Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!thad
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaOS 2.0 still clicks the floppies!
Message-ID: <29754@cup.portal.com>
Date: 9 May 90 07:50:59 GMT
References: <11271@shlump.nac.dec.com> <29725@cup.portal.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 56

{Re: AmigaOS 2.0 still clicks the floppies!}
{comp.sys.amiga}

jmeissen@oregon.oacis.org (John Meissen) in <489@oregon.oacis.org> writes:

	There's a real simple solution to the clicking-drive problem. Put a
	disk in the stupid thing. Honest, I don't understand why this is such
	a big thing with people.

I don't want to drag this message thread out ad infinitum, but John's proposal
is how we stopped the clicking back in 1985 BEFORE the advent of NoKlikStart.
Back then it wasn't any big deal because most Amiga purchasers were hackers
and/or the technical intelligentsia who understand these matters.

Any $4,000 computer that clicks its disk drives in the quiet of an executive's
office suite will be perceived as a piece-of-crap-toy by that executive.  You
might as well tell that executive to wear ear plugs.  A "REAL" computer will
NOT be intrusive.

People who write authorization to purchase thousands of computers are NOT
going to dork around with kludges and tacky solutions ...  these same people
MANDATE even office memorandums to have the "look" of professionally printed
documents for (what appears to us to be) trivial concerns.  No fooling; I have
to deal with my own customers who are like that, and I'm talking about the
"Fortune 1000" companies, the world's largest banks, foreign governments, etc.

Fer crissakes, I get called at home at 4am from Peru, Chile, England, France
or even from Switzerland if they find a typo in a friggin' error message
pertaining to some obscure function in any of my products.

<<QUALITY>> is the operative word.  NOTHING else will suffice.

For that matter, any computer WITHOUT parity-checked-and-ECC-corrected RAM will
ALSO be perceived as a toy and won't be purchased in the first place.

Floppy drives that adhere to SONY's specs do NOT have the clicking problem;
crap $25 floppy drives DO have the problem.

The NEC FD1035 drives as used in the original A1000 and in the original A1010
abide SONY's specs (and won't click OR be damaged by the cylinder-0-outwards
step to detect a disk change).  Better floppy drives use either LED-photodiode
or mechanical means to detect a "disk present" and/or assert a "disk changed"
signal and don't need a two-step-click-bang-lambada kludge.

For a computer to be perceived as "desirable", it must use reliable AND
quality components.  CBM's new 1-year warranty is a GOOD sign, but clicking
disk drives are NOT.  I will be checking out an A3000 after-hours at a local
dealer to verify the alleged clicking problem.  If it clicks AND if there's no
simple SOFTWARE solution, then it's clear what computer I will NOT buy and
cannot recommend.

And before you even think of flaming this posting, realize that I own a lot of
CBM stock and have EVERY pecuniary and selfish reason for CBM and the Amiga to
succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]