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From: billw@hpcvra.cv.hp.com. (William C Wickes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: (HP48) Corvallis R&D Email
Message-ID: <25590127@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.>
Date: 23 Mar 91 01:06:47 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, OR, USA
Lines: 50

Let me preface my comments below by saying that all of us at HP Corvallis
Division are pleased and grateful for the enthusiasm and creativity of the
HP 48SX owners that is manifest on forums like c.s.h and the HP BBS.  Even
the detractors are welcome, since they likely wouldn't be complaining so
loud about anything they really didn't care about.

Several of us have participated directly by posting notes or
responses.  This is tricky, because sometimes it seems like every word
is gleefully pounced upon and analyzed to death by its readers.
Sometimes this is good, like the time I made some innocent remark
about not liking a posted program that used CLEAR, which spawned an
explosion of other postings including many that showed people how to
avoid using CLEAR.  Sometimes it's not so good, such as when some
chance comment causes a frenzy of speculation about new versions,
calls for bug lists, etc.  In general, however, the effect is positive,
and we enjoy participating in this dynamic community.

Where we are running into problems lately, however, is in a growing
traffic of email directed to me and my colleagues, asking in effect
for specialized support running the full range of 48 software and
hardware topics.  Most are reasonable questions, from enthusiastic
people, which would be fun to answer.  The problem is that we
generally don't have time to be dreaming up new products, which is
what we are paid for, and to provide individualized help for outside
folks.  There are actually people in product marketing who are
designated to interact with outside software and hardware developers.
These are the people that you should be talking, starting with the
Customer Support folks.  When appropriate, they come to R&D for help, and
we may end up in direct communication with you anyway.

So what I'm asking people to do is not write to the R&D team 
directly with your questions, but instead 

* talk to Customer Support if you have an ordinary "how-to" question.

* contact product marketing if you have a project you think is also
of benefit to HP, for which you need some extra support.

* post other questions on the BBS or c.s.h.  As often as not, some non-HP
person can give you a more-than adequate answer (there is obviously an
ever-growing expertise "out there" on the 48 and its workings).  Furthermore,
lots of people can benefit from the answer.  When
we think it is suitable, we may respond as well.  Watching the postings is
what led us to create the modified IFERR library; that would never have
happened in response to some one individual's direct inquiry.

Thanks for your attention, and keep those postings coming.

Bill Wickes
HP Corvallis