From: metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu (metlay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Powerbook vs. Outbound
Summary: Introducing Metlay`s Law
Date: 29 Jul 92 15:10:12 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Atomic City

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:

"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.

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.

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?

--
dr. michael metlay          \  "Warning: This is not normal music.
atomic city                  \  This is heavily processed pain."  
                              \ 
metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu \                       (r. miller)