This really pisses me off: hardware that is designed to fail
OK, I've known for years that hardware manufacturers carefully plan for equipment to fail, ever since several of my identical Ericsson cell phones in the early 90's failed at the same day.
Just in case quality of the product is too(!) good, many manufactures install components that measure use and make sure it fails, forcing us to buy even more trapped equipment
This has been going on since the first man picked up a club and handed it to someone else knowing it would not be as good as it looked. Evil people, weak, frail, power thirsty whatever, all do this to stay in business. It is called inbuilt obsolescence and was described in a book of the same name from 1956 by Vance Packard. It is a terrible waste of both material and also human efforts and probably is most disgusting for those creative minds who come up with the particular invention themselves. They find that the marketing department have decided to put a shoddy framework around the article since then it can be guaranteed to fail without too much work and without asking the honest creator to be part of this unethical business. All we can do is EXPOSE each and every case, and THEN show others how they can overcome the problem. Many times a simple piece of plastic wrap around the item (for example with remote controls for TVs etc) will protect it from the planned destruction through the eventual arrival of dust. These people study in university for years and then end up working for companies showing them how to fool the masses. They are deviants, they are cowardly and they smirk when friends talk of their success at parties, but in fact they are the loosers since the money paid for their "service" is peanuts when we compare it to the money that is made by the criminals who order the work to be done. And they will have to sleep with the fact that they themselves are subject to a thousand other "failures" which other loosers have managed to get out there into the showrooms for the masses to consume. The nicest return you can make for the organisers is to go into the shops and do what I did some years ago when the walkman was popular. Pick up the test model and see how easy the battery cover is broken. Bend it on its extra thin hinge until it snaps. Do it quietly and then place it back on the shelf. Break another until all the cheap and nasty items whose battery cover hinges are designed to fail, are back in place. The next customer will then not have to do this job but will have to find another shop in which he can get his own back on those who are guilty of making money through conning people. Do this until no more rubbish is on the rack. You may find that some inbuilt "points of breakage" are difficult to find. Once you find out, go buy another item, then take the first back the same day and say "Hey, this just fell apart in my hands". Most places have been forced to take back goods anything up to 30 days after purchase. If you do it properly, you will at least then know where the breaking point lies and take measures to prevent it. Not a 100% solution, but perhaps a start. We all need to "each do his own bit" and some day we will get to the situation of being the owners of "honest items" which are not designed to break. The ONLY item which I have ever bought which I can 90% say is not designed to break is the famous "Swiss Army Knife". Those guys take ANY knife back which is broken and repair it for free (within reason). I use mine daily and have found NOTHING without designed flaws otherwise. NOTHING. A sad world but then "Santa Claus", the "HOly Church of the BLow job" and "honest goods" are all just stories for children up to the age when they are allowed to walk the streets of this world alone. When you grow up and can face the truth, you are introduced to a world full of souls with evil intentions. Most of us 99% I would say, are honest, hard working and not connmen. Just the politicians, lawyers, bankers, army generals and in fact all "professionals" except "honest" journalists, belong to this group. We are forced to do it to keep up the standards of luxury for our children. You can trust a beggar, but I would never trust a professional to put his hand in my account to take out what he has earned. No matter how firm his handshake is, if his suit is pressed, his tie straight, then you can be sure he has a lot of financial fiddling somewhere he would rather you did not look at going on. The clean, smart man is one whom we can really no longer trust. Or am I just talking from experiences which were gathered in the west, with the best and the brightest?