The blog of Matthew A. Smith and Michael Chappell, on topics from A to Z

The Follies of Strange Laws

by Matthew Smith · December 30th, 2007 · 2 Comments

booksandgavela.jpgMy friend David just sent me an interesting email about the Apple MacBook and its hidden wireless capabilities. From David:

This is funny. Apparently I can upgrade my MacBook to add the 802.11n wireless standard for $2, no joke. Apparently Apple has been shipping their computers with hidden wireless n capabilities. They had it disabled because the FCC had not yet approved the new standard. So my MacBook has 802.11n and I never new it, hooray. However, Apple has to charge for the software that enables the 802.11n capabilities because of some strange law, that has to do with accounting practices. Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, if a company sells a product then later adds a feature to that product, it can be held liable for improper accounting if it recognizes revenue from the product at the time of sale, given that it hasn’t finished delivering the product at that point. Ridiculous.

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I must agree - that is friggin’ ridiculous! Another reason that lawyers are retarded… so if anyone has a copy of this software, send it to me and I’ll host it. For free. So that I can post up the DMCA notice!

Categories: Technology

2 responses so far »

  • 1 John // Jan 30, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    Lawyers. You know what, 99% of all lawyers make the other 1% look bad.

  • 2 Matthew Smith // Jan 31, 2008 at 12:20 am

    Very true. Actually, I’m pretty sure that statistic can be applied to just about any demographic group. A fantastic point on stereotypes and such!

    And of course, there’s always the old adage “75% of all statistics are made up on the spot.” I love that one.

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