Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!bbn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tektronix!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh
From: jxh@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why Can't Microsoft Write Protect Their Distribution Disks?
Message-ID: <5978@cup.portal.com>
Date: 27 May 88 17:29:39 GMT
References: <175@optilink.UUCP> <978@hsi.UUCP> <5873@cup.portal.com> <992@hsi.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 49
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4342

>You not only missed the point but you missed the boat.   But since you dragged 
>the issue of quality into this, lets talk quality.

>First, every set of software masters, there are two, sent to our duplicator
>is created by yours truly.  These sets are then compared against each other
>to insure they are identical.  These masters are then shipped to our vendor.
[goes on to detail QA procedures that ensure the correct contents of a disk]

You misunderstood me.  Perhaps I didn't make myself clear.
I did not wish to imply that you were shipping poor-quality disks with
unverified contents: of course some effort is made to verify data after
writing.  It sounds very thorough and expensive.  I congratulate you.

How much does all that cost you, per disk?  Consider *all* the costs, especially
labor.  Would 15 cents (the cost of putting the write-protect tab on the
disk at the factory) add very much to that cost?

My point is that whenever you start looking at a 15 cent expenditure in
terms of how much money it all adds up to, you are on a very dangerous
path.  It is good to hear you defend quality so strongly; perhaps *you* can
resist the temptation of saving the company "a million dollars" 15 cents at
a time.  Whenever this idea takes hold, no expense is too small to scrutinize.
And they *all* add up to impressive numbers if you multiply them by a
sufficient number of products.  Consider how much all your revenue adds up to.  

To clarify further: don't argue that 15 cents shouldn't be spent on the basis
of the pain of writing the aggregate check for $1250 as balanced against
delta customer satisfaction.  The latter is worth much more than that.  To
argue this point is to step on the slippery slope.

>Now if you can't spend the two minutes it takes to protect your OWN butt by
>putting disk tabs on YOUR software that are FREE, then you get what you
>deserve.
(They're not free, they're paid for.  But anyway...)
Just so!  I quite agree!  It is not your job to protect the customer. 
You're not protecting the customer, you're protecting *yourself* from the hidden
cost associated with the customers' stupid mistakes!  It is that cost that you
must balance against the seemingly massive $1250.  Re-read my previous article.
Think of how much *revenue* is at stake, let alone expense.

BTW, thanks for such a vigorous debate!  Please don't take it personally;
judging by your defense of quality, above, you sound like a capital fellow.
Keep up the good work!

-Jim Hickstein, VSAT Systems, Inc, San Jose, CA
jxh@cup.portal.com   ...!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!jxh

P.S.  Sorry I didn't include your message ID at the top; Portal makes
certain things harder than they have to be.