[sdiy] Those darned Casio chips!

[Peter Forrest]

Perhaps each company, or even each distribution company, could have a
'legacy parts and manuals' section, or franchise - which could possibly even
be run as an educational or other charity.
Once a product was no longer commercially viable to produce or offer proper
service facilities for, all relevant stuff could be 'written off' and turned
over to this charity,  which would be run simply to cover the costs of
warehousing, documenting and distributing these things at fair prices.
Such a scheme has ecological benefits, and any socially responsible company
should maybe be pressured into thinking about it.
Peter
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Wentk" <richard at skydancer.com>
To: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Those darned Casio chips!


> At 07:35 23/11/2004 -0700, Scott Gravenhorst wrote:
> >"Rude 66" <r.lekx at chello.nl> wrote:
> > >
> > >heh.. of course lying is  wrong. so is swearing. however, presidents
lie and
> > >not only get away with it, but even get re-elected..;-)
> >
> >That is no excuse.  You are in control of your mouth and what comes out
of
> >it.  I don't care WHO else is lying, it is WRONG.
>
> It may or may not be wrong. But not offering information is still stupid,
> bureaucratic and counterproductive.
>
> As a former tech as I understand it the rationale is to try to offer some
> quality control, so that not just anyone can call themselves a keyboard
> tech, and also to keep the stores sweet because many stores do a fine
> sideline in selling tech support and repair services, and if those were
> available from anywhere they'd lose some turnover.
>
> But we're talking about twenty year old designs here, and I can't see
> making the info available online would make a major dent in anyone's
profits.
>
> Plus it's an attitude issue. As a company you may be justified in not
> giving a rat's ass what your customers think of you, but ultimately it's
> not a very intelligent way to do business. Whatever the rationale, not
> making the archicture and other technical details open doesn't do the
> industry any favours.
>
> Once upon a time Yamaha took the chips from their 02R and put them on a
PCI
> card. But they did the usual thing of limiting tech details to a handful
of
> manufacturers, and very effectively strangled what could have been an
> excellent and very popular product. The DSP Factory cards limped along for
> a while but the drivers were never quite right and after a couple of years
> they sank without trace, when they *could* have become an Emu-Creative
> style standard.
>
> The fact is that selling chips that are generation or two old to third
> parties, with tech support, could open up the market in all kinds of
> interesting ways, with potential big wins for everyone. Keeping it closed
> stops that happening, and not only puts a brake on innovation, but also
> cuts off a significant source of potential licensing and profits.
>
> Richard
>
>