7 Mar
2012
7 Mar
'12
3:12 p.m.
Hey Tony,
I then ask others for help/support. I do find it suprising that in an
earlie message you claimed that by chargign you could empoly good
programemrs and yet none of them could sort out this open-soruce tool (I
ahve no idea waht if dows, or what changes you wanted to make, of course).
=20
VIrtually every open-sourc program (includign all those under the GPL)=20=
come with the statement that they are _NOT_
supported. You can't =
expect=20
soembody to work for you for nothing. You have
the soruce code, fx it=20=
yourself!=20
=20
Good idea. What do you do when you are unable to write or modify a =
program? We deliver something that works, out of the box.
It's for the 95% that =
... WHich can't be modified by the user as the soruce code is not
avialable. Quite honestly I'd much rather have a product I can support
myself than have to rely on others, who now matter how good nad how
well-intnetioned may not want to get it to do what I want.
Why do you think I have scheamtics and source code for every part of this
machine (apart from the hard disk)? Why do I have several thousand
service manuals and scheamtics on the shelf?
And similarly I might not know what I want until I am part way through the
modifications (I'll do soemthing, thus get some infrommation about the
device I am workign with (for ecample the function of the control lines,
the timing for the data pulses, etc), then make more modifications as a
result...
don't know how
to program and the 95% of the 5% left that have no idea about fluxes, =
disk coding or
what pre-compensation means.
No need to fix it, it's working! Since 2010, and we're constantly adding =
features.
Since by wour own admisison you have kicked people off who have posted
adverse comments, I am not sure I can trust this.
I have been pleasanylu supprised by the support I
get from open-source=20=
software authors, but I don't exxpect them to
do work for me for =
nothing.=20
I might e0-mail them a comment and/or a change
I've made to do =
something=20
I want to do, Or I might ask them 'what is
going one here' so that I =
can=20
fixx the problem. I always seem to get a helpful
reply.=20
You would also get a helpful reply from us. We really like to help. We =
have
over 600 users out there. Look how much negative feedback there is on =
the forums.
Forums are usually littered with complaints as people tend to only write =
something when
things are bad. =20
=20
> board. I can't look into the future, but you would still be able =
to=3D20
> access the data ingested because the formats
are documented. What I =
can=3D20
> say is that we don't have plans to let it
fade into oblivion, so =
my=3D20
=20
So say 99% of other ahrdware and softwre mnufacutrers about their=20
products. Doesn't mean it doens't happen.=20
=85does not mean it has to happen. =20
I disagree. If there is a claer technicla point, as here, I feel a=20
developer or a simialr product is perhaps the best to raise it.=20
=20
So it does not feel strange to you that the only person that ever =
complained about this is he who must not be named? No, you come to my place and give everyone around the
impression that =
the food I serve is bad.
I politely ask you to stop, you refuse, you get thrown out. Days later, =
everyone is still fine, the food
was delicious and everyone enjoyed the evening very much, except for =
your visit.
Suppose I go to a restaurant and discover evidence of vermin in the
kitchens. Maybe 99% o the people who eat there have no problems, but
don't you think I should say something?
Or perhaps you fgive me a ride in your car. I am not goign to comment on
your choice of make/model, or the colour, or the music you listne to on
the radio, or anything like that. But if I notice that a brake light has
failed wwhen ou stop to pick me up do you not think I should tell you?
As far as I can see that's what Philip was doing. He was raising a
legitimate techncial point about your design. And for that he should have
got a resaoned answer, not be thrown off the facebook page. To be honest,
that, more than anything else, is why I'd consider his deisgn over yours.
So prove me wrong: there are more than 600 units in
circulation, some =
are used every day for dozens of disks.
Some have read tenths of thousands of disks. It is working fine. Did you =
ever think about that parts were chosen
for a reason? Why would I change my design because a competitor thinks I =
should?
OK, pelase explain to me why toy chose a totem-pole driver to drive the
disk drive signals. I can think of 2 good reasons why I wouldn't use them:
Possibilty of latch-up in 74HC, etc, parts.
They will pull the lines low, thus assertive them, if the power to the
deive fails -- e.g. if you turn off the PCB befoee the drive (which may
well be separately powered). I had exactly this problem in a classic
computer which used a totem-pole driver to drive the control lines of an
ST412-interfaced hard disk when I was conencting a separately-powered
drive for testibng, ended up wiping part of the boot track :-().
So what are the advantages in using them?
[...]
Data can be preserved - that's what the unit was
made for. You get the =
STREAM data, that's your disk.
You mess up preservation and the fact how we market our device. These =
are different things.
No, you misudnerstood me.
You said in an earlier message that by charging for the
device you could empoley better programemrs who would use modern
techniques, etc. If you shared that knowledge (OK, abd for your bottom
line, I agree), then others might be able to further improve on it, thus
leading to even better preservation techniques.
-tony