Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Inside Macintosh: Will we ever see a revised, updated edition?
Message-ID: <10854@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 19 Mar 90 09:37:35 GMT
References: <14532@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <7202@goofy.Apple.COM> <2878@castle.ed.ac.uk> <7248@goofy.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 53

In article <14532@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU 
(Brian Kendig) writes:
>> >> ...It would be Real
>> >> Nice if the current set of five volumes were to be completely
>> >> revamped, removing all of the old information,

In article <7202@goofy.Apple.COM>, casseres@apple (David Casseres) 
writes:
>> >It's been done!  "Phil & Dave's Excellent CD," available to developers 
>> >(tell APDA you want it from them) contains "SpInside Mac"

In article <2878@castle.ed.ac.uk> nick@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell) 
writes:
>> And all for a mere order-of-magniture higher price for the CD_ROM
>> player, CD, developer subscription fee, ...

In article <7248@goofy.Apple.COM> chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) writes:
>Huh?  Being an Apple Partner costs $600/year, and gets you really good 
>hardware discounts, access to MacDTS, access to events like the annual 
>Spring Developers' Conference, and developer mailings, which include 
>things like the CD.

Add it up.  Without giving away the developer price for Apple's player,
which is officially confidential, the cost of a developer subscription
and an Apple CD-ROM drive is almost precisely ten times the cost of a
printed set of Inside Macintosh.  (The CD is free to subscribers.)

As for all the other benefits of the developer program, the hardware
discounts are indeed very good provided you're planning on buying
enough equipment every year to make up the $600 subscription fee.  And
as for the mailings, I've talked with other developers about them, and
we all agree that at least three quarters is instant circular file
material.  Pretty hefty price for junk mail.

>The CD-ROM drive, last I looked, was less costly than, say, Toshiba's.

Yes, it's the cheapest on the market for deveopers.  However, look at
what you get for an audio CD player that's five times cheaper.  You
can't even *buy* an audio CD player without an autoloading disk drawer;
but the retail price $1100 Apple CD-ROM player doesn't have one -- it
has a universally criticized cartridge loader.  For $250, you can buy a
good audio CD-ROM carousel changer; this is four times cheaper than the
retail price of the Apple CD-ROM single player.

I think CD-ROM has great potential, but people are going to have to face
facts.  It's not going to be significant until the drive prices drop.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Every year, thousands of new Randoids join the ranks.  Most tend to be either
 too-rich self-made tycoons or picked-on computer nerds (the romantic, heroic
 individualism of Rand's novels flatters the former and fuels the latter's
 revenge fantasies)." -- Bob Mack, SPY, July 1989