Laventura,

I believe this is the result of the "consumer revolution" led by Microsoft. They won and continue to win with the concept "release it to the customer NOW, no matter how buggy, and patch it later". Honestly, I don't understand why we, the consumers, put up with it, but we definitely do.

This is why I wasn't initially put away by the no audio bug once I saw the possibility for FW upgrade. When that didn't work and the product was discontinued, thus the hope for a fix is gone, I started to feel uneasy.

BTW, I'm a software architect/developer with over 20 years in the field, I know a thing or two about software. It shouldn't be the way it unfortunately is and the consumers should stop putting up with overly buggy stuff, no matter how complex the system is.

But there is always something keeping us using a buggy product...

With Outlaw, is their incredible sound and built quality for the price, which outweighs the bugs.

With Microsoft, it is too late... ;-)

I also work in software, as an analyst/team lead. Bugs are a fact of life. MS still deserves credit - but their OS's have been slipping in my book. I sampled Mac's latest offering a week ago and, for someone who's had little to no Mac exposure, I was completely blown away. I may have to look at a Mac as my next home computer. Even still, I'm sure I'll see the bugs.

Red,

Bugs are a fact of life, true. What bothers me is the attitude towards them. People should try to avoid and fix them. Instead, in may cases, they just became complacent, especially because the market seems to put up with the darn bugs and accepts them "as a fact of life".

Microsift is known for releasing software with KNOWN, unfixed bugs. This is the issue. An accidental one, every once in a while, is fact of life. A product riddled with them and released like that only to achieve the "speed to market" is what is definitely wrong, but, unfortunately for us, the consumers, lucrative.

OS X isn't without some fairly serious issues as well.

http://snowcrash751.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-i-took-os-x-105-off-my-mini.html

I don't know of any million plus lines of code application that doesn't have bugs, and security issues.

As far as I know it's not possible for us to create such a thing without problems.

That's blowing wind in my sail. Why should we start with the mindset that is impossible? Difficult, yes, but why impossible?

But I don't want to move the discussion away from the 1070...

This does deviate a bit from the specific 1070 discussion, but I'll reiterate something that we have to tell clients in our industry at times: there is no such thing as a perfect set of plans. We're human, as are the people interpreting our drawings and building what we design - and if it an existing structure being modified, the same applies to the people who designed and built it originally. It really is effectively impossible to guarantee perfect coordination between all aspects of such a design. Modern electronics are a lot smaller than a modern building, but they routinely pack in just as much complexity - if not more in some cases. The goal of good design is to minimize the potential errors, get as close to right as you can, and try your damndest not to ever make the same mistake twice.

My point was twofold that Apple has their own issues with the software and hardware they make (iPods are certainly not above requiring the occasional reboot).

And lastly that if we expect products to be perfect, particularly complex products, more often than not we will be disappointed.

Having said that, I would probably not live with the issues that some people are having with the 970 and 1070.

And yeah, perfection isn't possible, although it never stops people from trying to achieve it...nor should it.

Schedule compression, bugs, imperfection...3 pillars of my IT experience

Gentlemen,

Being so lenient with the bugs and running with the mindset that they are normal, will yield to the next logical step. We'll grow to expect them.

I'm not asking for perfection, whatever definition it might have, only for a product that does exactly what the specs state it should.

I wonder if anyone (other than daredevils and suicidals) would hop into a car with the mindset that there is a 50/50 chance that the brakes won't work, but that's OK...

I know that a bug inside a receiver is not the same thing, it's only the mindset that malfunctionings are to be expected I'm struggling with. And the fact that in Outlaw's 1070 case, the bug will never get fixed. Is this OK too?

I'm not as harsh as I sound, I'll stick with my 1070, it's more the frustration that a product that could have been perfect is smeared by a bug, that's all.

And, yes, I want to reiterate that it's not normal to be left not fixed even if we'll stick with the product for its other qualities.

I think the data revolution (vs. voice) is a good example. Everyone ALWAYS picks up their phone and expects to just work, like electricity. Yet no one seems to think it's out of the ordinary when your DSL or cable modem loses sync for an hour or two. Even SLAs are built differently for voice and data.