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Demon-Haunted World

locusmag.com

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Re: Demon-Haunted World

#111

Post by Lordsandwhich »

layble wrote: post #93
captaincrowbar wrote: post #14

Doctorow mentions the cases where a printer company has made their software lie about how much ink was left in a cartridge to make consumers replace them more often. I always wondered why a manufacturer would want to do that. I mean, I understand the motive of making consumers buy ink more often, but from the manufacturer's point of view, why would they want to throw perfectly good ink away? Colour ink isn't as expen…

I know of a large printer company who approached a large media company with a deal that would have had the large media company change the color of the text on their printer friendly pages to something near black but requiring the color cartridge instead of true black. As I recall they were willing to pay seven figures annually. The media company did not take them up on their offer. The underhandedness/cleverness of t…

That is such a sneaky move. It is entirely horrible but you have to admire the thought that went into it.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#112

Post by RachelF »

donatj wrote: post #101

> Dieselgate killed people What? Is he being metaphorical or does he mean via the environmental impact? That's a stretch IMHO. Or alternately am I simply missing something?

Environmental impact.

However, thus far only the programmer at VW has been prosecuted and sentenced to jail. His "following orders" defense did not work.

All the high-level executives will probably walk away with VW paying a fine.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#113

Post by function_seven »

zackmorris wrote: post #52

Startup idea: Form a company that explores new markets in legal liabilities. It could bring lawsuits with little risk where the payoff could be billions of dollars. Off the top of my head: * Research whether channels were engineered into smartphones to allow water to leak in (since they have no moving parts and should self-evidently be watertight). * Find the planned-obsolescence parts in things like car doors that w…

> Find the planned-obsolescence parts in things like car doors that were engineered too thin or out of plastic so that door and window handles fail after a certain number of uses.

There’s no way in hell car companies are purposely under-engineering things to cause them to break. That damages the brand reputation, and will drive the next sale to a competitor.

Yes, they make engineering tradeoffs. No, they don’t design a part with the specific intention that it will fail earlier than a comparable (cost-wise) design would.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#114

Post by taneq »

freehunter wrote: post #78
SubiculumCode wrote: post #10

This is what I think about at the pump. More and more I see gas pumps ask if you want a receipt BEFORE the gas is dispensed. This seems risky. If you decline the receipt and then dispense gas, the pump could cheat on the amount of gas dispensed with less risk, as a papered record of the purchase amount and price is not produced. If on the other hand, the pump waits to ask if you desire a receipt until after the gasol…

The hard part with that is, see the sticker on the outside of the pump? That certifies that this pump meets your state's regulations and that someone has inspected it recently. In order to have a coverup like that, you'd need the government to be in on it too.

You mean like the EPA sticker on a new Volvo?

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#115

Post by eridius »

RachelF wrote: post #110
eridius wrote: post #108

> like the iTunes and Kindle ‘‘updates’’ that have removed features the products were sold with Anyone know what iTunes update he's talking about? I don't remember anything that fits this description.

I don't know about Apple, but Sony is an excellent example. They removed the ability to use Linux on the PS3. This is probably one reason they have been consistently targeted by hackers.

I remember that one, although IIRC they did it because Linux-on-PS3 was being used as a way to get around the copyright restrictions on the PS3 and pirate games. Basically, the pirates ruined it for everyone.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#116

Post by wyager »

zackmorris wrote: post #52

Startup idea: Form a company that explores new markets in legal liabilities. It could bring lawsuits with little risk where the payoff could be billions of dollars. Off the top of my head: * Research whether channels were engineered into smartphones to allow water to leak in (since they have no moving parts and should self-evidently be watertight). * Find the planned-obsolescence parts in things like car doors that w…

That's not remotely how waterproofing works. Getting any meaningful degree of ingress protection is hard. It requires entirely different assembly techniques and is generally contrary to user serviceability.

Proprietary batteries are the reason thin electronics exist. You can't use 18650s to make a MacBook.

I think the problem here is that you vastly underestimate how hard manufacturing is. The things you're proposing are like me trying to sue Facebook because it crashes all the time. Is it annoying? Yes. Is it because they're actively trying to subvert me for nefarious reasons? No, it's just because they don't know how to do it better in a reasonable price range.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#117

Post by middleorigin »

sliken wrote: post #97
keville wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a minor nitpick at all. Physical buttons are also moving parts.

Not to mention headphone ports, usb ports, and charging ports. Also most phones have a vibrate function which uses an electric motor.

Wait, ports are considered moving parts?

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#118

Post by amitp »

meric wrote: post #63
cpeterso wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My iPhone 6 used to be snappy, but now takes almost 10 seconds to just open an app. Perhaps new OS updates are not as well-optimized for older iPhones as they are for the latest version. Ars Technica's Android 8.0 deep-dive has some interesting charts showing Android device performance deteriorating over time: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/09/android-8-0-oreo-tho...

My iPhone 6 is still snappy but the battery barely lasts 2 hours. I'm half way to work and it's at 29%.

If you're on a Mac, try Coconut Battery to check the battery health. Mine was showing 30% of original capacity, which explained why it kept draining quickly. Resetting (recalibrating?) it by letting it drain completely and letting it charge got it back up to 80%. I don't know why it had gotten into a bad state :(

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#119

Post by middleorigin »

eridius wrote: post #115
RachelF wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about Apple, but Sony is an excellent example. They removed the ability to use Linux on the PS3. This is probably one reason they have been consistently targeted by hackers.

I remember that one, although IIRC they did it because Linux-on-PS3 was being used as a way to get around the copyright restrictions on the PS3 and pirate games. Basically, the pirates ruined it for everyone.

I feel comfortable in blaming Sony for this. At one point I would have paid for an open ps3, say without the gpu, but these are lost sales now.

Re: Demon-Haunted World

#120

Post by hydrogen18 »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #10

This is what I think about at the pump. More and more I see gas pumps ask if you want a receipt BEFORE the gas is dispensed. This seems risky. If you decline the receipt and then dispense gas, the pump could cheat on the amount of gas dispensed with less risk, as a papered record of the purchase amount and price is not produced. If on the other hand, the pump waits to ask if you desire a receipt until after the gasol…

Where do you live that you can get a receipt? The printers never have any paper in my area.
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