Is There Anything More Annoying Than a Stalled Progress Bar?

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Despite leaps and bounds in the advancements in technology—we now have shiny little rectangles that respond to touch and voice and connect us to other people half way round the world!—one thing still sucks hard: stalled progress bars.

It's not just waiting for things to happen which is annoying—it's that they're inaccurate. There is little more annoying than a progress bar, sat at 57 percent, taunting you. Never shifting. It hasn't really managed 57 percent of the task. Of course it hasn't.

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And then you realise it might never finish the task. It laughs in your face. "Oh no no, don't expect this software install to finish for another 5 minutes despite the fact that I say 99 percent done," it sneers. "I'm not really here to inform you. I'm more... decoration."

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Seriously, is there anything else like this left in tech that feels like it hasn't moved on in the last twenty years?

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Image by RIchard Adams under Creative Commons license

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