And I recall most of your points here, as they occurred (of course, from as little detailed expertise then as now - re the endless monthly churn of The New) though I grokked CP/M well enough to prefer the Z-80 and Digital Research vs the.. hoary 6502? and all that mad baad coding of Andy Herzfeld (?) Woz et al, the real Brains in everything there but marketing. For that you need truly aberrant slime, as ever - and they had a Toad Prince.

Then, my mentors too wondered W.T.F.! about those cockamamie software drive implementations - as you say, twasn't about 'thrifty' or 'insanely great' - was about GREED via CHEAP -- that cheap which doesn't ever accrue to the trusting mark.

Subsequently I heard versions of the Dealer-busting crap, especially during the OK-clone-it [briefly!] days. YPB was coined then. You Poor Bastards

Apparently all along, then (?) they've recruited -only been Able to recruit- New dealers, after each contractual screwing found the old ones buying Steve Dolls + pins. Figures. How akin to Billy's *nursery-raids to schools / Mushroom: keep 'em in the cellar and feed 'em shit / but don't let them talk to any adults! while their malleable young minds are being molded for the 80-hour week, by the Campus Crusade.

* what's the nautical word for tossing a bag over an able-bodied in a pub / wakes up on the HMS Richard Henry Dana.?. something ~ Shanghaied - 'impressed'?

Por moi too -- it's this record (AND a bloody kilobuck \ufffd) which delays my ditching my utilitarian thingie for one of today's sexier well-built gadgets; I don't need a Weatherman to explain what ill wind blows from egos this massive, greed this insatiable.

(And.. both disgusting pricks fucking epitomize that hubris which Muricans genuflect at, while rereading Babbit for new ideas to get still More outta the marks, while Growing the Synergistic Excellence Machine and shrinking the staff, preferably -- precipitately).


Notice how Popular has become the phrase, "We're Passionate about ___" ? [selling fishheads & rice / doing accounting / cleaning bidets] Shameless. Icky. Putrid. Embarrassing to hear 'emoted'.

Consumers.. a tube you dump stuff in one end, and outta the other comes - -
Mountains of it. Maybe Muricans deserve Billy AND Steve; so many would emulate em if they Could.


Bah,
moi