Posts by dmartin 9 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2013
I don't know for sure but I hope the EU also has these in their sights:
Rechargable batteries that should be - but are not - easy to replace. Cases in point: (Braun) electric shavers, various toothbrushes, clippers etc that I've had to junk over the years for this reason only.
Loss of software support: one example (sorry Google, you're not the only culprit), Google phones go for ~3-4 years before support runs out. The devices themselves are good for easily double that. Many laptops, tablets etc similarly affected. Ongoing support probably should be required to be doubled.
Indeed DAB is not green. Look at the power consumption of DAB (portable) radios compared to FM.
And second, not green is by forcing me to ditch at least 8 FM portable radios around the house etc which get used for various purposes regularly.
But even FM is outclassed by a long aerial and a crystal and totally free radio reception, long live AM !!
I've got 15+ extensions and only ONE does not say "Legacy". And I use 9 of those regularly. OK, the developers of some have probably long lost the will. Even so, I have contributed to some - shame. Nevertheless Firefox devs are heading to antagonise a big % of their customer base, when it is already on a steady downhill trajectory. Chrome is looking very enticing.
Add another vote for shaming Google for it's lack of regard for (a) customers and (b) the environment. IMO big corporations should be required (or incentivised - whether positive or negative) to avoid obsolesence / waste. Google's "do no evil" applies to this issue. So clearly they don't abide by that promise.
Well I went to Google Play to install the app and - guess what - it's not compatible with my tablet, the latest Nexus 7 running Android 4.4. If you follow the links (find the small type) to try to find what tablets are supported, good ol' Microsoft does the run-around and you eventually find yourself back on the same page. So no help there from MS. It wouldn't surprise me if only one or 2 large screen tablets are supported. Anyone got it to install?
It could only have happened in an EU committee. Select the most user-unfriendly plug/socket combination and mandate it.
Has anyone (for example) given any thought to our older population? I'm not there (quite) yet, but isn't the govt trying to get them all 'online' and web-wise? How does this help?
An elderly person buys a device for which the charging plug is (a) not obviously polarised (but it is) and has no clear indication of 'up' or down (unless you look *really* carefully - why couldn't colour have been used?), and (b) will even then only mate with a socket with extreme care (i.e. careful alignment and insertion).
The actual spec should have been: a plug that is NOT polarised and which will locate into a socket from a reasonable range of angles.
However I think this is a lost cause and history will record mankind as having the most stupid choices both when setting USB plug/socket physical standards, and now this ...
A nice rant may help me, but will it change anything? Unlikely :-)
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