>> But it's not like a bunch of guys in suits sat down and said, "Now we 
>> need to design a version that's going to fail really soon."
> 
> You sure?  How many devices have you had that failed within days of the 
> warranty expiring? ;-)

You know how traffic lights always turn red just as you get to them? 
Well, one day I decided to ignore them when that happens. But each time 
I arrive at a set of traffic lights just as they turn green, I'm all 
like, "woo! I got the green!"

Now almost every single set of traffic lights I come to turn green 
immediately. Seriously, you should try it!

The Jedi were right - your focus determins your reality. :-D

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Now almost every single set of traffic lights I come to turn green 
> immediately. Seriously, you should try it!

Heh. I think I shall. :-)

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
>>> I'm just wondering whether they actually did anything different at 
>>> all for the extra money, that's all.
>>
>> Yeah, they guaranteed that it won't fail within certain tolerances. 
>> Those tolerances are *much* stricter than for the cheap version.
> 
> Well, certainly for resistors, they have a machine that just churns out 
> resistors. They vary all over the place. The ones that are more than 10% 
> wrong get thrown away [or perhaps recycled, IDK]. The ones that are 
> within 10% of the correct value get sold cheap. And the ones that are 
> within 5% of the correct value get sold expensive. But it all comes out 
> of the same machine, and costs the same to produce. [Although I guess 
> the 5% ones are rarer, assuming a normal distribution...]

Of course they're rarer.  If they weren't, some other company would 
charge a lower price for them.

>> When you pay extra for shipping, you're paying for a guarantee that it 
>> will arrive within a certain timeframe.  If you're ordering a gift for 
>> someone's birthday, for instance, and their birthday is 3 days from 
>> now, do you want to gamble that the gift won't arrive on time?  Or do 
>> you want to know *for a fact* that it will arrive within 3 days?
> 
> If only it was a *fact*. It's not like you can demand your money back 
> when the item still turns up 3 weeks late...

Actually, you can.  At least for the shipping.

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> But it's not like a bunch of guys in suits sat down and said, "Now we 
>> need to design a version that's going to fail really soon."
> 
> You sure?  How many devices have you had that failed within days of the 
> warranty expiring? ;-)
> 

None, actually.  But that's probably a fluke :)

I bet what really happens is more along the lines of, "OK, we're at the 
point where it will outlast the warranty, we can stop spending money 
improving it now."

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 16 May 2008 15:51:04 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>

> For something that passively measures a temparature and has 
>almost no possible way of malfunctioning... well, I know what I'd do. ;-)

Sorry but you are wrong, there. Electronic components can fail under
normal usage also electronic circuits can  drift and need recalibrated
from time to time. A temperature measuring device that has a range of

That is very accurate. 
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

Post a reply to this message

> almost no possible way of malfunctioning...

Famous last words...

Seriously, how much would *you* be willing to bet that a temperature 
measurement system from Maplin doesn't fail during 5 years use?  $1, $100, 
$100000 ?  This is exactly what bet companies have to make, and if the bet 
is millions of dollars, you don't get a $50 meter from Maplin.

Post a reply to this message