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From: pac@munsell.UUCP (Paul Czarnecki)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.micro.att
Subject: Re: ATT 3b2 firmware password
Message-ID: <309@pinney.munsell.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Oct-86 07:56:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: pinney.309
Posted: Fri Oct  3 07:56:03 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Oct-86 12:47:35 EDT
References: <305@pinney.munsell.UUCP> <226@osi3b2.UUCP>
Reply-To: pac@pinney.UUCP (Paul Czarnecki)
Organization: Eikonix Corp., Bedford, MA
Lines: 42
Xref: watmath net.unix-wizards:19801 net.micro.att:1568

As the originator of the request I think I can shed some light on this
matter and then let it die. 

The 3b2 my friends have was first purchased over a year and a half ago. 
The machine was very new then.  I have been assured by some people at
AT&T that the problems which caused our disatisfaction (none of which
were mentioned in the article, nor are they germane to the issue here
(It wasn't not powerful enough, just buggy)) have been fixed by later
software releases.  From talking with satisfied users, it appears that
any problems it once had have been fixed.  I can't currently reccomend
the machine because I have not played with it recently, but it does
warrent a second look. 

Now about that powerswitch...  Did *anybody* see the ":-)" at the end of
the paragraph? The joke, you see, involves considering the power switch
to actually be a power switch even though it is plainly labeled ON and
STANDBY.  After a frustrating session it is somewhat satisfying (in an
immature yet humanistic sense) to "kill" the machine by turning it off. 
Having this not work is the punch line to the whole affair. 

For a machine that just might wind up on a computer naive user's desk,
an ON/STANDBY switch IS A GOOD IDEA.  The problems that such a switch
can cause by not shutting down the machine in the case of fire, flood,
nuclear winter are sufficiently rare and the savings here (no munged
filesystems) are tremendous.  Good Idea ATT. 

As an aside, I learned two things this week.  Satire and Humor just
don't work in written correspondence.  You must label them properly. 
Also, never respond to personal hate mail with personal hate mail.  Go
get a cup of coffee or watch MTV or something, wait 4 hours (or 4 days)
and then respond.  Let cooler head prevail. 

				Fingers still smoking...
					pZ




-- 
			    Paul Czarnecki -- Eikonix, Corp. -- Bedford, MA
	{{harvard,ll-xn}!adelie,{decvax,allegra,talcott}!encore}!munsell!pz
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