Editing Antifeatures
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[http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/06/24/1851238/Panasonic-Begins-To-Lock-Out-3d-Party-Camera-Batteries Panasonic] issued a firmware update with an antifeature which disabled any third party batteries. | [http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/06/24/1851238/Panasonic-Begins-To-Lock-Out-3d-Party-Camera-Batteries Panasonic] issued a firmware update with an antifeature which disabled any third party batteries. | ||
That's a mold-beraekr. Great thinking! | |||
==== Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 vs. S300M ==== | ==== Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 vs. S300M ==== | ||
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=== Printers === | === Printers === | ||
==== Printer Cartridges ==== | ==== Printer Cartridges ==== | ||
[http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050222/1220232.shtml HP printers] | [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050222/1220232.shtml HP printers] have been supplied with cartridges that both report 'empty' when they have 25% ink still remaining, but also have a 'use by date' encoded into the chip, which disables the printer cartridge if it is used after that date (no HP printer will use it). | ||
have been supplied with cartridges that both report 'empty' when they | |||
have 25% ink still remaining, but also have a 'use by date' encoded into | |||
the chip, which disables the printer cartridge if it is used after that | |||
date (no HP printer will use it). | |||
In general the | In general the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_printer#Underlying_business_model business model] of printer manufacturers has been to lose money on the printer and make it on the printer cartridges. This has caused such antifeatures as: | ||
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkjet_printer#Underlying_business_model business model] of printer manufacturers has been to lose money on the | |||
printer and make it on the printer cartridges. This has caused such | |||
antifeatures as: | |||
* Reporting the cartridge as empty when (often substantial) ink remains. | * Reporting the cartridge as empty when (often substantial) ink remains. | ||
* Microchips that will report the cartridge size by number of uses | * Microchips that will report the cartridge size by number of uses rather than by amount of ink remaining. These will ignore any refilling of the cartridge. | ||
rather than by amount of ink remaining. These will ignore any refilling | * accepting only regionnally bought cartridges (HP zoned the world the same way as DVD !!) | ||
of the cartridge. | |||
* accepting only regionnally bought cartridges (HP zoned the world the | |||
same way as DVD !!) | |||
There are other features of the printer cartridge industry that are anticompetitive (e.g. use of DMCA and patents to protect antifeature code) but do not involve specific software or hardware - i.e. they aren't 'antifeatures' per se. | |||
not | |||
==== Printer Yellow Dots ==== | ==== Printer Yellow Dots ==== | ||
Many printers produce a background of hard to see yellow dots on every | Many printers produce a background of hard to see yellow dots on every page. This pattern is unique to the printer and can be used to identify the printer that produced a page. | ||
page. This pattern is unique to the printer and can be used to identify | |||
the printer that produced a page. | |||
This is not officially acknowledged by printer manufacturers, but | This is not officially acknowledged by printer manufacturers, but appears to be as a result of a shady deal between government and the manufacturers. | ||
appears to be as a result of a shady deal between government and the | |||
manufacturers. | |||
See: [http://seeingyellow.com/ http://seeingyellow.com/] | See: [http://seeingyellow.com/ http://seeingyellow.com/] | ||
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This was called a "screwdriver upgrade" -- on the IBM mainframes I saw upgraded the DIP switch was flicked in place and the customer was fully aware of the process. It depends upon the charging model as to if this was a anti-feature. For example, most IBM customers leased the mainframe per-MIPS. Upon requiring more MIPS they much preferred a screwdriver upgrade rather than the multi-year planning required for "forklift upgrade", where the entire machine had to be replaced and sometimes the software rebuilt (eg, the new mainframe hardware may have required a move from MVS/XA to MVS/ESA), with extended downtime and significant risk of deployment failure. Usually contracts for IBM-compatible mainframes explicitly requested the range of MIPS for the hardware, a mainframe with a lesser range being penalised as that implied a major upgrade would be required sooner. | This was called a "screwdriver upgrade" -- on the IBM mainframes I saw upgraded the DIP switch was flicked in place and the customer was fully aware of the process. It depends upon the charging model as to if this was a anti-feature. For example, most IBM customers leased the mainframe per-MIPS. Upon requiring more MIPS they much preferred a screwdriver upgrade rather than the multi-year planning required for "forklift upgrade", where the entire machine had to be replaced and sometimes the software rebuilt (eg, the new mainframe hardware may have required a move from MVS/XA to MVS/ESA), with extended downtime and significant risk of deployment failure. Usually contracts for IBM-compatible mainframes explicitly requested the range of MIPS for the hardware, a mainframe with a lesser range being penalised as that implied a major upgrade would be required sooner. | ||
There's a terrific amount of konlwdgee in this article! | |||
==== Modern version ==== | ==== Modern version ==== | ||
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==== Amarok ==== | ==== Amarok ==== | ||
The Amarok Player Development Team implemented a feature which downloads covers of Albums from amazon.com on the fly. Amazon forced the amarok team to implement a feature which deletes the downloaded copies of the cover art work after a week. | The Amarok Player Development Team implemented a feature which downloads covers of Albums from amazon.com on the fly. Amazon forced the amarok team to implement a feature which deletes the downloaded copies of the cover art work after a week. | ||
== Miscellaneous Antifeatures == | == Miscellaneous Antifeatures == | ||
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I have a 96 year old neighbour who still remembers when mains water first arrived in our suburb. He said at the time, that the government wouldn't allow people to build water tanks for their houses, because they wanted people to use mains water. Ah the irony... | I have a 96 year old neighbour who still remembers when mains water first arrived in our suburb. He said at the time, that the government wouldn't allow people to build water tanks for their houses, because they wanted people to use mains water. Ah the irony... | ||
This makes eevtrhying so completely painless. | |||