And just think how much more profitable it would be if everybody actually paid for it instead of getting pirated copies. 47 billion would be pocket change.
Posted on 04/04/2004 12:42:06 PM PDT by yonif
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:04:09 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
STOCKHOLM, (Reuters) - Ingvar Kamprad, the Swede who founded furniture retail chain IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man, Swedish TV news reported on Sunday.
Citing next week's edition of the Swedish business weekly Veckans Affarer, public service SVT2 television said Kamprad, 77, has a personal fortune of 400 billion crowns ($53 billion).
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Sorry, but I've used Microsoft products and bought Ikea products. They both had very poor quality. I have worked as a quality assurance lead, so I know something about the concept of quality. Maybe the multitudes are satisfied by mediocrity, but I'm not, and I've found it's better to pay a bit more for products that are made better, that last much longer.
So get off YOUR condescending hobby horse - whether or not the two men are successful, my statement was an accurate accessment of what they produce - just as many movie studio heads have gotten rrich making movies that are pure crap, and Bill Clinton became president by pandering to idiots.
Yes, Microsoft branded beer. It's something I have been waiting on for a long time. Even if I have to call some "800" number everytime I open a bottle, I'm sure that it will be worth it.
Here's hoping that Bill Gates gets back to the top of the heap soon.
Great. You buy the bottle of beer and you're not sure if you can get the cap off of it.
Oh, she bangs!
Customer: My beer tastes nasty and has no carbonation.
MS Beer tech support: Have you tried pouring it back in the bottle and filling your glass again?
Customer: I tried, but the label turned blue and then the bottle broke.
And just think how much more profitable it would be if everybody actually paid for it instead of getting pirated copies. 47 billion would be pocket change.
Quality assurance is aims at compliance of a product with a given STANDARD. I am sure that, since you worked in this area, you have expertise in it. I do not doubt for a minute that you are correct: both products have functional faults, as may be assessed by objective measures.
Nevertheless your conclusion is incorrect -- and this does not contradicts your knowlege in quality-assuarance area. This is because what constitutes the STANDARD is outside of the question of assurance. This is the question of economics and business.
It is the frequent complaint of engineers that people want wrong things: they prefer color to extra watt of output energy, speed of the car, capacity of a refrigerator. This is, however, economics and, if you study it, you'll learn about the perils of inter-personal comparison of utility.
Moreover, there is a question of ethics here: businesses sell products and attemp to produce what the customers WANT. You are simply is a very special category of customers and YOUR wants differ from most. Gates could produce software for people like you and I, but it would be very expensive and we would not want to pay for it. As is is, Windows is a brilliant product in terms of the balance between its features and price. So is IKEA furniture, although I do not buy it.
You now understand better my previous post. Little knowlege is dangerous: that you deal with quality ASSURANCE does not imply that you know what QUALITY is. What it is lie outside of that area entirely, and your post indicated that you did not know that. More importantly, you were making a contemptuous judgment of people and companies --- hundreds of thousands of people, actually, without a shred of foundation.
Your remark regarding Clinton is more on the money for a different reason: in a representative democracy, an elected leader has a duty to fulfil the desires of electorate (yes, that includes, idiots) but he has a duty to lead, to be ahead in some ways, of that electorate. Businesses, however, do not have any such duty: they are supposed to bring profit to investors while surving their customers. That is what Gates and IKEA do --- extremely well. measured by products arI have worked as a quality assurance lead, so I know something about the concept of quality. Maybe the multitudes are satisfied by mediocrity, but I'm not, and I've found it's better to pay a bit more for products that are made better, that last much longer. So get off YOUR condescending hobby horse - whether or not the two men are successful, my statement was an accurate accessment of what they produce - just as many movie studio heads have gotten rrich making movies that are pure crap, and Bill Clinton became president by pandering to idiots.
It is a common mistake of engineers to think that quality is measures in objective terms. Please see my previous post if you care.
Suffering cats! Aims? That's quality assurance! Judge rules... point to Dirtboy.
Har. Har. Har. I am contemptouous of Ikea and Microsoft for the same reason that I am contemptuous of the Democrat, and, to a lesser extent, the Republican Party. All succeed by pandering, even cultivating, an ignorance of the importance of quality to both production and character. If I took your advice here and applied it to politics, I would quit trying to fight for limited government - because, hey, it's what the people want, and screw the damage to the Constitution and limited government. Conversely, I believe in educating people that it is better to wait a few months and then buy a better product that will last longer and cost less over the long run.
I am not demanding that the government step in at bayonet point and force Ikea and Microsoft to change. I am instead trying to get consumers to demand better quality for myriad reasons, just as I try to get voters to demand a better grade of representative - because doing such costs less in tax dollars over the long run.
No kidding. TopQuark is confusing Quality Control with Quality Assurance. Quality Control is after the fact - Quality Assurance seeks to improve quality over every step of the design and production process.
Quality assurance is aims at compliance...
Quality assurance is aimed at compliance...
There were other examples like this in TopQuark's writing, which is kind of ironic, given the topic.
Besides, I took your initial comment to be keen and even humorous.
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