CompuServe Messages

Dave, After thinking some more about what my young friend said, it seems to me that the "image" he has in mind doesn't apply to all "big buck" business. I'm no marketing major (sheesh – when I went to university, "marketing" hadn't been invented!), but it's obvious that smart businessmen project the image that they think will appeal to their customers. Just look at the Coke and Pepsi commercials – or at the "Heartbeat of America". The average person seems to accept eccentricity in sports, entertainment and the arts, but looks for traditional values in areas like insurance, banking, real estate and government – sort of "I'll buy your album even if you were high on cocaine when you recorded it, but don't look for a Supreme Court appointment if you smoked a joint ten years ago". So if you deal with the general public, you have to meet their expectations – or at least have to *seem* to. John Sculley (CEO at Apple) makes a lot of sense in his new "Odyssey" book – like you, he wants to see new personal computers change the way people work, instead of designing computers to help people work the old way. Maybe the Amiga was "too much, too soon" – ideas change slowly in big organizations, so maybe a mouse with a black-and-white screen had to be familiar before they could accept a mouse with color. Incidentally, I used to be a systems manager in a big company – took my early retirement almost five years ago, and am enjoying my Amiga (GURU, bright colors and all). Haven't worn a tie for months! Vince