Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Designers weren't quite sure what they could get away with,
so they always left a safety factor.
They still aren't sure. No responsible engineer designs a circuit to the
hairy edge of proper operation or reliability. (I know, I know...)

I beg to differ. Here's the typical scene. Engineer designs a
product to the best of his abilities. Everything sorta works, but he
had to stop designing in order to meet an arbitrary deadline so the
boss could comfortably fit in his vacation trip. The design review
committee decides that it's good enough, but the VP of bean counting
announces that the customer has declared that unless we cut out X
number of dollars out of the price, they'll go to the evil competition
in China. Actually, the customer has said no such thing, but since
the VP of bean counting's bonus check is dependent on the product
margin, it magically becomes the official target price.

So, our formerly sane and sober engineer is now tasked with butchering
his own product. Originally designed with a 10+ year component
lifetime and MTBF, he starts by removing almost all his safety factor.
Voltage ratings are cut to the bare minimum. Optional manufacturing
features (JTAG port, test points, documentation, removable fasteners,
etc.) are all removed. Sectional testing is replaced by parametric
testing and sample testing.

This is not science fiction. I've been through two consulting
exercises where this was almost exactly what happened. Nobody wants
to cut corners, but the mechanism for forcing engineers to cut corners
is built into the system. Quality is a luxury these days.

My 30+ year *design* experience has been very different.

I see the problem today as one of folks cutting and pasting
"app notes" together -- letting the component manufacturers
do their engineering for them.

The unfortunate ugly truth is that many of these "typical
applications" are *not* designed well. And, the folks
who may have done the designs aren't available to answer
questions about their designs (and shortcomings thereof).

A "finished" design is usually outsourced to someone/somewhere
with the emphasis on low cost. The vendor *always* assures the
customer that they will produce a quality product.

But, product lifecycles being as short as they are, design defects
never get fed back into the pipeline -- a "new" product has already
replaced the old; a new vendor doing the fab, etc.

The end user is the root of the problem, IMO. They neither demand
quality nor are willing to pay for that quality. With many devices,
they often don't even know how their device is *supposed* to
operate so don't feel emboldened to complain when it *doesn't*
work.

Or, they are all too willing to use the product's failure as an
EXCUSE to buy something new -- "reward" themself. I've seen this
"rationale" all too often.

The "throw-away mentality" is most-likely due to the rising cost of
competent service bumping into the falling cost of electronics. Not to

New products often introduce new features. Why settle for last
year's model when *this* year's model has blah?

"Service" is usually not available, locally (for the majority
of clueless consumers). So, now they have to deal with packaging
the device up for shipment ("Gee, I sure wish I had the forethought
to save the original packing materials!"), paying for shipping
(with "tracking"), living without the device (or its replacement)
for the duration of the repair, an unknown repair time *and* cost.

Most "repairs" are board level swaps. And the prices of those
boards are ridiculous.

[E.g. we have avoided purchasing an on-demand hot water heater
out of the *realization* that any failures will be "repaired"
by a PLUMBER. Makes about as much sense as having a carpenter
do your dental work!]

mention that the latter are increasingly difficult to service. The rapid
changes in technology also encourage people to throw out broken stuff.

Yep. When the iPhone arrived, I couldn't believe how many iPaq and
Palm PDA's I saw at the recycler. It's not like the old stuff is no
longer functional or usable. It's just not fashionable any more.

Exactly. The same is true with most consumer kit. Businesses are
even worse -- replacing their IT kit every 2-3 years *just* so
they can buy the latest buggy version of windows... (does that
secretary REALLY need a dual quad core 3GHz machine to type up
business correspondence??)

* Of course, I rarely buy cheap products. Purchases are permanent
investments that "ought" to last forever. This has mostly been the case.

----^^^^^^^^^^ is the operative word, here. Our society has signalled
that an "investment" is "a year or two" (look at wall street and the
tax code). Even wanting to make smart "long term" decisions is
fraught with unexpected risk -- who will stock the replacement
parts for these devices 5 years hence? (sure, you *might* be able
to buy electronic components... but, what about plastic parts, etc.?)

One of my servers has triple redundant power supplies. I pulled
two sets-of-three power supplies from similar servers that were
headed to the scrap pile. If I had to buy one today, I suspect it
would be hundreds of dollars -- *if* I could find one!

I'm a compulsive repairman. Therefore, I rarely buy anything new. I
tend to buy used and broken, fix it, and then use it forever. Once

Ditto. Though only where practical. E.g., I often treat color
printers as disposable -- when my supply of toner/ink runs out,
the printer makes a graceful exit (I refuse to spend $200-300
for a set of cartridges!)

I've been inside, I can usually tell if it's going to last. The stuff
that isn't, is sold or donated. Looking at the photo of the shop, I
don't think there's anything on the shelf that I didn't buy broken and
later fix. Unfortunately, the pile of stuff that I couldn't fix (or
don't have time to fix) is about 3 times as large.

Get rid of it. If I haven't had a pressing enough need to fix something
that is broken, it goes out. Life's too short! :