Backronyms and puns

[LongRunner]

Foxconn = Fuxconn

For some reason, I have (in my huge stash of them) a mains cord made by that company that smells of petroleum. Not even the counterfeits that I've seen managed to do that, so it's kind of depressing that they managed to get that wrong. Oh well, the company as a whole is considered to be about cheap over all else. It's perhaps ironic that I'm unable to fault the mains cords from manufacturers whose names aren't familiar to the general population, with the exception of one recall in the whole of Australia (to be fair, that one was a worldwide problem — and I hope I can get away with saying that I can recognise the manufacturer of the affected cords as Linetek) — to be fair, it was about something much more serious than a bad smell, but still…

[LongRunner]

HPM (the Australian electrical company) = Hopelessly Poorly Made

The way I see it, is that they have turned to living off their reputation from the "good old days"; their products, to be honest, aren't even close to Clipsal's in quality. In fact, I now have a personal "No HPM" policy, which I will retain until (if ever) they get their act together.

[c_hegge]

GMC = General Mistakes Company

A friend of mine had a GMC generator once. It worked fine for a few tanks of fuel and then wouldn't start. The warranty replacements all did the same. His other Honda generator has never skipped a beat.

iPhone = Bye, Phone! (I was soooo glad to say that to my one after getting a 'droid powered HTC M8)

[c_hegge]

Bing = But It's Not Google!
Yahoo = You Always Have Other Options

[LongRunner]

Another RoHS one: Rushed out Hopelessly Soon

To be fair, the lower wetting of lead-free solders can be exploited to enable higher-density BGAs than are possible with the old Sn63Pb37 alloy. But 3.5 years was a bit too narrow of a window for (almost) the whole industry to make the transition. A sensible strategy for the transition to lead-free would go something like this:

1. Laboratory experimentation and testing to find something suitable
2. Apply it first to a device that isn't too expensive and won't cause too much grief if it fails (but which has a suitably long lifespan to provide some indication). (But what could that be? The average consumer doesn't use their stuff long enough for meaningful results and professionals can't afford the increased risk. There's also the dilemma that you don't want to push hardware to its limits in normal use, but have to if you want a good indication of how reliable it is. )
3. If this succeeds, proceed to use it on a wider range of devices (but nothing safety-critical); if not, retry with a different formula.
4. Once you have a proven formula, then and only then adopt it universally.

I've also found a document (attached) that provides some insight into a few of the things that went wrong. As for whether "the electronics industry will emerge from the transition to lead-free stronger than it went in" — maybe, but matching (or surpassing) leaded solder in every significant respect seems like a very tall order to me.

As for whether I would be willing to take the risk, given the choice, for various items:

• Optical drive: Probably the least important part of the PC, so I guess it'd be reasonable enough there. (Same applies to card readers.)
• Permanent storage (HDDs and SSDs): I'd be tempted to wait for the proof here, if only because data can't be replaced. Granted they take risks with new technologies on a routine basis but at least that's with the prospect of storing more data, accessing it faster, and more economically. (Although if they've pushed the technology too far is open to debate — and I would of course consider it foolish not to back up at least the most important stuff to your older drives. One way of managing the risk is to use the new drives for bulky stuff — such as DVD rips — and to keep more important, smaller documents on the older drive, although that does have the drawback of adding to power consumption and noise — unless the media drive is spun down when you're not playing from it — and requiring either additional drive bays or mounting some of the drives in external enclosures.)
• CPUs, RAM, mainboards: If it's not a mission-critical system then maybe. If it is, then no.
• Graphics cards can have a very hard time keeping cool — especially high-end models with huge power consumption — so I'd play it safe here too.
• Power supplies: Given that they're the only part with the potential to instantaneously destroy every other part of the system, what do you think?
• Cooling fans: The small number of components in these means minimal risk of failure, but equally minimal potential benefit. I guess the sheer reliance placed on them is reason enough to play it safe (at least for non‑tachometer types), and they have evolved little since brushless DC motors became cost‑effective so there's no real reason not to re-use them wherever you can (provided the bearings are still good).
• Monitors: While failure of the monitor doesn't result in any data loss, they advance at a much slower rate than other hardware (well, for the last few years they've mostly stagnated in resolution due to the persistence of non-scalable graphics) and can be quite expensive (especially larger models), so I'd pass on them.
• Input devices (keyboards, mice, gamepads etc.): There aren't a whole lot of electronics in these and they don't get hot so I guess they aren't at that much risk. There's not much to make them obsolete aside from interface changes. Lifespan of course is entirely dependent on construction.
  (I guess I'd be fine with RoHS in a cheap rubber-dome keyboard, maybe not in a high-quality mechanical model…)
• Internet connections: If for home use, then OK. For business use, no.
• Other expansions and peripherals: Yes if it's something I can make do without, such as a TV tuner.
  No if it's something I really need (such as an office printer or copier).
• Audio equipment: Maybe for something small, such as a headphone amplifier or a DAC.
  Not for a power amplifier (which I would reasonably expect to use for decades).
• Small appliances: Maybe, depending on the appliance in question.
• Major appliances: No way.

But the point is that even with "big issues", you have to be patient.

[LongRunner]

Dyson Air Multiplier = Air Divider

It's a very inefficient way of avoiding the sin of buffeting; I just got the chance to compare a version with a heating mode to a regular fan, and the Dyson was much louder for comparable airflow.

[c_hegge]

Teapo... To Explode, Apply Power On

As for LTEC (Luminous Town Electric Company), here's how they might get their name. When their parts fail, the appliances that they are installed in cause electrical fires and burn houses and buildings down. The town then becomes luminous

[LongRunner]

Seagate "DM" (7200.14: ST1000DM003, ST2000DM001, ST3000DM001): Dead, Mostly

At the rate they're going I'd be amazed to hear of one still working a decade from now.

[LongRunner]

SamXon GK = Goes Kamikaze

(I haven't actually seen anything about the supposed SamXon GL failures and I couldn't find the datasheet for it. Perhaps the whole thing was a typo? I can see how it could have happened, given that K and L are directly adjacent on the standard QWERTY layout.)

[Behemot]

GK and GF (Go Frelled) are the bad series, the green ones.