Hi Charles,

Charles wrote:
Consumers are becoming more clueless as software takes over their lives.

The problem is that consumers don't *want* to know how things
work or *should* work. And, they don't "vote with their wallet".
They get a crappy product and they either live with it (possibly
not even knowing how crappy it is!) or toss it out and buy another
(probably EQUALLY as crappy)

This is a problem that is becoming more serious. If the doctors and
nurses and technicians in a modern operating room get confused or misled
by software glitches, it could be really, really serious. Has already
happened.

Google "Therac".

Unfortunately, there are no real safeguards in place to *prevent*
this sort of thing happening. There are "practices" that *should*
minimize the chance of it happening. But, there were "practices"
in place that should have prevented "Three Mile Island", etc.

Unfortunately, the folks designing these things have less and less
time, less and less *motivation* and less and less *capability*
for making "robust" products.

My DTV tuner shows *two* "9-1" channels.

Years ago, we would design devices that were (comparatively speaking)
*smart*. They could diagnose their own faults. They could assist
the technician in troubleshooting (set up scope loops, etc.).
Now, everything is reduced to the equivalent of an idiot light
"Service Required" -- and, often, that light isn't even present!
The device just "acts funny". And, since users often don't know
how it truly *should* work, they can't AUTHORITATIVELY complain/deduce
that it *is* malfunctioning.

(how many VCR's blink 12:00? Do you have to be a rocket scientist
to set the clock on a VCR???)

I have a Zune media player (movies, music, etc.). I am convinced the
hard drive inside it is dying. Instead of a diagnostic message to
that effect appearing on the LARGE, COLOR, FULL GRAPHIC DISPLAY, the
device sits there trying to read from the disk endlessly (locking
up in the process). "Um, if it can't get the data on the first,
second or even three hundredth attempt, what makes you think it will
get it on the 9 millionth attempt two days from now???"

Instead of helping the consumer determine that he has a p[roblem
(or, better yet, RECOVERING from that problem), it sits there
frustrating the user and leaving him with no alternative other
than to:
- call tech support (in some third-world country, no doubt)
- google for similar symptoms
- discard it in frustration