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0 pointstricolon10y ago0 comments

What your parent might be talking about is the distinction between a product that is continually supported by the creator (such as a hardware device with software that can be updated) and an artefact that is produced and then effectively forgotten about by the creator (though there might exist a first- or third-party market for repair and maintenance).

I have a feeling that many auto manufacturers still think more in terms of artefacts than in terms of products (like many corporations used to treat software).

0 comments

skrebbel10y ago

My point is that the vast, vast, vast amount of products out there don't have auto-update. This includes my morning cereal, my fancy designer dustbin, my bicycle, my microwave, and my 2-year old son's favourite teddybeardogthing.

To only call something a product when it has auto-update is such ridiculous HN navel gazing that it's just funny.

EDIT: removed useless rant for fear of losing even more internet points!

taejo10y ago

Your morning cereal isn't auto-updated in the box, obviously, but the recipe is presumably tweaked quasi-continuously without calling it Corn Flakes 2.1 or something like that.

Udik10y ago

Not tweaked in the sense of improved, though. I guess that mostly it's changing the proportions and varieties of the contents depending on the price of the different ingredients and their availability. I was kind of shocked when I first learned (in a jam factory) that they do it all the time, while you're in the illusion of buying the same product, because, well, it displays the same label and brand.

stefanobernardi10y ago

Agreed on the terms. It's just that I don't have a better terms, given that we work with digital constantly upgradable web apps and native apps and we still call them "products".

tricolonOP10y ago

I agree it's funny. There's probably a better term for it.

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