The 4" cable rant.

So there, you're at the store and you want to buy a toaster, or a microwave oven or better, a small TV like those nifty LCD panels. And you plan it all out, this goes here, that goes there, the toaster on the counter, the TV next to the microwave and then you get home.

Only to find out that those items all come with a 4" power cord!

And you realize that the reason behind this short power cord is that if the Chinese manufacturer that makes the items for whatever corporation you purchased it from, can save 5¢ over the cost of a unit, they will.

And this was their best method, shortening the cable.

A perfect example happened to me last night. I had been shopping for a unified remote control solution for my living room. Not that I have an incredibly advanced nor fancy home theater setup, or that I'm particularly lazy.

Actually, I don't mind getting up from my ass to do stuff, but to adjust the volume every time a commercial comes on I'd rather do it from my couch OK?

About those commercials, why is it that if you talk to the CRTC they tell you that broadcasters aren't allowed to boost their volume during commercial breaks yet it seems every last motherfucking channel does this. Then you contact the channel itself to complain and they basically tell you to fuck off because they don't do that.

You must have misheard.

Quite like the airport ministry. When they decided to move the major air-traffic to a smaller localized airport that also happened to be very close to residential areas, we were told not to worry, that only newer, quiet aircrafts would be allowed to take off and land during the night.

Yet every fucking night I'm rudely awaken by a jet plane.

And when you call them, or write, to complain they claim that they have no record of a plane taking off or landing at those times on those dates.

But I digress.

Last night I got home, programmed the remote control with the USB interface, this was rather easy, you simply install their CD into your PC's drive, and follow the instructions written in plain English.

Then I went to install the base, as this is a rechargeable unit which allegedly will never EVER need batteries. But it sure could use a longer cord.

WTF?

You have this real fancy rechargeable remote control that cost over 150$, has a 1.8" full color LCD display, a library of about 12 million devices it can control, and a two foot cord.

What the fuck are you supposed to do with a two foot fucking cord?

The TV's cabinet is four feet off the ground. Considering an electric outlet is, as per norm, 12" from the ground so you're left with three feet to cover with a two foot cable.

You might as well be climbing Everest with a 1 meter lifeline.

Or go on Who Wants to be a Millionaire drunk.

Or on American Idol with a faceful of pimples. Or try to popularize Oasis, soccer and pubs in the USA.

So I did what every Alpha Geek would have done. I spliced the cord with some extra cables I have lying around the basement. It's on a power adapter anyways so the power actually flowing through the cord is 6v which is pretty much harmless unless you're a goldfish.

This works well and cost me about 5¢.

But this will forever be added to my pet peeves.

Conversely that remote is absolutely amazing. The only thing it can't to is make chicken wings.