From: dave@compnect.UUCP (Dave Ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti
Subject: Re: Myarc HFDC
Summary: Heard THAT one before.. Yes this is a bit of LOU bashing.
Date: 4 Apr 92 16:47:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: compnect.2034
Organization: Compnect, Harrisburg, Pa.

In article <1992Apr2.101929.1@vms.ucc.okstate.edu>, u6637ap@vms.ucc.okstate.edu writes:
> The HFDC works well on the 9640, except for a few minor items in MDOS that need
> finishing... 

And therein lies the problem. I heard this same story when I bought my
HFDC back in the beginning. Several EPROM upgrade and MDOS revisions
later there were STILL a few minor items that needed finishing with
nothing but promises from Myarc as to when fixes would be forthcoming (A
- "Real soon now" or B - "In about 2 weeks"). 

> On the 99/4A, it also works well... EXCEPT that the low level
> floppy file access routines are buggy, and you have to un-arc files to a
> separate floppy controller or Ramdisk to prevent the file headers from being
> corrupted... this also applies to COPYING files with software other than MDM5
> and maybe DM1000...

Which means it doesn't REALLY work all that well. I spent a loooooong
time on Lou's side. Then we had a face-to-face talk at the Virginia show
a few years back (I think you were at that one Barry). Lou told me TO MY
FACE that:

1) Various and sundry fixes were forthcoming within 6 months.

2) That the problem with the 3rd hard drive port not working was 'just
   about licked' and he would mail me info on it (gave him my name and
   address on a business card). 

3) Said he would mail the necessary info for repairing the LED on the
   HFDC that went out when the un-sinked regulator overheated and cooked
   the card (he knew EXACTLY what I was talking about so it must have
   been a pretty standard problem).

After the show I went home feeling good about Myarc. 6 months passed and
nothing came out in the way of fixes. 8 months and still nothing. U.S.
Snail to Lou went un-answered. Phone calls..... well we all know the
stories about busy signals all day. The following year at TICOFF Lou was
still spouting the same rhetoric and I started looking elsewhere for
help. 

The Geneve is a good machine.  The HFDC has potential, but NOT until it
can be used without all the MDOS patches and statements of "it works
fine except for...." as qualifiers. 

If Lou found himself hopelessly snowed under by family problems and
business setbacks then I can understand why everything went downhill.
But if this WAS the case then he blew it by promising what he could not
deliver and never TRULY telling us what was happening. I have yet to
hear anything like that from Lou or Myarc, just endless excuses and
promises from the various Myarc cheerleaders. 

I've moved on to MS-DOS and Unix and sold both the Geneve and HFDC. I
APPLAUD the effort to buy the code for MDOS from Paul and Lou and really
hope it all succeeds. In the hands of responsible and INTERESTED
programmers, MDOS can still be something worthwhile. 

--
 Dave Ratcliffe (SysAdmin)           The Data Factory BBS  Harrisburg  Pa. 
 dave@compnect.uucp                      (717)657-4997  (717)657-4992
 compnect!dave@uunet.UU.NET                       Login: tdf
 eds1!compnect!dave@psuvax1.uucp           3/12/24/9600 Telebit PEP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ti