Why did you write your letter to HR and not to your manager? Do you not have a manager? If you don't, who is the next most-senior person in the company, the person you answer to in meetings about budget or whatever? I think you should have written them a letter and let them sort it out with HR. If you send a letter to HR there's no guarantee that HR will pass on the letter verbatim to those that can revoke your priveleges; they might have just said "Joe is quitting, take whatever measures you deem necessary." instead of "Joe has given two weeks' notice, prepare for him to leave on the Nth of the month." Or something more diplomatic like that.
What was in your letter? Did you tell them why you were leaving? Did you say you were going to steal corporate secrets, that you were moving, that you needed time off from work... Did you say anything that would prompt them to make such a rash move?
I do agree with others, you are taking it somewhat personally. You got paid, you did your job, you offered the standard two weeks, there's not much more to do. You may have done too much by communicating too much in your letter (or communicating the wrong things) but you definitely didn't do too little.
In my state (Washington) neither the employee nor the employer needs to give two weeks' notice; neither party needs to give any notice at all. You can call in one day and say "I quit" and the company has no recourse other than to give you a bad reference. Likewise, one day you can come in and the company tells you "adios!" and you go home that very day (if not that very hour), do not pass go, do not collect $200.
This thing is a toy for children up to about 30 years old.
bzzt, wrong answer. The console is not intended for children at all, it is intended for teens 14 and up.
If you expect your average dumbass to read every hardware and software manual from cover to cover (including yourself, regardless of being a dumbass or not) AND comprehend it, AND follow it to the letter, well then maybe you are a dumbass too.
Anytime something I buy isn't performing the way I'd expect it to, I read the manual. I don't always read it first, but I do end up reading it if I'm not getting what I think I should. If the manual says "Don't operate upside down" or "don't operate near a television" then I'll adjust my environment accordingly or I'll return the product and demand a refund.
What I won't do is sue because it isn't doing what I want it to do if what I want it to do is something it is explicitly stated in the manual that it cannot do. It's only supposed to do what it says it'll do, and nothing more. If I get more, then hell, that's a bonus, but nothing that I'm entitled to and certainly nothing I can sue for.
Its not that tough to have a thermal sensor
It's also not that tough to read the manual. As a matter of fact, it's significantly less tough and is not as prone to manufacturing defects. (Other than the defects caused by inbreeding or being just generally from the south, I mean.)
You seem to imply that consumers should get to be total morons and have everything go their way, and I'm sorry (actually no, I'm not at all) but that isn't the way the world works. People need to be smart consumers or they'll get taken advantage of like the poor schmuck this article is about.
I'm pretty shocked to see the number of posts that are actually calling the guy who bought the 360 an idiot
You must be new here. Welcome to Slashdot.
The XBox 360 has a major problem, one that is VERY HARD to believe that it was overseen by the team of engineers, playtesters etc...
It wasn't overseen by Microsoft. It was acknowledged and accounted for and methods for accomodating the cooling needs of the system are provided in the literature that comes with the device. The manual (you know, little booklet, says how you're supposed to use a device. I'm sure you've read one or two in your life) explicitly states not to place the console in an enclosed space or upon a soft surface. The information is on page three.
the person bought the Xbox with the expectation that this was a tested and a viable product from an established company.
The latter half of the statement is not true. This was not a tested product
Ah, but you are totally incorrect! The latter half of the statement is true. The device was tested thoroughly and the conclusion was that the device is not to be placed in an enclosed space or on a soft surface which will obstruct airflow. This information is in the manual. It's the consumer that isn't being tested thoroughly enough these days, the products are just fine.
Prevent the Console from Overheating Do not block any ventilation openings on the console or power supply. Do not place the console or power supply on a bed, sofa, or other soft surface that may block ventilation openings. Do not place the console or power supply in a confined space, such as a bookcase, rack, or stereo cabinet, unless the space is well ventilated.
Do not place the console or power supply near any heat sources, such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or amplifiers.
And lo and behold, on page three of the manual it says exactly what I quoted above. What we have here is a case of "dumb consumer" and not "bad product." If you don't read the manual and consequently use a device in a manner in which it is not intended, it's your own goddamn fault and not the fault of the manufacturer who tried to instruct you about the proper use of the console. Short of putting an ugly sticker on the console that says "Read the manual, dumbfuck!" what more can they do? They recognized the operating constraints of the console as a result of thorough testing and they notified the consumer of the limitations inherent in that design. If you read the manual and don't like what you read, return the product. Don't bitch and moan and sue because you can't use it in a way other than it's described in the manual.
I wish I had the points to mod you up, that was an amazingly insightful post.
It isn't that the retailers are rubbing their hands together cackling maniacally hoping that consumers won't send in their rebates, but rather that they know that some people value their time more than money while others value money more than their time. It isn't maniacal or manipulative but a recognition of the customer base. Absolutely 100% insightful. My hat (and I do wear a hat) is off to you.
If Microsoft were to give their OS away at "no charge what-so-ever" (as is the case with open-source) then I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers. For now, if they want to be paid in cash rather than in kind, they should expect the same of others.
You're right, they should. They should start charging for updates and hotfixes. Yes, surely then they could fix all the bugs! Why, you're brilliant!
The power supply was for circulating air over the power regulating electronics in the power supply, nothing more.
There's a reason they still use 386 and 486 processors on single-board embedded computers, because they're durable and don't require active cooling. 386/486 processors didn't generally use a heatsink, until the advent of the DX2/66 and up.
Does it mean I am addicted? Not when I am able to take so much of that "useless" information and transform it into a positive
That's like saying that the people who are hooked on speed but justify it because it lets them be a better housekeeper or study longer hours or whatever aren't actually addicted because it has a positive benefit. Or the people who're hooked on anti-depressants but who justify it with their better moods and positive outlook aren't actually addicted either. It sounds like you're in denial, my friend. You're addicted, but much like being addicted to sex or marijuana, it's a pretty benign addiction which is easily satisfied and you aren't going to kill anyone over.
I say this as someone who is also addicted to knowledge, but prefers to SMS google (46645 -- GOOGL) instead of a PDA.
I've worked for MS in the past, in their Windows Sustained Engineering (WinSE) division. So I think I can bring some valid criticism to this situation.
The major issue is: How many customers is it affecting? Nevermind that it's a huge security flaw with the potential to be exploited. Has it been exploited yet? If so, by whom and who was affected? If nobody has been affected, why not? These things go into determining the prioritization for a fix.
Another slew of issues is: How many man-hours will it take to fix the bug? Can the functionality which causes the bug simply be removed without terribly ill effect? Does the person who originally wrote the code still work at Microsoft? Given the fondness for contingent staffing (aka CSG, contract workers) at Microsoft, a good number of people come and go on pretty much a 6 to 12 month basis. I know that some divisions tend to not let contract workers do development expressly for this reason, but there are always exceptions. (ie, a full-time employee (FTE) leaves the company and the company has a CSG with the skills to replace him in the interim while they hire a new FTE) Also, how many man-hours will it take to test the bug? If it will take 5,000 hours to test a bug that presently affects nobody, it ends up near the bottom of the priority list. If it will take 2,000 hours and they have a report or two from customers who have experienced the bug themselves, fixing it becomes a higher priority.
You also have to keep in mind that Windows isn't just one program. Windows XP, for example, is XP Home, XP Pro, the new XP N (sans media player), and Windows Media Center Edition I believe is also XP-based. So that's four platforms that need a fix developed and tested. That doesn't seem like much, right? Ok, Microsoft localizes their software in 44 different languages, which will all need to be fixed and tested. Four platforms, 44 languages, that's 176 different variations which need to be fixed and tested. They will generally not release a fix for only one language at a time.
The open-source community is filled with people with a lot of free time on their hands, as is evidenced by the fact that they are willing to do development work for free, and some of them do quite a lot of that development work. If a team of developers and a team of testers were to volunteer at Microsoft, giving their time over at no charge what-so-ever, I imagine you might see more of these bugs that don't actually affect anyone get fixed sooner. But as long as the company needs to make a risk-vs-cost analysis, bugs that don't affect anyone (yet) will not get fixed any time soon.
Generally, we agree on this point. However, if a manufacturer markets a product specifically for general living room use, but then seriously caveats that in a manual inside the factory-sealed packaging, arguably to limit liability for a design flaw, that is not the consumer's fault, in my opinion.
Nowhere in the literature does it say to place the product in the living room. It isn't specifically marketed for the living room. It isn't specifically marketed for any room. I haven't yet seen an advertisement that displays it in a living room. I wouldn't be surprised if people are putting them on their desktop next to their computer, to be honest. (That's where I have my Playstation 2)
Not doing product research before buying a product is the consumer's fault. Not reading the manual after buying the product is also the consumer's fault. This is more an instance of dumb consumers than "Microsoftness" as people are playing it up to be. If people would do adequate product research before buying, they wouldn't buy a console that won't fit in their entertainment unit or work in their living room or operate from their carpeted bedroom floor. Then, Microsoft would notice their sales not going so well and they'd adjust the system accordingly.
I'm not advocating the console by any means; for the reasons highlighted (can't be used in a living room or put in a conventional entertainment center, overheats easily (what happens this summer?)) and because it's $500+ it's a huge "DO NOT BUY" for me. What I am saying, though, is that people have had ample opportunity to discover the caveats to owning a 360 both before and after purchase and yet they appear to be ignoring those opportunities, which is the hallmark of a dumb consumer.
My standpoint would be totally different if everybody read the product literature first and there was a shitstorm about the positioning requirements from people who had not yet bought the console and who were complaining that it won't work from the floor or in their entertainment unit.
The ability to just buy something, plug it in, and have it work hassle-free is only ever realised when you're working with a Macintosh or a toaster. Most people can't even program their own VCR, yet the expect to be able to take highly sophisticated technology (at a cost 3 to 5 times that of a VCR), plug it in, and have it work instantly without educating themselves first. I think that is a totally unreasonable expectation, the expectation of a dumb consumer.
Actually, we elected Al Gore the first time around, by majority vote. Bush appealed the vote and was later appointed by the US Supreme Court.
The second time around, I'm pretty sure that significantly fewer people voted, as they had become disenchanted with the system they had originally put so much trust in.
Me, I wrote in "Harrison Ford" both times, because frankly, I didn't like any of the options available to me. I wish we had a "none of the above" option which, if in the majority, would preclude any of the candidates from filling the position as well as prevent them from running again for a certain period of time, and would force an emergency election with new candidates, kind of like the election which saw Arnie get elected in California.
I didn't find anything about a lynching, but I did find this article on salon about a Pediatrician whose house was vandalized by people who mistook her title for pedophile. It's actually somewhat disturbing to me that there are angry, stupid, illiterate people out there who think they're right and other people are wrong. You know what those people are called, right? Voters.
From wikipedia's entry on "opinion" Note that simply because a particular opinion is more popular still does not make the opposite opinion incorrect or wrong
It's my opinion that if something is in the product literature and people ignore it, they're getting what they deserve. I'm also of the opinion that, if something is stated in the product literature (and on xbox.com, by the way) that people have the information available to them in order to remedy any problem they are encountering by way of misuse. It's all opinion-based, the only fact I've highlighted is that the information is indeed published. Whether or not it is a bad design is again, just an opinion.
No, a history of people buying poor quality products is an excuse to keep making them. Money talks, and its voice is the sweetest of all to any corporation.
I'm not countering my own argument at all. A 386 could be run in an enclosed space with no ventilation, but you can't run a P4 inside an enclosed space with no ventilation, because it will fry due to heat buildup. The presence of the fan necessitates that the heat be moved somewhere else. The consumer experience is completely different due to the need to better-ventilate the case the processor is going into. My 386 didn't have any extra internal fans for ventilation, my current PC has several.
If your product doesn't funciton properly during normal use, then what good is it?
This is Microsoft we're talking about, here. Not functioning properly during normal use pretty much describes all of their software products, and yet their software is the most-used on the planet. heh. As long as people keep accepting products that don't stand up to normal use, this will keep happening. If peoples' desire to send Microsoft a message were stronger than their desire to play project gotham racing, we might see things change. But since peoples' priorities are really all messed up, we won't, and this problem will probably not affect sales much.
Slashdot Mirror
Why did you write your letter to HR and not to your manager? Do you not have a manager? If you don't, who is the next most-senior person in the company, the person you answer to in meetings about budget or whatever? I think you should have written them a letter and let them sort it out with HR. If you send a letter to HR there's no guarantee that HR will pass on the letter verbatim to those that can revoke your priveleges; they might have just said "Joe is quitting, take whatever measures you deem necessary." instead of "Joe has given two weeks' notice, prepare for him to leave on the Nth of the month." Or something more diplomatic like that.
What was in your letter? Did you tell them why you were leaving? Did you say you were going to steal corporate secrets, that you were moving, that you needed time off from work... Did you say anything that would prompt them to make such a rash move?
I do agree with others, you are taking it somewhat personally. You got paid, you did your job, you offered the standard two weeks, there's not much more to do. You may have done too much by communicating too much in your letter (or communicating the wrong things) but you definitely didn't do too little.
In my state (Washington) neither the employee nor the employer needs to give two weeks' notice; neither party needs to give any notice at all. You can call in one day and say "I quit" and the company has no recourse other than to give you a bad reference. Likewise, one day you can come in and the company tells you "adios!" and you go home that very day (if not that very hour), do not pass go, do not collect $200.
You know what helps when you file a patent even if it isn't innovative? Having a patent lawyer.
...can you guess?
What does Microsoft have a lot of?
I hit up archive.org to see if they had indexed the site to any depth. No luck in my preliminary search, but I did find this:
l yrics.ch/
http://web.archive.org/web/19990125090702/http://
Note the date. Jan 25, 1999. I can't believe it was that long ago.
And if the only way you can make a point is with physical violence... well, I've got a long list of your probable insecurities, bub.
bzzzzzzzzzzt!
This thing is a toy for children up to about 30 years old.
bzzt, wrong answer. The console is not intended for children at all, it is intended for teens 14 and up.
If you expect your average dumbass to read every hardware and software manual from cover to cover (including yourself, regardless of being a dumbass or not) AND comprehend it, AND follow it to the letter, well then maybe you are a dumbass too.
Anytime something I buy isn't performing the way I'd expect it to, I read the manual. I don't always read it first, but I do end up reading it if I'm not getting what I think I should. If the manual says "Don't operate upside down" or "don't operate near a television" then I'll adjust my environment accordingly or I'll return the product and demand a refund.
What I won't do is sue because it isn't doing what I want it to do if what I want it to do is something it is explicitly stated in the manual that it cannot do. It's only supposed to do what it says it'll do, and nothing more. If I get more, then hell, that's a bonus, but nothing that I'm entitled to and certainly nothing I can sue for.
Its not that tough to have a thermal sensor
It's also not that tough to read the manual. As a matter of fact, it's significantly less tough and is not as prone to manufacturing defects. (Other than the defects caused by inbreeding or being just generally from the south, I mean.)
You seem to imply that consumers should get to be total morons and have everything go their way, and I'm sorry (actually no, I'm not at all) but that isn't the way the world works. People need to be smart consumers or they'll get taken advantage of like the poor schmuck this article is about.
I'm pretty shocked to see the number of posts that are actually calling the guy who bought the 360 an idiot
u ll.pdf
You must be new here. Welcome to Slashdot.
The XBox 360 has a major problem, one that is VERY HARD to believe that it was overseen by the team of engineers, playtesters etc...
It wasn't overseen by Microsoft. It was acknowledged and accounted for and methods for accomodating the cooling needs of the system are provided in the literature that comes with the device. The manual (you know, little booklet, says how you're supposed to use a device. I'm sure you've read one or two in your life) explicitly states not to place the console in an enclosed space or upon a soft surface. The information is on page three.
http://assets.xbox.com/en-us/support/na-console-f
This is an oversight by the consumer and nothing more.
Ah, but you are totally incorrect! The latter half of the statement is true. The device was tested thoroughly and the conclusion was that the device is not to be placed in an enclosed space or on a soft surface which will obstruct airflow. This information is in the manual. It's the consumer that isn't being tested thoroughly enough these days, the products are just fine.
See here:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/getstarted/syst
Prevent the Console from Overheating
Do not block any ventilation openings on the console or power supply. Do not place the console or power supply on a bed, sofa, or other soft surface that may block ventilation openings. Do not place the console or power supply in a confined space, such as a bookcase, rack, or stereo cabinet, unless the space is well ventilated.
Do not place the console or power supply near any heat sources, such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or amplifiers.
The first time I got into this argument there weren't scans or PDFs of the manual available online, but it appears that now there are:
http://assets.xbox.com/en-us/support/na-console-f
And lo and behold, on page three of the manual it says exactly what I quoted above. What we have here is a case of "dumb consumer" and not "bad product." If you don't read the manual and consequently use a device in a manner in which it is not intended, it's your own goddamn fault and not the fault of the manufacturer who tried to instruct you about the proper use of the console. Short of putting an ugly sticker on the console that says "Read the manual, dumbfuck!" what more can they do? They recognized the operating constraints of the console as a result of thorough testing and they notified the consumer of the limitations inherent in that design. If you read the manual and don't like what you read, return the product. Don't bitch and moan and sue because you can't use it in a way other than it's described in the manual.
it's ammo for people who are bad at dating
So... MySpace is for slashdot, then?
I wish I had the points to mod you up, that was an amazingly insightful post.
It isn't that the retailers are rubbing their hands together cackling maniacally hoping that consumers won't send in their rebates, but rather that they know that some people value their time more than money while others value money more than their time. It isn't maniacal or manipulative but a recognition of the customer base. Absolutely 100% insightful. My hat (and I do wear a hat) is off to you.
If Microsoft were to give their OS away at "no charge what-so-ever" (as is the case with open-source) then I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers. For now, if they want to be paid in cash rather than in kind, they should expect the same of others.
You're right, they should. They should start charging for updates and hotfixes. Yes, surely then they could fix all the bugs! Why, you're brilliant!
the power supply FAN, rather. ugh.
The power supply was for circulating air over the power regulating electronics in the power supply, nothing more.
There's a reason they still use 386 and 486 processors on single-board embedded computers, because they're durable and don't require active cooling. 386/486 processors didn't generally use a heatsink, until the advent of the DX2/66 and up.
Does it mean I am addicted? Not when I am able to take so much of that "useless" information and transform it into a positive
That's like saying that the people who are hooked on speed but justify it because it lets them be a better housekeeper or study longer hours or whatever aren't actually addicted because it has a positive benefit. Or the people who're hooked on anti-depressants but who justify it with their better moods and positive outlook aren't actually addicted either. It sounds like you're in denial, my friend. You're addicted, but much like being addicted to sex or marijuana, it's a pretty benign addiction which is easily satisfied and you aren't going to kill anyone over.
I say this as someone who is also addicted to knowledge, but prefers to SMS google (46645 -- GOOGL) instead of a PDA.
I've worked for MS in the past, in their Windows Sustained Engineering (WinSE) division. So I think I can bring some valid criticism to this situation.
The major issue is: How many customers is it affecting? Nevermind that it's a huge security flaw with the potential to be exploited. Has it been exploited yet? If so, by whom and who was affected? If nobody has been affected, why not? These things go into determining the prioritization for a fix.
Another slew of issues is: How many man-hours will it take to fix the bug? Can the functionality which causes the bug simply be removed without terribly ill effect? Does the person who originally wrote the code still work at Microsoft? Given the fondness for contingent staffing (aka CSG, contract workers) at Microsoft, a good number of people come and go on pretty much a 6 to 12 month basis. I know that some divisions tend to not let contract workers do development expressly for this reason, but there are always exceptions. (ie, a full-time employee (FTE) leaves the company and the company has a CSG with the skills to replace him in the interim while they hire a new FTE) Also, how many man-hours will it take to test the bug? If it will take 5,000 hours to test a bug that presently affects nobody, it ends up near the bottom of the priority list. If it will take 2,000 hours and they have a report or two from customers who have experienced the bug themselves, fixing it becomes a higher priority.
You also have to keep in mind that Windows isn't just one program. Windows XP, for example, is XP Home, XP Pro, the new XP N (sans media player), and Windows Media Center Edition I believe is also XP-based. So that's four platforms that need a fix developed and tested. That doesn't seem like much, right? Ok, Microsoft localizes their software in 44 different languages, which will all need to be fixed and tested. Four platforms, 44 languages, that's 176 different variations which need to be fixed and tested. They will generally not release a fix for only one language at a time.
The open-source community is filled with people with a lot of free time on their hands, as is evidenced by the fact that they are willing to do development work for free, and some of them do quite a lot of that development work. If a team of developers and a team of testers were to volunteer at Microsoft, giving their time over at no charge what-so-ever, I imagine you might see more of these bugs that don't actually affect anyone get fixed sooner. But as long as the company needs to make a risk-vs-cost analysis, bugs that don't affect anyone (yet) will not get fixed any time soon.
I like the ReloadEvery Firefox extension.
Did you not see this story the other day about the new open source magazine, O3?
Their first issue "looks at reducing voice infrastructure costs with open source telephony solutions"
I suggest starting there.
Actually LivePlasma (formerly MusicPlasma) is more like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Although LivePlasma is more like N degrees.
Generally, we agree on this point. However, if a manufacturer markets a product specifically for general living room use, but then seriously caveats that in a manual inside the factory-sealed packaging, arguably to limit liability for a design flaw, that is not the consumer's fault, in my opinion.
e m/xbox360/connect-positionconsole.htm
Nowhere in the literature does it say to place the product in the living room. It isn't specifically marketed for the living room. It isn't specifically marketed for any room. I haven't yet seen an advertisement that displays it in a living room. I wouldn't be surprised if people are putting them on their desktop next to their computer, to be honest. (That's where I have my Playstation 2)
The information about console placement is available online, in addition to being in the manual.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/getstarted/syst
Not doing product research before buying a product is the consumer's fault. Not reading the manual after buying the product is also the consumer's fault. This is more an instance of dumb consumers than "Microsoftness" as people are playing it up to be. If people would do adequate product research before buying, they wouldn't buy a console that won't fit in their entertainment unit or work in their living room or operate from their carpeted bedroom floor. Then, Microsoft would notice their sales not going so well and they'd adjust the system accordingly.
I'm not advocating the console by any means; for the reasons highlighted (can't be used in a living room or put in a conventional entertainment center, overheats easily (what happens this summer?)) and because it's $500+ it's a huge "DO NOT BUY" for me. What I am saying, though, is that people have had ample opportunity to discover the caveats to owning a 360 both before and after purchase and yet they appear to be ignoring those opportunities, which is the hallmark of a dumb consumer.
My standpoint would be totally different if everybody read the product literature first and there was a shitstorm about the positioning requirements from people who had not yet bought the console and who were complaining that it won't work from the floor or in their entertainment unit.
The ability to just buy something, plug it in, and have it work hassle-free is only ever realised when you're working with a Macintosh or a toaster. Most people can't even program their own VCR, yet the expect to be able to take highly sophisticated technology (at a cost 3 to 5 times that of a VCR), plug it in, and have it work instantly without educating themselves first. I think that is a totally unreasonable expectation, the expectation of a dumb consumer.
Actually, we elected Al Gore the first time around, by majority vote. Bush appealed the vote and was later appointed by the US Supreme Court.
The second time around, I'm pretty sure that significantly fewer people voted, as they had become disenchanted with the system they had originally put so much trust in.
Me, I wrote in "Harrison Ford" both times, because frankly, I didn't like any of the options available to me. I wish we had a "none of the above" option which, if in the majority, would preclude any of the candidates from filling the position as well as prevent them from running again for a certain period of time, and would force an emergency election with new candidates, kind of like the election which saw Arnie get elected in California.
I didn't find anything about a lynching, but I did find this article on salon about a Pediatrician whose house was vandalized by people who mistook her title for pedophile. It's actually somewhat disturbing to me that there are angry, stupid, illiterate people out there who think they're right and other people are wrong. You know what those people are called, right? Voters.
From wikipedia's entry on "opinion"
Note that simply because a particular opinion is more popular still does not make the opposite opinion incorrect or wrong
It's my opinion that if something is in the product literature and people ignore it, they're getting what they deserve. I'm also of the opinion that, if something is stated in the product literature (and on xbox.com, by the way) that people have the information available to them in order to remedy any problem they are encountering by way of misuse. It's all opinion-based, the only fact I've highlighted is that the information is indeed published. Whether or not it is a bad design is again, just an opinion.
It isn't about right or wrong, it's about opinions. Facts can be wrong, opinions can't be.
Thanks for restoring my lack of faith in slashdot.
No, a history of people buying poor quality products is an excuse to keep making them. Money talks, and its voice is the sweetest of all to any corporation.
I'm not countering my own argument at all. A 386 could be run in an enclosed space with no ventilation, but you can't run a P4 inside an enclosed space with no ventilation, because it will fry due to heat buildup. The presence of the fan necessitates that the heat be moved somewhere else. The consumer experience is completely different due to the need to better-ventilate the case the processor is going into. My 386 didn't have any extra internal fans for ventilation, my current PC has several.
If your product doesn't funciton properly during normal use, then what good is it?
This is Microsoft we're talking about, here. Not functioning properly during normal use pretty much describes all of their software products, and yet their software is the most-used on the planet. heh. As long as people keep accepting products that don't stand up to normal use, this will keep happening. If peoples' desire to send Microsoft a message were stronger than their desire to play project gotham racing, we might see things change. But since peoples' priorities are really all messed up, we won't, and this problem will probably not affect sales much.