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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Epson is facing a class-action suit from disgruntled US punters sick of being told what sort of ink cartridges to put in their machines.
Of course it is a cliché of printers that they send dismal warnings of imminent destruction if owners dare to go with cartridges bought from anywhere but the machine's manufacturer.
But the US case (PDF here) alleges that Epson went further with firmware updates that detected third-party ink in printers and simply disabled them. The suit claims the unofficial cartridges work perfectly well in machines that have not been updated.
It complains that Epson never warned users that installing the firmware would remove their ability to use third-party cartridges.
The case names complainants who own Epson WorkForce WF-3640 All-in-One Printer or an Epson XP-830 Small-in-One® printer.
[...] Epson refused to comment.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday October 24 2019, @09:15PM (2 children)
It looks like there is some kind of standard that combines all the plugs together into a couple of standards. (Depending if AC charging is supported, I guess.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Charging_System [wikipedia.org]
It says even Tesla is on board with this. But I would be surprised if you could charge a non-Tesla car at a Tesla charging station even if the plugs are the same.
While I doubt this prevents someone from intentionally making an incompatible plug ala-Apple, it would make cars incompatible with existing charging networks making them vastly less attractive.
Ok, after reading this [thedriven.io], my answer is "who the fuck knows?"
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday October 25 2019, @05:18AM (1 child)
The plug issue is a very minor one. Even phones check if they are connected to a friendly charger.
On a separate but similar note, most people do not realize how difficult it is to make shit a commodity. Oil is not the same and refineries have to be built for a specific supplier. Even more so for iron and coal ores. For example, Ukraine, if separated from Russia, can't be technologically integrated into the EU. Nothing will work and they will have to eat their pride and go back begging.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday October 25 2019, @07:36AM
Ukraine can be integrated into tge EU, as several eastern bloc countries already have been, such as Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovskia, and Slovenia. It just tskes money and time. The EU is well known for providing funds for integration.