#Cringely sez…
13 messages in this thread
Thought that Robert X. Cringely's latest "rumor" might serve as a good recap…
"It is also the availability of fast processors that has led to such low bids
for bankrupt Commodore [this paragraph follows another talking about how
Pentium and work-alike prices are dropping through the floor]. The trustees
last month rejected a reported offer of $1.5 million for the whole darned
company."
Robert continues on, with some editorializing on his part:
"But the lowball offer makes some sense. All the Amiga custom chips are still
amazing, but as CPUs themselves get faster, the value of these chips
diminishes. Any bidder (there are six, and the bids must be in by July 15)
would be interested in continuing sales in Europe and getting royalties from
NewTek, the VIdeo Toaster folks, but an Amiga renaissance is unlikely."
Jonathan
Yeah, I wrote him an Email last week asking him to try to find out
what's going on down in the Bahamas; either he didn't look very hard, or
else now HE'S under a "non-disclosure agreement"….
Didja also happen to notice that Stewart Alsop managed to AGAIN mention
OS/2 and Amiga in the same breath? (As I told Cringely, I didn't write to
Alsop because "anyone who dismisses OS/2 users as next-generation Amiga
freaks doesn't want to hear anything I have to say; like that IBM could do
a lot worse than to emulate the Amiga Workbench….")
Hey, as long as they keep our Girlfriend's name in the papers….
"Amiga–Si!! Commodore–%$#@*&!!!"
Mr. C
Mr. C…
What I wonder is why the Amiga is getting mentioned so much now? I mean, if you
don't mention something because it ain't newsworthy, why would the death notice
of same become newsworthy?
Maybe now that C= is out of biz, Microsoft has relaxed its press censorship of
our favorite machine 🙂
Jonathan
Microsoft press censorship? I called their PR agency a week or so ago just to
ask about one product, Chicago. They sent a huge packet… the "reviewer's
guide" is about an inch and a half thick, 8.5 x 11. Then there's the rest of
the press kit. The reviewer's guide is larger and better-written than all the
AmigaDOS manuals combined. Microsoft is huge! When I called Commodore for
official PR, I felt lucky when I'd get a folder with more than eight-ten pages
in it.
Press censorship paying off magazines to not put info in them about certain
information they deem "competitive" 🙂 I'm sure it goes on.
I don't think you'll find too many examples of suppliers "paying off" magazines
not to print certain information. But there are more subtle approaches to
achieve similar end results, such as:
1. "You must sign a non-disclosure agreement before we tell you about this new
product/new version". A tough one for publications: what's the point in
hearing about things you are prohibited from publishing? But many will go for
it, since it's the only way to get a preview of the product, and thus be ready
to put it to press FAST. Sadly, some suppliers never get around to telling the
publications that it's OK to print the stuff now; it's often "well, competitor
xxx has published it, so I suppose it's OK for us to do so now". A few
writers/publications refuse to sign non-disclosures, but most do.
2. "I don't think we can advertise any of our products in a publication that
has unfairly criticized one of our new releases", or, "If the review looks
good, we're prepared to come in with a two-page full-color advertising spread".
Pretty blatant, really, but occasionally publications have gone for this kind
of thing. Not often.
3. "Our development staff are spending a week in Acapulco, and we'd like one
of your staff to join us – at our expense, of course – to see how we get it all
together". VERY rare in this day and age, at least for the small computer
press. But when it does, well, it's not easy for a writer to come down hard on
those wild and crazy guys who were so much fun. No overt pressure at all, but
it's there in the background.
4. With no intervention of any sort: many readers may well have already
bought a product, and writers are often reluctant to tell such users that they
have just spent hundreds of bucks on cr*p. Readers often buy publications to
find out how to use what they have already got, not to be told that they have
junk. A writer can often soften his/her stand because of this.
But cash payoffs? Naaah.
–Jim
In essence it is basically down to money. Advertising money pressure holding
back information to a certain non-compliant organization. In the information
business it is money. Not direct – pst hey buddy over here kinda thing.
Hi Jim,
I don't much mind the NDAs. If they tell you March 15 and that's your closing
date or whatever you can have your story all ready and laid out right on time
kind of thing. The most annoying thing is that virtually days after I sign one
I see the damn thing on the cover of an American mag and know that my mag is
3-4 weeks away. THAT is annoying!
When I signed for MS Visual C++, the first thing they said was, "Well, they had
you sign NDA at the door but I must tell you that this is written up in today's
InfoWorld but some of that data is wrong." At that point it was more silly than
annoying.
2. One of my mags had people stay away for awhile after bad write-ups. We did
one story on cross-border PC buying and a distributor wrote to us livid that
we'd speak positively about buying in America. He made noises about NEVER
advertising again. I've also got more "make it look good to get the ad" stuff
from my sales guy than from the vendor! Also annoying.
3. Funny times have mostly come from HP and Toshiba in my experience and they
always had stuff that you'd have good words for anyway.
4. When I review a piece of crap, I say truthful things and I try to say
something nice before I say something bad. If the average reader reads the
article 6 or 8 times and thinks about it, they'll say, "Oh, I get it. Piece of
crap." Course, others in the biz will read once and say, "Oh, piece of crap,
eh?" 😀
If there ARE cash payoffs, I'm sure they're exceedingly rare. The line-up would
be too big otherwise. HAR!
My 2 cents.
Malcolm
Just to echo what Jim said, I've been writing for over 10 years. Once, and only
once was I offered a 'bribe' to get a good review. It was when I was a free
lance writer about 8 years ago. I reported teh incident to my editor and went
on to trash the product – on its merits. As far as influence on a magazine
directly, companies will often scream bloody murder when they get a negative
review – and will threaten to pull advertising. And some will do so. In fact I
recently received such a thjreat from a very well known company. My response
was just to laugh and tell them I am glad I work for a magazine where I am
allowed to say that ads make no difference in how we cover a product, and
threats such as thgis could give me a suspicious attitude about them. They quit
making such threats. Lou
>> I mean, if you don't mention something because it ain't newsworthy, why
would the death notice of same become newsworthy? <<
Watch any evening news show for the answer to this question. What you see are
sports, weather and obituaries.
Good news is no news,
Brian
Jonathan,
>> why would the death notice of same become newsworthy?
When Transactor went down, a magazine lamented our departure. A magazine that
had NEVER mentioned us before and refused to trade ads with us.
Stay out of publishing… and computer building.
Malcolm
I'd love to write to this Robert Cringely to express my disatisfaction of
having to deal with systems with so called "fast" CPUs in place of custom
chips, not to mention other hardware oddities that shouldn't exist in
today's computing industry.
Dan
Who hates his 486DX2/66 with 8MB and would MUCH rather use his Amiga 3000!
Daniel J. McCoy // CIS – 73742,3072
AP Engaged! \X/ Render 'till ya drop!
Writing to him's easy enough, with our Internet mail-link; his address
is "cringe@infoworld.com" (without the quote marks). Don't expect a lot
of sympathy (or one of his "infamous" coffee mugs either)….
"Amiga–Si!! Commodore–%$#@*&!!!"
Mr. C