The only way to really fix this would be to make the vendors responsible for the full product life cycle - that is, the cost of recycling the product at its end of life. Don't ask me how to implement such a law, or how it could ever get passed, though I think some countries, for some products, have tried this. If vendors are motivated only by selling more product, then whatever it takes to sell more product, PARTICULARLY that the product self-destructs quickly and requires replacement, while lasting long enough to establish "brand loyalty", is the "smart" move. If, on the other hand, the waste stream was evaluated by vendor, e.g., how many brand X toasters were thrown away this year, and the vendor had to PAY for processing that volume of waste, maybe the lifespan of products would go up. I'd love to see this implemented, but don't ask me how, in the consume-consume-consume US, it ever would be. Now excuse me while I throw away my coffee cup.

jdo

Marco Turrini wrote:

these days I'm facing with an "experienced developer" who thinks that a daily backup is fairly enough to properly mantain a MS-SQL Server database (vendor is irrilevant, I think). The result: odd and random errors in connecting data, or - believe it or not - the user has to access application module in a certain, precise order.

The problem with experience is that while it's a good teacher, not everyone is a good student, and experience doesn't give grades, it's just pass/fail. As in all things, balance: not JUST experience, not JUST theoretical study.

jdo

If you pry the keycaps off, just remember you have to put them back on the right keyswitches. You'd be surprised how mysterious the obscure corners of the keyboard are with the keycaps gone. I'd take a digital photo of the keyboard just for security.

jdo