Swingman wrote:

vegetable in the supermarket.

You're supposed to peel those off?

Well, you can leave them on, but they're real tough to floss off your
shiny brites. (not a bad idea, though ... just make them edible and
fortified with vitamins).

Besides, like many other "unnecessary complications" in a modern life
dictated by corporate whims, they are there for the convenience of the
corporation, not the customer.

Well, you can argue both sides of this one. For the convenience of the
corporation, yes, by allowing computerized scanning and whatnot. For the
convenience of the customer too, though, so your cashier doesn't have to
remember 700 PLU numbers, or sit there flipping through a stack of cards
every time you bring some wierd Chinese vegetable to the register. Saves
you, the customer, time. Having a sticker on everything also decreases
your chances of getting charged incorrectly when the cashier doesn't know a
winesap from a McIntosh from a red delicious too, or can't tell the
difference between celery and cilantro, or lettuce and cabbage.

I've been on the cashier side of that. Especially with Asian customers.
Some wad of green. What the hell is this anyway? "It
bongchockfojinshooifong kwa." OK, can you spell that? No? Screw it,
bananas it is.

Ever try to get a modern, small hand tool out of one of those molded, 10
ga plastic, armored "packages" that someone, somewhere, thinks is
necessary ... and without another sharp, previously purchased hand tool?

Yes. The most retarded thing ever. Dad is a tool loser. I bought him a
fold-out molded plastic tray full of tools, and he managed to keep track of
them for years, until the plastic latch broke on the carrier. So this past
December I bought him a new one. I got it at Lowe's. It had quality name
brand (for whatever that's worth, since they were all still Chinese) tools
in it, and had most of the bases covered, on sale for about $60 I think.

Hammer, knife, screwdrivers, wrenches, the whole nine yards. It was covered
in a molded sheet of plastic that was screwed down in about 30 places. A
person buying an item like this, an all-in-one set of gift tools, it's a
safe bet the person on the receiving end doesn't have any tools. This is
the kind of thing you might give your kid when you send him off to college
or something. So WTF was the deal with all the screws that I couldn't get
out without the screwdriver that was trapped inside by the damn screwes?
WTF were they thinking?!

No doubt about it, there is an organized, shadowy effort to aggravate,
with seemingly inconsequential roadblocks and potholes, that add up to an
increase in daily frustration.

Or, sigh, to reduce theft anyway... That's why the new packaging is such a
PITA.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/