If you could control the world, what would you change???

[LongRunner]

For me, it might be something like "unify labour pricing, to remove the incentive to out-source for cost cutting".

[c_hegge]

One thing I would do is make sure every single household could get at least 2mbps Internet, and ban dial-up. I'd also see to it that the CEOs and the like of every single company selling liar-labelled PSUs (and other falsely advertised products) had some time in prison and maybe, just maybe, ban the Chinese and Taiwanese from making capacitors.

[LongRunner]

I'd also ban two-transistor self-oscillating flyback converters, fans with one ball bearing and a sleeve bearing (or at least the practice of labelling them as just "ball bearing"), and mains-voltage ES/BC luminaires. Electronic ballasts and LED drivers would have to last for 100,000 hours of on time. Separately sold PC PSUs would be required to have at least five-year warranties covering not only the unit itself, but the powered hardware. Manufacturers would be required to deal with end-of-life and failed disposal/recycling, but consumers would have to pay the costs themselves for products in good condition and less than five years old (for PCs, CE). Products claiming to be environmentally friendly would have to use long-lasting components (which for PC/CE would be at least 50,000 hours of activity, 100,000 hours in standby mode (both at an ambient temperature of 40°C), and 10,000 thermal cycles*) - after all, none of this [insert substance here]-free propaganda is any good if it breaks in two years of normal use. And for consumer-targeted products marketed as saving power, the potential savings must be compared to the usage of other common energy consumers.

*Good luck attaining that with lead-free BGAs dissipating substantial power, though. Of course, in my utopia, restrictions pertaining to the use of lead in electrical solder would not exist. In the real world, make sure you have very good cooling if you don't want cracked solder joints in a few years.

[LongRunner]

There are more things I'd like to do:

• Require casings of electronic devices (PC or otherwise) to withstand the application of a defined weight and pressure without damage.
• Require all ventilation grilles to have an openness of at least 50% (or 65% with fans mounted)
• Require every non-SFF PC case to have at least one 5.25", two 3.5" (HDD - any floppy-only bays do not count) and one 2.5" (for SSD) drive bays. For full ATX cases the requirement would extend to 2 ODDs, 4 HDDs and 2 SSDs.
• Mandate USB 3 on PCs, external drive enclosures, and other high-bandwidth devices (low-end flash drives would be allowed to continue using USB 2)
• For all external drive enclosures, the maximum allowed temperature rise at the drive is 20°C above ambient. For pre-assembled units, the power draw of the drive inside can be used; for DIY enclosures, a worst-case dissipation of 10W for 3.5" and 2.5W for 2.5" should be assumed (this translates to a thermal resistance of 2°C/W and 8°C/W, respectively). This would effectively prohibit fanless plastic enclosures, at least for 3.5" drives. As for fanless aluminium enclosures, it's harder to say - would a dark anodisation help much??? (For fanned heatsinks, on the other hand, the thermal resistance of a coating would overshadow any increase in radiation.) If a fan is used, it may not contain a conventional sleeve bearing.
• External drive enclosures would also be required to have some type of shock absorber. For aluminium enclosures, this could mean rubber "bumpers" mounted to the ends of the casing (which would have minimal impact on cooling, unlike internal shock mounts).
• No HDD may draw more than 2A peak at spin-up. (In that regard, Seagate 7200.7 and 7200.8 are at opposite ends of the spectrum.)
• Cooling fans in home/office equipment must be speed controlled if they output >24dBA nominal.
• Single-output external PSUs would be required to have a prominent tag at the output connector detailing the voltage, current capacity, and polarity. The only exception is if a custom-designed connector is used.
• Only low intensity diffused LEDs are allowed as indicators, except in the case of warning lights which may be higher intensity (but not as high as lighting LEDs).
• Cyclic flashing of indicator LEDs is not allowed except for warning, failure or "please wait" status.
• Ban jewellery (which is just a useless waste of precious metals and diamonds)
• Strip corporations of the dangerous powers they have
• Lighting in all living areas and bedrooms in homes would be required to be dimmable.
• A set of at least four power sockets would be required for A/V equipment. (e.g. TV + player/recorder + game console + amplifier)

And that's definitely not the end of it...

[shovenose]

I would change nothing but give myself billions of dollars to build datacenters all over the world owned by some shady shell companies to make it not obvious they belong to me.

[LongRunner]

You posted in 11 threads all within a short time span???

I'd also ban Phillips screw-heads.

[LongRunner]

What about banning gloss, especially on video screens???

[shovenose]

I only come here like once every few months (I'll try to come more often but I just don't have time) so I reply to everything of interest all at once!