I dont understand whats broken about this, who cares where you open it as long as you get it open. And if his box is like the plastic packages then i know the bags stick to one end, but still, no problem that i can see.

Posted by: Dragon at December 23, 2004 02:10 AM

It became a norm here to show examples of what's broken for stupid people. Stupid people don't care if they could open it, they just report it as broken since it's not written in BIG BOLD CAPS somewhere on top of the box. if you think that is broken, than you are stupid. comma.

Posted by: dusoft at December 23, 2004 06:24 AM

What you're both failing to realize is that the way you keep bugs and dust and other icky bits out of the box is by shoving the tabs into some slots cut into the top of the box. It's not the "OPEN OTHER END" that's the questionable thing here, it's the decision to put those freaking tabs on both ends of the box.

Posted by: Michael at December 23, 2004 06:40 AM

They go to the trouble of printing the "OPEN OTHER END" instructions then cover it up so that it can't be read until after it's opened. Clearly broken. The fact that it's not a serious and/or life threatening problem is irrelevant.

Posted by: Stretch at December 23, 2004 09:41 AM

It IS broken! It's kind of like several software packages that I have seen. Sealed inside an envelope is the disk and a license agreement. The license agreement says that if you do not agree to the terms, then do not break the seal and open the envelope. But you can't see the license agreement until you break the seal and open the envelope!

Posted by: Gary Edstrom at December 23, 2004 10:15 AM

I think it's just a printing error. You can see the text poking out under the flap, they probably meant it to be printed just down a bit where it would be readable.

Posted by: josh at December 23, 2004 11:57 AM

get over it people. if you think that everything ISNT broken, then get your own examples. geesh

Posted by: joe plaugher at December 23, 2004 01:26 PM

Gary: There's a great anecdote that's circulated the internet involving one of those shrink-wrap license agreements. Here it is:

http://www.cypherpunks.ca/dell.html

Posted by: codeman38 at December 23, 2004 01:30 PM

Listen, I've been checking out this site for a few weeks. It seems that someone posts something then 10-15 people leave comments that it's not broken.

Get over yourselves. You people are all full of it.

It must be great to be as smart and fantastic as all of you.

Posted by: Lumpy at December 23, 2004 06:44 PM

Hehe, way to shut 'em up, Lumpy.

Posted by: Ilan at December 25, 2004 03:36 PM

Dragon, josh, and the rest of the Not Brokeners: the name of the site is This Is Broken, not This Could Be Worked Around Even If It Doesn't Work The First Time For A Lot Of People.

Its PRECISELY because of people like Dragon, who doesn't understand why this is broken (if it doesn't matter which end you open, why bother with the printed message?) and josh, who thinks that printing errors don't count (who cares how its broken? it's still broken!) that this site is so badly needed. In companies everywhere people with attitudes like that are sitting around saying things like "people will figure it out" and "if anybody is too stupid to work it out, we don't want them as customers". Most of them are probably graduates of designing IVR menus that take you in loops and CD shrinkwraps that you can't unwrap without a PhD in packaging.

Posted by: Carl at December 28, 2004 09:10 AM