Xref: utzoo talk.politics.misc:20481 comp.protocols.iso:204 comp.std.internat:446
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!att!pacbell!ditka!dasys1!step!perl
From: perl@step.UUCP (Robert Perlberg)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,comp.protocols.iso,comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: ISDN & the Police State
Message-ID: <1367@number1.step.UUCP>
Date: 17 Jan 89 23:05:58 GMT
References: <1943@cpoint.UUCP> <5291@pdn.UUCP> <1960@cpoint.UUCP> <3748@attcan.UUCP>
Organization: Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., New York
Lines: 30

Thank you for the company line.  Now let's cool down a bit and examine
what Joacim was talking about:

The discussion involved one single AT&T device: a switch.  You assert
that AT&T knows what "it's" doing in the data area because they have
"given" us UNIX and C.  UNIX & C are software products which were
developed by people who probably aren't even allowed into the labs
which develop data switches.  Just because a company produces a good
product doesn't mean that the people who worked on that product work on
all of the other products that come out of that company.  In a company
the size of AT&T, that's just not possible.

Your inference that AT&T knows a lot about data because they invented
the transistor gave me a good laugh.  Besides my point about UNIX and C
being applicable here as well, it's like saying that the first caveman
who discovered fire knew as much about building cars as Henry Ford.  A
lot of companies try to impress people by pointing out that they were
the first to use a certain technology, but my observation has been that
the first is seldom the best since it is always the competition who
improve on the original design.

What Joacim was trying to say is that the AT&T data switches were
designed by people who know more about voice than data.  While AT&T may
have some very talented data communications people, they apparently
were not involved in the design of the data switches in question.

Robert Perlberg
Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., New York
phri!{dasys1 | philabs | mancol}!step!perl
	-- "I am not a language ... I am a free man!"