[conspire] the flashing 12:00 problem (Re: Twitter successors)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (michael.paoli at berkeley.edu):

[...]

> Now, maybe a conventional oven might be useful ... but I'd bet that
> still <<5% use such on a conventional oven to set a time to start and
> stop cooking something in the oven.

But both conventional and microwave ovens will continue to reliably
include 50￠worth of digital clock circuitry, out of fear that some 
purchasers will prefer another unitl on grounds of "features".

This is what happens with unsophisticated buyers predominating.
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#moenslaw-bicycles

> And bloody hell ... yeah, defaults matter, so okay lose power, power comes
> back, no battery backup for the clock.  Okay, so it won't show the correct time.
> But bloody hell, why show or flash an incorrect but possible time?

Even including an empty socket for a little alkaline "button" backup
battery requires an access door, which probably adds 10x as much
production cost as the digital clock itself.  And, since the
undiscerning buyers don't ding retail units for lacking this ability
(see link above), it isn't included.