Casual Observations on Military Equipment/Deployment II

The recent election of Trump as the next US President has re-awakened the issue of military spending.  Back in December 2010, I wrote: Casual Observations on Military Equipment/Deployment. Since the issue is once again current, I will re-summarize my casual observations.

My casual thoughts concerning the design and deployment of military equipment:

1. expendable
2. rapidly reproduced
3. easily maintained
4. can be repaired in the field
5. cheap

A Post Christmas Wish

Following the Christmas mayhem, I decided to take a quick look at my Amazon wish list. In doing so, Amazon provided me with a list of games that they believed I would like to buy. Surprising, as I did did not research any games on Amazon. Then I remembered that Amazon monitors your internet traffic to feed you desired results. (That was one of the prescient take-a-ways of the film: Minority Report. Anyway, I digress.)

The critical issue is that many of the Civilization games have been "bricked" and will no longer play on newer versions of MS Windows. TechDirt article: DRM Still Breaking Games Nearly A Decade After Purchase.  Another article: September 2015 Windows updates KB3086255 breaks many games. (I suspect, by now, that some dedicated fans have developed workarounds for this.)

My post Christmas wish is that retail companies such as Amazon and Target implement one or more of the  following retail policies.

1. Inform the customers (in big bold print) on the companies retail website of the product deficiencies. For example that the product will no longer work with the current version of MS Windows.
2. Allow customers to return products, no questions asked, for a full refund.
3. Withdraw from sale products that no longer function.
4. The underlying product manufacture should also provide a method for the customer to obtain a full refund in the event that the customer does not accept the odious "terms of service".  Retail companies should refuse to sell any products that do not provide such an refund option.