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Forum URL: http://www.eyrie-productions.com/Forum/dcboard.cgi
Forum Name: Undocumented Features General
Topic ID: 2352
Message ID: 10
#10, RE: Things You Didn't Know About ZC, cont'd
Posted by JFerio on Apr-22-17 at 00:10 AM
In response to message #9
>Like, I'll happily void my warranty and render my own stuff
>nonfunctional using unsanctioned parts. I'm less happy if a device is
>explicitly built to detect unsanctioned parts and ceases to function
>if they're used. Like when Keurig was talking about making its
>coffeemakers detect, and reject, non-Keurig branded coffee pods.

You know, we had one of those damned things at work. The absolutely hilarious thing? We went through two of them in six months, where the third party predecessor had lasted years. When they gave up? In came a new copy of the predecessor, and it's outlasted both of the first party ones.

Oh, and as near as I can tell, the attempt to bolt on Digital Restriction Management was pretty much an abject favor. If they're still saying "it's for your own good," it's become kind of an under-breath murmur that you really don't hear anymore.

>
>Hell, we're getting to the point where devices are rejecting
>sanctioned, first-party parts if you don't pony up cash back to the
>original seller. Farmers in the midwest are resorting to the Ukrainian
>hackers to jailbreak their John Deere tractors because in order to
>swap a part out, a Genuine John Deere Technician(tm) has to plug in a
>dongle and tell the tractor to accept the thing, a process whose only
>purpose is to transfer money from the farmer to John Deere.

This has started to be a problem. I think in part because it's become cheap enough to actually attempt to do as an effort to force you to have to pay them money when it needs repair, even if someone else does the heavy lifting for cheaper than their repair bay.

I'm going to have to do much more research when it comes time to replace appliances and lawn equipment, because it's more and more likely that we're going to start running into this sort of thing for at least the big-ticket purchases. And it's also another reason to stay the Fucking Hell Away from anything that's jumping on the Internet of Things bandwagon (where they can tell you've installed a replacement part and can automatically dispatch the guy with the dongle before you even realize that the device won't work until he arrives). No thanks, I'm perfectly happy with my fridge just beeping annoyingly when it's left open, versus sending me emails and texts to complain.