Path: utzoo!utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!bnr-public!schow
From: schow@bnr-public.uucp (Stanley Chow)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Ethics of crippler and enhencer circuitry
Summary: How about these situations?
Message-ID: <325@bnr-fos.UUCP>
Date: 8 Mar 89 01:14:51 GMT
Sender: news@bnr-fos.UUCP
Reply-To: schow@bnr-public.UUCP (Stanley Chow)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 71

I am curious as to what people think of the following situations that
looks to me like crippler circuitry, only different.

 1)  I sweat blood for years to design a blazingly fast machine, the
     company builds it and sells it for big bucks. Some bright new grad
     comes along and spends another year to come up a better faster
     design (and it only takes replacing 5 board and the backplane). 

     Do you consider it ethical for the company to charge even bigger
     bucks for this new machine? How about for the upgrade?

 1a) What if a really bright, sharp-eye high-schooler came in on a
     plant visit and said:
       Hay, just take that or-gate out of the critical path and the
       machine wil run twice at fast.
    
     And you know what? It works! How much can the company ethically
     charge for the upgrade?

 1b) I, the original designer, then had to run all kinds of simulations
     and other testing to make sure that indeed, this simple change
     does run twice as fast but only if a dozen components are up to
     snuff and that only a small percentage of the existing boards
     would run. Fortunately, the company kept meticulas records of
     all products, so we know which boards are easy upgrades and which
     are not.

     Should all upgrades be at the same cost? 


 2)  While I am sweating blood for the above machine, I made a list
     of the top 20 critical paths keeping the cycle time at 100 femtoseconds
     instead of the 10 femtoseconds that I am aiming for. However, before
     I get around to fixing all 20 of them, marketing and finance combine
     to make us release the machine at 100 femtoseconds.

     Two years later, competitors come out with new machines and I go
     fix the 20 paths. Amazingly, it only took 5 jumpers [says I while
     I trumpet my own foresight].

     How much can the company charge?


-- And now for something different:

 3)  After my blasingly fast machine has been on the market for a while,
     [and of course it sells like hot cakes at only $50 Million a crack].
     Lots of users are clamoring for a simalar machine but only cheaper.
     Users are begging us to produce a machine that is 10% the cost and
     10% the performance.

     Would you rather the company produce a crippled machine or stick
     to only the high priced one?

     [Anyone who says the company is obligated to sell all machines at
     the lowest possible price is dreaming. So what it only costs
     $10 per machine to make, so what the profit magin is huge?]


Stanley Chow   ..!utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!schow%bnr-public
	       (613) 763-2831

P.S.
Please don't tell anyone that I can design machines a femtosecond speed
or even anything approaching it. I don't want the NSC/CIA/KGB/MI5 to break
my knee caps trying to get my secrets.

Disclaimer:
I get paid for technical stuff, what do I know about ethics and marketing?
Anyone wishing to pay me for my opinions on ethics are invited to contact   
me [you will be the first].