[sdiy] The goose-stepping morons are at it again

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Tim 'n' all.

At 02:33 AM 3/2/03 -0800, Tim Ressel wrote:
>Hi,
>
>< vent mode on >
>
>Guess what? To develop a USB product, you have to have
>a vendor ID. Guess how much that costs? The minimum is
>$1500 for two years, or $2500 per year for the deluxe
>plan. Oh yeah, during development you can fake it, but
>for a real product they want their payola. They call
>it a administration fee.

While I agree with you wholeheartedly, -this kind of caper is just 
extortion to keep control in their hands and innovation out- isn't there 
are generic ID code that anyone can use? I realize this is a "Yaz Takes yaz 
chancez" kinda mode but it's there for people who just want a damn serial port.

And of course there's always firewire. I know nothing about firewire in 
this regards so it remains magically glowing above the noise but from what 
I can tell, USB is just a poor man's firewire anyway.

Whilst I agree with you about the close-end-edness of the Mac, this is by 
far not the whole picture. The mac, like SGIs, SUNs, Most unix systems and 
even Linux running on the ubiquitous 8x86 platform, isn't as popular simply 
because of the costs. Whilst the Mac maybe as smooth as silk, all the 
hidden costs, -the afore mentioned ID licensing type issues being a 
contributing factor- make it more expensive than the cut priced, cut throat 
throw away technology that IS the modern intel architecture machine.

The real interesting thing now however is that there is very little 
separating the wintel box from the macinbox. Same PCI. Same bridge set. 
Same peripherals. Only the processors have been changed to protect the 
innocent. Apple have had to concede somewhat to the economies of scale in 
the x86 world and it looks like being a very interesting world when they 
finally merge. Given the choice, I know which OS I'd rather be running. But 
then again, there's always linux, lindows, BSD, OS/2, NewDOS...

But the thing with USB is nothing new. Even MIDI has a theoretical 
manufacturer's ID. Used with Sysex transmissions to identify the brand and 
model of synth. If memory serves, these IDs, of which there are a very 
limited number of possibilities, cost a ship-load more than 2 grand.

Which is why we always use to steal Yamaha's. As they say in my church. 
Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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