Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!rca
From: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: An unfulfilled promise...
Message-ID: <47970@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 22 Aug 90 20:47:19 GMT
References: <1990Aug21.192315.21087@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 25


>>By the way,  I'd put the number sold to be "over 15,000" 
>>personally.  This is because my machine is serial number
>>2454, and was purchased 1yr and 5 months ago.  The ones
>>we just recently obtained have serial numbers like 16233.
>As someone pointed out several months ago, it is unlikely that Next would
>simply number their computers starting with 1 and counting up from there. 
>Possible, but unlikely.  Why?  Well, for the reason given above: _everyone_ --
>including competitors -- would know exactly how many machines had been sold. 
>Not exactly information a company -- particularly a company not living up to
>sales expectations -- would want to broadcast to the world.

Well this might be true, but: 
as noone knows what numbering system they use, they might just as well
use a sequential numbering system, as because of above considerations,
noone can rely on it :-)

This is the old game of who thinks that someone thinks that some other
said, ... 

Ronald
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists
in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man."  Bernhard Shaw | rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@browncog.bitnet