[NTLK] Longish: Ferdi, PCBMan etc.

From: Frank Gruendel (newtontalk_at_pda-soft.de)
Date: Sat Sep 25 2004 - 04:55:44 PDT


Hi all,

for a start, please let me point out that I will try to stick
to facts here and, where considered appropriate, my personal
opinion. So please direct any how-can-you-defend-someone-who...
comments to my private address or (preferred) don't send them
at all. I'm too busy fixing Newtons these days ;-)

That being said...

I disapprove of much that Ferdi does. But there are things that
I actually approve of. One thing is that he helps keeping the
Newton community alive by selling Newton products. I won't
elaborate on "but he is selling a stolen design" at that point, I will
come to that later. He does not only sell the serial board, but also lots
of other Newton stuff. More often than not at ridiculously high
prices, but this is something he has in common with many renowned
companies. Believe it or not, this is normal business these days.
Only people with a conscience sell for less than what they think
they can get.

You might or might not be aware that you will get a discount of
5 USD when purchasing his eMate cable if you provide proof that
you donated at least 5 USD to NewtonTalk, a list he is currently
banned from: http://www.pda-soft.de/ematecable.html

This is something I couldn't approve of more. I have done the
same occasionally (although so far I have never been banned
from NewtonTalk). Such a discount would look quite good
in the portfolio of J&K, GEM, David and others, too. Probably it would
even boost their sales, at least those to NewtonTalk members.
So, by the way, would a donation to the WWNA do.

Now to the SER001 and what Ferdi sells. In the mails I have exchanged
with him about this topic, Ferdi flatly claims that
what he sells is his own design. I can't say if this is true
or not, all I could say would be based on assumption and hence
inappropriate.

Fact is that at least the board's size and the location of the
connector couldn't be changed even if you developed your own
design. If I was doing my own design, the board would have the
same dimensions as David's board since it needs two holes
in particular locations to screw it down, and quite obviously
the connector would be where it is on PCBMan's board, too.

I have offered Ferdi twice to send me a evaluation unit of his
board. I would like to review it on my site the same way I review
other hardware. Being a former hardware developer, I am perfectly
able to figure out if it is a stolen design or not. Apart from that,
I have both the latest version of David's SER001 and one of the
earlier versions here. If I found the design to be a copy of either,
I would point that out on the review page. If I found that it is not
a copy of either, I would ask David for the schematics or evaluation
units of the SER001 versions I do not have and compare again.
At the end of this evaluation we'd have this stolen-design-thing
resolved once and for all.

So far Ferdi hasn't offered to send me an evaluation unit of his board.
Since he quite willingly let me evaluate his eMate cable, I was a
bit astonished, but of course that mustn't mean that he is
conscience-stricken. It can have a multitude of other reasons.

What I would ask the group is that if one of you in fact DOES buy his
board, please send it my way unopened. The day you confirm you sent
it, I will send you a brand new originally sealed latest version of
David's SER001 board. It might help if you neither mention this mail nor
that you are on the NewtonTalk list.

Even better would be if someone has already bought it from him. I will
gladly exchange it for David's board, and I will pay for shipping both
ways.

Thanks

Frank

-- Newton Software and Hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de

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