• replacable batteries

    From badgolferman@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 19:53:14 2023
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well
    as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 22:21:48 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well
    as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Sun Jun 18 13:50:41 2023
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of >> them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Sun Jun 18 13:40:53 2023
    On 2023-06-18 12:53, badgolferman wrote:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well
    as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/



    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 23:02:27 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 22:50 schrieb Alan:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of >>> them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.

    As Swiss watches prove for decades: Total bullshit again.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 23:07:39 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 22:40 schrieb Alan:
    On 2023-06-18 12:53, badgolferman wrote:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of >> them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/



    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    You are Troll of the worst kind.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 18 21:07:31 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of >>> them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.


    Did you Mr. Google to come up with that answer?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jun 18 17:23:35 2023
    In article <u6nnba$1o690$[email protected]>, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you�re in luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a screwdriver
    instead of a fingernail, which for something that *might* need to be
    replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually not at all), is not in
    any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users benefit from something that's
    thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 18 17:23:37 2023
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Sun Jun 18 14:23:12 2023
    On 2023-06-18 14:02, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 22:50 schrieb Alan:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering >>>> batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of
    them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.

    As Swiss watches prove for decades: Total bullshit again.

    Explain that, would you?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Sun Jun 18 14:23:38 2023
    On 2023-06-18 14:07, badgolferman wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering >>>> batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of
    them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.


    Did you Mr. Google to come up with that answer?


    Nope.

    I'm smart enough for that one all on my own.

    :-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Sun Jun 18 14:27:36 2023
    On 2023-06-18 14:07, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 22:40 schrieb Alan:
    On 2023-06-18 12:53, badgolferman wrote:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of >>> them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/



    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    Are you imagining that batteries that aren't removable can't be recycled?

    Businesses THRIVE on offering consumers what they want.

    Removable batteries are an option...

    <https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?nYearMin=2021&idBatRemovable=1>

    ...but most people don't choose them.

    Which is why phone manufacturers don't make many models with them.


    You are Troll of the worst kind.


    In what way? Be specific.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Sun Jun 18 18:13:53 2023
    On 2023-06-18 17:02, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 22:50 schrieb Alan:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering >>>> batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as some of
    them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as well >>>> as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.

    As Swiss watches prove for decades: Total bullshit again.

    For a given iPhone design, making it so a consumer can change the
    battery will either make it harder to seal or bulkier (or both).

    IAC, it is a total BS issue as for most phones the battery -is-
    replaceable as companies like iFixit prove time and again.

    So there are many independent shops that can do it in less than 1 hour
    or for those with inclination to do so (me), kits (with tools,
    instructions and video instructions) on how to do so.

    Even for a late model iPhone 14: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/152966

    So - like the USB-C legislation - the EU is riding roughshod over things
    best managed by the market.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 18 17:43:34 2023
    In article <u6nss8$1oofh$[email protected]>, Alan <[email protected]> wrote:


    Businesses THRIVE on offering consumers what they want.

    yep.

    Removable batteries are an option...

    <https://www.gsmarena.com/search.php3?nYearMin=2021&idBatRemovable=1>

    ...but most people don't choose them.

    Which is why phone manufacturers don't make many models with them.

    exactly. most people want the benefits of an internal battery, and not
    just phones either.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Sun Jun 18 17:35:32 2023
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what >>> they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 00:29:49 2023
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 00:28:19 2023
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nnba$1o690$[email protected]>, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you¹re in >> luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a screwdriver
    instead of a fingernail, which for something that *might* need to be
    replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually not at all), is not in
    any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users benefit from something that's
    thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time.


    It takes way more than a screwdriver to replace a battery. I’ve watched the tutorial on iFixit and there are several connectors and sensors and glue
    which have to be taken out.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jun 18 20:57:45 2023
    In article <u6o7ht$1ql9h$[email protected]>, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:


    It�s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get.

    no, they don't tell anyone anything.

    they make products that they think will sell, just like every other
    company. if it sells well, they continue with the same basic design. if
    not, they make some changes.

    I�ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.

    the poll is what sells and what does not, along with customer feedback
    about what features people actually use and what features they would
    like to see.

    when powerbooks switched from swappable batteries to internal batteries (roughly 15 years ago, and apple wasn't the only company to do that
    either), thereby offering longer run time and a thinner and lighter
    weight enclosure, features customers valued, sales went *up* (by a
    lot). had sales gone down, they would have revisited that decision. in
    fact, a survey at the time (npd) showed that 95% of laptop buyers never
    bought a second battery. why offer a feature almost nobody used?

    on the other hand, the 3rd gen ipod shuffle was voice controlled, aka
    the buttonless shuffle, and sales went down. customers did not like
    that, which is why 4th gen ipod shuffle reverted back to essentially
    the same design as the 2nd gen.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Hank Rogers@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Sun Jun 18 21:05:55 2023
    badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nnba$1o690$[email protected]>, badgolferman
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you¹re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a screwdriver
    instead of a fingernail, which for something that *might* need to be
    replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually not at all), is not in
    any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users benefit from something that's
    thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time.


    It takes way more than a screwdriver to replace a battery. I’ve watched the tutorial on iFixit and there are several connectors and sensors and glue which have to be taken out.


    If my memory serves, he only has very old iphones. They may be
    simpler and easier to service.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sun Jun 18 22:31:27 2023
    In article <9KOjM.17201$[email protected]>, Hank Rogers
    <[email protected]d> wrote:

    If my memory serves, he only has very old iphones. They may be
    simpler and easier to service.

    your memory has failed.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 07:13:13 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 23:23 schrieb nospam:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want,

    The consumer buys always the cheapest but the society does not accept
    that anymore.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Sun Jun 18 22:37:52 2023
    On 2023-06-18 22:13, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 23:23 schrieb nospam:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what >>> they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want,

    The consumer buys always the cheapest but the society does not accept
    that anymore.


    This is easily falsified by noting the market share of the iPhone.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 07:18:38 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 23:23 schrieb nospam:
    In article <u6nnba$1o690$[email protected]>, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you¹re in >> luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a screwdriver
    instead of a fingernail, which for something that *might* need to be
    replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually not at all), is not in
    any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users benefit from something that's
    thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time.

    That is simply wrong and even a deliberate lie, Troll.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 07:16:32 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 23:23 schrieb nospam:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business decision.

    You are a wisenheimer but we are used to that. In fact the US pollutes
    the world about twice per $ GDP than Western Europe. Only China is worse.

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 19 06:37:08 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what >>>> they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never >> seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 10:25:58 2023
    Am 18.06.23 um 23:23 schrieb nospam:
    In article <u6nnba$1o690$[email protected]>, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you¹re in >> luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable.

    They are not.
    The elected European Parliament has decided.
    The discussion should focus more how to implement it. All manufacturers
    have to comply again. Same story like the USB-C mandate.

    The opinion of Apple-fanboys is completely irrelevant.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 10:28:57 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 08:37 schrieb Chris:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never >>> seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    *SIC*
    This is the reason why the European legislators are acting.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 10:59:24 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 10:28 schrieb Joerg Lorenz:
    Am 19.06.23 um 08:37 schrieb Chris:
    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >> thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    *SIC*
    This is the reason why the European legislators are acting.

    Most people call that leadership btw.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 19 09:05:44 2023
    In article <u6oofe$1evdl$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries, you1re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a screwdriver instead of a fingernail, which for something that *might* need to be replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually not at all), is not in
    any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users benefit from something that's thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time.

    That is simply wrong and even a deliberate lie, Troll.

    it's exactly correct. the battery is rated for 5 years at 80% capacity,
    which is still excellent. most people don't keep a phone for 5 years
    and will not need to replace the battery at all. in the event the
    battery wears out sooner, or the user has more than average needs, it
    can be replaced, which would only need to be done once before the user
    trades in their phone for a newer and more capable model.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 12:42:43 2023
    nospam wrote:

    In article <u6o7f3$1ql31$[email protected]>, badgolferman ><[email protected]> wrote:

    It takes way more than a screwdriver to replace a battery. I�ve
    watched the tutorial on iFixit and there are several connectors
    and sensors and glue which have to be taken out.

    it depends on which model.


    Take a look at this and tell me how simple it is to use a srewdriver to
    replace a battery. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+14+Battery+Replacement/152966

    --
    "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." ~ Napoleon
    Bonaparte

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Wade Garrett@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 19 08:39:28 2023
    On 6/18/23 4:50 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 13:21, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 18.06.23 um 21:53 schrieb badgolferman:
    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone batteries,
    you’re in
    luck because an EU Parliament vote has approved a set of rules covering
    batteries among which will be a requirement for replaceable cells in
    portable appliances.

    We expect that the phone manufacturers will drag their feet just as
    some of
    them have over charger ports, but the greater ease of maintenance, as
    well
    as extra longevity for phones, can only be a good thing.

    https://hackaday.com/2023/06/17/get-back-your-replaceable-batteries-thanks-to-the-eu/

    The only downside: It only takes effect as of 2027.


    And it will make devices a little bulkier...

    ...and heavier...

    ...and harder to seal against moisture, dust and dirt.

    Yes, but it's for the children ;-)

    --
    I know things and I fix stuff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Mon Jun 19 09:05:45 2023
    In article <[email protected]>,
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    It takes way more than a screwdriver to replace a battery. I�ve
    watched the tutorial on iFixit and there are several connectors
    and sensors and glue which have to be taken out.

    it depends on which model.


    Take a look at this and tell me how simple it is to use a srewdriver to replace a battery.
    https://www.ifixit.com/Gu

    a few years ago, i met a 10 year old girl who said she replaced iphone batteries for her parents and their friends for something like $10
    each.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Mon Jun 19 09:33:50 2023
    In article <[email protected]>,
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:


    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it.

    as i said, they're *rated* for 5 years at 80%. that's a rating, not a guarantee. some will last longer and some will be shorter. on average,
    the capacity will be 80% of new at 5 years, which is still usable. if a
    phone lasts 30 hours on standby when new, it will last 24 hours at 80%,
    which is still very good and probably not anything anyone will notice
    since they charge overnight and really only need 18 hours or so of run
    time. it could actually drop to ~50% capacity with minimal impact.

    Even that
    link to iFixit which I posted claims 18-24 months which is much closer
    to the truth.

    ifixit has a vested interest to sell people tools to fix things, so
    they overstate how long things last. they also are very meticulous on
    their repair guides, and most of the time, it's not as complex as they describe.

    but even using their numbers, someone who keeps their phone for 3-4
    years (industry average), they might need to replace their battery once
    in that time. if they keep their phone for 5-6 years, they might need
    to do it twice. even with their numbers, it's not a big deal.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 13:17:46 2023
    nospam wrote:

    In article <u6oofe$1evdl$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone
    batteries, you1re in >> luck because an EU Parliament vote has
    approved a set of rules covering >> batteries among which will be
    a requirement for replaceable cells in >> portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a
    screwdriver > instead of a fingernail, which for something that
    might need to be > replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually
    not at all), is not in > any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users
    benefit from something that's > thinner, lighter, more reliable
    and with longer run time.
    That is simply wrong and even a deliberate lie, Troll.

    it's exactly correct. the battery is rated for 5 years at 80%
    capacity, which is still excellent. most people don't keep a phone
    for 5 years and will not need to replace the battery at all. in the
    event the battery wears out sooner, or the user has more than average
    needs, it can be replaced, which would only need to be done once
    before the user trades in their phone for a newer and more capable
    model.

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it. Even that
    link to iFixit which I posted claims 18-24 months which is much closer
    to the truth.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 13:18:29 2023
    nospam wrote:

    In article <[email protected]>,
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    It takes way more than a screwdriver to replace a battery. I�ve
    watched the tutorial on iFixit and there are several connectors
    and sensors and glue which have to be taken out.

    it depends on which model.


    Take a look at this and tell me how simple it is to use a
    srewdriver to replace a battery.
    https://www.ifixit.com/Gu

    a few years ago, i met a 10 year old girl who said she replaced iphone >batteries for her parents and their friends for something like $10
    each.

    Yeah, right...

    --
    "It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and
    then don't say it." ~ Sam Levenson

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 13:58:29 2023
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give
    money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my
    money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to
    spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY out-of-control.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jolly Roger@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Mon Jun 19 16:10:38 2023
    On 2023-06-19, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:
    nospam wrote:

    it's exactly correct. the battery is rated for 5 years at 80%
    capacity, which is still excellent. most people don't keep a phone for
    5 years and will not need to replace the battery at all. in the event
    the battery wears out sooner, or the user has more than average needs,
    it can be replaced, which would only need to be done once before the
    user trades in their phone for a newer and more capable model.

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years

    Nonsense. I've owned iPhones from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 13 Pro,
    and have only replaced batteries between 5-7 years, which means I've
    only had it done 4 times in many, many years. I have also supported
    numerous clients with iPhones from the original iPhone all the way to
    the 14, and having to replace a battery is a relative rarity. Most
    people end up upgrading to a newer model before they ever have to
    replace a battery. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule.
    You trolls (and yes, you are one along with sms and Arlen's many nyms
    and impersonations) love to try to make huge mountains out of mole
    hills, and this is one of them.

    --
    E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
    I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

    JR

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 09:07:57 2023
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]> >>>> wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what >>>>> they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices >>>> that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never >>> seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.


    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them.

    Got it!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Mon Jun 19 16:28:27 2023
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it.

    It all depends on usage. Age has very little to do with it.

    I have an iPhone 8 plus that is going on 6 years old. Granted, I don’t
    use it much these days, but the battery on it is still at 99%. It will
    EASILY last another 5 years at this rate.

    My current iPhone 12 Pro Max is going on 3 years old. That battery is at
    98%. It will EASILY last 5 more years.

    No, I don’t stare at my phone all day long. I have iPads and laptops for home use.

    If you don’t abuse them, batteries will last 10 years. Easily. I have an ancient Dell DJ MP3 player, with a 15GB spinning hard drive. I used to use that a LOT. It is almost 20 years old. It still works and still holds a charge.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From sticks@21:1/5 to Bob Campbell on Mon Jun 19 12:56:21 2023
    On 6/19/2023 8:58 AM, Bob Campbell wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >> thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give
    money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY out-of-control.

    Agree completely. The EU is a bunch of globalist leftists with way too
    much power. They are unfortunately a necessity on a continent that has
    for 2000 years tried to repeatedly eliminate each other, but they need
    to be reigned in to work on things like feeding the people and making
    sure the economy of their nation states continues to work together and
    not collapse. This picking of winners with a fine tooth comb reeks of corruption. It is painful reading the likes of Joerg and Chris speak of
    how stupid and gullible the masses are and the need for these rulers and
    what they consider leadership.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Bob Campbell on Mon Jun 19 11:34:28 2023
    On 2023-06-19 09:28, Bob Campbell wrote:
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it.

    It all depends on usage. Age has very little to do with it.

    I have an iPhone 8 plus that is going on 6 years old. Granted, I don’t use it much these days, but the battery on it is still at 99%. It will EASILY last another 5 years at this rate.

    In contrast, my iPhone 8 is about 5 years old and I had to have the
    battery replaced last year...

    ...but then I use mine HEAVILY.


    My current iPhone 12 Pro Max is going on 3 years old. That battery is at 98%. It will EASILY last 5 more years.

    No, I don’t stare at my phone all day long. I have iPads and laptops for home use.

    If you don’t abuse them, batteries will last 10 years. Easily. I have an ancient Dell DJ MP3 player, with a 15GB spinning hard drive. I used to use that a LOT. It is almost 20 years old. It still works and still holds a charge.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to nospam on Mon Jun 19 16:01:06 2023
    On 2023-06-19 09:33, nospam wrote:
    In article <[email protected]>,
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:


    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it.

    as i said, they're *rated* for 5 years at 80%. that's a rating, not a

    My current iPhone 11 is nearly 4 years old and is at 90%

    My prior iPhone was an iPhone 6 and was over 80% after more than 5 years.

    My SO's iPhone 7 is nearing 7 years old and is over 70%.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Mon Jun 19 15:53:33 2023
    On 2023-06-19 04:59, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 19.06.23 um 10:28 schrieb Joerg Lorenz:
    Am 19.06.23 um 08:37 schrieb Chris:
    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >>> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    *SIC*
    This is the reason why the European legislators are acting.

    Most people call that leadership btw.

    Over legislation has costs as well. Europe tends to over-regulate.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 16:02:44 2023
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Bob Campbell on Mon Jun 19 21:48:55 2023
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >> thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give
    money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Mon Jun 19 21:48:54 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >> thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 15:07:52 2023
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices >>>>>> that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business >>>>>> decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone. >>>>>

    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >>> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>

    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them.

    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 19 22:05:51 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]> >>>>> wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what >>>>>> they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices >>>>> that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time,
    including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business >>>>> decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone. >>>>

    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >> thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.


    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them.

    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is calling people children.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 18:18:22 2023
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give
    money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my
    money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's >>> good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit >> people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which >> explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to
    spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 18:22:14 2023
    On 2023-06-19 18:05, Chris wrote:

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is calling people children.

    Batteries are already replaceable in almost all portable phones. Not as trivially as, eg, a flashlight, but then you only need to replace them
    every 4 or 5 years (longer in my experience) so there is no need to
    compromise the rest of the product for that very occasional need for a
    battery change.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Mon Jun 19 15:24:40 2023
    On 2023-06-19 15:22, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 18:05, Chris wrote:

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than
    you, is
    calling people children.

    Batteries are already replaceable in almost all portable phones.  Not as trivially as, eg, a flashlight, but then you only need to replace them
    every 4 or 5 years (longer in my experience) so there is no need to compromise the rest of the product for that very occasional need for a battery change.


    This is a huge point:

    We're making batteries replaceable...

    ...when they need to be replaced MAYBE after 4 years of ownership?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 18:15:12 2023
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 15:28:01 2023
    On 2023-06-19 14:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    That there are occasional exceptions does invalidate the general rule:

    Companies that don't provide value to their customers generally don't do
    well.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Hank Rogers@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 19 17:32:53 2023
    Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:22, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 18:05, Chris wrote:

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one,
    other than you, is
    calling people children.

    Batteries are already replaceable in almost all portable
    phones.  Not as trivially as, eg, a flashlight, but then you
    only need to replace them every 4 or 5 years (longer in my
    experience) so there is no need to compromise the rest of the
    product for that very occasional need for a battery change.


    This is a huge point:

    We're making batteries replaceable...

    ...when they need to be replaced MAYBE after 4 years of ownership?

    Replaceable batteries are NOT needed, and NOBODY wants them.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Hank Rogers on Mon Jun 19 15:35:53 2023
    On 2023-06-19 15:32, Hank Rogers wrote:
    Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:22, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 18:05, Chris wrote:

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than
    you, is
    calling people children.

    Batteries are already replaceable in almost all portable phones.Â
    Not as trivially as, eg, a flashlight, but then you only need to
    replace them every 4 or 5 years (longer in my experience) so there is
    no need to compromise the rest of the product for that very
    occasional need for a battery change.


    This is a huge point:

    We're making batteries replaceable...

    ...when they need to be replaced MAYBE after 4 years of ownership?

    Replaceable batteries are NOT needed, and NOBODY wants them.



    As is easily seen by the complete dearth of phones that offer the option.

    Of 1465 phones released in the last 3 years...

    ...just 69 have removable batteries.

    That's less than 5%!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 19 19:24:32 2023
    In article <u6qkj8$269h7$[email protected]>, Alan <[email protected]> wrote:

    Batteries are already replaceable in almost all portable phones.� Not as trivially as, eg, a flashlight, but then you only need to replace them every 4 or 5 years (longer in my experience) so there is no need to compromise the rest of the product for that very occasional need for a battery change.


    This is a huge point:

    We're making batteries replaceable...

    ...when they need to be replaced MAYBE after 4 years of ownership?

    and in doing so, it would make the phone thicker, heavier, shorter run
    time and less reliable.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Leonard Blaisdell@21:1/5 to badgolferman on Tue Jun 20 05:11:33 2023
    On 2023-06-19, badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it. Even that
    link to iFixit which I posted claims 18-24 months which is much closer
    to the truth.


    Yeah, they do. I have a XS Max bought in December of 2018 that's still
    running fine. In fairness, it mostly sits in a purse and acts as a
    server for our other Apple devices.
    But that's a fact.
    When I buy another iPhone, it will be for the bells and whistles, not
    the battery.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 07:23:09 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 15:33 schrieb nospam:
    In article <[email protected]>,
    badgolferman <[email protected]> wrote:


    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it.

    as i said, they're *rated* for 5 years at 80%. that's a rating, not a

    No, it is not because 500 cycles means different things with different
    models depending on the size of the battery:

    The Battery Health screen includes information on maximum battery
    capacity and peak performance capability.
    Maximum battery capacity measures the device battery capacity relative
    to when it was new. A battery will have lower capacity as the battery chemically ages which may result in fewer hours of usage between
    charges. Depending upon the length of time between when the iPhone was
    made and when it is activated, your battery capacity may show as
    slightly less than 100%.
    A normal battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original
    capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal
    conditions. The one-year warranty includes service coverage for a
    defective battery. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers battery
    service for a charge. Learn more about charge cycles.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 07:21:45 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 15:17 schrieb badgolferman:
    nospam wrote:

    In article <u6oofe$1evdl$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    If you hanker for the days of replaceable mobile phone
    batteries, you1re in >> luck because an EU Parliament vote has
    approved a set of rules covering >> batteries among which will be
    a requirement for replaceable cells in >> portable appliances.

    iphone batteries are easily replaceable. it just takes a
    screwdriver > instead of a fingernail, which for something that
    might need to be > replaced once in the device's lifetime (usually
    not at all), is not in > any way an obstacle. meanwhile, users
    benefit from something that's > thinner, lighter, more reliable
    and with longer run time.
    That is simply wrong and even a deliberate lie, Troll.

    it's exactly correct. the battery is rated for 5 years at 80%
    capacity, which is still excellent. most people don't keep a phone
    for 5 years and will not need to replace the battery at all. in the
    event the battery wears out sooner, or the user has more than average
    needs, it can be replaced, which would only need to be done once
    before the user trades in their phone for a newer and more capable
    model.

    iPhone batteries DO NOT last for five years and you know it. Even that
    link to iFixit which I posted claims 18-24 months which is much closer
    to the truth.

    That is completely wrong.

    Apple states:

    The Battery Health screen includes information on maximum battery
    capacity and peak performance capability.
    Maximum battery capacity measures the device battery capacity relative
    to when it was new. A battery will have lower capacity as the battery chemically ages which may result in fewer hours of usage between
    charges. Depending upon the length of time between when the iPhone was
    made and when it is activated, your battery capacity may show as
    slightly less than 100%.
    A normal battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original
    capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal
    conditions. The one-year warranty includes service coverage for a
    defective battery. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers battery
    service for a charge. Learn more about charge cycles.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

    --
    De gustibus non est disputandum

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Tue Jun 20 06:39:08 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give
    money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my
    money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>
    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit >>> people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which >>> explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to >>> spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >>> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping
    when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Mon Jun 19 23:59:26 2023
    On 2023-06-19 23:39, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give >>>> money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my >>>> money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>>
    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit
    people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which
    explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to >>>> spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >>>> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.


    And your perspective is that people have to be mandated to make the
    choices you think are correct.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 09:25:20 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 15:58 schrieb Bob Campbell:
    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY out-of-control.

    Bobby *you* get out of control!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 11:35:09 2023
    Am 20.06.23 um 00:18 schrieb Alan Browne:
    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    The thing is that on the Continent nobody cares about your opinion or
    any unqualified opinion from the US/UK. You do not pay taxes here and
    you have no right to vote or elect anybody.

    *Alea iacta est*

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 11:29:55 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 19:56 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/19/2023 8:58 AM, Bob Campbell wrote:
    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Agree completely. The EU is a bunch of globalist leftists with way too
    much power.

    That is none of your business and you do not understand the underlying fundamentals. And you should know that. And you have no say in this
    matter anyway. And your excitement is absolutely futile. You will just
    benefit by buying better electronic equipment and better protection of
    the environment.

    The EU is more democratic and has more legitimacy than any other
    gouverment of a region or country of this size, namely the US and China.


    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 11:40:32 2023
    Am 19.06.23 um 23:48 schrieb Chris:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same >>> thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Which is particularly true for large US-corporations which do not care
    about their responsibility for the society and let alone their clients.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 10:11:57 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 23:39, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give >>>>> money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my >>>>> money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>>>
    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit
    people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which
    explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to >>>>> spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling >>>>> companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping >> when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.


    And your perspective is that people have to be mandated to make the
    choices you think are correct.

    Again, that's *not* the point I'm making.

    Firstly, it's companies that are being regulated not people. Secondly, it's
    not my choice to decide what's correct or otherwise. I mostly trust
    governments to do as they've been mandated to do. That's the point of democracy. If we don't like it they get voted out. Simple.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 10:08:05 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]> >>>>>>> wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want?

    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices >>>>>>> that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke
    detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business >>>>>>> decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone. >>>>>>

    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>>

    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them.

    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is >> calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    And?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 08:54:49 2023
    On 2023-06-20 02:39, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.

    That the US government doesn't do enough in some areas (environment
    comes to mind) doesn't make the EU over-regulating on USB-C and
    batteries "right".

    PS: I am not in the US.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Tue Jun 20 09:03:58 2023
    On 2023-06-20 05:40, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 19.06.23 um 23:48 schrieb Chris:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet >> still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Which is particularly true for large US-corporations which do not care
    about their responsibility for the society and let alone their clients.

    Gross and broad generalization.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 09:05:13 2023
    On 2023-06-20 06:11, Chris wrote:

    governments to do as they've been mandated to do. That's the point of democracy. If we don't like it they get voted out. Simple.

    These rules once in place will never be corrected democratically.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From sticks@21:1/5 to George on Tue Jun 20 09:39:13 2023
    On 6/20/2023 4:29 AM, George wrote:
    Am 19.06.23 um 19:56 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/19/2023 8:58 AM, Bob Campbell wrote:
    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >>> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Agree completely. The EU is a bunch of globalist leftists with way too
    much power.

    That is none of your business and you do not understand the underlying fundamentals.

    What a stupid thing to say. It's also unclear if you mean I don't
    understand the fundamentals of the EU or this specific regulation.
    You'd be wrong on both accounts.

    And you should know that. And you have no say in this
    matter anyway.

    Another stupid thing to say. You're not really a big fan of free speech
    or alternative ideas, that's obvious. Just because I don't get to vote,
    does not mean I cannot have an opinion. Especially on Usenet, or would
    you like that right controlled, too?

    And your excitement is absolutely futile.

    Funny stuff. My post was measured and mild. You, on the other hand, go
    right to the throat as usual and your petulance is noted.

    You will just
    benefit by buying better electronic equipment and better protection of
    the environment.

    Of course, I'm not against either of those things. The issue is the
    method of attaining those goals, and if in fact they are actually
    better, fair, achievable, and brought forth without corruption.
    The EU is more democratic and has more legitimacy than any other
    gouverment of a region or country of this size, namely the US and China.

    As I said, I am not against the EU. Setting aside your distasteful
    lumping of the US alongside China, your statement is a personal matter
    of opinion. It's also irrelevant. That said, I do hope the EU survives
    it's infancy. The world has contributed so much to it's survival and
    can do without another big conflict.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From sticks@21:1/5 to George on Tue Jun 20 09:52:45 2023
    On 6/20/2023 4:35 AM, George wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 00:18 schrieb Alan Browne:
    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is
    a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    The thing is that on the Continent nobody cares about your opinion or
    any unqualified opinion from the US/UK. You do not pay taxes here and
    you have no right to vote or elect anybody.

    And yet if it weren't for the ERP, what we call the Marshall Plan, the continent would have either frozen or starved to death. Or how
    Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin divided up and protected your land,
    after fighting for it with our young men, at Yalta to force some peace?
    How soon we forget. George now thinks nobody else gets to have an
    opinion.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 08:20:59 2023
    On 2023-06-20 03:08, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]> >>>>>>>> wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want? >>>>>>>>>
    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>>>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke >>>>>>>> detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business >>>>>>>> decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone. >>>>>>>

    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>>>

    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them. >>>>
    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is >>> calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    And?


    You really can't see it, can you?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 08:22:30 2023
    On 2023-06-20 03:11, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 23:39, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give >>>>>> money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my >>>>>> money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit
    people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which
    explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to >>>>>> spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling >>>>>> companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY >>>>>> out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping >>> when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.


    And your perspective is that people have to be mandated to make the
    choices you think are correct.

    Again, that's *not* the point I'm making.

    Firstly, it's companies that are being regulated not people. Secondly, it's not my choice to decide what's correct or otherwise. I mostly trust governments to do as they've been mandated to do. That's the point of democracy. If we don't like it they get voted out. Simple.

    Ummmm...no.

    Companies may be the ones who have to build what the regulations say,
    but the EFFECT is to control consumer choice.

    So you DON'T thing this is a good idea?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jun 20 17:48:57 2023
    Am 20.06.23 um 16:52 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/20/2023 4:35 AM, George wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 00:18 schrieb Alan Browne:
    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    The thing is that on the Continent nobody cares about your opinion or
    any unqualified opinion from the US/UK. You do not pay taxes here and
    you have no right to vote or elect anybody.

    And yet if it weren't for the ERP, what we call the Marshall Plan, the continent would have either frozen or starved to death. Or how
    Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin divided up and protected your land,
    after fighting for it with our young men, at Yalta to force some peace?
    How soon we forget. George now thinks nobody else gets to have an
    opinion.

    And this has what to do with replaceable batteries which the EU requests
    as of 2027 beyond the fact that the white Americans executed the biggest genocide of all times by eliminating and terrorizing all indigenous
    tribes in North America and still commit these crimes? Still stealing
    their land and their identity.

    Do you understand now how stupid your arguments are? *You* have nothing
    to say in this matter and you, anonymous Troll, have no moral right to
    lecture here or anywhere else.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Tue Jun 20 11:59:57 2023
    On 2023-06-20 02:29, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 19.06.23 um 19:56 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/19/2023 8:58 AM, Bob Campbell wrote:
    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling
    companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That >>> is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY
    out-of-control.

    Agree completely. The EU is a bunch of globalist leftists with way too
    much power.

    That is none of your business and you do not understand the underlying fundamentals. And you should know that. And you have no say in this
    matter anyway. And your excitement is absolutely futile. You will just benefit by buying better electronic equipment and better protection of
    the environment.


    Where by "better" you mean:

    Slightly heavier...

    ...slightly bulkier...

    ...less resistant to moisture ingress...

    ...and more expensive.

    Got it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 19:10:53 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote

    Where by "better" you mean:

    Slightly heavier...

    ...slightly bulkier...

    ...less resistant to moisture ingress...

    ...and more expensive.

    Got it.

    Which is always the kind of “better” you get when government know-nothing-bureaucrats do the designing.

    Instead of people who actually know what they are doing. You know, like engineers.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Joerg Lorenz on Tue Jun 20 11:58:46 2023
    On 2023-06-20 08:48, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 16:52 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/20/2023 4:35 AM, George wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 00:18 schrieb Alan Browne:
    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    The thing is that on the Continent nobody cares about your opinion or
    any unqualified opinion from the US/UK. You do not pay taxes here and
    you have no right to vote or elect anybody.

    And yet if it weren't for the ERP, what we call the Marshall Plan, the
    continent would have either frozen or starved to death. Or how
    Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin divided up and protected your land,
    after fighting for it with our young men, at Yalta to force some peace?
    How soon we forget. George now thinks nobody else gets to have an
    opinion.

    And this has what to do with replaceable batteries which the EU requests
    as of 2027 beyond the fact that the white Americans executed the biggest genocide of all times by eliminating and terrorizing all indigenous
    tribes in North America and still commit these crimes? Still stealing
    their land and their identity.

    Do you understand now how stupid your arguments are? *You* have nothing
    to say in this matter and you, anonymous Troll, have no moral right to lecture here or anywhere else.


    So the EU is mandating removable batteries to come in in 4 years...

    ...when battery technology will undoubtedly be even better than today...

    ...where smartphones MIGHT need one battery replacement for their entire
    useful life...

    ...and you think that's a sensible use of government power?

    LOOLOLOLOLLOLOLOL!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From badgolferman@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 19:41:38 2023
    Chris wrote:

    stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies.

    I don't know, my paycheck shows me something different...

    --
    "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong
    enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Tue Jun 20 19:57:34 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet >> still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 19:49:57 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 03:11, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 23:39, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Whereas governments never extract money from people. I willingly give >>>>>>> money to companies. Not the same thing AT ALL as governments TAKING my >>>>>>> money.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.

    Whereas governments always know what is best for everyone and never exploit
    people.

    You are a fool if you believe that. Or a socialist. Probably both. Which
    explains a lot.

    Consumers in a free society have every right to decide what they want to
    spend their money on. It is no one else’s business.

    Yeah man, I really want governments telling me what to buy. Telling >>>>>>> companies which connectors and batteries their products should have. That
    is NOT “leadership”. It is a sign of a government that is WAY >>>>>>> out-of-control.

    Someone's feeling a little triggered...

    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>>>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules >>>>> are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    It's funny you consider USB-C cables regulation as government overstepping >>>> when there's so much wrong with US government where they're not doing
    enough. That's also an outrage

    It all comes down to perspective.


    And your perspective is that people have to be mandated to make the
    choices you think are correct.

    Again, that's *not* the point I'm making.

    Firstly, it's companies that are being regulated not people. Secondly, it's >> not my choice to decide what's correct or otherwise. I mostly trust
    governments to do as they've been mandated to do. That's the point of
    democracy. If we don't like it they get voted out. Simple.

    Ummmm...no.

    Companies may be the ones who have to build what the regulations say,
    but the EFFECT is to control consumer choice.

    So you DON'T thing this is a good idea?

    I'm ambivalent by that specific regulation. I can see both sides and
    probably, on balance, it's unnecessary. My main reason for joining this
    thread was to counteract your "fact" about successful companies.

    Many times consumers have been shafted by companies and only the only orgs
    with people's interests at heart are charities or (some) governments. I'm a strong believer that the EC is, on the whole, for consumers and citizens.
    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing.
    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    There's a reason why the biggest companies are in the US; they're allowed
    to exploit people whether it's their employees or customers or clients.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 19:38:54 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 03:08, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want? >>>>>>>>>>
    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better >>>>>>>>>> batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke >>>>>>>>> detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business >>>>>>>>> decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone. >>>>>>>>

    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations. >>>>>>

    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them. >>>>>
    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is
    calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    And?


    You really can't see it, can you?

    I can see that you're adding 2+2 and getting 17.

    Listen to any consumer podcast, radio programme or TV show and every time
    they have stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies. We have laws and regulations to help people which
    is normal and natural.

    You're wanting to reduce it down to "calling people children".

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 20:04:42 2023
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:
    Listen to any consumer podcast, radio programme or TV show and every time they have stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies.

    Which are always local home repair/appliance repair/auto repair companies,
    etc. NOT billion dollar, world famous, multinational consumer products companies.

    No one is being “scammed or losing money or being taken for a ride” when buying a name-brand product of any kind. No one is saying that Samsung refridgerators are a scam. No one is losing money from buying Apple headphones. No one is being taken for a ride from buying a G.E. toaster
    oven.

    There are plenty of choices on the market. You buy whatever you like and
    can afford. You can also return the product to where you bought it within
    30 days and get your money back.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From sticks@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 15:12:47 2023
    On 6/20/2023 2:49 PM, Chris wrote:

    There's a reason why the biggest companies are in the US; they're allowed
    to exploit people whether it's their employees or customers or clients.

    Heh, what an unintelligent thing to say. I guess we can expect all the
    smaller companies around the world to flock to the US then. ROFL!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 17:55:49 2023
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing.

    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many regulations.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 17:56:35 2023
    On 2023-06-20 15:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that >>>> by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet >>> still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    How specifically does MS treat their clients poorly?

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From sticks@21:1/5 to Alan on Tue Jun 20 19:09:29 2023
    On 6/20/2023 1:58 PM, Alan wrote:
    So the EU is mandating removable batteries to come in in 4 years...

    ...when battery technology will undoubtedly be even better than today...

    ...where smartphones MIGHT need one battery replacement for their entire useful life...

    ...and you think that's a sensible use of government power?

    Another thing I find distasteful is the requirement in the recyclable
    materials that all this work be done to fulfill the use of certain
    percentages among other things, but that it all has to be done at no
    cost to the end user.

    I find it remarkable that a governing body can tell a business that they
    cannot charge anything for something, especially when it is something
    they are mandating.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From sticks@21:1/5 to George on Tue Jun 20 19:04:28 2023
    On 6/20/2023 10:48 AM, George wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 16:52 schrieb sticks:
    On 6/20/2023 4:35 AM, George wrote:
    Am 20.06.23 um 00:18 schrieb Alan Browne:
    People should react when governments go too far in regulation. There is >>>> a balance between too little and too much - and the EU proposed rules
    are too much - just as the USB-C rule.

    The thing is that on the Continent nobody cares about your opinion or
    any unqualified opinion from the US/UK. You do not pay taxes here and
    you have no right to vote or elect anybody.

    And yet if it weren't for the ERP, what we call the Marshall Plan, the
    continent would have either frozen or starved to death. Or how
    Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin divided up and protected your land,
    after fighting for it with our young men, at Yalta to force some peace?
    How soon we forget. George now thinks nobody else gets to have an
    opinion.

    And this has what to do with replaceable batteries which the EU requests
    as of 2027

    You've made a point of saying someone like me really shouldn't be
    allowed an opinion. I find that ludicrous. Of course I don't vote for
    any of the elected members, but that should not make discussion off
    limits. Debate is always useful, except when it's done the way you do.
    Where any opposing view is to be silenced.

    I also don't personally choose to separate our people like you and
    others do. I love Europe and studying it's history. I've still got
    family there. As far as I'm concerned, though we have different
    governments, we have much in common beyond just our heritage. These regulations proposed by the EU effect the entire world, as you have
    said, though not with that intent. You just think we'll get better
    phones because business will have to conform.

    beyond the fact that the white Americans executed the biggest
    genocide of all times by eliminating and terrorizing all indigenous
    tribes in North America and still commit these crimes? Still stealing
    their land and their identity.

    Talk about getting hysterical! I make note of the fact that there is a
    long history of our countries working together and that those sacrifices
    might allow someone like me to think we had the right to an opinion on legislation that affects a large portion of society. You throw the bomb
    of an incredibly complex situation regarding the Native North Americans,
    claim it is ongoing, and somehow that too dissolves my right to an
    opinion on an unrelated matter. What a piece of work you are! Shameful.

    Do you understand now how stupid your arguments are? *You* have nothing
    to say in this matter and you, anonymous Troll, have no moral right to lecture here or anywhere else.

    You've never even addressed my arguments. All you've done is tell me I
    don't have the right to one. Of course, I could care less what you
    think, and at this point I find you somewhat amusing. I might
    participate with some of the adults in this thread on some of the ways I dislike this legislation, but it would be pointless with you. At least
    this thread has borne that out.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 20 17:50:45 2023
    On 2023-06-20 12:38, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 03:08, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want? >>>>>>>>>>>
    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke >>>>>>>>>> detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research?

    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want.

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.


    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them. >>>>>>
    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument.

    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is
    calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    And?


    You really can't see it, can you?

    I can see that you're adding 2+2 and getting 17.

    Listen to any consumer podcast, radio programme or TV show and every time they have stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies. We have laws and regulations to help people which
    is normal and natural.

    You're wanting to reduce it down to "calling people children".

    How is offering people non-easily-user-replaceable batteries, "scamming" anyone?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Wed Jun 21 06:45:40 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 12:38, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 03:08, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 15:05, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 23:37, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-18 17:29, badgolferman wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u6nrmr$1eipn$[email protected]>, Joerg Lorenz <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    What is wrong with letting consumers decide what they want? >>>>>>>>>>>>
    The society wants a closed recycling system for batteries and better
    batteries. The industry was not smart enough to offer the consumers what
    they wanted.

    the industry offers consumers exactly what they want, which are devices
    that are thinner, lighter, more reliable and with longer run time, >>>>>>>>>>> including phones, laptops, bluetooth headsets & speakers, smoke >>>>>>>>>>> detectors, cameras and much more.

    not offering consumers what they want would be a very stupid business
    decision.


    It’s Apple which tells consumers what they are going to get. I’ve never
    seen a poll asking Apple consumers what they want in their next phone.


    Because you haven't seen one...

    ...do you really think that Apple DOESN'T to market research? >>>>>>>>>
    Fact:

    Successful companies succeed by giving people what they want. >>>>>>>>
    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    This is why regulation is so important as consumers often don't know what's
    good for them and are often exploited/manipulated by large corporations.


    Ah... ...people are children who need to be told what's good for them. >>>>>>>
    Got it!

    Love it how you guys like to reframe things as a strawman argument. >>>>>>
    Consumer protections are a thing even in the US; no-one, other than you, is
    calling people children.

    "consumers often don't know what's good for them"

    And?


    You really can't see it, can you?

    I can see that you're adding 2+2 and getting 17.

    Listen to any consumer podcast, radio programme or TV show and every time
    they have stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies. We have laws and regulations to help people which >> is normal and natural.

    You're wanting to reduce it down to "calling people children".

    How is offering people non-easily-user-replaceable batteries, "scamming" anyone?

    It isn't. The point is companies don't have people's best interests at
    heart, which is where regulation comes in.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Wed Jun 21 07:02:37 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing.

    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Bob Campbell on Wed Jun 21 06:51:44 2023
    Bob Campbell <[email protected]> wrote:
    Chris <[email protected]> wrote:
    Listen to any consumer podcast, radio programme or TV show and every time
    they have stories of people being scammed or losing money or being taken
    for a ride by companies.

    Which are always local home repair/appliance repair/auto repair companies, etc. NOT billion dollar, world famous, multinational consumer products companies.

    Not explicitly, but choices are made for them without consultation.

    Airlines and insurance companies are often cited examples of bad behaviour.


    No one is being “scammed or losing money or being taken for a ride” when buying a name-brand product of any kind. No one is saying that Samsung refridgerators are a scam. No one is losing money from buying Apple headphones. No one is being taken for a ride from buying a G.E. toaster oven.

    There are plenty of choices on the market. You buy whatever you like and
    can afford. You can also return the product to where you bought it within
    30 days and get your money back.

    Not the point. Just because there are good examples doesn't mean that there aren't bad examples that need regulating.

    Do you think the market brought the right to your money back or two years warranty?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Wed Jun 21 11:53:14 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that >>>>> by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet >>>> still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    How specifically does MS treat their clients poorly?

    Have you been alive in the last 20 years? MS only survives because it is a pseudo-monopoly and there's effectively no choice. In recent years it's improved its products and service, but that's after decades of market manipulation etc.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Wed Jun 21 16:54:12 2023
    On 2023-06-21 07:53, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that >>>>>> by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet
    still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    How specifically does MS treat their clients poorly?

    Have you been alive in the last 20 years? MS only survives because it is a pseudo-monopoly and there's effectively no choice. In recent years it's improved its products and service, but that's after decades of market manipulation etc.

    I've used MS products since the 80's beginning with MS-DOS and various
    s/w they provided for the nascent PC.

    While they certainly didn't have the most robust OS in the world, they
    did (eventually) come out with a very good office suite. We switched
    (as a large co.) from Lotus-1-2-3 and WordPerfect to MS Office sometime
    in the mid 90's.

    They are (warts and all) very good products. Certainly Excel beats the
    crap out of Apple's milquetoast Numbers.
    Powerpoint is better than Keynote (IMO) but I haven't used Keynote
    enough in the last 5 years or so to see if it's gotten better (I doubt
    it - this is just not Apple's wheelhouse).

    Other MS products that are very good: Outlook (very powerful features
    beyond what most people use), Exchange, etc. and so on.

    Do I like MS? Not so much - though the departure of Balmer certainly
    makes the corporate look much better. Satya Nadella has taken
    leadership and organization up a huge notch.

    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Wed Jun 21 16:43:31 2023
    On 2023-06-21 03:02, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing.

    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    W/o foundation.


    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many
    regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    Operate a business and get back to me.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Wed Jun 21 21:30:00 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 03:02, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing. >>>
    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    W/o foundation.


    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many
    regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    Operate a business and get back to me.

    Thousands of new businesses are started every year. There's no issue.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Wed Jun 21 17:49:11 2023
    On 2023-06-21 17:30, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 03:02, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing. >>>>
    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    W/o foundation.


    Crickets noted.


    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many >>>> regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    Operate a business and get back to me.

    Thousands of new businesses are started every year. There's no issue.

    Whoosh. Every new regulation is a cost borne by the company and passed
    on to customers. They are also huge distractions to the company that is striving to take their product or business somewhere - but then have to
    attend to the new rule. Often compliance is expensive and time
    consuming. And too often the new rule doesn't really address a real
    problem at all.

    So any rule or regulation that is pushed too far is a tax on everyone -
    the business and its customers.

    As to businesses started every year, rules and regulations that go too
    far raise the barrier to entry of new businesses and this stifles
    competition and innovation. That is: anti-consumer.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Thu Jun 22 06:28:48 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 17:30, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 03:02, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing. >>>>>
    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    W/o foundation.


    Crickets noted.

    Response unnecessary.


    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many >>>>> regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    Operate a business and get back to me.

    Thousands of new businesses are started every year. There's no issue.

    Whoosh. Every new regulation is a cost borne by the company and passed
    on to customers.

    Every regulation is there to protect someone/something.

    Monetary cost is not the most important issue.

    They are also huge distractions to the company that is
    striving to take their product or business somewhere - but then have to attend to the new rule. Often compliance is expensive and time
    consuming. And too often the new rule doesn't really address a real
    problem at all.

    Are you really arguing that companies should self-regulate? Yeah, that's
    gone *really*well historically. smh.

    So any rule or regulation that is pushed too far is a tax on everyone -
    the business and its customers.

    As to businesses started every year, rules and regulations that go too
    far raise the barrier to entry of new businesses and this stifles
    competition and innovation. That is: anti-consumer.


    Lol. What a joke! Regulations are now "anti-consumer". Whatever you're on
    it's strong stuff!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jun 22 14:22:32 2023
    Am 20.06.23 um 21:57 schrieb Chris:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that >>>> by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet >>> still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear
    when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    Because CEOs and CTOs in corporations are very rsikaverse and their
    employees that use computers at home too.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joerg Lorenz@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jun 22 14:30:30 2023
    Am 21.06.23 um 13:53 schrieb Chris:
    Have you been alive in the last 20 years? MS only survives because it is a pseudo-monopoly and there's effectively no choice. In recent years it's improved its products and service, but that's after decades of market manipulation etc.

    Microsoft or its products are absolutely no monopoly. But their products
    are absolutely inferior.

    Riskaverse CEOs and CTOs of corporations and public bodies determine an otherwise untenable market position.

    --
    Gutta cavat lapidem (Ovid)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Thu Jun 22 18:06:52 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 07:53, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that >>>>>>> by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet
    still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers.

    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear >>>>> when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    How specifically does MS treat their clients poorly?

    Have you been alive in the last 20 years? MS only survives because it is a >> pseudo-monopoly and there's effectively no choice. In recent years it's
    improved its products and service, but that's after decades of market
    manipulation etc.

    I've used MS products since the 80's beginning with MS-DOS and various
    s/w they provided for the nascent PC.

    While they certainly didn't have the most robust OS in the world, they
    did (eventually) come out with a very good office suite. We switched
    (as a large co.) from Lotus-1-2-3 and WordPerfect to MS Office sometime
    in the mid 90's.

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    They are (warts and all) very good products.

    Not in the 90s, but in the last 10 years or so, yes they are very good. I
    used to try to struggle with openoffice, but it's so far behind the curve
    now.

    Certainly Excel beats the
    crap out of Apple's milquetoast Numbers.
    Powerpoint is better than Keynote (IMO) but I haven't used Keynote
    enough in the last 5 years or so to see if it's gotten better (I doubt
    it - this is just not Apple's wheelhouse).

    Other MS products that are very good: Outlook (very powerful features
    beyond what most people use), Exchange, etc. and so on.

    New outlook is not great, certainly on the mac.

    Do I like MS? Not so much - though the departure of Balmer certainly
    makes the corporate look much better. Satya Nadella has taken
    leadership and organization up a huge notch.

    Agree.

    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Thu Jun 22 17:42:56 2023
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 07:53, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 17:48, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-19 02:37, Chris wrote:

    Successful companies are good at extracting money from people. Not the same
    thing.

    Successful companies also have to earn repeat sales - you don't do that
    by not giving good value for the money.

    And yet many, many companies are well known to provide bad service and yet
    still exist. Big companies serve their shareholders not customers. >>>>>>
    Bleak attitude. Companies that treat their clients poorly disappear >>>>>> when the competition does better.

    Really? How come microsoft are still here?

    How specifically does MS treat their clients poorly?

    Have you been alive in the last 20 years? MS only survives because it is a >>> pseudo-monopoly and there's effectively no choice. In recent years it's
    improved its products and service, but that's after decades of market
    manipulation etc.

    I've used MS products since the 80's beginning with MS-DOS and various
    s/w they provided for the nascent PC.

    While they certainly didn't have the most robust OS in the world, they
    did (eventually) come out with a very good office suite. We switched
    (as a large co.) from Lotus-1-2-3 and WordPerfect to MS Office sometime
    in the mid 90's.

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    They are (warts and all) very good products.

    Not in the 90s, but in the last 10 years or so, yes they are very good. I used to try to struggle with openoffice, but it's so far behind the curve now.

    OpenOffice and I were not chums and parted company w/o tears.


    Certainly Excel beats the
    crap out of Apple's milquetoast Numbers.
    Powerpoint is better than Keynote (IMO) but I haven't used Keynote
    enough in the last 5 years or so to see if it's gotten better (I doubt
    it - this is just not Apple's wheelhouse).

    Other MS products that are very good: Outlook (very powerful features
    beyond what most people use), Exchange, etc. and so on.

    New outlook is not great, certainly on the mac.

    DK - speaking from the Windows of yore days. I had it on the Mac around
    2008 - 2010 and it was horrible in odd ways. (Set to English but some
    pages would come up in Hungarian).
    But the "tools" behind it were still very good if you needed that (I did
    not at home).


    Do I like MS? Not so much - though the departure of Balmer certainly
    makes the corporate look much better. Satya Nadella has taken
    leadership and organization up a huge notch.

    Agree.

    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    I have used their "forum" (whatever) to get answers to issues with Mac
    Office s/w. Indeed there were many of us telling them to make a UI
    change in Excel and they buckled under and fixed it (IIRC some
    unnecessary and annoying animation when doing something in a spreadsheet).

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Thu Jun 22 17:24:32 2023
    On 2023-06-22 02:28, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 17:30, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-21 03:02, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-20 15:49, Chris wrote:

    Yes regulation stifles competition to a degree and that's a good thing. >>>>>>
    Stifling competition is never a good idea.

    I disagree.

    W/o foundation.


    Crickets noted.

    Response unnecessary.

    Couldn't cobble something up, eh?



    Rampant capitalism is harmful on many levels.

    Why there are regulations. Problem is governments putting in too many >>>>>> regulations.

    I guess that's where we'll have to disagree.

    Operate a business and get back to me.

    Thousands of new businesses are started every year. There's no issue.

    Whoosh. Every new regulation is a cost borne by the company and passed
    on to customers.

    Every regulation is there to protect someone/something.

    Monetary cost is not the most important issue.

    In business you have many variables and cost is obviously one of the
    most important.

    They are also huge distractions to the company that is
    striving to take their product or business somewhere - but then have to
    attend to the new rule. Often compliance is expensive and time
    consuming. And too often the new rule doesn't really address a real
    problem at all.

    Are you really arguing that companies should self-regulate? Yeah, that's
    gone *really*well historically. smh.

    Where did I say that. Clearly, and more than once, I've stated that regulations are okay. Regulations that go too far are not.

    So any rule or regulation that is pushed too far is a tax on everyone -
    the business and its customers.

    As to businesses started every year, rules and regulations that go too
    far raise the barrier to entry of new businesses and this stifles
    competition and innovation. That is: anti-consumer.


    Lol. What a joke! Regulations are now "anti-consumer". Whatever you're on it's strong stuff!

    Read again. Please spot things like "too far".

    So - regulations that make a marketplace too expensive for newcomers to
    play in, lock in the larger players for whom a change in regulations is something unliked, but that can be handled. The consumer is stuck with him.
    An upstart has dozens of obstacles just to get going - if regulations
    put the venture out of reach - no competition.

    That is why (again) ____ too much ____ regulation is bad for everyone.

    The USB cable thing is a EU fiasco and the battery thing is an absolute
    fiasco.


    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Fri Jun 23 07:59:04 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.


    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply >> disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes. https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I have used their "forum" (whatever) to get answers to issues with Mac
    Office s/w. Indeed there were many of us telling them to make a UI
    change in Excel and they buckled under and fixed it (IIRC some
    unnecessary and annoying animation when doing something in a spreadsheet).


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 23 07:18:33 2023
    In article <u73jc8$3lvsi$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix them.

    just like everything else.

    no company has unlimited resources, so they must prioritize which bugs
    get fixed first.

    I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    you suspect wrong.

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes. https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    another idiotic linkbait article.

    automatic date conversion is a feature, not a bug.

    nearly every excel user wants it to do that, and in fact, expects it to
    do that, leaving the raw text as entered would greatly annoy people
    since date calculations are *extremely* common. for raw text, use ="".
    problem solved.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Jun 23 10:41:06 2023
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, >>> Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply >>> disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks"
    pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes. https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    In my current co. spreadsheets are (to me) not complex. To my
    accountant and bookkeeper they are mind boggling deep and complex. (Yet
    - when they need info, I produce it out of the spreadsheets in a few
    seconds. And when they learn a new trick that I show them, they adopt it.)

    In my former co. (where I was an employee) the spreadsheets on a project
    bid were deep, wide and very complex. Engineering spreadsheets could
    get out of hand pretty quickly as well.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Jun 23 09:14:33 2023
    On 2023-06-23 00:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, >>> Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular person in those days.


    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply >>> disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I'm always skeptical when someone claims there are "loads" of issues...

    ...but doesn't actually cite any single one.


    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes. https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I have used their "forum" (whatever) to get answers to issues with Mac
    Office s/w. Indeed there were many of us telling them to make a UI
    change in Excel and they buckled under and fixed it (IIRC some
    unnecessary and annoying animation when doing something in a spreadsheet). >>




    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Fri Jun 23 12:20:22 2023
    On 2023-06-23 12:14, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 00:59, Chris wrote:

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I'm always skeptical when someone claims there are "loads" of issues...

    ...but doesn't actually cite any single one.

    Microsoft do all the citing you need on their "fixes and workarounds"
    report online.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Fri Jun 23 09:46:27 2023
    On 2023-06-23 09:20, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 12:14, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 00:59, Chris wrote:

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I'm always skeptical when someone claims there are "loads" of issues...

    ...but doesn't actually cite any single one.

    Microsoft do all the citing you need on their "fixes and workarounds"
    report online.


    Well...

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Fri Jun 23 18:19:58 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, >>>> Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2 >>> or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly >> designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    In my current co. spreadsheets are (to me) not complex. To my
    accountant and bookkeeper they are mind boggling deep and complex. (Yet
    - when they need info, I produce it out of the spreadsheets in a few
    seconds. And when they learn a new trick that I show them, they adopt it.)

    In my former co. (where I was an employee) the spreadsheets on a project
    bid were deep, wide and very complex. Engineering spreadsheets could
    get out of hand pretty quickly as well.


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  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Jun 23 16:30:42 2023
    On 2023-06-23 14:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Edge case for something Excel was not aimed at. Many more people need
    dates recognized than there are gene researchers...

    If it's important enough in the genetics research world, I'd bet there
    is a professor somewhere with the pull to get high level access at MS
    and make the case to have an option to disable this.

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

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  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 23 19:06:44 2023
    In article <u756fn$3rei2$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    that 'feature' benefits just about everyone who uses excel, which is
    why it's there.

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

    as nice as it may be, there is insufficient demand.

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Fri Jun 23 22:31:19 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 09:20, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 12:14, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 00:59, Chris wrote:

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I'm always skeptical when someone claims there are "loads" of issues...

    ...but doesn't actually cite any single one.

    Microsoft do all the citing you need on their "fixes and workarounds"
    report online.


    Well...

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to nospam on Fri Jun 23 20:50:20 2023
    On 2023-06-23 16:06, nospam wrote:
    In article <u756fn$3rei2$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    that 'feature' benefits just about everyone who uses excel, which is
    why it's there.

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

    as nice as it may be, there is insufficient demand.

    It's not necessary, either.

    'Note: When Excel opens a .csv file, it uses the current default data
    format settings to interpret how to import each column of data. If you
    want more flexibility in converting columns to different data formats,
    you can use the Import Text Wizard. For example, the format of a data
    column in the .csv file may be MDY, but Excel's default data format is
    YMD, or you want to convert a column of numbers that contains leading
    zeros to text so you can preserve the leading zeros. To force Excel to
    run the Import Text Wizard, you can change the file name extension from
    .csv to .txt before you open it, or you can import a text file by
    connecting to it (for more information, see the following section).'

    It is literally built in to Excel to handle the EXACT situation that the article claims was such a showstopper.

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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Jun 23 20:52:06 2023
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro, >>>>> Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my >>>> indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2 >>>> or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly >>> designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks"
    pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>

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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Fri Jun 23 20:50:59 2023
    On 2023-06-23 13:30, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 14:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Edge case for something Excel was not aimed at.  Many more people need
    dates recognized than there are gene researchers...

    Not even.

    This is literally something built in to Excel to handle properly.

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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Fri Jun 23 20:47:56 2023
    On 2023-06-23 15:31, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 09:20, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 12:14, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 00:59, Chris wrote:

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>>>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I'm always skeptical when someone claims there are "loads" of issues... >>>>
    ...but doesn't actually cite any single one.

    Microsoft do all the citing you need on their "fixes and workarounds"
    report online.


    Well...

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    It's an alleged issue because there is any easy way not to have it
    happen already built into the software.


    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

    Not false.

    1. You can set any cell, range of cells, column or row in Excel to
    display only text.

    2. You can import CSV files into excel and PRESET the format that each
    column of cells will adopt.

    It would be nice if you had a clue about Excel before you chime in.


    Do I have to post screenshots for you?

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  • From sticks@21:1/5 to Alan on Fri Jun 23 23:01:47 2023
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3,
    Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3
    on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small
    entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it,
    it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to
    fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I
    found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it. How could a scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not
    know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out. It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is
    irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's
    one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to sticks on Sat Jun 24 09:32:48 2023
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small
    entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on
    poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I
    found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same
    column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not
    know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did
    a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?"
    that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going
    to check every single cell.

    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's
    one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students
    that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis except as a quick view and never save changes.

    There are several published articles on this including in Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02211-4 https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7 https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2105-5-80

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 09:32:49 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad.

    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my >>>>> indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2 >>>>> or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly >>>> designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 >> genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's >> a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

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  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Jun 24 10:46:45 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 14:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 >> genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's >> a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Edge case for something Excel was not aimed at. Many more people need
    dates recognized than there are gene researchers...

    If it's important enough in the genetics research world, I'd bet there
    is a professor somewhere with the pull to get high level access at MS
    and make the case to have an option to disable this.

    You have a very skewed view of the influence of University professors.

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

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  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 03:34:44 2023
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my >>>>>> indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2 >>>>>> or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>>>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the
    business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 >>> genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's >>> a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in any cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file"
    behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 03:32:56 2023
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small
    entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on >>>>>> poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting". >>>
    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely: >>>
    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I
    found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same
    column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    You really have not fucking clue.


    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not
    know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did
    a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?"
    that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going to check every single cell.

    You don't need to "check every single cell".

    If your data is properly ordered, you KNOW what is in each column.


    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is
    irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's
    one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students
    that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis except as a quick view and never save changes.

    Because you're an ignoramus.


    There are several published articles on this including in Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02211-4 https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7 https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2105-5-80


    Shared ignorance is still ignorance.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 10:51:46 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 16:06, nospam wrote:
    In article <u756fn$3rei2$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    that 'feature' benefits just about everyone who uses excel, which is
    why it's there.

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

    as nice as it may be, there is insufficient demand.

    It's not necessary, either.

    'Note: When Excel opens a .csv file, it uses the current default data
    format settings to interpret how to import each column of data. If you
    want more flexibility in converting columns to different data formats,
    you can use the Import Text Wizard. For example, the format of a data
    column in the .csv file may be MDY, but Excel's default data format is
    YMD, or you want to convert a column of numbers that contains leading
    zeros to text so you can preserve the leading zeros. To force Excel to
    run the Import Text Wizard, you can change the file name extension from
    .csv to .txt before you open it, or you can import a text file by
    connecting to it (for more information, see the following section).'

    It is literally built in to Excel to handle the EXACT situation that the article claims was such a showstopper.

    Of course there's always things you *can* do, but the reality is different. People, even highly educated ones, don't do what's best they do what's
    easiest. Excel helps them do that, but also has serious side effects.

    I will never accept that it is correct for a column of data in a table
    should have mixed types of data. A database would throw an error and excel shouldn't do it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 03:52:43 2023
    On 2023-06-24 03:46, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 14:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000 >>> genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's >>> a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Edge case for something Excel was not aimed at. Many more people need
    dates recognized than there are gene researchers...

    If it's important enough in the genetics research world, I'd bet there
    is a professor somewhere with the pull to get high level access at MS
    and make the case to have an option to disable this.

    You have a very skewed view of the influence of University professors.

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same


    Or...

    ...and, as this is a thought, it won't have occurred to you...

    ...you could just learn to use Excel properly.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 03:54:33 2023
    On 2023-06-24 03:51, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 16:06, nospam wrote:
    In article <u756fn$3rei2$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    ...if his "issues" are the same as the one in the Register article
    (which I ended up reading)...

    ...it boils down to idiocy.

    Their alleged "issue" was that Excel will autoformat something like
    "dec1" into a DATE (displayed as "Dec-1")...

    It's not alleged. It's real and human gene naming consortium has been
    forced to rename genes because of a "feature".

    that 'feature' benefits just about everyone who uses excel, which is
    why it's there.

    ...except that you can completely override that feature.

    False. It would be nice to have a toggle in the settings, however.

    as nice as it may be, there is insufficient demand.

    It's not necessary, either.

    'Note: When Excel opens a .csv file, it uses the current default data
    format settings to interpret how to import each column of data. If you
    want more flexibility in converting columns to different data formats,
    you can use the Import Text Wizard. For example, the format of a data
    column in the .csv file may be MDY, but Excel's default data format is
    YMD, or you want to convert a column of numbers that contains leading
    zeros to text so you can preserve the leading zeros. To force Excel to
    run the Import Text Wizard, you can change the file name extension from
    .csv to .txt before you open it, or you can import a text file by
    connecting to it (for more information, see the following section).'

    It is literally built in to Excel to handle the EXACT situation that the
    article claims was such a showstopper.

    Of course there's always things you *can* do, but the reality is different. People, even highly educated ones, don't do what's best they do what's easiest. Excel helps them do that, but also has serious side effects.

    Sorry, but that's THEIR FAULT>


    I will never accept that it is correct for a column of data in a table
    should have mixed types of data. A database would throw an error and excel shouldn't do it.

    Excel is not a database, you incredible ignoramus.

    And when you import the data, you have the OPTION to set any column to
    any data type you like.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 10:57:14 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small
    entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds. >>>>>>>>
    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on >>>>>>> poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have >>>>>>> negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>>>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as >>>>> it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting". >>>>
    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to >>>> see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely: >>>>
    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I
    found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same
    column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    You really have not fucking clue.


    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not >>> know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did >> a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?"
    that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going >> to check every single cell.

    You don't need to "check every single cell".

    If your data is properly ordered, you KNOW what is in each column.


    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is
    irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's
    one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students
    that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis
    except as a quick view and never save changes.

    Because you're an ignoramus.

    Ad hominem. You have no argument, clearly.


    There are several published articles on this including in Nature.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02211-4
    https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7 >> https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2105-5-80 >>

    Shared ignorance is still ignorance.



    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 03:58:45 2023
    On 2023-06-24 03:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small >>>>>>>>> entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds. >>>>>>>>>
    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on >>>>>>>> poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks"
    pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>>>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have >>>>>>>> negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as >>>>>> it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting". >>>>>
    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to >>>>> see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely: >>>>>
    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I >>>> found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same
    column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    You really have not fucking clue.


    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not >>>> know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did >>> a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?"
    that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going >>> to check every single cell.

    You don't need to "check every single cell".

    If your data is properly ordered, you KNOW what is in each column.

    What?

    No reply?

    Shocking.



    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is
    irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's >>>> one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students >>> that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis >>> except as a quick view and never save changes.

    Because you're an ignoramus.

    Ad hominem. You have no argument, clearly.

    I already made the argument, you ignoramus.

    You told your colleagues WRONG...

    ...because you are an ignoramus.

    But the real fault that lies at your feet, is that you appear to LIKE
    being ignorant.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 24 08:09:49 2023
    In article <u76hil$37gt$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    or learn how to use excel.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 12:43:41 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my >>>>>>> indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds.

    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix >>>>>> them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have
    negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's >>>> a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting". >>>
    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely: >>>
    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in any >> cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file" behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    FFS! I know how to avoid it, because I highlighted it. I've known about it
    for decades.

    It's well known spreadsheets are dangerous tools in the wrong hands, but of course you're perfect so everyone else is an idiot. Breathtaking arrogance,
    but I'd expect nothing else on here.

    https://thedatalab.com/news/why-excel-spreadsheets-are-bad-for-business-data-errors-solutions/
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/02/13/microsofts-excel-might-be-the-most-dangerous-software-on-the-planet/

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 06:15:01 2023
    On 2023-06-24 05:43, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me. I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop. mid 90's.

    I should have said hello. I'm not shy. But he had a small entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular >>>>>>> person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I >>>>>>>>> certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds. >>>>>>>>
    No. OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks" >>>>>> pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would >>>>>> still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have >>>>>>> negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and >>>>> because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting". >>>>
    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to >>>> see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely: >>>>
    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in any >>> cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file"
    behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    FFS! I know how to avoid it, because I highlighted it. I've known about it for decades.

    So you know it isn't an actual issue.

    Got it.


    It's well known spreadsheets are dangerous tools in the wrong hands, but of course you're perfect so everyone else is an idiot. Breathtaking arrogance, but I'd expect nothing else on here.

    LOL!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 12:54:57 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 03:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was >>>>>>>>>> sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small >>>>>>>>>> entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly".

    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds. >>>>>>>>>>
    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>>>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on >>>>>>>>> poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks"
    pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have >>>>>>>>> negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as >>>>>>> it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to >>>>>> see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I >>>>> found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same
    column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    You really have not fucking clue.


    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not >>>>> know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did
    a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?" >>>> that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going
    to check every single cell.

    You don't need to "check every single cell".

    If your data is properly ordered, you KNOW what is in each column.

    What?

    No reply?

    Shocking.

    I, and other researchers, know full well what's in the column. Strings of
    gene names. Excel in its wisdom thinks it knows better.

    Where in the description "General" does it say "and I'll change data irreversibly in cell A15342 willy nilly because I think I know better"?
    Where?!



    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily
    done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is
    irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's >>>>> one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things.

    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students >>>> that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis >>>> except as a quick view and never save changes.

    Because you're an ignoramus.

    Ad hominem. You have no argument, clearly.

    I already made the argument, you ignoramus.

    You told your colleagues WRONG...

    ...because you are an ignoramus.

    But the real fault that lies at your feet, is that you appear to LIKE
    being ignorant.

    It's funny that you're attacking me when I know exactly what the problem
    is. Hence why I raised it and has been the subject of several articles.

    I also know that large swathes of those in academic research don't know.

    Your blaming me and attacking my intelligence - lol - doesn't change the
    fact. Your butthurt is not my problem.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 09:57:45 2023
    On 2023-06-24 06:54, Alan wrote:


    Excel is not a database, you incredible ignoramus.

    Stop being a dick.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 09:45:03 2023
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to
    see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel
    with no conversion. I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1]
    the error for testing?

    [1] See what I did there?

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 06:17:41 2023
    On 2023-06-24 05:54, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 03:57, Chris wrote:
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:
    sticks <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 6/23/2023 10:52 PM, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 03:59, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-22 14:06, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:

    Lotus really missed out on the opportunity in those days. 1-2-3, >>>>>>>>>>>> Ami Pro,
    Approach we're all better then office. Ppt was generally very bad. >>>>>>>>>>>
    OUAT: I was sitting in Schiphol KLM business lounge - Bill Gates was
    sitting about 10 feet from me.  I was doing expenses ... in 1-2-3 >>>>>>>>>>> on my
    indestructible Toshiba laptop.  mid 90's.

    I should have said hello.  I'm not shy.  But he had a small >>>>>>>>>>> entourage (2
    or 3 people).

    Fun fact. I would have given him a very hard stare. BG wasn't a popular
    person in those days.

    You do you.



    But I don't believe they treat their clients "poorly". >>>>>>>>>>>>
    Have you had anything fixed by them or a useful response from them? I
    certainly haven't.

    If there's an issue my work's IT can't deal and they escalate it, >>>>>>>>>>>> it simply
    disappears into the void. You just learn to have workarounds. >>>>>>>>>>>
    No.  OTOH - What's there to "fix"?

    There are loads of known issues and bugs in Excel, but MS refuses to >>>>>>>>>> fix
    them. I suspect it's because so many businesses are so dependent on >>>>>>>>>> poorly
    designed spreadsheets that any bug fixes would seriously affect the >>>>>>>>>> business.

    I recall in the Borland Pascal and C compilers that there was a "quirks"
    pragma so that MS bugs that had been worked around in source code would
    still work...

    Excel has made biological research harder and arguably could have >>>>>>>>>> negatively affected research into certain genes.
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/06/excel_gene_names/

    I didn't open the link - I'll stipulate ...

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as >>>>>>>> it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time to >>>>>>> see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem entirely:

    <https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/import-or-export-text-txt-or-csv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba>


    As an excel user, having switched everything from Lotus incidentally, I >>>>>> found this claim almost nonsensical when I first read it.

    What's nonsensical is to have data of different types within the same >>>>> column. Only excel thinks that's sensible.

    You really have not fucking clue.


    How could a
    scientist with enough intelligence to be working on genetic research not >>>>>> know how to do this, or at least try to figure it out.

    Because they don't see it. It is modifying the data *quietly*. If excel did
    a pop-up saying "I've spotted a few dates do you want to convert them?" >>>>> that would be better UX.

    When you've got a table with 20,000 rows and 20-30 columns you're not going
    to check every single cell.

    You don't need to "check every single cell".

    If your data is properly ordered, you KNOW what is in each column.

    What?

    No reply?

    Shocking.

    I, and other researchers, know full well what's in the column. Strings of gene names. Excel in its wisdom thinks it knows better.

    And yet you apparently don't know that you can TELL Excel what is in a column...

    Got it.


    Where in the description "General" does it say "and I'll change data irreversibly in cell A15342 willy nilly because I think I know better"? Where?!

    Where does it need to...

    ...when they also tell you that you can choose "Text" explicitly?




    It is not a
    difficult problem and for anyone who uses the software quite easily >>>>>> done. I figured it must be a hoax of sorts, but since it really is >>>>>> irrelevant to any useful discussion here decided to let it ride. It's >>>>>> one of those "I saw it on the internet, so it must be true" things. >>>>>
    Nope it's very true. I've had to inform many colleagues and PhD students >>>>> that excel does this. I tell them to never use excel for genetic analysis >>>>> except as a quick view and never save changes.

    Because you're an ignoramus.

    Ad hominem. You have no argument, clearly.

    I already made the argument, you ignoramus.

    You told your colleagues WRONG...

    ...because you are an ignoramus.

    But the real fault that lies at your feet, is that you appear to LIKE
    being ignorant.

    It's funny that you're attacking me when I know exactly what the problem
    is. Hence why I raised it and has been the subject of several articles.

    I also know that large swathes of those in academic research don't know.

    That would be what normal people call "ignorance"...

    ...and it's something that intelligent people try and overcome.


    Your blaming me and attacking my intelligence - lol - doesn't change the fact. Your butthurt is not my problem.

    I didn't attack your intelligence, ignoramus.

    But I'll now attack your integrity.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 09:58:24 2023
    On 2023-06-24 06:58, Alan wrote:

    I already made the argument, you ignoramus.

    Stop being a dick.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 09:56:17 2023
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in
    any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell. It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text. It converts to the integer offset for
    that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg: in another cell: =A5+1 will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).


    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file" behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    Stop being a dick.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 10:00:45 2023
    On 2023-06-24 09:17, Alan wrote:

    But I'll now attack your integrity.

    Stop being a dick.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to nospam on Sat Jun 24 09:59:40 2023
    On 2023-06-24 08:09, nospam wrote:
    In article <u76hil$37gt$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    Sure - fork it for this and expect it to be maintained in the future?

    or learn how to use excel.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to nospam on Sat Jun 24 15:45:23 2023
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u76hil$37gt$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    What's the point no-one uses it and it's a dead end.

    or learn how to use excel.

    or even better use the right tool for the right job. Excel isn't it for
    genetic data.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Jun 24 15:45:22 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in
    any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell. It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text. It converts to the integer offset for
    that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    Thanks for confirming.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg: in another cell: =A5+1 will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).

    Only possible when entering data manually. Not helpful with data table generated by other software.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 09:24:20 2023
    On 2023-06-24 08:45, Chris wrote:
    nospam <[email protected]d> wrote:
    In article <u76hil$37gt$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:


    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    What's the point no-one uses it and it's a dead end.

    or learn how to use excel.

    or even better use the right tool for the right job. Excel isn't it for genetic data.


    Your ignorance of how to use a tool doesn't make it the wrong tool.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 16:20:12 2023
    Alan <[email protected]> wrote:

    But I'll now attack your integrity.

    You've confirmed you're a troll. Plonk.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Jun 24 09:25:27 2023
    On 2023-06-24 06:56, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates
    in any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell.  It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text.  It converts to the integer offset for
    that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg:    in another cell:    =A5+1      will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).


    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file"
    behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    Stop being a dick.


    Calling out ignorance makes one a dick now?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 09:23:47 2023
    On 2023-06-24 08:45, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made >>>> itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in >>>> any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell. It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text. It converts to the integer offset for
    that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    Thanks for confirming.

    That you are both ignorant?


    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg: in another cell: =A5+1 will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).

    Only possible when entering data manually. Not helpful with data table generated by other software.

    Bzzzzzt.

    Wrong.

    Tell you what:

    You send me a data file that you think cannot be brought into Excel
    properly, and I'll do a screen video to show you it can.

    But if I can, you admit you're an ignoramus, OK?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sat Jun 24 13:22:19 2023
    On 2023-06-24 12:25, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:56, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made >>>> itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there
    aren't better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates
    in any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell.  It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text.  It converts to the integer offset
    for that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg:    in another cell:    =A5+1      will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).


    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file"
    behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    Stop being a dick.


    Calling out ignorance makes one a dick now?

    The manner of it certainly does.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Sat Jun 24 13:23:55 2023
    On 2023-06-24 11:45, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has made >>>> itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that
    "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't
    better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in >>>> any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell. It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text. It converts to the integer offset for
    that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    Thanks for confirming.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg: in another cell: =A5+1 will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).

    Only possible when entering data manually. Not helpful with data table generated by other software.

    Not at all. You can probably write a simple script or program to do it.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Jun 24 11:19:43 2023
    On 2023-06-24 10:22, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 12:25, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:56, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has
    made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that >>>>> "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there
    aren't better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates
    in any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell.  It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text.  It converts to the integer offset
    for that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg:    in another cell:    =A5+1      will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).


    I don't need to.

    Anyone who needs to avoid the default "double-click on a csv file"
    behaviour... ...can.

    If they have a modicum of intelligence.

    Which apparently lets you out.

    Stop being a dick.


    Calling out ignorance makes one a dick now?

    The manner of it certainly does.


    I didn't start out with the manner I later adopted.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sat Jun 24 11:20:25 2023
    On 2023-06-24 10:23, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 11:45, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 06:34, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-24 02:32, Chris wrote:

    Lol. Almost everyone simply double-clicks CSV file which excel has
    made
    itself the default application for. The wizard does not warn you that >>>>> "General" allows excel to modify individual cells. Which is dumb.

    Personally .csv for me goes to Google Earth as I log tracks ...


    The fact that "everyone" does something doesn't mean that there aren't >>>> better ways.


    Please point to where it says that any string that looks like dates in >>>>> any
    cell it's transparently and irreversibly altered.

    enter Dec-12 in a cell.  It converts to a date.
    Then re-format the cell as text.  It converts to the integer offset for >>> that date.
    (Excel for Mac 16.54 (2019)).

    In Preferences I can't find anything to defeat this.

    Thanks for confirming.

    One can of course pre-fix with a ' to preserve it in text form.
    And (strangely) will still work for date operations.
    (eg:    in another cell:    =A5+1      will give the next day (if the
    text date is in A5).

    Only possible when entering data manually.  Not helpful with data table
    generated by other software.

    Not at all.  You can probably write a simple script or program to do it.


    Or...

    ...and I realize this is a completely wild thought...

    ...you could just learn how to use the software properly.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From nospam@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 24 16:01:55 2023
    In article <u7732j$573v$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    What's the point no-one uses it and it's a dead end.

    maybe so, but you can add or remove whatever functionality you want.

    or learn how to use excel.

    or even better use the right tool for the right job. Excel isn't it for genetic data.

    probably not, but the problem you describe isn't actually a problem.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Hank Rogers@21:1/5 to nospam on Sat Jun 24 16:08:00 2023
    nospam wrote:
    In article <u7732j$573v$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    What's the point no-one uses it and it's a dead end.

    maybe so, but you can add or remove whatever functionality you want.


    I can't even get it to run on my iPhone. Will things improve
    when we get replaceable batteries?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 11:07:38 2023
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to dates
    and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem as
    it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time
    to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel
    with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1]
    the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been annotated
    with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you stick
    to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an .xlsx
    file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    [1] See what I did there?

    I did ;)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to Hank Rogers on Sun Jun 25 15:02:38 2023
    Hank Rogers <[email protected]d> wrote:
    nospam wrote:
    In article <u7732j$573v$[email protected]>, Chris <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Have you tried it in LibreOffice?

    LO is the same

    libre office is open source. modify it to do what you want.

    What's the point no-one uses it and it's a dead end.

    maybe so, but you can add or remove whatever functionality you want.


    I can't even get it to run on my iPhone. Will things improve
    when we get replaceable batteries?

    LOL, nice.

    Yes, everything will be sunshine and lollipops when we get “replacable” batteries. For the 5% of people who actually need to replace them.

    The rest of us will still be struggling along with batteries that easily
    last 5 years or more.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Sun Jun 25 12:06:21 2023
    On 2023-06-25 06:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem
    as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time
    to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel
    with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1]
    the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been annotated
    with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you stick
    to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I copied and saved via Text - formatted to plain text.

    Auto opened in Apple Numbers, actually. So used "Open With"

    Found MARCH2 on line 1855 did convert to a date.

    (Excel for Mac, 2019).

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the data.

    Found 1. I quit!

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an .xlsx
    file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    [1] See what I did there?

    I did ;)

    Heehee.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Bob Campbell on Sun Jun 25 12:21:10 2023
    On 2023-06-25 11:02, Bob Campbell wrote:

    Yes, everything will be sunshine and lollipops when we get “replacable” batteries. For the 5% of people who actually need to replace them.

    That many?

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bob Campbell@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 17:05:04 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 11:02, Bob Campbell wrote:

    Yes, everything will be sunshine and lollipops when we get “replacable” >> batteries. For the 5% of people who actually need to replace them.

    That many?

    I was feeling generous.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Chris on Sun Jun 25 09:54:38 2023
    On 2023-06-25 03:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of
    20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem
    as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time
    to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel
    with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1]
    the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been annotated
    with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you stick
    to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an .xlsx
    file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    I just downloaded the file; it saved as "GSE95077 Test.txt"

    I opened Excel, chose "Open..." from the file menu and selected it.

    The Text Import Wizard opened, automatically selected "Tab" for the
    delimiter, and after hitting "Next" it asked me what format I wanted to
    use for importing each column. I changed them all from "General" to
    "Text" (except the "ENTREZID", which were obviously numbers) and it
    opened perfectly.

    The whole process added perhaps one minute to opening the file.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 25 16:02:28 2023
    On 2023-06-25 12:54, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 03:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like
    dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file
    of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now
    any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem
    as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time
    to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to
    excel with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that
    "expresses"[1] the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been
    annotated with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you
    stick to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the
    data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an .xlsx
    file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    I just downloaded the file; it saved as "GSE95077 Test.txt"

    I opened Excel, chose "Open..." from the file menu and selected it.

    The Text Import Wizard opened, automatically selected "Tab" for the delimiter, and after hitting "Next" it asked me what format I wanted to
    use for importing each column. I changed them all from "General" to
    "Text" (except the "ENTREZID", which were obviously numbers) and it
    opened perfectly.

    The whole process added perhaps one minute to opening the file.


    So in the end, Excel is inconsistent.

    I often open files via Finder. Either the extension indicates the app
    or use the drop down (right click) "Open with".

    In this case I don't get the option to import as you describe ("Text
    Wizard.".

    If I open from the Excel "Open" menu then I do.

    So, in effect it is a bug because of the inconsistency.


    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 13:29:17 2023
    On 2023-06-25 13:02, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 12:54, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 03:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like
    dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file
    of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving.
    Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem >>>>>> as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the
    time to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the
    problem entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to
    excel with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that
    "expresses"[1] the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been
    annotated with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data
    had been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you
    stick to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the
    insiduous nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know
    that genes have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to
    eye-ball the data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an
    .xlsx file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    I just downloaded the file; it saved as "GSE95077 Test.txt"

    I opened Excel, chose "Open..." from the file menu and selected it.

    The Text Import Wizard opened, automatically selected "Tab" for the
    delimiter, and after hitting "Next" it asked me what format I wanted
    to use for importing each column. I changed them all from "General" to
    "Text" (except the "ENTREZID", which were obviously numbers) and it
    opened perfectly.

    The whole process added perhaps one minute to opening the file.


    So in the end, Excel is inconsistent.

    No. It is completely consistent.


    I often open files via Finder.  Either the extension indicates the app
    or use the drop down (right click) "Open with".

    And why should that behaviour not be different?


    In this case I don't get the option to import as you describe ("Text Wizard.".

    If I open from the Excel "Open" menu then I do.

    So, in effect it is a bug because of the inconsistency.

    Nope. Because there is no reason the two behaviours SHOULD be the same.

    It isn't a bug because you think they should have done it differently.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 25 20:08:47 2023
    On 2023-06-25 16:29, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 13:02, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 12:54, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 03:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like
    dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file >>>>>>> of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving.
    Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a
    problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of >>>>>>> the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the
    time to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the
    problem entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to
    excel with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that
    "expresses"[1] the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been
    annotated with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac -
    that opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that
    data had been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss"
    if you stick to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the
    insiduous nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know
    that genes have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to
    eye-ball the data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an
    .xlsx file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    I just downloaded the file; it saved as "GSE95077 Test.txt"

    I opened Excel, chose "Open..." from the file menu and selected it.

    The Text Import Wizard opened, automatically selected "Tab" for the
    delimiter, and after hitting "Next" it asked me what format I wanted
    to use for importing each column. I changed them all from "General"
    to "Text" (except the "ENTREZID", which were obviously numbers) and
    it opened perfectly.

    The whole process added perhaps one minute to opening the file.


    So in the end, Excel is inconsistent.

    No. It is completely consistent.


    I often open files via Finder.  Either the extension indicates the app
    or use the drop down (right click) "Open with".

    And why should that behaviour not be different?

    Consistency. Users should not have to remember that if you open one
    particular way it behaves x and open the same file another way it behaves y.



    In this case I don't get the option to import as you describe ("Text
    Wizard.".

    If I open from the Excel "Open" menu then I do.

    So, in effect it is a bug because of the inconsistency.

    Nope. Because there is no reason the two behaviours SHOULD be the same.

    Above.


    It isn't a bug because you think they should have done it differently.

    At best it's inconsistent. At worst it's a bug.


    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 17:36:52 2023
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 16:29, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 13:02, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 12:54, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 03:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like >>>>>>>> dates to
    excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV
    file of 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to >>>>>>>> dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. >>>>>>>> Now any
    future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a
    problem as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out >>>>>>>> of the
    analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the
    time to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the
    problem entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to
    excel with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that
    "expresses"[1] the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been
    annotated with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac -
    that opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that
    data had been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss"
    if you stick to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the
    insiduous nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't
    know that genes have been affected in this way. The usual use-case
    is to eye-ball the data.

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an
    .xlsx file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    I just downloaded the file; it saved as "GSE95077 Test.txt"

    I opened Excel, chose "Open..." from the file menu and selected it.

    The Text Import Wizard opened, automatically selected "Tab" for the
    delimiter, and after hitting "Next" it asked me what format I wanted
    to use for importing each column. I changed them all from "General"
    to "Text" (except the "ENTREZID", which were obviously numbers) and
    it opened perfectly.

    The whole process added perhaps one minute to opening the file.


    So in the end, Excel is inconsistent.

    No. It is completely consistent.


    I often open files via Finder.  Either the extension indicates the
    app or use the drop down (right click) "Open with".

    And why should that behaviour not be different?

    Consistency.  Users should not have to remember that if you open one particular way it behaves x and open the same file another way it
    behaves y.

    But that completely removes the ability to every vary from standard,
    doesn't it?

    Sorry, but it doesn't wash.

    The normal way is useful for probably 95%+ of all people who use Excel
    and for edge cases there is another way to do things that they don't
    even need to know about.




    In this case I don't get the option to import as you describe ("Text
    Wizard.".

    If I open from the Excel "Open" menu then I do.

    So, in effect it is a bug because of the inconsistency.

    Nope. Because there is no reason the two behaviours SHOULD be the same.

    Above.


    It isn't a bug because you think they should have done it differently.

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation with
    very different approaches.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Sun Jun 25 21:04:39 2023
    On 2023-06-25 20:36, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    "So, we're agreed in this design review that if the user opens a text
    file one way, we go straight to it, no warnings, no attempt to get the
    user to make choices.
    But, if the user opens it /this/ way, then the user will get some
    formatting guidance."

    "Well, that's just bad UI design. Inconsistent. Frankly it's a bug -
    both ways should follow the exact same opening sequence. Less code,
    easier to test, less prone to fail.:

    "Shut the fuck up."
    -MS product design manager.


    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation with
    very different approaches.

    Not at all. Consistency is a useful thing. And MS is not the
    Consistent co.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Sun Jun 25 21:41:55 2023
    On 2023-06-25 18:04, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 20:36, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    "So, we're agreed in this design review that if the user opens a text
    file one way, we go straight to it, no warnings, no attempt to get the
    user to make choices.
     But, if the user opens it /this/ way, then the user will get some formatting guidance."

    "Well, that's just bad UI design.  Inconsistent.  Frankly it's a bug -
    both ways should follow the exact same opening sequence.  Less code,
    easier to test, less prone to fail.:

    "Shut the fuck up."
     -MS product design manager.

    Not actual quotes, so cute... ...but just so much bullshit.



    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation
    with very different approaches.

    Not at all.  Consistency is a useful thing.  And MS is not the
    Consistent co.

    "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    The simple fact of the matter is the functionality that isn't useful to everyone SHOULD be place in a way that makes it less immediate.

    But moreover, the fact for this subthread is that the so-called "issue"
    that geneticists were having has an utterly simply way to avoid.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Mon Jun 26 17:32:04 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 06:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem
    as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time
    to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel
    with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1]
    the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been annotated
    with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you stick
    to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I copied and saved via Text - formatted to plain text.

    Auto opened in Apple Numbers, actually. So used "Open With"

    Yeah, I changed the default app.

    Found MARCH2 on line 1855 did convert to a date.

    Did you get any warnings or hints that the data might be altered?

    (Excel for Mac, 2019).

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the data.

    Found 1. I quit!

    It's a start. How long did it take to find that one?

    This is insiduous because the next step is often to "Save As" an .xlsx
    file so any changes made go unnoticed.

    [1] See what I did there?

    I did ;)

    Heehee.


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 26 17:09:13 2023
    On 2023-06-26 00:41, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 18:04, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 20:36, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    "So, we're agreed in this design review that if the user opens a text
    file one way, we go straight to it, no warnings, no attempt to get the
    user to make choices.
      But, if the user opens it /this/ way, then the user will get some
    formatting guidance."

    "Well, that's just bad UI design.  Inconsistent.  Frankly it's a bug -
    both ways should follow the exact same opening sequence.  Less code,
    easier to test, less prone to fail.:

    "Shut the fuck up."
      -MS product design manager.

    Not actual quotes, so cute... ...but just so much bullshit.


    There's little other explanation for such a blatantly bad design.
    although the closing could have been more like any of these:

    "That will take time. Forget it."
    -MS product design manager.

    "It's already in the release process. We'll address it next time.
    -MS product design manager - many years and releases ago.

    "There's a guy in account, the one with Asperger's, who likes it this
    way - and he's a nephew of ......... . So it stays."
    -MS product design manager.






    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation
    with very different approaches.

    Not at all.  Consistency is a useful thing.  And MS is not the
    Consistent co.

    "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    The simple fact of the matter is the functionality that isn't useful to everyone SHOULD be place in a way that makes it less immediate.

    "Everyone" doesn't open the files the same way as "everyone" every time.

    But moreover, the fact for this subthread is that the so-called "issue"
    that geneticists were having has an utterly simply way to avoid.

    Yeah, a workaround that should have been eliminated years ago in order
    to make the UI uniform and consistent.


    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Mon Jun 26 16:12:00 2023
    On 2023-06-26 14:09, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-26 00:41, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 18:04, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 20:36, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    "So, we're agreed in this design review that if the user opens a text
    file one way, we go straight to it, no warnings, no attempt to get
    the user to make choices.
      But, if the user opens it /this/ way, then the user will get some
    formatting guidance."

    "Well, that's just bad UI design.  Inconsistent.  Frankly it's a bug
    - both ways should follow the exact same opening sequence.  Less
    code, easier to test, less prone to fail.:

    "Shut the fuck up."
      -MS product design manager.

    Not actual quotes, so cute... ...but just so much bullshit.


    There's little other explanation for such a blatantly bad design.
    although the closing could have been more like any of these:

    "That will take time.  Forget it."
     -MS product design manager.

    "It's already in the release process.  We'll address it next time.
     -MS product design manager - many years and releases ago.

    "There's a guy in account, the one with Asperger's, who likes it this
    way - and he's a nephew of  ......... . So it stays."
     -MS product design manager.






    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation
    with very different approaches.

    Not at all.  Consistency is a useful thing.  And MS is not the
    Consistent co.

    "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    The simple fact of the matter is the functionality that isn't useful
    to everyone SHOULD be place in a way that makes it less immediate.

    "Everyone" doesn't open the files the same way as "everyone" every time.

    But moreover, the fact for this subthread is that the so-called
    "issue" that geneticists were having has an utterly simply way to avoid.

    Yeah, a workaround that should have been eliminated years ago in order
    to make the UI uniform and consistent.

    So your answer would be to force everyone to use the Text Import Wizard
    every time they open a CSV?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Alan on Mon Jun 26 19:52:38 2023
    On 2023-06-26 19:12, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-26 14:09, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-26 00:41, Alan wrote:

    But moreover, the fact for this subthread is that the so-called
    "issue" that geneticists were having has an utterly simply way to avoid.

    Yeah, a workaround that should have been eliminated years ago in order
    to make the UI uniform and consistent.

    So your answer would be to force everyone to use the Text Import Wizard
    every time they open a CSV?

    Easy enough to skip ("Finish"). Another way to put it is that generally importing text files is an exceptional use of a spreadsheet program - so
    yes, should always remind the user that he should pay attention before
    pulling the data in.

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Chris@21:1/5 to Alan Browne on Tue Jun 27 07:53:38 2023
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-26 00:41, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 18:04, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 20:36, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 17:08, Alan Browne wrote:

    At best it's inconsistent.  At worst it's a bug.

    It's definitely not a bug, because it is intended behaviour.

    "So, we're agreed in this design review that if the user opens a text
    file one way, we go straight to it, no warnings, no attempt to get the
    user to make choices.
      But, if the user opens it /this/ way, then the user will get some
    formatting guidance."

    "Well, that's just bad UI design.  Inconsistent.  Frankly it's a bug - >>> both ways should follow the exact same opening sequence.  Less code,
    easier to test, less prone to fail.:

    "Shut the fuck up."
      -MS product design manager.

    Not actual quotes, so cute... ...but just so much bullshit.


    There's little other explanation for such a blatantly bad design.
    although the closing could have been more like any of these:

    "That will take time. Forget it."
    -MS product design manager.

    "It's already in the release process. We'll address it next time.
    -MS product design manager - many years and releases ago.

    "There's a guy in account, the one with Asperger's, who likes it this
    way - and he's a nephew of ......... . So it stays."
    -MS product design manager.






    And inconsistency is wrong because you are achieving the operation
    with very different approaches.

    Not at all.  Consistency is a useful thing.  And MS is not the
    Consistent co.

    "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

    The simple fact of the matter is the functionality that isn't useful to
    everyone SHOULD be place in a way that makes it less immediate.

    "Everyone" doesn't open the files the same way as "everyone" every time.

    But moreover, the fact for this subthread is that the so-called "issue"
    that geneticists were having has an utterly simply way to avoid.

    Yeah, a workaround that should have been eliminated years ago in order
    to make the UI uniform and consistent.

    Or a setting that could be changed. "Autodetect Dates" on/off. Default is
    on for not changing current behaviour.

    It's worth noting this date change even happens when you paste in data
    IIRC. There's no workaround in that case.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Alan Browne@21:1/5 to Chris on Tue Jun 27 09:58:24 2023
    On 2023-06-26 13:32, Chris wrote:
    Alan Browne <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 2023-06-25 06:07, Chris wrote:
    On 24/06/2023 14:45, Alan Browne wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 23:52, Alan wrote:
    On 2023-06-23 11:19, Chris wrote:

    It's far simpler than that. There many gene IDs that look like dates to >>>>>> excel e.g. oct-9, march15, dec-1. When opening a results CSV file of >>>>>> 20,000
    genes excel automatically (and quietly) converts those genes to
    dates and
    because the data are large the user doesn't notice when saving. Now any >>>>>> future analysis will contain unknown gene names. This is a problem >>>>>> as it's
    a systematic bias and it's always the same genes that drop out of the >>>>>> analysis reducing the chances of them being identified as
    "interesting".

    Which would be a problem precisely ONCE for anyone who took the time >>>>> to see why the error happened and learned how to avoid the problem
    entirely:

    Just created a .csv with the labels mentioned above, imported to excel >>>> with no conversion.  I should have tested this earlier.

    Perhaps, Chris, you could post an actual gene file that "expresses"[1] >>>> the error for testing?

    I've cropped a bit of a typical file, found here that has been annotated >>> with the GeneIDs:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE95077

    I've posted it on here:
    https://pastebin.com/UU4xhqwD

    Save as a .tsv and then double-click - at least here on my mac - that
    opens in Excel with no wizard, no nothing and no warning that data had
    been changed. Only only warning as is about "feature loss" if you stick
    to using csv formatted (sic) files.

    I copied and saved via Text - formatted to plain text.

    Auto opened in Apple Numbers, actually. So used "Open With"

    Yeah, I changed the default app.

    Found MARCH2 on line 1855 did convert to a date.

    Did you get any warnings or hints that the data might be altered?

    (Excel for Mac, 2019).

    I challenge anyone to count how many errors have been introduced in
    under 1 minute. You're not allowed to use Search because the insiduous
    nature of this is that a priori a naive user wouldn't know that genes
    have been affected in this way. The usual use-case is to eye-ball the data. >>
    Found 1. I quit!

    It's a start. How long did it take to find that one?

    Half a minute. Just scrolled - the re-formatted date shifted to the
    right side of the cell, so it stood out.


    (wrote this yesterday - forgot to send).

    --
    “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."
    -Ronald Coase

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)