I once made a Geocities Flash website that opened itself in five new windows.
I'd send the link to people on MSN Messenger that were annoying me.
That was the pinnacle for me.
73 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Nov 2009
"Or it was a quick hack to get the job done & meet an alpha or beta release deadline - and after that manglement never prioritised a fix"
No, no, no. This isn't a minor fix. This software implementation means lots of dollars not spent on hardware to clean up emissions. It's a very big deal, and a huge competitive advantage over other car companies. Savings in cost and improved in-field fuel economy mean a double-dipper helping of good news. Think of all of those conversations between car owners about fuel consumption, and the smug VW owner who seemed to get "a bit more" out of a tank than anyone else, quickly followed by the classic "well that's German engineering for you".
No, this isn't a minor hack to get through a gateway. This is more like the comment "This kind of thing makes me so mad" says. It's a big deal.
The gains made by such a defeat device are too big to go unknown or unnoticed by chiefs and technical leaders. Opportunity to avoid (high) cost of urea after-treatment is massive.
My personal opinion is that a series of chiefs managed to convince themselves in a meeting room that what they were doing was in the strictest terms not disagreeable.
..represents so much. Way more than just an addition to an operating system (zzz please!)
It represented my journey from cave dweller to the hunched keyboard puncher I am now today.
I was 18 when Win95 came out. I saw it in shop windows, the start button brightly waiting for me to press it, and eventually I got to do just that on a PC belonging to a friends Dad.
I couldn't WAIT to have my own Start button.
When I got my own in 1998, I felt I had truly come of age, and also touched the future that Maggie Philbin had endlessly told me about.
XP came along and something was afoot...it had defaulted to a crayon colouring of Start button. Easily remedied mind, but a disconcerting change with age nonetheless - like ear or nose hair.
Win 7 went round. I was again irritated. JUST STOP. Leave the button alone.
Then Win 8. OMG. They only went and did it didn't they. I knew it. OMG Why me. No start button? I'm adrift. My link back to the day when I finally "made it" was gone. I hadn't even been asked. It was like when my parents decided to wallpaper my room, and didn't tell me there would be flowers on my wall. I was back to being 8 years old. No way could I take to that. I hated being 8.