Slashdot Mirror
When Appliances Revolt
conaone writes "From the "disconcerting" file, Baseline has a weird story about how the increase in use of embedded operating systems is causing strange things to happen to consumer products. Their example is the use of Windows CE in the BMW 745i, which apparently occasionally goes nuts. The best is the list of video clips showing off the possessed car."
woooooooooooo!
This is unfair - An average American IT worker competiting against some of the smartest guys
... the smartest, most successful, most influential Indians who've migrated to the US seem to share a common credential: They're graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology , better known as IIT. Made up of seven campuses throughout India, IIT may be the most important university you've never heard of ... This is IIT Bombay. Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of this school in India ...
... impact of IIT graduates has been on the American technology revolution ... "I can't imagine a major area where Indian IIT engineers haven't played a leading role "...
... Fortune 500 headhunters are always on the lookout for that IIT degree ... And the American companies love the kids from IIT ... Nehru, India's first prime minister, created IIT 50 years ago just after independence to train the scientists and engineers he knew the nation would need to move from medieval to modern. He never imagined India would be supplying brainpower to the whole world ...
... my son ... wanted to do computer science at IIT. To do computer science at IIT, you have to be in the top 200 and he couldn't do that, so he went to Cornell instead.
...
... Nehru wanted all these young men and women to contribute to the success of India, and they are contributing to the success of India ... Some of these people who have reached the higher echelons in the corporate world in the US, you know, they have persuaded their corporations to start operations in India, whether it's Texas Instruments, whether it's General Electric, whether it's Citibank.
... How many jobs have entrepreneurs -- Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley created over the last 15, 20 years? Hundreds of thousands, I would guess ... For this society, here in America.
./ - 0 004 and 0 088
CBS News 60 Minutes - Imported from India (January 12, 2003)
Copyright CBS Worldwide Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
(Excerpts from program transcript - Complete transcript available from CBS News)
With a population of over a billion people in India, competition to get into the IIT is ferocious. Last year, 178,000 high school seniors took the entrance exam called the JEE. Just over 3,500 were accepted or less than 2 percent. Compare that with Harvard, say, which accepts about 10 percent of its applicants
It isn't just high tech
Infosys Technologies Ltd.(NASDAQ: INFY) CHAIRMAN MURTHY:
STAHL: Think about that for a minute. A kid from India using an Ivy League university as a safety school. That's how smart these guys are
MURTHY:
KHOSLA: I have no question that India now is benefiting significantly from the cycling of knowledge, the back and forth, no question about it
Says Lesley Stahl (CBS News) - "... I remember telling you in November that I had just returned from Bombay, India. So this story has taken two months. It's about a university that may be the hardest school in the world to get into . It's called IIT- Indian Institute of Technology. A stunning percentage of CEOs and innovators in the American high tech industry were graduated from IIT. The government of India highly subsidizes the school and the students who go there - it costs a kid just $700 a year. But - and here's the rub - a full two-thirds of the students leave India for jobs (many of the best come here) and never return. I think you'll find the story fascinating..."
Good news - IITs only churn out about 3000-4000 grads a year so only a few of H1-B are those BUT many other universities are good too... I saw these on
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=50907&cid=510
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=50907&cid=510
Maximum Overdrive style!
.
Thin I saw somethin' anout this on an old Twilight Zone rerun last week....Old Roddy Boy had a heck of a crystal ball he used to pick his stories.
We need to start importing foreign people... AS SLAVES!! Yes, you read that right. It's time to start the slave trade again. Repeal the 13-15th Amendments, and we'll be on our way to a much more profitable society!
I do. I sometimes listen to the Braveheart theme 'Amazing Grace' in my car.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Now we've got roll-over Flash Microsoft ads? Fuck that. Refresh a few times and you'll get them (at least in IE 6) I didn't block ads before and even clicked on them sometimes, now I'm done. Bring on the ad blockers!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
BMW is on a roll, but unfortunately they also seem to be on a design hubris trip, judging by the 745i movies and my friend's ongoing BMW Z4 experience.
I have a friend fighting with BMW to return his manual top Z4 for the power top version due to similar design oversights. Would you believe the Z4 manual top can leak and splash water into the interior when driven in the rain? BMW's "official" response: it's ok since that's the way the manual top was designed. (However, the power top design exhibits no such design flaw.) Even the BMW techs agree that the top is misdesigned, but BMW refuses to take responsibility for their design flaw and refuses to upgrade the car at the $900 power top cost to the equivalent power top version. Instead, BMW wants to make another $2700 on the new car due to their design mistake!
BMW's new design hubris and customer neglect has led it to deny its design miscues (745i rear end) and critical design flaws (Z4 manual top, and 745i iDrive and electronics), and some of BMW's most loyal customers are the victims.
Instead of providing an upgrade path at cost ($900), BMW wants my friend to trade in his new Z4 as a used car (even though he reported the problem two days after taking delivery of the car). This difference of resolution is crucially expensive since BMW wants another $2700 from my friend to address their manual top critical design flaw. BMW wants to make money off my friend twice for their design failure, and their "offer" is really just an offer for him to pay the BMW premium twice for a $900 resolution to address the leaky Z4 top. The story goes on quite a bit further, but that's the crux.
There are two basic problems I see with this situation other than the following obvious issues: shipping an improperly designed and inadequately tested manual top, nonsensical denials (even in the face of their own service techs and loyal customer(s)), and unconscionably poor customer service by BMW. The two subtle issues I see are:
1. BMW charges a premium for quality design and attention to detail. A leaky roof is an undeniably major oversight and design flaw, and telling a customer it's supposed to leak and splash into the cabin just doesn't cut it. My miata roadster never leaked into the cabin in ten years of ownership. Why should a BMW roadster at twice the price?
BMW has been hugely successful recently, but its success seems to be going to its head. The buggy, ugly 745i is the epitome of Bangle design and BMW hubris. The lowly (relative to 745i) soft top indicates that even engineering (not just aesthetics) are subject to BMW design hubris.
2. The Z4 is expensive even for a BMW at $32+k starting (compare: Nissan 350Z coupe at $25k starting with app. 100 more horsepower!). The manual top chops $900 off the Z4 price. However, through all my friend's troubles, BMW could not find another Z4 with a manual top in the region. IOW, BMW appears not to be shipping manual top Z4's.
Considering the huge discrepancy between the success of the Z4 as a design whole, and the utter engineering/consumer failure of the manual top design, I have a suspicion. BMW knows the manual top is a design failure and purposely has not voluntarily shipped any to dealers (unless spec'ed by customer). They ship power tops by default and suggest dealers only order power tops (hence no other manual tops to inspect in region). BMW apparently only intends to sell power top Z4s (and for good reason) since they already *know* the manual top is deficient. BMW intends (and certainly should) only sell Z4 power tops.
But why offer the soft top if it's a. deficiently designed, b. largely untested, c. improperly supported in the field, and d. subject to severe customer dissatisfaction? I suspect the Z4 manual top exists solely to lop $900 off the starting price for the Z4. I also suspect that BMW marketing told engineering at the last minute to create a manual top version --- not because they wanted a well designed manual top --- but because BMW marketing wanted a way to lop off another $900 off the starting price of their already expensive roadster in view of its less expensive competition (e.g., Nissan 350Z).
Voila, the Z4 manual top reject design exists solely for marketing reasons --- never mind the inadequate engineering design, testing, and execution --- and the potentially open-ended damage to BMW's design and engineering reputation. Engineering probably complained bitterly at marketing's unsavory request, but marketing apparently prevailed much to my friend's customer dissatisfaction.
I guess at this point, it's largely immaterial why BMW shipped such a defective manual top (or such buggy 745i software). Mistakes can occasionally happen. What matters is how BMW responds to customer dissatisfaction at these defects and design failures.
Unortunately, with BMW America's new hubris, they explain away the leaky, splashy manual top design as (literally) 'that's how it was designed' implying it therefore works. Perhaps BMW Germany (or the BMW America executive team?) need to step in and stop the customer dissatisfaction hemorrhaging.
Neither my friend nor I disagree the manual top was designed by BMW (surprise, surprise), we just wonder what the BMW engineeers, executives, and 'customer service' staff were smoking when they chose to ship the design. Yes, that's the way it was designed, and that's exactly why BMW should take responsibility for the design flaw(s). BMW needs to acknowledge the flaw(s) and fix or replace them to customer satisfaction. (Duh.)
So, BMW's latest hubris is not limited to Microsoft Windows CE based 745i's, nor Bangle'd 745i sedan rear ends. It also extends to their own manual soft top design on their brand new Z4. BMW, BMW America, and BMW dealerships need to reassess their priorities: is internal engineering/marketing the ultimate authority at any expense (including customer satisfaction), or is it possible tech's and customers with first hand experience could know better?
IOW, is hubris king, or is customer satisfaction still a priority at BMW Germany, BMW USA, or BMW dealerships? As a BMW owner and loyalist, I hope BMW plugs its hubris leak right quick, and bails its customers out of its leaky, flawed design mistakes.
P.s., just to level the Z4 comments slightly, I shall say that other than the fatal leaky manual top, the Z4 is a beautifully designed and delightful car to drive and enjoy. Even I delight at and in it, and I am hardly a Bangle fan. The Z4 "flame" design is a delight; the Z4 attention to detail is excellent excepting the one flaw. My friend has several used BMW's already, and the Z4 (with a working power top) is exactly what he wants and is his first ever new BMW (and new car!). It's just a shame that BMW is denying him the car of his dreams to avoid addressing its manual top design mistake.
I hope BMW wakes up without sacrificing its most loyal customers (including my friend) and doing too much unnecessary self-inflicted damage. BMW should honor their good design reputation by addressing their flawed design(s) immediately, without reservation, and to the full satisfaction of their customers. Here's to BMW pulling out of its design hubris and fulfilling its premium customer service obligations.
I'm Brian Fellows!!