Packaging ftl

[Sky]

Egregious packaging imo.

[Ironwood]

Some kind of Anti-shoplifting strategy I would imagine.

[WayAbvPar]

I was wondering how in the world we would ever fill all the landfills.

[NiX]

Alot of the SD companies package their stuff like that. It's only because people like Futureshop/Best Buy insist on putting the product on the floor. Blame them not the SD company.

[HaemishM]

The worst part about that as a consumer is how goddamn hard it is to get into those fucking shells. I could crack open a turtle and eat all its goopy bits in the time it takes to open a seam in those motherfuckers.

[Morfiend]

The worst part about that as a consumer is how goddamn hard it is to get into those fucking shells. I could crack open a turtle and eat all its goopy bits in the time it takes to open a seam in those motherfuckers.

Go. Buy. Now.

Husky Folding Knife. I just bought one, they win.

[Riggswolfe]

The worst cut I have ever gotten was from trying to open one of those packages. We're talking, I bled all over my house and if someone had walked in they'd have thought I committed a murder.

[Koyasha]

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, this snip from a Dave Barry column is the funniest thing I have ever read about the packaging of products.

Our daughter, who is 4, has WAY more friends than we do. There are thousands of them, and they were all, at some point, born. So pretty much all we do is attend birthday parties. We always take a toy, and I always feel pity for the wretched parent who will have to try to remove this toy from its packaging.

In recent years the toy industry, after consulting its lawyers, decided it's too dangerous to let children come into contact with toys. So the industry went to the Institute of Defensive Packaging, which is the outfit that made it impossible to open an aspirin bottle without a hammer.

For toys, the institute came up with a vicious system that involves attaching the toy to the package with dozens of nearly invisible twisted titanium wires, which are then covered with powerful adhesive tape, after which everything is encased in thick, weapons-grade plastic that, when you try to cut it with a knife - and, trust me, you eventually will - defends itself by turning into lethal shards that can slice through your arm like a machete through a Twinkie. And while you're grappling with this packaging, cursing and bleeding, your child is in your ear, asking, "When can I play with it when when whenwhenwhenwhenWHENWHENWHEN?"

Such is the power of child nagging that some parents are, incredibly, still getting through to the toys. So the Institute of Defensive Packaging is working on a new system: Soon, toys will be inside Lucite blocks like giant paperweights, so the child can only look at them and cry while the parent checks the Yellow Pages under "Acetylene Torch Rental." Homes will burn down; people will die. But that is the price we pay for safe packaging.

[Samwise]

I stopped using conventional blades on those things precisely because of the high probability of me killing myself when one of them slips.

[Krakrok]

The guy that 'invented' that packaging also 'invented' a special knife to open them.

[Righ]

He'd be rich today, had he not died in a tragic thermoforming accident.

[WindupAtheist]

The guy that 'invented' that packaging also 'invented' a special knife to open them.

[Yegolev]

Kitchen shears.

Also: quit stealing shit.

[Hanzii]

I review thingymajicks and doodahs for a living. I wrestle with that kind of packaging every day - if you think they're bad to open, then consider having to put stuff back in the package and return it...
I have many packaging related injuries. I use:

[MisterNoisy]

Just score the blister package along 1 or 2 edges with a utility/drywall knife set to minimum depth and then fold it over.  No bleeding/swearing and relatively easy entry.

[WindiaN]

I still have some of those old cd boxes which are like 3 times the size of a cd, they sell them like that at costco occasionally...

[Miasma]

I really hate buying a new DVD to find that they have put those super adhesive clear "security stickers" along the edges of all three sides that open.  Bonus points if it's a box set made out of cardboard and the stickers tear off the paper.  It makes me want to pirate DVDs instead of buying them, plus that way I wouldn't have to sit through the damn FBI warning, commentary warning, parental advisory warning (times 2 for each because in Canada we get the exact same warnings again in French).

If anybody ever finds a DVD player which ignores the DVD's instructions not to allow them to skip over that stuff please post it.  I recently bought a Toshiba that would not even let me turn the fucking machine off if it was in the middle of those warnings.  The only way out would have been to pull the plug, it got returned in disgust.

[MisterNoisy]

If anybody ever finds a DVD player which ignores the DVD's instructions not to allow them to skip over that stuff please post it.  I recently bought a Toshiba that would not even let me turn the fucking machine off if it was in the middle of those warnings.  The only way out would have been to pull the plug, it got returned in disgust.

According to this guy's blog post, this one does.  You might be able to find hacks for some of the cheaper (APEX, Daewoo, et. al.) ones that remove UOP restrictions as well.

[Miasma]

Well that's very interesting, thanks.  I didn't think anyone would make such a thing for fear of bringing down the wrath of the DVD consortium on them.  Since it seems like a new company I would suspect they actually forgot to implement the code that forces you to watch the warnings.

Hmm, do I want to gamble on what would be an internet only purchase for a slightly overpriced DVD player whose brand has no reputation...  Their other products are only two "coming soon" media centers.  I'll have to keep an eye on them and see what other people think.

[Krakrok]

On my portable DVD player I can use the >| button to skip past that shit. Not fastforward but the 'next scene' button.

And I think it was more along the lines of:

[Furiously]

If anybody ever finds a DVD player which ignores the DVD's instructions not to allow them to skip over that stuff please post it.  I recently bought a Toshiba that would not even let me turn the fucking machine off if it was in the middle of those warnings.  The only way out would have been to pull the plug, it got returned in disgust.

Movieplayer classic lets me skip right to the root or title menus. Reason #45 to use your PC as a media center.

[schild]

DVD Region Free laid over Power DVD lets you skip it.

Also, the best DVD player ever made. Cyberlink...I think it was the 502. The one with the ability to turn off regions altogether. Anyway, you could skip those screens on that.