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this_is_nascar said:
I'm sure that would turn into a support nightmare. Peter would need to hire a staff of Technical Support folks. You'd then have to worry about accidently downloaded a virus into your light. Imagine that? You hit the button and your microwave comes on, due to the "Appliance Virus" or some crap like that.
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i wouldn't be so sure. i think if we could update the software ourselves, the only time we'd have to send the lights back would be if the hardware of the arc4 somehow got damaged, similar to how a mainboard can be rendered inoperable if an error occurs when flashing the bios. e.g. the power supply trips, and the bios is incompletely flashed, thus inoperable because the computer can't even be started to reflash the bios.
i'm not sure, but if i'm not wrong the type of microprocessor in the arc4 is only 8bit or less, similar to the type of computer found in a car's computer, not the 32bit or 64bit processor found in your personal computer. the likelihood of a virus affecting the arc4 is probably about as likely as your digital watch getting a virus.
even if a virus of some type was coded for the arc4, i doubt the memory chip on the arc4 would even have the space to store it. the worst i foresee happening is a corrupt copy of the software being uploaded to the arc4, rendering it inoperable. in the event of that happening, either reflashing the chip with a normal copy of the software should fix the problem. lastly the likelihood of your arc4 turning on your microwave due to a "virus" is about as likely as the female terminator in "rise of the machines" controlling the hacked police cruisers. i.e. its impossible /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
in any case, i think peter would be in the best position to address this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif