Steve Jones - SSC Editor (11/13/2013)
I have seen quite a few DVD/BluRay players in the last decade like that. I've returned some and gotten others, quality has not improved. At some point I've lived with it. Or I've moved on and gone to more streaming, though many of those "apps", which are software, don't work well.I see the same thing with tools. There are times that things don't work well, or seem to suffer quality issues. Sometimes I return them, sometimes I get by.
There's no easy answer. However I do think some sort of warranty is reasonable for software, as is the ability to return it or sell it to others.
When a DVD/BluRay player fails to load a disk, the root problem may be the manufactoring quality of the disk itself. Some players have better error handling at the hardware or software level to compensate for a poor encoding or defective disk. Engineers are provided with specifications about what variations in encoding are to be expected and what tollerance levels they should work within.
It's the same way with ETL and data formats. For example, what should we do when a patient's date of birth = '1982-02-29'; raise an exception, reject the record, or recode it as '1982-02-28' ? The business has to make that decision and include the scenario in the specifications.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho