Re: Ft.W. jobs was Re: Ada/ Career Position/ Exceptional Opportunity

[Marin David Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>]

Brian Collins wrote:

> Make the cell phone that is software upgradeable and
> that you can install new features into and you will double
> your bazillion cell phone sales.  Have it done over the
> air waves and not have to bring the phone into a delear
> and your sales would double again.  Now that would do the
> ledger some good.

Sure. But that's a product strategy. One that would have to be evaluated
against the cost of adding the required hardware, etc. But just because a
product is upgradable doesn't mean that you can't have a bug which requires a
recall. If the software that does the loading has a bug, you can obviously
break the device in the load process and incur some warranty cost.

I am reminded of an HP programmable calculator which allowed the user to put
in a sequence of commands to be executed at power-up. A friend of mine had
one and thought one day "Gee. I wonder what would happen if I put the 'off'
instruction into the power-up sequence?" The answer to that question was:
"You get to send your calculator back to Hewlet Packard to have them reset
the EEPROMs so you can once again turn on your calculator." HP was apparently
quite familiar with the problem so there must have been more than a few
people who thought to try this out. Now granted, this is not exactly a
"software error" but it shows how a design flaw can lead to higher than
expected warranty costs.

I don't remember the exact details, but I remember hearing a story where
Pitney Bowes built a postage meter which turned out to have a software error
that caused a recall. The recall was so extensive that it very nearly drove
them into bankruptcy. Caveat Emptor - or more properly, it's opposite: "Let
the seller beware!" (Whatever that turns out to be in Latin. ;-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Real Time & Embedded Systems, Propulsion Systems Analysis
United Technologies, Pratt & Whitney, Large Military Engines
M/S 731-95, P.O.B. 109600, West Palm Beach, FL, 33410-9600
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