either ....



Former MI6 chief warns over hacking risk to electronic voting in UK elections



And besides election night is some of the best TV out there, the excitement , watching them squirm. Shocked ministers demanding recounts and being eliminated again.

Fiery mutant

Having a good fire going is one of the pleasures of winter, there is nothing like it. I have a stove instead of an open fire, and will heat the whole downstairs of the house. It amazes me to see houses being built now with no chimney on them.

I wouldn't buy a house where I couldn't light a fire.

Graces7

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

They're hugely inefficient. The convection current literally sucks the warm air from your house and pumps it up the chimney, making the rest of your house colder. They tested this on Mythbusters.

I boil the kettle on rails atop the open fire... and make toast

and rubbish to the idea there. When you go into the room where the fire is...

Graces7

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I get what you're saying.
But I think it's good to have both fireplace and central heating system like gas or oil. Best of both worlds.

You can use the central heating to heat the whole house up or you can use the fireplace to heat that room your in. Plus the adding bonus of burning stuff (cardboard boxes, junk mail, packaging etc)

But there is nothing wrong with free fuel my good man. Even if it did take hours to cut a month's worth of wood it still didn't cost a cent to do so

And great exercise..

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Graces7 wrote: »

I boil the kettle on rails atop the open fire... and make toast

and rubbish to the idea there. When you go into the room where the fire is...

The inefficiency factor still holds though. I always have an open fire, with a backboiler, in addition to oil fired heating but while the room is extremely warm from the fire I'm also aware of the heat lost up the chimney. Thermal cameras have shown me the heat lost via the chimney stack and even a visit to the attic attests to the heat being carried up the chimney.

jonon9

New houses been built and still having a chimney and still relying on fuels its 2017 we have the tech to have a warm houses.

Freudiangirl32

I still carry a physical diary around. .... drives my partner mad. He uses the planner to sync all our schedules. ..

jonon9

jonon9 wrote: »

New houses been built and still having a chimney and still relying on fuels its 2017 we have the tech to have a warm houses.

You are still relying on fuels, just paying more for keeping your house warm and not having the pleasure of a stove or open fire.

A house without a chimney is a waste of time and ideally you will have chimney access from living room, sitting room and kitchen.

Freudiangirl32 wrote: »

I still carry a physical diary around. .... drives my partner mad. He uses the planner to sync all our schedules. ..

Same here but it's for work stuff mostly, use it for all my to do lists, taking notes in meetings etc. I do stick in some non-work stuff too though. I'd use outlook calendar for scheduling though the diary is more of a note book.