Little Things That Irk You: The Hateful 08

[dataDave]

Keyboards.
Just that the letters can wear off them and the little feet break on them and it seems wrong to bin a whole keyboard because of a little bit of plastic that needs replacing.

My amazing new (at the time) Logitech G513 Linear starting doing this shortly after I got it. I requested some replacement keys but they don't do that - so instead they sent me a whole new keyboard.

I figured I'd sell it and just live with dodgy keys.

[QualityChimp]

I've put stickers on the offending keys and written the letter in permanent pen!

[wakka]

The keys on the particular MacBook that I have - a now-discontinued 12" super light version that was only sold for a couple of years - has got the worst key coverings of any keyboard I've owned.

The matte texture came off in recording time, a matter of weeks as I recall, and from there I've managed to wear away the letters on about half the keys, going so far as to get down to the actual translucent plastic beneath the black covering on some of them.

It doesn't matter THAT much...but it's annoying all the same.

[vanpeebles]

That happened on an old iBook I had. The build quality to sale price of apple gear is appalling. Vastly overpriced crap.

[randombs]

A colleague recently bought one of those keyboards with blank keys.

My first thought was "just don't look at the keyboard", but I guess it's like subtitles - difficult for me to not look at them!

My Topre keyboard uses something called dye sublimation which penetrates the surface of the keys. Apparently it's not a common method these days but it would take some work to remove the letters!

[wakka]

That happened on an old iBook I had. The build quality to sale price of apple gear is appalling. Vastly overpriced crap.

The funny thing is I've owned quite a few other Macs, and this is the first one it happened on. They changed something in the key covering, and for the worse.

[Asura]

The funny thing is I've owned quite a few other Macs, and this is the first one it happened on. They changed something in the key covering, and for the worse.

The build quality of Mac laptops used to be amazing. [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION] still has one from ~2001 that was used and abused for over a decade. It has some surface scratches but it's still solid-as-a-rock. Conversely, I've never picked up a PC laptop that, after a month, doesn't "rattle" in some way when you move it, and the recent Mac laptops have lost that quality.

[wakka]

The grand butterfly keyboard experiment really killed a lot of faith in their build quality. I have no idea why they stuck with that design for so long. They've gone back to scissor switches now.

[randombs]

Insomnia.

Last Thursday I couldn’t sleep until 8am on Friday morning and had to take the day off work.

I managed an hour tonight but it’s 5:30am and I’m likely not going back to sleep. This is despite taking my sleeping pill. I even took another one an hour ago. Today’s going to be rough.

[monel]

Insomnia.

Last Thursday I couldn’t sleep until 8am on Friday morning and had to take the day off work.

I managed an hour tonight but it’s 5:30am and I’m likely not going back to sleep. This is despite taking my sleeping pill. I even took another one an hour ago. Today’s going to be rough.

Sorry to hear of this, sleep is an underrated part of life. I have had friends and family with similar problems. I met someone once who didn't sleep for 12 straight days. It sounds unbelievable, that.

In the UK most doctors will not prescribe any pills, while some hand them out like opal fruits.

I know the term 'Sleep hygiene' is thrown around, they expect people to train themselves to fall asleep with behaviour and environment playing a big part.

They suggest not laying in bed if you don't fall asleep, to get up and do something non stimulating. Also, to never use the bedroom for work or play, but rather just for sleep. There's a lot more to this, good luck.

You may well know all this, sorry.

[CMcK]

I had a lot of trouble sleeping when I started working shifts. Avoid caffeine, alcohol and chocolate hours before bed. Switch off your console at least an hour before you intend to go to bed. And this might sound daft but don’t go to bed until you are tired. A bedtime routine isn’t actually beneficial.
An uncluttered bedroom is desirable and no TV in there too. Your phone should be an alarm clock and nothing else.

A lot of people think they are insomniac but actually still get plenty of sleep. It’s weird the way your mind can fool you into thinking something that’s harmful to your being.

[randombs]

They suggest not laying in bed if you don't fall asleep, to get up and do something non stimulating. Also, to never use the bedroom for work or play, but rather just for sleep. There's a lot more to this, good luck.

You may well know all this, sorry.

I know people can get all "WE ALREADY KNOW. I POSTED THAT SAME YOUTUBE VIDEO TEN PAGES BACK!", but don't apologise for offering advice

I had a lot of trouble sleeping when I started working shifts. Avoid caffeine, alcohol and chocolate hours before bed. Switch off your console at least an hour before you intend to go to bed. And this might sound daft but don’t go to bed until you are tired. A bedtime routine isn’t actually beneficial.
An uncluttered bedroom is desirable and no TV in there too. Your phone should be an alarm clock and nothing else.

A lot of people think they are insomniac but actually still get plenty of sleep. It’s weird the way your mind can fool you into thinking something that’s harmful to your being.

Thanks, guys.

Our bedroom is just a large bed and a closet. There's seriously no room for anything else(just an L-shaped bit of floor to walk on) but I do use my phone as an alarm which means the temptation is there. I sat in the living room for a while and read some of Limmy's Daft Wee Stories on my Kindle, then I went back to bed, put an eye mask on and managed to sleep from 5-10am. I've been fine today, not sleepy at all.

Recently my wife has been working past midnight so I occasionally get woken up when she comes to bed. Luckily our 'queen' bed is made of two singles on a queen size so movement doesn't transfer and we use separate blankets/duvets so there's no duvet theft!

I'm quite a light sleeper and little things bother me. There's a bright light right outside our window so I took some steps to really darken the room at night and avoid as much light leakage as possible, such as buying blackout curtains and then hanging dark sheets over them when that wasn't enough. I had to remove the sheets recently and haven't put them back up yet, but I feel like my sleep has been worse since then. I'll see if the eye mask helps tonight.

[monel]

The sleep hygiene or sleep CBT tactics are worth trying. Horlicks and Ovaltine work by heating the stomach to cause sleepiness I think. Best to avoid blue light on tv or phones a couple hours before sleep.

I've seen it recommended to go out and get daylight first thing in the day to kick start the system.

People try all sorts and it can be a really frustrating experience. Good luck.

The first company that produces a real sleep solution that works will make trillions.

[kryss]

Putting your phone into airplane mode before bed helps remove distractions caused by notifications.

I know how it sounds but reading an actual book works better for me than a screen. Something without a deep storyline so that you're not excited to get to what happens next. 4koma manga is generally my recommendation. If you really want to be put to sleep by a book, John Derbyshire's Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra is fascinating and mind-dumbingly inaccessible.

Taking a nap in the evening is not a bad idea if you are tired enough, or even adjusting your bedtime to something earlier/later. If you find that you are sleepy at 9pm but stay up until 11pm, your body can sometimes just say "oh hey, I'll just carry on" and you can't sleep. At least you and your wife aren't trying to go to bed at the same time.

How much sleep do you need to be functional is what matters. You don't drive to work so nodding off on the way home isn't going to kill you (directly).

[monel]

Naps feel lovely if you haven't slept, and are able to nod off. However the sleep people advise against naps at any time in case they prevent you falling asleep later. They seem to emphasise setting up routines and regular times. In case I'm coming across as a sleep bore, I've never really found a system that works for me. If I could go back in time, that would work because I slept fine then, no matter what happened.