Author: Steve Lopez
Date: 09:41:32 05/04/99
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On May 04, 1999 at 10:49:27, Steven Schwartz wrote: >Perhaps you recall the TASC 128K, 512K, and 1 Meg TASC Chess Machines, >first introduced in 1991. Yes, we used to sell them. I installed a couple of them myself. > >These were cards that needed to be implanted in the expansion slots of PCs. >And, back then, customers were much less savvy than they are now about >personal computers. I disagree strongly with the second sentence. The simpler they make computers, the simpler they make computer users. I talk to people daily who have *no* idea how to copy a file using Windows 95/98 and don't feel that they should have to learn how. I also talk to a large number of people who get themselves in a lather because they don't feel they should have to read a manual. I think that 85%-90% of the purchasers of such a chip/card-based system would have little to no trouble getting it installed and operating. But that other 10%-15% would require support far in excess of what I'm personally prepared to give (I'm speaking as an individual here, not as a company representative). I'm sure the company would have no problem supporting these folks. All I'm saying is that *I* wouldn't want to be the one to do it. >Yes, support was somewhat more intensive, but not outrageous, and I >cannot recall (although recollection gets fuzzier with age) a single >situation in which we could not get the customer through the process >successfully without bankrupting our toll-free phone budget. Remember, though, that this was in the old DOS days, when a computer user *had* to learn something about his computer, whether he liked it or not. One had to learn a certain number of DOS commands just to use the thing. Nowadays when I tell someone to "drag and drop" a file from one folder to another, I sometimes get responses like "I don't see anything that says 'dragon drop' on my screen". I can't imagine having to talk one of these folks through the process of opening up their computer and inserting a card. >If IBM comes to market with a card, they will need to be prepared to >continue to improve upon that card with the same vigor that Intel (and >others) put into making faster and faster PC chips, because no matter >what advantage DB Junior has on the day it is introduced, you can be >absolutely certain that PCs will not stop getting faster - until they >eventually catch up and exceed the speed of the IBM card. Which is another reason why I doubt that such a card will be released.
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