Subj : Re: Open Source Leaving Microsoft Sitting on the Fence?
To   : comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux
From : Jean-David Beyer
Date : Sun Jul 25 2004 04:12 pm

ynotssor wrote:
> "Peter Lu" <swift@TheWorld.com> wrote in message
> news:cdvjhi$irt$1@pcls4.std.com
> 
> 
>>I recall having a rental car where come night time I
>>couldn't find the light switch because of some oddball design that
>>made the vehicle effectively dangerous.
> 
> 
> That's a failure on your part to familairize yourself with the most basic
> controls on a rental vehicle, before they became necessary, and was a
> distinct violation of the Agreement you signed.
> 
> Don't blame the rental vehicle for your personal operational failures.
> 
> 
Some years ago, at a conference of automobile design engineers, doctors, 
public health specialists, etc., a book was published on their results. 
<I>Passenger Design and Highway Safety.</I>

There was a paper given where the presenter cited an air force (I believe 
it was) study, titled "Let's Get Off The Pilot's Back." The tendency then 
had been to blame the pilot for all kinds of things, calling them pilot 
error. As the result of a study of just why the pilots made errors, a 
large part of them were caused by non-standard layout of controls from one 
aircraft to another. After standardizing the location and function of 
controls (as much as possible), accident rates came down.

Now far more effort is made in aircraft safety than in automobile safety. 
Generally, the same problem causes few accidents, at least when the cause 
is discovered, because the problem is remedied and the problem need never 
happen again.

In the automobile industry, the effort is less, perhaps because fewer 
people are killed in a single accident, perhaps because people who drive 
are of lower economic value than people who fly. Who knows.

So do not blame the rental vehicle driver for neglect of rational design 
of automobile control systems.

-- 
   .~.  Jean-David Beyer           Registered Linux User 85642.
   /V\                             Registered Machine   241939.
  /( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey     http://counter.li.org
  ^^-^^ 15:05:00 up 9 days, 46 min, 3 users, load average: 4.10, 4.13, 4.10

.