From: Eugen Leitl (eugen@leitl.org)
Date: Sat Jan 11 2003 - 07:02:36 MST
The revolutionary aspects of micro/nanolithoprinting solid state devices
(you do realize that it's half the way to molecular manufacturing?) is
small scale fabbing (literally on the desktop, including your personal
desktop), flexible, on-demand. It's cheap, can be utilized thermally
(it's just polymer, no or little toxic heavy metals in the inks) once it
is burnt out.
Given that e.g. polymer displays don't last long (especially the blue
emitters) it's the optimal solution. Also, think photovoltaics polymers
which Last All Summer Long (or maybe a couple).
This is great tech, I only wonder what took them that long.
On Fri, 10 Jan 2003, Jeff Davis wrote:
> Then there's the 'immediate' obsolescence aspect. If
> it breaks right away, ie while still in warranty, then
> you exchange it. The factory might test it to see if
> it's a simple fix, in which case they may refurbish,
> or they might just throw it on the 'failed units'
> pile. They'll have a certain percentage they expect to
> fail early, cause they know it's going to happen, and
> no doubt they figure in to the overall cost/profit
> equation. Woontcha think?
>
> Then those that last through the warranty, should last
> long enough to reach the next generation of that
> product type. At that point the customer really has
> no options. Repair unlikely to be available--except
> perhaps at a price so high that it's ridiculous, so
> the culturally accepted norm becomes "time to
> replace/upgrade". So you toss it, and upgrade.
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