> A well-made dial is almost always faster and more precise than up-down digital controls. Eight years ago I bought a microwave oven for my apartment that had

> A well-made dial is almost always faster and more precise than up-down digital controls. Eight years ago I bought a microwave oven for my apartment that had a digital knob. It's a physical knob hooked to the timer, but since it's digital, it accelerates. Below one minute, each "notch" increases the time with 5 seconds, but as you go higher, each notch adds more and more time to the total until it starts adding 5 minutes per notch. It's a fantastic input method for setting a timer since it's tactile - you feel each notch where the time changes, it's deterministic - 30 seconds is always a quarter of a turn, 2 minutes is always a bit more than one turn, 7 minutes is always a bit more than two turns, etc, and it's superior to an analogue timer - it accelerates, you get more precision in the lower ranges and less precision in the higher ranges. A few years ago I moved and had to buy a new microwave. Except I couldn't find one with a digital dial, all manufacturers had switched back to the shitty input method of +/- buttons again because.. I don't know. Fashion? It makes me furious when people and companies make interfaces that are clearly inferior existing alternatives for no good reason at all. But most consumers don't care, and here we are. :-/