From: anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson)
Subject: Re: Holiday NeXT Sale!!
Organization: Madison Academic Computing Center, UW-Madison
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 92 12:09:05 GMT

In article <petersen-251292004656@elvex34.acns.nwu.edu>
petersen@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Julie Petersen) writes:

>Guidelines are just that, guidelines. And I would just like to voice
>my opinion that in this case certainly no harm was done, and in fact
>there were probably a number of people who were very glad to see the
>announcement. The announcement was concise: not a huge catalog listing
>(like you sometimes see in the rec.music.* heirarchy) and not a blatant
>commercial full of sales hyperbole. I recognize why some people would
>make an objection, and why such objections are probably necessary lest
>a group like this become a useless bunch of competing advertisements,
>but nonetheless in this case I think (i.e. IMO) Mr. Goldberger's
>announcement was acceptable use.

Funny thing is, total inconsistencies notwithstanding, that
I agree with all this.  For some reason, though I've
objected to it when Glenn Reid and a couple other people did
it (and indeed on earlier occasions when Sam Goldberger did
it), I've been glad more recently to know what Sam has in
his inventory and at what prices.

The "excuse" (not the right word for it) I make in my mind
for Spherical is that Sam is, as far as I know, the only
person who's making a market in several items of great
potential interest to owners of older NeXT hardware, which
includes me.  All the same, it's hardly fair to get after
Glenn; it's not like RightBrain is a giant software
conglomerate, after all.

I guess that for me, one of the key considerations is the
degree to which hype enters into these things.  I have to
smile, because the image just now is white bread -- they
call it "enriched" flour, when all the world knows it's
impoverished flour, nutritionally, compared to the real
thing.

As I say, inconsistencies abound.  Perhaps this is not all
bad.  Anything that requires a person to make an informed,
independent judgment concerning the appropriateness of a
given case, rather than merely apply some sort of algorithm
mindlessly, seems OK to me.

Even then, I know I'm not being entirely consistent (small
minds, etc.).  Bottom-line-wise, I want the information,
plain and unadorned, because I'm almost always on the
lookout for stuff that pertains to my own interests.  As I
look back, the reason I own a NeXT at home, in addition to
the one in my office, is that the famous Businessland fire
sale, with names and phone numbers, was advertised in our
original newsgroup, with the result that I got a used
machine in perfect working order, with not a ding on it, and
have since upgraded it, put in a big hard disk, kept my OS
up to date, and managed to do not only a lot of my best
work, but also to have a hell of a lot of fun with it.

-- 
[Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin]
[Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson]
[Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888]
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.marketplace