From: mike_steiner@qm.claris.com (Mike Steiner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Powerbook vs. Outbound
Date: 29 Jul 92 18:19:10 GMT
Distribution: usa

In article <3934@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>, metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (metlay) writes:
> 
> In article <14882@claris.com> mike_steiner@qm.claris.com (Mike Steiner) writes:
> >In article <3891@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>, metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (metlay) writes:
> >> 
> >> In article <36235@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> pgutierr@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Philip Gutierrez) writes:
> >
> >> >	I plan on buying a powerbook 145 4/40 but have just heard
> >> >of outbound and am wondering if it is worth it.
> >> 
> >> Why are you planning to buy something that doesn't exist? 
> >
> >According to today's MacWeek, Apple will announce the PB 145
> >next week at MacWorld.
> 
> Look, I'm VERY new to Macs and even newer to the comp.sys.mac hierarchy,
> but I've been working with synthesizers for over a decade and am reasonably
> well respected on rec.music.synth. So I hope you'll forgive me if I take a 
> moment to transplant, from there to here, a phrase which I and everyone else
> on r.m.s call Metlay's Law:
> 
> "If you can't walk away from your terminal right now, walk or ride to your
> nearest store, ask for it, be shown it, play with it for a while, pay for
> it, and WALK OUT WITH IT UNDER YOUR ARM, it is VAPORWARE."
> 
> Or, in shortened form:
> 
> "It looks great on paper, but you can't PLAY a paper synth."
> 
> I don't give a shit if Apple "announces" the PB145 next week at MacWorld.
> The PB145 doesn't exist, and people who sit on their money waiting for
> things that don't exist can really screw themselves-- they get paralyzed
> by the "wait a bit and the price will drop and the next model will be
> better" vicious cycle, and while they save money, they also harm their
> productivity and block their advancement in some ways. Counterbalancing
> Metlay's Law is Rothwell's Principle:

Excuse me, I used the wrong verb.  I meant release, as in make available
for sale.

> "If a piece of gear you bought yesterday does a particular job for you
> today, it will still do so in EXACTLY the same way tomorrow, even if a
> new piece of gear comes out that does a better job."
> 
> The key is to know your goals and needs and buy based on them, not to
> wait forever for the next piece of gear OR to throw money at every
> new innovation.

In general, that is true; however, when it is a matter of days, then
there is no harm in waiting.

> The PowerBooks are a perfect case in point. It took YEARS for the Mac
> to get to the point where it was a machine I'd want in a MIDI studio.
> When the PowerBooks came out, I was ecstatic-- a portable Mac was the
> ideal solution for touring gigs and running synth banks in a compact
> and easy manner! But I didn't immediately rush out and put a deposit
> down on a 140, even though I was tempted to-- because the PB140 was
> VAPORWARE. When it DID come out, I began hearing horror stories from
> many MIDI users who bought the PowerBooks-- because they bought their
> machines, and discovered that MIDI DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY ON POWERBOOKS!
> The serial port driver is fucked up, and dense MIDI input streams get
> garbled. Every patch suggested by Apple to date has NOT worked, and
> there are a lot of really REALLY steamed PowerBook musicians out there
> as a result. But *I* didn't get burned, because I didn't bank everything
> I had on vaporware.

What do you mean that it was vaporware?  Just because a dealer doesn't
have it in stock doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.  Other dealers,
possibly in other parts of the country, did have them in stock.

> On the flip side, I just bought a PB100 for $900 at Price Club. Why,
> if MIDI doesn't work properly? Because for that price, I could afford
> to get a machine that my wife could use for her work, AND I could do
> networking and word processing with...and if it wasn't perfect with MIDI,
> that was okay because that wasn't what I was buying it for. (BTW, the 100
> may actually BE perfect for MIDI, unlike the 140 and 170. Test results
> will follow in a few days, I hope.)
> 
> When the 145 was announced, everyone on r.m.s expressed hope that its
> MIDI problems would be fixed. Sorry, people, but I won't believe it 
> until I benchmark it myself-- MIDI users are such a tiny fraction of
> the Macintosh user base that Apple doesn't care shit whether or not
> MIDI works properly, and I'll bet they don't even try to make a fix.
> 
> So again I ask: Why are you planning to buy a machine that doesn't exist?

I'm not planning to buy it; someone else said that he was.  If the PB 145
doesn't come out next week; all he is out is about one week's wait--big
deal. I certainly doesn't deserve the tirade that you engaged in, in your
message.  Further, what is it to you whether he wants to wait for it or
not?