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Re: [TenTec] The Age of Consumer Beta Testing

To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Age of Consumer Beta Testing
From: "steve moore" <hondo1@kitusa.com>
Reply-to: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 14:38:40 -0500
List-post: <mailto:tentec@contesting.com>
Companies releasing so called beta test flawed models will pay for it with lost 
customers. Ten Tec is no 
different.

I've seen several other non buyers of the Orion and I'm not done with today's 
emails.

You can call it a fact of life but it doesn't change the other fact of life of 
losing customers.

Steve  wd0ct

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <PaulKB8N@aol.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: [TenTec] The Age of Consumer Beta Testing


> I've watched with interest how this community has bashed Ten-Tec's efforts
> to raise the performance bar with their new radios.  All I can say is take  a
> look around you.
>
> Microsoft releases major operating systems with security flaws so serious
> that they invite hackers to come in.  The Mini-Cooper automobile has such
> serious bugs in it's processor that it doesn't properly shift between  gears. 
>  My
> new Sony Viao notebook computer would crash inexplicably (and  continues to do
> so) and no one could tell me why.
>
> Folks, this is life as we know it.  Few, if any, products with complex
> software instruction sets arrive in the customer's hands bug-free.  We are  
> in the
> age of consumer beta testing, like it or not.
>
> Compared to the volume of laptops, automobiles, and software  releases, a
> radio like the Orion is almost a "one-off" item.  With a  sample size of just 
> a
> few thousand, of which their use is segmented in niche  activities (such as CW
> only, phone only, contesting, DXing, etc), it may be  impossible to find a
> common cause for a particular bug.  In effect,  some of the patches simply 
> treat
> the individual symptom, not the collective  root cause!
>
> The concerns expressed are certainly legitimate, there are serious issues
> with both radios.  It is particularly disturbing that the code expertise  lies
> in the hands of a very few individuals.  Yet, we have to face the  reality 
> that
> these radios, with all their flaws, still have capabilities beyond  anything
> we've imagined before, and at a cost of less than an 1960 Collins S  Line in
> today's dollars.
>
> This can be a constructive and proactive forum, and recognizing the nature
> of software-based products, I hope we are part of the solution, not the
> problem.
>
> Paul, K5AF
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
> 


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