Common problems with Ubuntu

[Dotan Cohen]

> I once had a white Ford Fiesta that was giving me engine trouble. Can someone
> send me an *informative* list of problems in Ford cars (preferably white) and
> how they solved it?
>

Sure, here's my list from my Ford. It's a Focus, though, not a Fiesta:

• Front seats recline with dial: cannot be moved quickly.
• Cannot lock doors from inside when leaving car. When trying to
manually lock with the driver's door open, the doors automatically
unlock. Apparently this is a case of Microsoft-type engineering: the
car assumes that the user is an idiot and prone to locking his keys in
the car. Thus, the car can only be locked with the key, from outside.
Forget the fact that there are many valid reasons for locking the
doors with the driver's door still open. I often have many packages to
carry, so it's easiest for me to lock the doors, grab the packages,
and then shut the door with my foot. Not with the Ford Focus. With the
Ford Focus, one can never carry two armloads of packages away from the
car. One must always leave a hand free to lock the doors.
• When the passenger||driver puts the passenger window down, and the
driver||passenger pushes the button after him, the window stops going
down.
• The radio's volume knob is so shallow and slippery that it is
impossible to operate. Also, pressing CD || Radio does not turn the
radio on. This is in contrast to the UI of the air conditioning unit,
in which any button will start it. Even "off".
• The trunk is so small that the baby stroller would not fit until I
ripped the plastic moulding off. The light is tucked away in the far
right corner, and does not illuminate the middle of the trunk even
when the trunk is empty.
• No map lights in the back! No lights at all in the back!
• The gas gauge was strategically placed behind the steering wheel.
There is no compromise between comfortable seating position and a
visible gas gauge. Same for the temp gauge, the tach between 3000 and
5000 RPM, and the speedometer between 90 and 150 KPH.
• The trunk must be slammed down to close. Even then, it often seems
closed when it is not.
• The trunk release is electric only. No manual override. How are you
going to open that when the battery dies? I hope that you don't keep
your jumper cables in the trunk...
• Huge glove compartment. Too bad it's one dimensional. It seems
deeper than my arm is long, yet so narrow that one's fist barely gets
in. Yes, I'm exaggerating here, but the glove compartment really seems
to have been designed by some burrowing creature. To make matters
worse, it seems to go in the up direction, so every time it is opened
the contents spill out onto the passenger's feet.
• The stiff plastic lanyard on the filler cap is too short. The cap
must be twisted _just_right_ so that the cap hangs on the loop and
does not drip gas on the paint. That's difficult for those of us with
manual disabilities.
• The fuel filler door cannot be opened when the doors are locked, nor
can it be closed when the doors are locked! This means that one must
refuel with the doors unlocked, which is a potential security hazard.
• Need the key to open the engine lid. That makes a lot of problems:
1) One cannot open the lid with the engine running without a spare
key. 2) One cannot open the lid with one hand. One hand must be
twisting the key while the other hand lifts.
• Washer fluid: The washer fluid reservoir was probably the most
over-engineered component in any Ford vehicle. It sits inside the
passenger side fender, completely hidden from view. This presents
several challenges to those tasked with maintaining the vehicle. For
one, there is no way to determine how much fluid is inside the
reservoir. Secondly, in order to replenish the supply, fluid is poured
down a pipe with such a sharp bend, so close to the mouth, that all
fluid poured in immediately splashes out. Liquid must be poured in at
about the rate one would fill an ice cube tray. Without knowing if it
will be 100 ml, a full liter, or maybe five. As the liquid splashes in
all directions at the (unexpected) moment that the reservoir is full,
either panther-like reflexes are required, or an apron.
• The vehicle is very, very loud. I know that this is not a luxury
car, and I know that instead of a timing belt it has a durable timing
chain, however the vehicle is unacceptable noisy. At highway speeds,
the passengers must scream at each other to be heard. At rest and
idle, the exhaust is so loud that it too disturbs conversation near
the trunk.
• The turn signals have a feature where a light tap on the stalk sets
the signal to flash three times. There is no option to disable this
feature, and no way to stop the blinking once it starts. At 100 KPH
(60 MPH) those three flashes mean that I'm signalling for about 15
car-lengths of distance. That means that one must often signal left
when one intends to travel right, and vice-versa.
• The power window switch has two operational positions: a light tap
for manually guiding the window up or down, and a hard tap for full
close or open. Well, that is an idealization. In reality, there is so
little difference between the pressures needed that manual guidance is
impossible. The driver must take his eyes off the road to stop the
full close / open procedure should he desire an intermediate position.
• The air conditioning vents are shaped like whistle. Guess what sound
they make.
• The CD play has no anti skip, in fact, it skips constantly.
• The rear view mirror is placed too low: it obscures when making
right turns on accents and descents. I live on a mountain. Everything
is an accent or a decent.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://bido.com
http://what-is-what.com