3 ms·

That reminds me of the story which I believe was posted on here (might've been somewhere else) a year or two back about LG TVs and their interface everybody lov

That reminds me of the story which I believe was posted on here (might've been somewhere else) a year or two back about LG TVs and their interface everybody loves - it was a total accident. LG had (might still have, dunno) a program in place where managers got a bonus for every feature they spearheaded which shipped in a product... this resulted in managers from many different teams shoehorning in whatever they could into the 'Smart TV' interface. There were 2 separate 'app stores', multiple inconsistent interfaces, it was slow as molasses, etc. LG acquired the WebOS team and they adapted WebOS to the LG sets just as an experiment... but someone took one of the TVs they had it running on to a trade show... and everybody absolutely loved it because it was simple, direct, uncluttered, and fast. It caused LG a huge problem because it clashed with their corporate policy that encouraged the other bloated interface. I honestly think that a lot of companies should seriously re-evaluate how they function. Once a product is perfected, the developers should probably be switched over to being paid "on retainer", so that they continue to get paid but do not have to go into work constantly and maintain a 40 hour work week. Let them work from home, and just require them to be reachable. When maintenance is needed, ping them to do it.

lucaspiller 11y ago
I think hardware companies are especially bad at this. When I was young my parents had a colour TV that was 25 years old before they replaced it. Even then it still worked perfectly fine, they just wanted to get a flat screen that took up less room. Now it seems you are expected to replace TVs every couple of years...
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  Designed failure is clearly a central part of how capitalism presently works for the capitalists - virtually everything I've repaired [domestically] of late has had a tiny part that seemed engineered to fail and take down the whole device. Case in point - my dad's kettle, the push button to open the lid broke. The tiny plastic lever in the internals that was the ultimate problem had been moulded with material from the pivot removed. There's no way it wasn't designed to fail within a short time period. Add back that plastic or otherwise reinforce that pivot and it would likely work for several more years. Another example, microwaves: I bought two new, [admittedly] relatively bottom end, microwaves consecutively. Both appeared to fail due to the cyclotron, neither part was available to buy. So instead I got my parent's old microwave from the 1980s. It really pained me to get rid of those new shiny stainless steel boxes, made so attractive to the eye, in favour of the beige-and-brown monstrosity with the working internals.
  - beachstartup 11y ago
    if you want gear that can last and stand up to heavy use, buy professional kitchen equipment from restaurant stores. plastic consumer stuff is always cheaply built because they compete on price.
solnyshok 11y ago
this is how we treat homebuilders. and everybody seems ok with it.
mieko 11y ago
I hadn't heard of the LG/webOS story, but it's a good read: https://gigaom.com/2014/08/28/a-failed-experiment-how-lg-screwed-up-its-webos-acquisition/ https://gigaom.com/2014/08/28/a-failed-experiment-how-lg-scr...

lucaspiller 11y ago

I think hardware companies are especially bad at this. When I was young my parents had a colour TV that was 25 years old before they replaced it. Even then it still worked perfectly fine, they just wanted to get a flat screen that took up less room. Now it seems you are expected to replace TVs every couple of years...

pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Designed failure is clearly a central part of how capitalism presently works for the capitalists - virtually everything I've repaired [domestically] of late has had a tiny part that seemed engineered to fail and take down the whole device. Case in point - my dad's kettle, the push button to open the lid broke. The tiny plastic lever in the internals that was the ultimate problem had been moulded with material from the pivot removed. There's no way it wasn't designed to fail within a short time period. Add back that plastic or otherwise reinforce that pivot and it would likely work for several more years. Another example, microwaves: I bought two new, [admittedly] relatively bottom end, microwaves consecutively. Both appeared to fail due to the cyclotron, neither part was available to buy. So instead I got my parent's old microwave from the 1980s. It really pained me to get rid of those new shiny stainless steel boxes, made so attractive to the eye, in favour of the beige-and-brown monstrosity with the working internals.
- beachstartup 11y ago
  if you want gear that can last and stand up to heavy use, buy professional kitchen equipment from restaurant stores. plastic consumer stuff is always cheaply built because they compete on price.

solnyshok 11y ago

this is how we treat homebuilders. and everybody seems ok with it.

mieko 11y ago

I hadn't heard of the LG/webOS story, but it's a good read: https://gigaom.com/2014/08/28/a-failed-experiment-how-lg-screwed-up-its-webos-acquisition/ https://gigaom.com/2014/08/28/a-failed-experiment-how-lg-scr...