Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 18:41:09 -0700 (MST) From: "Chad R. Larson" <chad@DCFinc.com> To: cweimann@wallnet.com (Christopher S. Weimann) Cc: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Small X? Message-ID: <200003310141.SAA21101@freeway.dcfinc.com> In-Reply-To: <20000330192600.A20275@wallnet.com> from "Christopher S. Weimann" at "Mar 30, 0 07:26:00 pm"
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As I recall, Christopher S. Weimann wrote: > On Thu, Mar 30, 2000 at 03:46:38PM -0700, Chad R. Larson wrote: >> >> I've three I-openers on order... >> > I saw an item on slashdot regarding the i-opener. Apparently the > company that produces it has caught on and they are making changes > to the device to prevent such modifications. Yes, but to be practical, they can't do much. When you're putting together a product your business model has you practically giving away as a loss leader, you make it as cheap as possible. Which means using commodity parts. Which means Tiwanese PC parts. The motherboard is a PC, complete with a PC BIOS. They aren't going to change that. They already scrambled the pinouts on the IDE connector, so a plain Radio Shack cable won't work. But the pinouts are known, and a cable that works can be had for under $20. Or, construct your own. The SanDisk flash memory device they're using looks like an IDE drive, so it would be hard for them to eliminate the ability to add a drive, without major re-engineering. And that would cost more money than they're losing to a few hackers. Most likely they'll remove the header. But, hey, I can solder. And, probably so can anyone else willing to take on such a hardware hack. > If you go to their website and click on "Buy-One" you will see.... > > By purchasing the i-opener you are agreeing to use the i-opener > Internet service. The fee is $21.95 a month and will be billed to > your credit card approximately 2 days after the i-opener is shipped > to you. That agreement wasn't there when I placed my order. I made no such comittment. That being said, I'm willing to run for a month or two. I'll invest $44 to find out more about that market segment and how they intend to serve it. I'll probably put it in my Mother-in-Law's house to see how someone closer to their intended audience reacts to the whole thing. I won't activate if doing so requires more than a month-to-month comittment, or if they impose unacceptable usage terms. > i-opener Internet appliances manufactured after March 20, > 2000 can no longer be reconfigured in the manner described in > recent reports. See above. > Modification of the i-opener in any way is in violation of our terms > and conditions. There are no "terms and conditions". They're =selling= the units. Once I've bought one, it's mine. I can use it for a door stop. I can throw it in the pool. I can smash it into pieces. Or, I can use it for a cute, cheap X terminal. My choice, not theirs. They made a stupid business decision, based on ignorance and/or arrogance. Hell, if I just parted them out, I'd be ahead. You can't buy an 800x600 color LCD panel for $99. The proper business model is clear, and has been in use for several years in the cell phone business. Give away the phone, but only with a several year commitment to the service. If you won't commit, you have to buy the phone. Fair enough. I bought my Motorola StarTac outright so that I could change services every month if I felt like it (and as the service providers fight to give away ever more "free" minutes, that's proved worthwhile). So slip me an I-Opener for $49 with a 2 year committment. Charge me $400 for just the gizmo. Fair to everyone. Instead, they went with King Gillette's "give 'em the razor, sell 'em the blades" plan. Unfortunately, they didn't understand that their razor was useful as something other than a razor. -crl -- Chad R. Larson (CRL15) 602-953-1392 Brother, can you paradigm? chad@dcfinc.com chad@larsons.org larson1@home.net DCF, Inc. - 14623 North 49th Place, Scottsdale, Arizona 85254-2207 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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