Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!decwrl!flairvax!ellis From: ellis@flairvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Artificially different products Message-ID: <144@flairvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 30-Jun-83 17:32:19 EDT Article-I.D.: flairvax.144 Posted: Thu Jun 30 17:32:19 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jul-83 04:55:31 EDT Lines: 33 A recent submission by Lauren about Bell answering machines -- << If you paid less a month, you'd get "versions" that had progressively less incoming or outgoing message time. Subscribers were told that this was only fair, since different length tapes had to be installed, and cost varying amounts. In reality, there was only ONE version of the model 700 Code-A-Phone. If you didn't pay for the "maximum version", the installer would set a pair of little cams in the unit which would artificially limit the incoming and outgoing message times! Talk about "creative" product design... >> ...reminds me of MANY instances I've seen in our own industry. For instance, one computer I worked with had two versions -- one with only one interrupt level, another with 4. For several thousand dollars the local rep would come in and install a new board -- all for show since the boards were identical except for a simple modification anyone in the know could easily perform. Another company I had experience with charged varying amounts of money for 'different versions' of a computer -- scientific, business, and personal, and each of these with various suboptions. But they were all the same -- the cheaper ones were simply "castrated" by disabling certain logic in PROM. I wonder how often this kind of thing happens. It strikes me as immoral and dishonest, a glimpse into the darker, self-destructive side of capitalism. Think of it, creating a good thing, and then partially breaking it to get more money for an unbroken one! Michael Ellis - Fairchild AI Lab - Palo Alto CA - (415) 858-4270