Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!clyde!cuae2!gatech!akgua!mtune!mtuxo!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!uicsrd!conte From: conte@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Corrections and an Apology Message-ID: <42600003@uicsrd> Date: Wed, 26-Nov-86 20:56:00 EST Article-I.D.: uicsrd.42600003 Posted: Wed Nov 26 20:56:00 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 30-Nov-86 19:27:24 EST References: <954@blia.BLI.COM> Lines: 97 Nf-ID: #R:blia.BLI.COM:954:uicsrd:42600003:000:4106 Nf-From: uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU!conte Nov 26 19:56:00 1986 >>/* Written 11:07 am Nov 24, 1986 by ed@plx.UUCP in uicsrd:comp.sys.amiga */ >> >> > /* Written 11:01 am Nov 17, 1986 by forrest@blia.BLI.COM in uicsrd:comp.sys.amiga */ >[Jon's appology:] >> > I apologize for several factual mistakes in my recent submission >> > about my initial comments about the Amiga. ... >> > Jon >>[My first reply:] >> >> Why did you do it? >> >> There is a difference in my mind between complaining about the deficiencies >> of a computer when it is compared with full knowledge of its features, and >> making up ones mind on holistic and fuzzy first-impressions and then taking >> these wet complaints to the machine's experts. ... >> >> Can someone help explain to me why these messages of the flavor of sending >> the-owner-of-computer-bleb-mail-saying-bleb-sucks are so prolific across the >> net? >> >> [Now Ed's reply to my reply of Jon's appology (get out your road map):] > OK here goes. The question here is one of OPINION which each of us is > free to express. The sad part about about these complaints are that they are > seldom taken seriously. I owned an amiga for SIX MONTHS and was unable to > get reasonable customer support from CBM. I waited FOUR of those months in > anticipation of receiving my manual set. > ... > *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** *** MY MESSAGE *** It seems my message must have been garbled and I still think my point is valid based on the old adage that, "you should not judge a book by its cover." Though opinions are and should be expressed freely, there is a responsibility on the part of those who express them to guarantee that before they do so, they have their facts straight. This was the intent of my automobile analogy. > Your analogy to automobile manufacturers is erroneous. Do I need > to be an expert on automotive engineering to judge whether the > car performs to my satisfaction? Indeed, no. To repeat what I said... >> ... >> making up ones mind on holistic and fuzzy first-impressions and then taking >> these wet complaints to the machine's experts. Computers are more complex >> and layered than automobiles, yet people treat them with the same test-drive- >> around-the-block philosophy. All the layers of a computer are not apparent >> from the users interface-- surely not without manuals. Indeed, after driving >> a Yugo around the block, would you whisk off a piece of air-mail to Yugoslavia >> to the car's designers? Since C-A and many developers read net.micro(comp.sys. >> amiga), this is essentially what you've done. My main idea was that the metric that people use to evaluate cars is not applicable to computers. The portion concerning contacting the designers of the Yugo was meant to read: "why do people who wouldn't dare argue something technical on a topic they know not much about to someone who does, turn around and do exactly that via electronic mail?" (Perhaps using extending the anology of automobiles to cover this concept too was a bad idea-- alas, as the Latin proverb says, "all anologies limp." :-) > Granted, many of the complaints expressed in the original posting were > a result of ignorance, but I was in the same boat when waiting those > Four F*cking months for may manual to arrive. That is not an excuse for someone who is writing an article for a magazine, especially when the manuals are for sale in about four out of five of the bookstores I walk into in nearby shopping malls. > ======================================================================== > _____O_____ > Ed Chaban /___________\ > Plexus Computers Inc. | _ | _ | > Phone: (408) 843-2226 | |_| | |_| | > Net: sun!plx!ed | _ | _ | > | |_| | |_| | > | _ | _ | > | |_| | |_| | > "Have a Jelly Baby?" | | | > -The Doctor |_____|_____| > No, thanks. >> Tom Tom uucp: {ihnp4,seismo,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!uicsrd!conte arpanet: conte%uicsrd@a.cs.uiuc.edu or conte@huey.udel.edu csnet: conte%uicsrd@uiuc.csnet bitnet: conte@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu