Ask Lemmy

As someone who uses a Nintendo switch and an Xbox, the A and B buttons should be in the same place on all game controllers.

It may seem slightly above inconsequential, but parking. Parking is a great example of arbitrary rules having longstanding effects. (Really neat video on parking regulations - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8)

As for more inconsequential. Leafblowers Leafblowers immediately banned unless they are

• Less than 20db
• Zero emission
• ONLY USED AFTER 9AM WHY IN GODS NAME ARE YOU LEAF-BLOWING AT 8AM ON A SATURDAY

Print the food expiration date above the label barcode. Black ink on white background.

Laptop keyboard layouts. There is no reason they should be so different.

Specifically, those laptops that have full-sized left and right arrows, but half-sized up and down arrows - those earn 1 week of jail time for the CEO per unit sold.

While we're at it, the power button must be in the same place on all laptops.

International standard paper sizes (A4 etc.) in the U.S.

Sports teams that change cities must also change names.

No more "Utah Jazz".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Jazz

Similarly, cable channels that veer from their original content must also change their names. Mtv hasn't been Music Television in decades.

TV remotes, computer speakers, car radios, etc must have two sets of volume up / volume down controls. One for upper volume limit, and one for the lower.

Now I can hear what the characters are whispering to eachother, without waking up the entire apartment complex when there's a gunshot on screen.

Or hear the quiet parts of music when I'm driving without blowing my eardrums out when the contrasting high energy part kicks in.

every date MUST be in RFC 3339 format. e.g. 2024-09-08, with optionally the time: 21:41:24+02:00

and hell no not ISO 8601 cause then people would use stuff like 2024W154

Broadcasting audio from a personal device in public should be a misdemeanor.

I don't know, my emotions?

• Pwm flicker should be regulated on all LED devices, from smartphones to household bulbs and car turn signals.
• Price displayed is exactly what you pay. With tax, no credit card or smartphone surcharge or "cash discount"
• Tip screen on POS cash registers is displayed before you swipe/tap your card, not afterward.

Dishwashers and dish sets have complimenting standards. E.g.

Dishwasher rack is set A.

Dishes (plates, bowls, tupperware, etc.) Would advertise as "fitting rack sizes A,B, & D!"

The number of hotdogs in a hotdog pack and the number of hotdog buns in a hotdog bun pack cannot be coprime

Packaging for supermarket products should have what the product is big and the branding small. Not the other way around.

Oh. Sound mixing on movies/tv shows should be such that voice lines are always perfectly audible even on shitty speakers. Make actors e n u n c i a t e like they did in the 30s. Christopher Nolan has a lot to answer for, turning all of media into mumblecore chief among those things.

LEDs on electronics need either a maximum brightness or an adjustable brightness. I have taken to covering the LEDs on charger bricks with Sharpie/tape (often multiple layers of tape) to dampen the brightness because I cannot function with these damn things at night.

I want all counties to come together and agree what sounds we use for animals.

All bags of pet food must be self sealing.

Those yellow bump things for blind people. They need to follow a spec that then in turn cart manufacturers, wheelchair manufacturers, and wagon cart manufacturers all build around so that when I travel over them they don’t jostle my whole cart around and tip over my drink.

Tags on clothing must be printed on, with some exceptions where sewed letters are allowed. None of that free hanging tag BS.

Address numbers are to be placed in a prominent position, with a font that is legible from the street and illuminated at night, on every building in cities and towns.

Out in the country address numbers are to be displayed on reflective signs at the end of the driveway and again if/when a shared driveway splits.

Oncoming car headlights should not blind you. Companies need to stop making these and if they are custom jobs, this should be easy tickets for the police.

A modern standard for indoor lighting receptacles.

It’s silly that we ship a driver and circuit board packed into the lightbulb just to make it compatible with screw bulb receptacles. We should have a new socket that accepts efficient lightbulbs and that can reuse or modularize driver electronics. Instead, the market has gone for full integration at the expense of the consumer.

If you build a new home these days, you get the lightbulb and fixture integrated together. This necessitates replacing the entire assembly when it fails, and when you have to do this eventually you’re going to have mismatched indoor lighting unless you had the foresight to buy extra units.

We need a new lightbulb socket standard, but for modern lighting.

I would ban adverts IRL, like billboards and stuff.

I'd like ALL game advertising to be composed of at least 50% actual in game screenshots or or videos, but that would actually be consequential and good

For inconsequential, remove stupid-proofing from certain products, like "warning: contains eggs" in egg cartons

The front panel connectors on a motherboard should all be standard and be a single connection.

Ban pharmaceutical advertising.

Ban the display of the US flag in public by private individuals including police except on national holidays and public/government buildings.

Reverse the polarity of circuit diagrams so electrons flow along the arrows drawn for current.

I love a lot of the ideas in this thread but a ton of them are actually consequential.

stand on the right of the escalator, walk on the left, or go to fucking jail

(reversed in countries where they drive on the left)

also no single wide escalators. (MTA, cut that shit out!)

Institute maximum ad space limits that an individual corporation or organization are allowed to buy per unit of eyespace.

Also, adverts put up on your behalf contribute to that limit, so no SuperPAC shenanigans.

Should at least resolve the issue of being spammed endlessly by adverts from the same group over and over and over again.

I think most of these ideas are great but actually too consequential.

Chargers should have an LED that displays red while charging and green when finished. An amber LED toward the end is acceptable. I'm not making this up. I have an item that only displays solid red, when it's finished charging.