[Cyrien]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
ok, seeing as this thread is getting really long Posts and i don't really want to read page and a half Posts, i'll just say that mechanical devices can be built to a standard because mechanics has been around for thousands of years. the principle's are well-known. computers are very, very new and the principle's are still being established. therefore, a company that produces mechanical devices can be expected to make them compatable with standardized tools, while a company that makes computer's cannot. also, a mechanical device with the complexity of the average computer would probable be the size of a football stadium.

apples and pineapples.

It would probably be larger than a football stadium, maybe a continent.

Further the principles of modern mechanical manufacturing have not been around for 1000s of years (you still got that old Roman SUV made in 25BC? So do I) more like 200 or 300 total years, which is still quite abit... except they are constantly evolving and innovating.

The way you make cars today with modern steels and pLastics AND microchips for the internal computers is not very much like what Ford did.

My post wasn't against computer manufacturing, who are still held accountable for the mistakes they make in their machines as are the auto inudstry and other manufacturing industries.
My point was that in all these industries, the automotive, the computer making, the banking, etc... there is always accoutability to the indivual Users for a product that fails. There is not the same level of accountability for software. And there should be. And if you want to go back in time then you can find accountability to the user for defective merchandise even 1000's of years ago. Checkout Hammurabis code. If the house you build for another collapses and kills the owner or son or slave etc... accountability for the job you do for someone else in the oldest written law code.