peraino@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Bob Peraino) (02/07/91)
WARNING: this letter is caustic. If you don't want to see someone
get flamed, delete now. You were warned.
Xeno writes:
> HP, in their infinite wisdom, could have
> worked out a scheme where the ROMs were replacable.
Is "infinite wisdom" supposed to be sarcastic? HP happens to have
some of the best quality control in the world. What the hell do you know
about hp? Buying one stinking product doesn't give you free license to
dump about a company (or even the product, for that matter) that you really
don't know much about. What do you know about the design team, development
process, and testing that brought this product to market?
Do you know anything about computer/electrical engineering?
Can you say, "Surface Mount Device?" Yeah, sure, the ROMS could have been
replacable, if you wanted a calculator the size of a lunch box. Do you
try to trade in your last-year model car when the new model comes in?
Then why do you expect this product to be any different?
What-in-hell do you think funds R&D, anyway? Yes, hp could have held up the
product for another year, to work out even more bugs, and the calculator
division could also be shut down for producing lousy revenues.
I'm tired of people dumping on HP. Usenet may be wonderful for users,
but it seems to be a great disservice to Hp in general. Most uninformed
people just bitch about how they deserve better, create rumors about bugs
that aren't bugs, and generally make ludicrous demands of HP. I'm surprised
people like Wickes read this newsgroup at all, anymore. I'd have to say
that it's a good thing the bulk of the market share doesn't read this tripe.
> Software is covered
> by the same warranties that hardware is - it is to be free from manufacture
> defects... Revision Ds are flawed, and so are A, B, and Cs...
I don't know what you do for a living, if anything, but whatever it is
has nothing to do with software development. What makes matters worse is,
if you've been reading the net, then you knew what bugs your unit had
before you bought it. AND, if HP didn't come out with later releases,
you would have been perfectly happy. But you are most likely ticked that
HP DOES have later releases, and you missed the boat.
> If I bought
> a car and the 2nd gear position on my automatic transmission control didn't
> work, I'd sure have it fixed even if I didn't use it!
This statement really shows that you know nothing about software
development. I would venture to say that testing of code the likes of the
hp48 is far more complex than testing a car. Besides, you're comparing
a physical system with a logical one. As the 48 would say,
"Inconsistent Units"...
peraino@gmuvax.gmu.edu
p.s. I really don't want a reply, Mr., uh, Xeno is it?
nelson@skid.ps.uci.edu (Matt Nelson) (02/07/91)
Yeah! I agree. We are damn lucky that there is somebody like HP out there giving us such nice tools. -matt
taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber) (02/07/91)
In article <3383@gmuvax2.gmu.edu>, peraino@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Bob Peraino) writes: |>Can you say, "Surface Mount Device?" Yeah, sure, the ROMS could have been |>replacable, if you wanted a calculator the size of a lunch box. Can you say "daughter board?" Wouldn't that be an improvement on the design? Even though you are tired of reading the whining of people who believe in the ego-centric universe theory (trust me, I am too,) does it mean that there's no room for improvement? After all this, I would be VERY surprised if the next calculator design doesn't have some sort of field replaceable control store. Then HP could turn upgrading the ROMs into a revenue stream instead of an albatross. (Just like upgrading operating systems in PC's. If it changes during the warantee you expect a free upgrade, otherwise you run out and buy it and inspire all your friends to do the same.) >>>==>PStJTT Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber, KC1TD If I was authorized to speak for my employer, I'd be too important to waste my time on this crap....
madler@pooh.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (02/08/91)
>|>Can you say, "Surface Mount Device?" Yeah, sure, the ROMS could have been >Can you say "daughter board?" Wouldn't that be an improvement on the In the spirit of this lively discussion, can you say "dispatch table in ram"? I knew you could. I would suggest that field fixes to ROM bugs can simply be files on floppy disks or plug in ROM cards that go out to the distributors. Then, your favorite ROM bug can be fixed by connecting your calculator to their calculator (this starts to get a bit too graphic for children) and the bug fix patches itself into the dispatch table and lives in RAM. Those of us on c.s.h. would have it even better, since we could get the bug fixes over the net. This would require, of course, having an operation dispatch table in RAM, which I believe is in ROM on the 48SX. I think the cost in RAM would be small compared to the ease of not only fixing bugs, but also extending the functionality of the calculator. And just think of the possibilities for hackers ... Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu
akcs.briank@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Brian Korver) (02/09/91)
I like my HP48SX.
akcs.dnickel@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Derek S. Nickel) (02/09/91)
_briank at hpcvbbs.UUCP (Brian Korver) writes: >I like my HP48SX. At least there is a little sanity left in the world! Derek S. NIckel
akcs.falco@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Andrey Dolgachev) (02/09/91)
Stop! Stop this stupid thread now, please, I promise tohat this is my
final message on this, including another STOP message. Even though I
agree with the people on theis message and post, I think that we should
not only stop complaining, but also stop complaining about the people
complaining, etc. BTW I also like my HP48sx.
---Falco