On Mon, 09 May 2005 16:17:59 -0700, Roy Lewallen
wrote:

Then the question becomes, who will define, develop, and maintain the
software? I can tell you from experience that it's no easy matter to
keep any software working properly as new operating systems, protection
software, and hardware appear. Add the necessary hardware interface to
the equation and the job gets tougher yet. Oh, and what do you do when
key components of the interface become obsolete and no longer available?

There are large, well established operating system created and
maintained by volunteers. The problem with some special hardware is
often that the hardware interface specification is not publicly
available (as with some 3D graphics cards).

Writing a device driver for some radio modules would not be that hard,
provided that the module control is designed in a somewhat sensible
way. As long as the hardware interface specs are available for these
modules, the software is not going to be the show stopper.

Paul OH3LWR

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:

PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."

PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily rising:
"Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone wants to buy."

PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long will
your part take?"

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Roy Lewallen wrote:

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:

PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."

PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily rising:
"Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone wants to buy."

PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long will
your part take?"

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Wonderful! I missed that one somewhere.

73, CJ KØCJ

On Tue, 10 May 2005 20:24:45 -0500, "Clair J. Robinson"
wrote:

Roy Lewallen wrote:

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:

PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."

PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily rising:
"Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone wants to buy."

PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long will
your part take?"

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Wonderful! I missed that one somewhere.

73, CJ KØCJ

The really funny thing about Dilbert is that people who work in that
type of environment see only that the character names are wrong for
their office.

Reminds me of a Will Rogers quote, "I don't make jokes. I just watch
the government and report the facts."

Scott Adams worked in a high-tech office, and reports the facts.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
--
At the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

Gary S. Idontwantspam@net wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2005 20:24:45 -0500, "Clair J. Robinson"
wrote:

Roy Lewallen wrote:

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:

PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."

PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily rising:
"Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone wants to buy."

PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long will
your part take?"

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Wonderful! I missed that one somewhere.

73, CJ K?CJ

The really funny thing about Dilbert is that people who work in that
type of environment see only that the character names are wrong for
their office.

Reminds me of a Will Rogers quote, "I don't make jokes. I just watch
the government and report the facts."

Scott Adams worked in a high-tech office, and reports the facts.

It gives me rather considerable pleasure to report that Scott Adams also
appears to monitor, or participate pseudonomously in, some of the other
newsgroups and mailing lists I frequent. Incidents from more than one of
those groups/lists have appeared in Dilbert essentially unchanged within a
few days of being posted to the group/list.

Sometimes I think Scott works for WeBuildHighways, where I'm employed.

--
Mike Andrews W5EGO 5WPM
Extra
Tired old sysadmin working on his code speed

Nearly ten years ago I had a project to design an ISDN terminal
adapter/router for "home" use. Once the design was completed I
(and several beta testers) had to install ISDN to our homes in order
to evaluate the product. We all lived in SoCal - with PacBell as the
provider.

We spent *months* going around and around with the PacBell
installers, CO technicians and the general bureacracy and so-called
"tech support" folks.

Eventually we gave up and decided to abandon the product and the
project - 'cause we realized that if *we* couldn't get things going with
PacBell there was NO chance for any potential end-user/customer.
The product worked great - we just couldn't get past the install phase
when working with PacBell!!!

A few weeks later I read a bio on Scott Adams and learned that he had
been employed by...........PacBell - in the ISDN engineering group!!!!!
Suddenly it all became clear - and I never laughed so hard...8-).........

Bill

"Mike Andrews" wrote in message
...
Gary S. Idontwantspam@net wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2005 20:24:45 -0500, "Clair J. Robinson"
wrote:

Roy Lewallen wrote:

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:

PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."

PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily
rising:
"Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone wants to
buy."

PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long
will
your part take?"

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Wonderful! I missed that one somewhere.

73, CJ K?CJ

The really funny thing about Dilbert is that people who work in that
type of environment see only that the character names are wrong for
their office.

Reminds me of a Will Rogers quote, "I don't make jokes. I just watch
the government and report the facts."

Scott Adams worked in a high-tech office, and reports the facts.

It gives me rather considerable pleasure to report that Scott Adams also
appears to monitor, or participate pseudonomously in, some of the other
newsgroups and mailing lists I frequent. Incidents from more than one of
those groups/lists have appeared in Dilbert essentially unchanged within a
few days of being posted to the group/list.

Sometimes I think Scott works for WeBuildHighways, where I'm employed.

--
Mike Andrews W5EGO 5WPM
Extra
Tired old sysadmin working on his code speed

Clair J. Robinson wrote:
Roy Lewallen wrote:

This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon on my wall:
PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss), pointing to flip chart graph of declining
sales: "Our sales are dropping like a rock."
PHB, pointing to flip chart graph labeled "Future" and steadily
rising: "Our plan is to invent some sort of doohickey that everyone
wants to buy."
PHB, to Dilbert: "The visionary leadership part is done. How long
will your part take?"
Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Wonderful! I missed that one somewhere.

Then there's the Feature Creep character, who specifies user
requirements to people like Dilbert... and Roy.

Dilbert: "Your requirements list includes 400 features.
No human would be able to use a product with that level of complexity."

FC: "Good point. I'd better add 'Easy to use'."


--
73 from Ian GM3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)

http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek... temporarily offline while changing ISP