Potato Chip Technology

Last time I talked about how much unit testing is enough. Today I'm looking at the flip-side of this issue.

In New York, Occupy Wall Street has every day Americans protesting the irresponsible and arguably illegal actions of the very rich. Thousands have gathered in the heart of the financial district of the wealthiest nation on earth. Most Canadians support the "Occupy" protests (Most Canadians support 'Occupy' protests, poll finds, CTV). However, it's hard to be supportive if you walk down to see Occupy Toronto. St. James Park is a frequent hangout for the homeless (the Salvation Army is just up the street). The homeless have had to move to area churches as a few dozen of wealthy youth kicked them out and set up their party tents. These protestors aren't sure what they are protesting except the price of having a good time. While there's a big "Occupy Toronto" sign, the occupiers and their motives couldn't be more different than their American counterparts who are fighting the "1%". In Toronto, it's 1% doing the occupying at the expense of the 99%.

As the saying goes, you can't always judge a book by its cover. Things don't always deliver the value that they claim on the outside. This doesn't just apply to protests. A good example is potato chips. Companies keep shrinking the bags while keeping the price and look the same. They hope that customers won't notice. Products that are "greener", "portable" or "healthier" often contain less content. Products with a "new look" often disguise smaller amounts. Food companies hope you don't notice that you are paying more for the product. They blame consumers who overreact to small price increases, saying that it forces the manufacturer to be deceptive and misleading. Potato chip companies have been doing this for years: a bag of Doritos chips is 20% smaller than it was two years ago. The same strategy is used for products from paper towels to Swiss Chalet quarter chicken dinners. (Consumer Reports this month states that 25% of American fish isn't what the fish that its labeled as, often being switched for a cheaper species.) Eventually a company will release a "jumbo" size which is the regular size the product used to be, tagged with a higher price. (Food Inflation Kept Hidden in Tinier Bags, NY Times; U.S. Companies Shrink Packages as Food Prices Rise, Daily Finance)

The same trends exist in software.

Every update of Skype seems to increase the amount of advertising while offering no more useful features. What is the point when the ads crowd out Skype's usefulness and it becomes valueless to customers? Meanwhile, the bugs and limitations continue year after year, such as the lack of decent icons.

Blackberry has introduced a new Apple-like App Store client with cool graphics. This bloated store is by far the largest, most resource hungry app I have. I had to uninstall the majority of my apps to fit the store on the phone with no new functionality. So you can browse all these apps tightly controlled by RIM, but you lack the resources to actually install any of them. And the rest of the Blackberry still looks like an old Blackberry.

What about the Playstation 3? A few years ago, I bragged about the advantages over the XBox: Blu-ray quality, ran Linux as its O/S, the perfect Playstation 2 emulation with the Emotion chip. Sony removed the Emotion chip. Then removed Linux-compatibility. This dumbing down of the PS/3 led to a lawsuit because of Sony sold a product then reduced its functionality after purchase. Sony's solution: A new user agreement that says you give up your legal rights if they decide to to make changes (Mandatory PS3 Update Removes Right to Join in a Class Action Lawsuit, ArsTechnica). The Playstation 3's down to $250, but it's no longer the Linux-based, cutting-edge machine I praised in my original article. What's next, Sony? Remove the ability to play games?

When you buy console games in general, you only pay for part of the game. For the rest of the game you have to pay additional fees for "bonus" features to complete your purchase, hiding the full cost of the game. Surprise!

Firefox has accelerated its release schedule at the cost of introducing more bugs (Spectacular Failures: Firefox 4 and LibreOffice, The Lone Coder).

Even computer grads aren't what they appear to be. A recent survey showed 30% of U.S. students at all grade levels cheated to get the grades that they earned (Survey Finds Cheating Among Students at All GPA Levels, IB Times).

Perhaps I'm just getting grumpy and old but I don't like surprise misfortunes. The world has enough misfortune as it is. I bought a pair of pants from a quality men's store. They wore out in 6 months. A new winter jacket? Unrepairable after 4 months of normal use. I bought a home network router. Dead under 12 months. I yearn to get hardware that doesn't halt when you open the box and and software that isn't downgraded the day after you buy it. Sure, they do it with potato chips, but you aren't spending hundreds of dollars for a bag of chips. Alas, the news reports suggest that poor quality products in deceptive packaging is the trend for the foreseeable future.

That's one great thing about open source software. These are products that you can judge by their cover. Totally transparent, you can try them out, or even even look at the quality of the internal design. There are not hidden surprises.

Good software is your choice. If your a software developer, use tools and techniques that produce a quality product. As far as you are able, strive to release products you can be proud of. As a friend of mine used to say regarding software: "Don't make something unless it is both made necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful" (Shaker Quote, C2).

In the meantime, let the buyer beware: what's inside may not be what's advertised.

November 11, 2011