npub1hykucplphuhelaxutcw4jw3vuu7gcg42czhqmk7jhchs8vdga4fsj73p33 (npub1hyk…3p33)
My favorite story about #righttorepair is about how a former employer of mine figured out how to flip a NVRAM bit in the PC Card Wi-FI decide they were using in the internal design of a peripheral appliance they were selling at a high margin for a price that undercut most of the competition, to turn their $99 “silver” model into the functional equivalent of their $499 “gold” model. (Same hardware, same software, difference was just the secret NVRAM bit set at the factory, and the label applied to the case.)
To cover their tracks, they designed the housing for the appliance so you couldn’t open it and get at the parts inside without destroying it. Eventually word got around that you could cut it open in a very specific way, then use the exposed internals to “upgrade” your PC Cards for free, but by then the parts were almost end of life, and the lost sales were negligible.
I think about that a lot when I hear stories about how automobile repair has turned into a racket.
The Janx Devil /
npub1gk…ykaxw
2023-09-22 23:21:49
in reply to nevent1q…9mjm
Author Public Key
npub1gkwyq4etlprpy33r5hlq2hval5wla4t3dzuzgm3umepz8w7rnz9seykaxwPublished at
2023-09-22 23:21:49Event JSON
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"content": "nostr:npub1hykucplphuhelaxutcw4jw3vuu7gcg42czhqmk7jhchs8vdga4fsj73p33\n\nMy favorite story about #righttorepair is about how a former employer of mine figured out how to flip a NVRAM bit in the PC Card Wi-FI decide they were using in the internal design of a peripheral appliance they were selling at a high margin for a price that undercut most of the competition, to turn their $99 “silver” model into the functional equivalent of their $499 “gold” model. (Same hardware, same software, difference was just the secret NVRAM bit set at the factory, and the label applied to the case.)\n\nTo cover their tracks, they designed the housing for the appliance so you couldn’t open it and get at the parts inside without destroying it. Eventually word got around that you could cut it open in a very specific way, then use the exposed internals to “upgrade” your PC Cards for free, but by then the parts were almost end of life, and the lost sales were negligible.\n\nI think about that a lot when I hear stories about how automobile repair has turned into a racket.",
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