Re: RAM-4-GS testimonials

["Warren Ernst" <wernst@gmail.com>]

mdj wrote:

> When somebody goes to the effort of producing a "product" for the Apple
> II nowadays, I don't think it's reasonable to consider it in terms of
> markets, it's community service! Nobody can expect to make much more
> than a few dollars out of Apple II products anymore; any profit that is
> made wouldn't come close to covering the time investment required to
> bring even the simplest piece of hardware into production. As such,
> anybody who goes to the bother of doing so isn't doing it from a
> commercial perspective, and their motives and results are worthy of
> respect, and rather than be attacked, they should be commended.

Damn Straight!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

And a word on compatibility here:

Thus far, I have read reports that the memory card fails when a
*modified* accelerator card is installed, and working faster than the
cards' designers intended. The explanation for why this is seems
perfectly clear to me. Good work, PZ, for explaining it so well. I have
no doubt that you are onto something here.

That said, I think it is fair to say that Bill and his beta testers
threw all the hardware they had at this memory card, sans filters and
gold edge connectors, and it worked fine for them. I would bet that
would include quite a few "perfectly stock, made as the factory
intended them" GS accelerator cards.

So the questions become: At what point are they supposed to stop
engineering something in order to sell it? Isn't "when it works with
all the stock hardware we can find?" good enough? It is for me.

To use a comparison, my new car warranty covers failures incurred
during normal use. It doesn't cover failures caused by modified
aftermarket parts, or failures incurred during motorsport events.

Now to be sure, the fact that other "better engineered" memory cards
from the past work with modified accelerator cards, and the Ram-4-GS
cards don't, is something that potential customers should know about.
If Bill were to list this sort of disclaimer wherever the RAM-4-GS were
sold, that would seem totally fair to me. And I don't think this would
dissuade and potential purchasers either. I mean, really, how many
modified GS accelerators are there Out There that don't already have a
matching, working GS memory card?

Just my continuing thoughts on the matter...

-Warr