Crazy IT people

[Kittyhawk]

But are you sure you are the customer - perhaps the oil companies or the truck stop operators are paying for the modifications.

Truckstops are great. All they are is a concrete pad with a couple of self service diesel pumps on it, nothing else and are usually located in the industrial part of whatever town you are in. The sites are owned by the various fuel companies and restricted to commercial vehicle operators. Currently diesel at a normal petrol station is around NZ$2.05/litre. At the truckstop it is $1.49/litre. Since my vehicle uses 14 litres/100 km there is a big incentive to use them. The associated app is produced by the fuel brands operating the truckstops and its purpose (my assumption) is solely to guide the user to the pumps when he needs to refuel. So, in it's original format the app was very good and very simple to use and also easy to understand how it worked which is why I was able make my own replica of the original version. The upgraded version of the fuel company app renders it hugely cumbersome and slow to use and its added features serve no useful purpose.

 

[J-G]

Ferranti, perchance?

I'd concur with that correction. I used to work for a high street Chemist chain who had a dedicated photographic shop and when Cine was in decline they employed me to run their new 'Computer' section. It was mainly BBC, Sinclair, Dragon, Oric, Amstrad etc. but the first 'IBM' clone that I bought in was a Ferranti. I did eventually sell it but I remember that it had a serious problem inasmuch as it had a 'daughter-board' which fitted below the main board and with the showroom being on the first floor, the vibration occasioned by passing traffic caused that to drop out of its slot !!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not at all qualified to comment on software, but just on machines & in my experience over the years (I'm not talking Laguna now)
I've come across many 'solutions' and design upgrades to problems that didn't even sodding exist.
Frustrating is the word at times when something changes for the worse. I understand production cost cutting etc, but a design change that is cloaked in 'this is better' when it plainly isn't is head bangingly annoying.
Guess as has been said, it kept certain people in work tinkering with things for reasons known only to them.
Cheers, Nick

Schlimmbesserung.

 

[Tortoise]

You youngsters!! The first computer I had use of was a Ferrari containing two 1k blocks of core-store!

beats my 4k IBM 1130. Ferranti? because it doesn't sound as if it behaved like a Ferrari!

 

[paulrbarnard]

I'd concur with that correction. I used to work for a high street Chemist chain who had a dedicated photographic shop and when Cine was in decline they employed me to run their new 'Computer' section. It was mainly BBC, Sinclair, Dragon, Oric, Amstrad etc. but the first 'IBM' clone that I bought in was a Ferranti. I did eventually sell it but I remember that it had a serious problem inasmuch as it had a 'daughter-board' which fitted below the main board and with the showroom being on the first floor, the vibration occasioned by passing traffic caused that to drop out of its slot !!

I had a Ferranti when they were first launched without disks. Added an upgrade a while later to add two 5 ¼ floppies then a while after that a 250MB hard drive. I thought it was so powerful

 

[Spectric]

but a design change that is cloaked in 'this is better' when it plainly isn't is head bangingly annoying.

That is often an excuse given by the bean counters to disguise a cost saving initiative. A bean counters total lack of engineering knowledge allows them total unrestricted thinking without bounds, hence why a lot of good engineering practice gets removed from a design.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

All changes are promoted as "better" - even reducing the spec to justify a cost cut is "better".

It matters not that changes are trivial or unimportant - they are changes. It is an opportunity to:

• to proudly proclaim and promote the improved product qualities
• encourage editorial and reviews in the media
• justify a price increase
• increase flagging sales
• get rid of surplus stock or fulfil onerous purchase commitments
• etc etc

With apps the motivation for change often depends on who owns it (oil company, app developer, truck stop operator) and how the revenue is generated - through website advertising, a marketing spend to support end sales, support wider strategy (trade only??) etc.

For app developers their principal concern is generating revenue for themselves - they don't care whether the app supports diesel or lemonade sales. Site design probably depends mainly upon that which they believe (possibly misguidedly) will bring maximum traffic to the site (page views = money!).

 

[John Brown]

I had a Ferranti when they were first launched without disks. Added an upgrade a while later to add two 5 ¼ floppies then a while after that a 250MB hard drive. I thought it was so powerful

250MB! That must have been enormous! The first hard drive I used was 5MB from Rodime. It was 5" double height, and flakey as hell. The controller PCB cost about as much as the drive(I think the drive plus controller came to just under a thousand) and I had to write the drivers myself.
The controller PCB was called "The Conan David Jr". Those crazy Americans...

 

[paulrbarnard]

250MB! That must have been enormous! The first hard drive I used was 5MB from Rodime. It was 5" double height, and flakey as hell. The controller PCB cost about as much as the drive(I think the drive plus controller came to just under a thousand) and I had to write the drivers myself.
The controller PCB was called "The Conan David Jr". Those crazy Americans...

It cost a fortune and was in a separate box. I thought I was setup for life. I justified it to myself as never needing to buy another one. I guess we all get wiser as we get older

Edit: it was 25MB not 250. Geez I am getting old.

 

[Spectric]

I can still remember buying an IBM 1 Gig Micro drive for my camera, it was £200.

 

[selectortone]

There's a Zenith 'laptop' (you'd need a strong lap) up in my loft somewhere with a black and white LCD display and a massive 10MB hard drive. Early MS-DOS OS. It was like something from Star Trek back in 1985.