From: Conrad_Nobili@Harvard.EDU (Conrad C. Nobili)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: MacIntercomm?
Date: 7 Oct 92 04:35:15 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.comm
Organization: Harvard University Office for Information Technology

In article <6131.2ad17733@hayes.com>, bcoleman@hayes.com (Bill Coleman)
wrote:

> In article <Conrad_Nobili-051092181702@nobili.harvard.edu>, Conrad_Nobili@Harvard.EDU (Conrad C. Nobili) writes:

> > But one *can* get Hayes Smartcomm II for the Mac to abort a file transfer

> It takes more than several seconds.  [...]  But yes, it can be done.

Thanks, Bill, I thought so....

> > I hope the publishers of MacIntercomm
> > specifically target your product, perhaps even including a communications
> > software "diagnostic kit" as one of many that can be induced to fail by
> > performing *perfectly reasonable* actions like holding down the mouse
> > button while downloading....

> !!!!!! BACK OFF !!!!!!

Ok, so I should have put some of these ;-) here....

> This TIES business wasn't my idea. Don't sock me with the responsibility for
> it. If you have a complaint about, write someone who can do something
> about it -- Dennis C. Hayes.

Sorry, man, I didn't mean to imply that I thought you were in any way
responsible for, or in way able to change, the situation with the TIES ads.
 I am not so clueless.  I can read and understand disclaimers.  I just
thought the situation amusing, that you, as a Hayes *engineer* were upset
at the (valid but perhaps "exaggerated") claims against your product
(Hayes' product, (at least partly) your program).

Hey, I think the notion of a Trashed Interrupts by Executing Menus Bomb
just as amusing as I find the TIES Bomb situation.  I also find Hayes' new
scheme for numbering its press releases particularly amusing.  In the case
of Hayes, I find the ads and the press releases a bit offensive.  In the
case of the person who posted about MacIntercomm here I have no such
reaction.  I guess I have different standards for corporate behaviour and
individual posts to the wild and unruly net.  I was expressing that I would
make an exception to my corporate behaviour standards if the MacIntercomm
publishers decided to pick on Smartcomm specifically.  I reserve the right
to be arbitrary in the way I derive pleasure from ironies and the pain of
others....

Personally I don't care too much about any of this TIES B.S. anyway.  I
know well enough to turn of all in-band escape mechanisms if I feel like
worrying about them.  I do think the ad campaign was a bit silly and
misleading to the clueless.  No, I don't blame you Bill, or Toby, or any
other Hayes employee (except maybe the President, Dennis, who by his
position can probably be expected to get lots of random blame for things)
who hasn't specifically claimed responsibility for the issue at hand.  In
fact I have the utmost respect for you and Toby, and your collective
contributions here over the years....

As for serial communications programs, I really don't care about (or for)
any of them.  I prefer the flexibility of establishing dial-up *network*
connections.  I will probably never use either SmartComm or
MacIntercomm....

And ads don't generally affect me because I almost always know more about
the product or product category than is presented in the ad, and I am quite
adept at reading past deliberate exaggerations or omissions or other such
ruses concocted by marketing dweebs.  And anyway I have always been smart
enough not to buy Hayes modems.  This is not a comment on Hayes engineering
(which I perceive to be generally excellent) or corporate policy (which has
to be really offensive to prevent me from buying something I want) but
rather a matter of economics.  As the "leading brand", Hayes modems are
generally more expensive or less feature-full than competitors' products. 
Hayes should not be upset at not having me as a customer, because I happen
to buy modems from companies that licence Hayes technology, and so they get
some bux from me anyway....

Amused (not angry at or intending to be mean to anyone),

Conrad C. Nobili  N1LPM  Conrad_Nobili@Harvard.EDU  Harvard University OIT