I'm curious if this is a case of planned obsolescence.
Apple MBP 2015 users with battery replacements from services like iFixit report that their computers start to lock up after operating on the battery and being connected to WiFi. Connecting to external power can immediately resolve this. There are often two or three services that are involved in the slow down, configd being the most common. You can use terminal to try to kill the service, but it is often difficult and the processes will immediately restart.
Is there DRM in Apple batteries that after market batteries do not have that may be causing this battery drain?
Why is it necessary? It's ugly, but it's earning millions. Find out why resistance to change is huge. Maybe the devs are stuck in their ways, or maybe it's too damn scary for them to fail because the business comes down hard on them? Get to know your devs, find out from them what they think the problems are and how they would like to solve them. Maybe they just need more help. And as the team lead it sounds like you need to bring the "business unit" up to speed on the current reality?
This is a kind of look behind the curtain that we rarely get from large software developers. Users are often told by someone down the chain in support it works or doesn't and no explanation why. I find this very fascinating and as a saas developer that makes an app that has to work with external hardware that I often don't have to test on very encouraging. Sometimes, there's no fix and it's not my fault.
I (have learned to) love working with hardware. There’s a specific tension between hardware developers (firmware) and software that runs closer to the user. I used to do a lot more consulting - building mobile apps that talked to BLE sensors, like refrigeration controllers, etc, and almost always the end user was a technician.
Now, I’m making apps specifically for non-technical users. I really love the challenge.
To come up with my app idea (and business) I tried to think about the worst possible hardware on the planet and thought label printers.
Turns out that the hardware is almost universally pretty good, but there was no software that worked for both Mac and windows, worked independent of device drivers, was easy to use, had modern conveniences, and didn’t cost hundreds of dollars.
At the same time my competitors are extracting as much value from the label printer landscape as possible, with a wake of irked users behind them. RFID in the label roll? Yep. Jacked up pricing and mandatory support subscriptions. Yep. More proprietary everything… yep.
I’m always looking for new markets and ideas. A year ago, when a competitor released a new printer with RFID, I got call after call asking me to bundle a printer with my app. At the time I didn’t find a compelling printer on the market … nothing that would set my business apart.
But then I found a Chinese manufacturer and read Hardware Hacker, and now I’ve got these awesome printers for sale, bundled with my design app! I’m competing in the 4” wide 300 DPI direct-thermal market. I’m not marketing this as a shipping label printer (that’s a solved problem), instead, it’s for making custom designed labels, usually with barcodes, usually with data from an external source.
That "if" does a lot in that sentence :) Just had a typical fun experience:
Customer: Your platform doesn't work, when we do this, A happens
Me: Hm, we don't have that feature, but I understand your use-case. We could deliver this new feature by tomorrow, but using it that way also inherently means B would happen in such and such cases, so just want to make sure that's what you want?
Customer: Let us know when the bug has been fixed, it's urgent and we're losing money because of you (they had 1 month free trial)
Me:: It's not a bu...okay, we will
Me: * works all night, builds a new feature, fully polished, notifies customer
Customer after 2 days: Yet ANOTHER bug with your unstable software!! * describes B
Unless this was a customer you absolutely needed you should not have given them control over your immediate development schedule. Offer refunds if relevant (sounds like not the case). Keep your sanity instead.
I've tried that in the past only to be told ' We've tried them and they are even worse than you lot are! They are rude, their stuff is full of bugs and their support staff are unhelpful.. '
>This is a kind of look behind the curtain that we rarely get from large software developers.
Very true, it makes me wonder just how unreliable hardware is and how many crashes are caused by random EMI like cosmic rays, or close proximity of other devices.
I use tanglo app (tanglo.app) and something about just clicking "start" on a small task is enough to break the cycle for me. Tanglo is also helpful in visualizing what I can REALISTICALLY get done in my day and what happens if I don't start.
When I don't start a scheduled task, it just keeps pushing it down further and further. If I procrastinate too long, tasks at the end get moved to tomorrow automatically. Which sucks. Small steps, click start.
However, I would argue that saying to my spouse, "yes, I need a few new button ups, anything style is ok, except vertical stripes" Is a natural way of speaking.
Aren't we always in pursuit of computers understanding natural language?
I am not convinced we are honestly. Kids these days, as I am now old enough to say, are digital natives. I wouldn’t be surprised if “Google-able” queries are more natural to these folks.
I realize I'm probably a bit of a unicorn, but I've coworked in the same co-working office for over 8 years. The businesses in the office have changed and there has been some turn over in those years but 50% of us have stayed! Those of us who have stayed the past 8 years have cycled between self employed, and employed full-time, often years at a time for one company.
We live in a small town in Colorado that has never provided work opportunities in our field, but we've always been successful working remotely.
Small town co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working.
I know that in these past 8 years the owner has done very little recruiting and the desks are nearly always full.
> co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working
Yep, sounds very familiar.
Our space was like that when it was the only one in town, and it was the go-to place for self-selecting people who wanted to connect with other like-minded folk.
But our city has four million people, and startups/freelancing became super-popular and demand for co-working shot up (our space actually had to turn many people away at its peak), but then the whole industry became fragmented, and our space (indeed, any space), stopped being the go-to place for "people like us".
I've done the same thing for the last 18 months in my small New Zealand town (~10,000 residents). My company is big enough to need two closed-door offices now; we're still happy to stay here, it's got a nice vibe and sharing costs keeps things reasonably cheap.
I realize I'm probably a bit of a unicorn, but I've coworked in the same co-working office for over 8 years. The businesses in the office have changed and there has been some turn over in those years but 50% of us have stayed! Those of us who have stayed the past 8 years have cycled between self employed, and employed full-time, often years at a time for one company.
We live in a small town in Colorado that has never provided work opportunities in our field, but we've always been successful working remotely.
Small town co-working has provided a huge value for us: no commute, we're out of the house, camaraderie, friendship and support. Maybe this is an example of a profitable co-working.
I know that in these past 8 years the owner has done very little recruiting and the desks are always full.
