From bruce@ashbysolutions.com Sun Oct 13 11:45:27 2002
Subject:RE: Fried CX-3 and Jerry the K.

Hi Tony,

>Hmmmm...interesting viewpoint. (pondering for a
>moment)
>
>So what you're saying is putting an upgrade out there
>without specifying EXACTLY which pieces of hardware to
>use do do the upgrade (the ideal situation) is okay;
>letting end users do the upgrade using any combination
>of equipment while there is a risk that there is
>probable hazard involved for most non-tech users is
>still okay? Just putting it out there and letting
>them have it is enough responsibility? I don't think
>so.

Like it or not, welcome to the reality of the IBM-PC clone world. :^( There are thousands of different motherboards, video cards, USB interfaces, printers, etc. out there, all claiming to be 100% compatible. Most of them are at least 99% compatible, but few are more than say, 99.99% of the way. Every one of these items will be out of production within the next 18 months, guaranteed. In addition, the driver software for each piece, which allows it to work with the OS, changes at least once every six months. In addition, which OS are we talking about: Win95? Win98? Win98SE? WinMe? Win2K? WinXP?

It's a little better on the Mac side of the world, but even there users have to deal with different OS versions, and compatibility issues with serial port and USB peripherals.

I guess Korg could announce that the upgrade "only works on a Dell Dimension 1234 with a MIDIman 256x256 USB adapter running Windows 2004, and the following driver software ..." if that's what they have in their labs, but that's not going to do a thing for most users. In the late 80's, you were safe saying that the PC product you made worked on an IBM PC/AT and a Compaq DeskPro 386. Most people owned, or could borrow, one of these products. Today, I couldn't begin to tell you what the "reference system" should be; even if I did, it's probably going end-of-life as we speak.

Let's take me as an example: I have personally ran the upgrade on my CX-3 five times -- including two times after Emili's disaster, just to make sure I wasn't missing something -- on four different PCs I own, and I have yet to have a single retry pop up. So, let's use my systems as "perfect systems" for the testing, OK?

The first system is a home-grown one with a motherboard that's been out of production for a year, a hard-to-find AMD Athlon CPU, a video card that ATI no longer sells, and it runs Windows 2000 Professional -- in short, a decidedly non-musician system, and you probably can't duplicate it if you try. The only thing you can buy that I have used for the upgrades -- including the earlier one that used to be on the Korg Canada site -- is a MIDIman Midisport 2x2 USB interface.

The second one is the Compaq Armada M700, a $3K+ laptop in which I was fortunate to have been the lead designer, so I know the ins and outs, using the same MIDIman adapter. However, it might be out of production by now, and I modified the installed software setup. Again, you probably can't get one, and even if you did, you'd have to spend a couple of days with me comparing notes on exactly how mine is set up.

The third one is an older Compaq Armada, again with the MIDIman adapter. This one is DEFINITELY out of production, so you will have troubles getting the hardware.

The fourth system is a home-grown Pentium-III PC in my lab that is almost three years old, filled with out-of-production gear.

Now, all four of these systems have worked flawlessly for the upgrade process, so on the one hand they're "model" systems; on the other hand, they're filled with non-standard, out-of-production gear. Which one should I recommend? Do any of them really help out a potential upgrade candidate?

I suppose Korg could have said, "It's not a user upgrade. The only way you can have it is to contact your Korg Service Center, and ship the organ there at your expense." What would be the first words out of most users' mouths? "But Clavia gives away their upgrades!" Also, I floated an idea on this list a few months ago: What would you pay for the upgrade, if it added features? Most respondents said, "Not more than $20-25, and it really should be free."

Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™ http://consult.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group and HiNote moderator
978.386.7389 voice/fax
bruce@ashbysolutions.com