On 10/26/2010 12:52 PM, Darren New wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> So can everybody use an ATM because it only performs a very simple
>> task? Or because the people who make them spend a fortune on usability
>> testing? Or something else? Logically, there's got to be a reason.
>
> Some of each. The simpler and more focused the task, the easier it is to
> design something that is easy to use. Especially when you throw
> sufficient UI at it. The "flashing 12:00" problem is that manufacturers
> didn't want to add extra buttons and displays to the box. Once people
> had a 40-button remote control and a genlock in the VCR, that stopped
> being a problem.
>
Seriously? No, the problem with the flashing 12:00 thing was design 
laziness. I still buy shit with this problem, the stupidest version of 
it being the "DVR" that "set its time, based on the local PBS". 
***BUT***, it only ever did this one time, after which it would, for no 
comprehensible reason, slowly lose about 3-4 seconds per day, so that, 
after a month, you would be looking at a 2 minute difference between the 
time it "should have" shown, and the one it actually did use. 
Apparently, they must have figured that the best way to "fix" the clock 
in the damn thing was to completely remover the clock, you know.. 
instead of something silly, like having it check every 24 hours, to see 
the time, then update the BIOS clock, in what is basically a computer MB...

No, manufacturers flat out didn't feel the need to fix it, never mind 
that the means to do so has been out there for ages. My frakking alarm 
click uses a basic radio signal thing, to set the time (some USGS thing, 
or something), and stuff has been doing that for 50 years or more.

The reason you don't see the problem now is.. Ironically, that most 
actually manage to use PBS, or some other channel, to set the time now, 
or its a cable box, which gets the time from the central office. Still 
doesn't stop them from failing to store, even temporarily, a DB of say, 
the channel names, and basic data for the week, so if the power goes 
down, you don't have to wait 12 hours to tell what will be on 2 hours 
from now, never mind 2 days. Sigh... Figure, by the time they fix this, 
someone will invent a new sort of media, and TV will end. lol

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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