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A Call for Revolution Against Beta Culture
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| posts about #badtechnology more → |
A Call for Revolution Against Beta Culture |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/21/08
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However, I think quality will always shine through. The companies that put the effort in to make a good product and make sure that said product works will be respected. Look at Blizzard games.
11/21/08
iPhone 3G dropping calls left right and center can't. Things burning can't. Video cards not working well and locking up systems every time can't.
There are things that are too obvious and big to escape a decent QA system. There has to be something else, and the easiest explanation is the development cycle being too short and manufacturers cutting corners everywhere in the process.
11/21/08
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The SNES is to the Xbox 360 what a helium balloon is to the Hindenberg. You're going to have to live with increasingly complicated hardware that's prone to failure, lest you be left behind.
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But instead of pointing fingers, it's about everyone realizing this is NOT ok and actually DOING SOMETHING about it, instead of sitting around and bitching.
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It's in beta, so there may be some issues with it.
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Consequently, every company out there is trying to sell us more stuff while investing less in components (a la Dell Optiplex GX270 with its faulty motherboard capacitors), less in development (a la Microsoft Vista), less in testing (3G iPhone, I'm looking at you here). Compounding the issue is that every company is rushing to the marketplace to be the "First XXXX with YYYY" (replace XXXX with any gadget, and YYYY with any new feature). As we all know, owning the first with the newest tends to impress our gadget-loving piers, which is a fact relied heavily upon by advertising firms.
Add to this the propensity for Americans such as myself to feast to the point of sickness (economic sickness, anyway) upon every gadget thrown in the trough in front of our snouts, and the love-hate affair that the rest of the world has with American culture, and you get the Beta Culture to which Jesus so eloquently referred. C'mon, fellow piggies! We're headed towards the slaughter-house, but they have free WiFi!!
11/21/08
Life is Beta. You'll go Alpha when they stuff you in the box, or urn for those of you who intend to burn out instead of fading away..
11/21/08
Eventually, with enough features, you can go Gold Master, RC1, RC2, RC3, rev1, rev2, 1G, 2G, 3G, Classic, and finally achieve nirvana through obsolescence.
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FTL.
11/21/08
Nothing scares a manufacturer like a jury. The last thing they want is a verdict binding in all venues that a product is defective. Get a few verdicts which say that buggy tech breaches the implied warranties and you'll start seeing manufacturers fall in line.
11/21/08
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I would NEVER buy an iPod because there aren't enough features in them. No radio? No voice recording? Ridiculous!
One of the things you should realise as a Giz fan, is that because you read the blog, you should be better equipped to buy smartly instead of impulsively. Sure it's tempting to get anything from Yanko design, but should you be throwing them ANY money EVER?
11/21/08
Maybe we were all too "well funded" in the past, too indiscriminate in our spending... maybe that's why it appeared we'd "given up." Now that I don't have the money to throw after products which don't work well in the first place, or need upgrading a year later, I'm going to be much less early-adopting as an electronics consumer.
11/21/08
In fact, it's almost time to get an iPhone. Either that or a G1 in 6 more months.
Vote with your dollars and don't be the first to buy one. Wait for the finished product.
11/21/08
While I would love an iPhone now, my current contract with Verizon won't allow for another year and a half or so. However, I still don't think they're truly worth a purchase, so by the time I get one they will be almost fool proof AND much cheaper. Until then, my Blackberry will serve me just fine.
11/21/08
When it comes to computers there has always been bugs. There were bugs in the Apple ][e, the Commodore 64, and the original IBM XT. I know because I programmed on those systems.
The difference is that we now have a network that can update the bugs (and create new ones). Previously, coders would simply work around the issues, and now we go to Microsoft Update to patch them. It is nice that our products continue to evolve, but I agree that it is a hassle.
If you are sick of patches and firmware updates, then don't buy anything that can connect to a network. As a result, it can not be in 'beta' or have updates sent to it. But, if you want something from 1998 or beyond, you are going to find out that there are patches for it because manufacturers can not help themselves.