Would a Personal UNIX box Like This Interest You?

[Ed Nather]

>         This  is a  stab  at  some  cheap  marketing  research.
>         Would you be interested in a small, FAST UNIX desktop:
>         Write me or call me.  If I get enough yes votes, we're
>         gonna build it.
> 
> I vote yes.  Go ahead and build it.

Look out -- this sounds very much like the "electronic stethescope" idea --
use new technology to do an old job, better, and bounce it off people first
to make sure they'll buy it.

Let's see -- we could use a good microphone, and a small hi-fi amplifier,
and really good headphones, and make an ELECTRONIC STETHESCOPE for doctors
and make $$$$!  We'll even build a prototype and take it around to MDs to be
sure they'll want it!  Let 'em try it out, and see HOW MUCH MORE THEY CAN
HEAR than using their dumb hollow tubes and mechanical diaphragms.

So we do that, and the MDs say "Wow! Great! Never heard anything like it!
Sure -- go ahead and build it."

But don't, unless you want to follow the many, many people that had the same
idea and lost their shirts.  Why?  Well, once you're in production and find
it isn't selling at all, you might go back to the enthusiastic MD and ask him
why HE didn't buy one.  The answer: he had invested so much time in Med school
and since, learning what things sound like through hollow tubes, he is not
about to start all over again!  He meant it was great for NEW MDs, who learn
it from the start.  Of course, they are taught by older MDs, who know what
things sound like through hollow tubes ...

Note how it costs nothing to say "Go ahead and build it."  That attitude may
well change when the price means real $$.

Cheap market research is right.  You get what you pay for.
-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather at astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU