On Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:23:40 GMT, Robert Allison
wrote:

Don White wrote:

Sony just sent me an e-mail promoing their new Organic LCD tv.
Sure sounds good, (34 watt power consumption, 1 million to one contrast
ratio, super slim etc...) but think I'll wait until Consumer Reports
compiles some data and comes up with a rating.

Have you had good luck with CR? I have found over the years that
when they review a tool or something that I have had for awhile,
my opinion is diametrically opposed to theirs. If they like it,
I hated it. If they hated it, I loved it. If I thought it was
OK, they thought it was OK.

Hard for me to use them as a source for reviews, unless I find
something that they hate, then I can buy it with confidence.
When I was subscribing to it, I did a little survey for my own
self and they got it wrong about 8 out of 10 for me.

What did it for me was when they hated the Yukon that I was
driving. The thing that put it over the top was that they said
that the interior and instrumentation was "primitive". What the
hell does that even mean?

I quit my subscription last year after maybe 30 years of subscribing,
when I realized that for maybe 10 years I was only reading that last
page about tricky advertising if the mag was handy when I was taking a
dump.
CR was interesting reading, and still might be for some.
Their strong point was finding bad products, and pointing out
deficiencies in products found during testing.
Their auto reports were very subjective. For years Volvos were rated
near the top and recommended, which to me was evidence of what I'll
call their "East Coast Yuppie Bias." Though I believe Bob Greene
coined the term yuppie, the CR staff and readership were early
manifest ions of actual yuppies, present company excluded of course.
The auto reliability surveys were basically correct, but distorted by
the fact that the readership generally couldn't replace an alternator
without spending 300 bucks at a dealership.
So for me, who can do my own work, or get one of my kids to do it,
it doesn't make sense to pay thousands more for a Toyota because the
Nippo Denso alternator because it lasts twice as long as an AC Delco.
Same with water pumps, the Jap lasts at least twice as long, but it's
a 20 buck fast change part on a Chevy, and gives fair warning.
Anyway, CR never takes that kind of thing into consideration, because
they are yuppies.
Your point about the Yukon is an example of subjectivity.
Okay, lets talk "primitive instrumentation." Or, as some would say,
ergonomics.
Used to be you could be driving just about any strange car, and
without looking away from the road lift a hand and find the headlight
knob. Because it was a knob. And you pulled it. Simple as that.
If it didn't pull out, it was probably the wipers, which you twisted.
Simple as that.
I switch cars now and I need a tutorial first, or else I'm going to
get distracted.
Aw hell. MS did good with the standard "file" "edit" interface, as
anybody who watched that standard develop knows.
Car manufacturers should do the same with headlight and wiper knobs.
But CR would then review a car that had different type switches all
over the place and say something like "Innovative and elegant dash
controls give this car a leg up on the competitors."
F**king yuppies.

--Vic