[net.micro.6809] Silence is deafening

ingoldsby@calgary.UUCP (11/01/86)

I'm most gratified to see the resurgence of activity
in this newsgroup; for a while it was getting
pretty slow.  One thing does puzzle me.  I read
other net.micro.* newsgroups, and the amount of
traffic from the manufacturers of the particular
machine in question is amazing.  Users and
developers ask questions and within a few days
answers (albeit unofficial) appear from the
people who designed the hardware and software
associated with the machine.  Never have I ever
seen a response from Tandy in this newsgroup.
I'm sure that I've seen a Tandy signature in
other non-technical groups, but never in any
technical column.  

Does anyone know why this might be?

...ihnp4!alberta!calgary!ingoldsby

       Terry Ingoldsby

knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (11/03/86)

> I'm most gratified to see the resurgence of activity
> in this newsgroup; for a while it was getting
> pretty slow.  One thing does puzzle me.  I read
> other net.micro.* newsgroups, and the amount of
> traffic from the manufacturers of the particular
> machine in question is amazing.  Users and
> developers ask questions and within a few days
> answers (albeit unofficial) appear from the
> people who designed the hardware and software
> associated with the machine.  Never have I ever
> seen a response from Tandy in this newsgroup.
> Does anyone know why this might be?
> ...ihnp4!alberta!calgary!ingoldsby

I'd guess that Tandy employees have been intimidated into not
saying anything, except that over on net.micro.trs-80
you see lots of tech hints given out, with a special disclaimer
about how Tandy does not support this officially, etc.
Maybe we should cross-post more stuff to trs-80 (it used
to say "TRS-80" on Cocos, right?)

Worse yet, Microware also has a VAX on this net (.6809)
but is even more tight-lipped about OS9 hints, facts, etc.
I guess they'd prefer to follow in the footsteps of the TI-99
and other "proprietary" systems and go down with their lips
closed -- "drowning is very pleasant, it's the taste of 
salt water that hurts."  Or whatever.

Meanwhile, we'll just have to use disassemblers, logic analyzers,
and newsgroups to get those "trade secrets" into the public
domain.
-- 
Mike J Knudsen    ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen
Bell Labs (AT&T)   (312)-979-4132 (work)
Nobody pays for my opinions, which are mine alone.
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but the pay is good."