From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <41E29517.90804@village.com> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 09:45:43 -0500 From: Wes Kussmaul User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] wireless USB mice? References: <8825319f91e81d8a4202e5376c60c898@terzarima.net> <20050108103953.37ce0e69.martin_ml@parvat.com> In-Reply-To: <20050108103953.37ce0e69.martin_ml@parvat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Topicbox-Message-UUID: 2b8a3eda-eace-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Martin C.Atkins wrote: >I know the arguments about consumer choice, but sometimes "the >competitive marketplace" is just c**p. > > It always has been c**p, at least since I watched IBM and Burroughs manipulate the perceptions of decision makers in the late sixties. It was easy then, because to nearly everyone who purchased hardware or software it was all pure magic. They must work harder at it these days, because more people see through it. Specifically, of the three sets of buyers -- 1) those who see through it because they understand the technology, 2) those who see through it just because they've become familiar with how computers and their vendors work, and 3) those who are clueless -- huge numbers of people have gone from the third group to the second. Before the age of Apache etc. it was pointless for knowledgeable people to try to get past the FUD factor, for instance with the message about POE and the resulting simplification of the infrastructure. Today it is different, people will listen.