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DOS6#206.ART
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1993-06-02
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NWA-MCUG 6/93 NewsLetter Article
Rt 4 Box 376 Springdale, AR 72762-9307
Pressure For New Products Guarantees Bugs In Systems
by Bob Schwabach
From 05/10/93 Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Submitted by Dry Martini, NWA-MCUG
I got a "fix disk" for DOS 6 in the mail a few days ago. It came in a plain brown
wrapper. No note. Very mysterious. The disk dealt with converting Stacker
compressed files into Microsoft's DoubleSpace compression system.
There have been some bad notices on DOS 6 recently. In fact, there's been a
whole lot of stompin' going on. InfoWorld magazine noted that several
corporations have reported data loss, file corruption and system crashes. And
3M had enough problems to back right away from DOS 6.
More than 2 million of these upgrades have been sold in the past few weeks, so
any serious problems could have serious consequences. I have had no
particular problems but unlike 3M, I was only doing one machine. InfoWorld
reported installing DOS 6 on 50 machines and having problems with half of
them. That is an extremely high problem rate and brings us to the next stage
of this exposition. To wit: It has been a long time since I have restated the
two golden rules of personal computing that I formulated a decade ago, but
this seems like the moment.
Rule one: "Never buy anything with a low serial number."
Rule two: "No matter what you get, you have to get something else to make it
work."
Now these are said partly tongue in cheek, but only partly. The fact is, almost
every piece of software or hardware I have ever tested has had some bug in it
-- and I'm not too sure about the "almost." They often come up within an hour,
sometimes in two or three minutes.
Why is that?
One reason is there is always pressure to get the product out the door. Given
their choice, software engineers will fuss over a program forever, endlessly
polishing all the knobs and switches. At some point, though, the program has
got to go.
The second reason is that there are so many possible combinations of
hardware, BIOS, drives, accessory cards, reserved memory addresses, software,
etc., that once it gets out in the real world, users will find more bugs in the
first 10 minutes than a staff of programmers working all their lives.
(I remember talking to a Japanese manufacturer once about a new chip that had
more than a million input and output gates. I asked him how he knew every path
was logically consistent. He said he didn't. He said that if they were to check
every path, it would take all the engineers they had nearly 300 years. So, out
the door it goes.)
Which brings us to the next stage of the problem: People are mad for upgrades.
I don't know why this is exactly, but I have noticed that if there is a new
version of anything, no matter what, the old vesion is suddenly junk. Everybody
wants to be up to date, and not just in Kansas City.
It's ridiculous, of course. If what you have does what you want -- and you like
it -- leave it alone. If you don't need DOS 6, forget it. I know people who still
use WordStar -- I mean the original WordStar. They're happy.
Look, you can always go down to a computer store and read the box. If it's
something you would like to be able to do with your computer, it's probably
worth getting. If you don't need it, don't get it.
(Ed. Note: Mr. Schwabach's article continues, with 3 additional short subjects:)
1) Fincial Workshop
I just got a copy of Financial Workshop from Electronics Arts, $40 for the IBM.
This is a terrific set of easy-to-use calculations for figuring out things
such as the future value of your IRA or Keogh, whether it's smarter to lease
or buy a car, rent or buy a house, rates of return, etc.
Curiously, I first reviewed this program eight years ago, when it was called
Financial Cookbook and was put out by Electronic Arts for the Apple II and the
Atari 800 . Nostalgia buffs will remember those machines. There is no mention
of the earlier program anywhere on the package or the publicity, but I have no
doubt that it is the original.
That's OK. The original Financial Cookbook has not been available for years and
yet there are steady requests from readers for just such a program. I get
about two new packages a year dedicated to doing these same common financial
calculations, but they're never very good, and they always seem to want to
charge $100 for it.
Rewrite of a golden oldie or not, the Financial Workshop is the best program of
this type I have ever seen -- perfect for home and small businesses -- and
the price is about the same as the original. At $40 list, you'll probably see it
for $25 in the stores.
2) Rock and Bach Studio
Rock and Bach Studio is a very good new music education and composition
program for children ages 7-14; $60, for the IBM, from Binary Zoo. The child
learns about the basic building blocks of music by composing songs, assembling
a band, and ultimately creating a music video. You need a sound card and at
least 2 megabytes of RAM.
Rock and Bach is part of a new series being distributed by Broderbund. The
others are Wild Science Arcade, and Mystery at the Museums, which explores
the Smithsonian. They are well-done and good educational fare.
3) Computer "Bugs"
The computer expression "bug," as in "there are a few bugs in the system," has
become commonplace, but many people don't know where it comes from. If you're
curious, here's how we got it.
At the end of World War II, the world's first electronic computer was completed
at the University of Pennsylvania. It was a top-secret project funded by the
Navy. The object was to produce a calculating engine fast enough to compute
the changing gunnery trajectories between firings of a battleship's big guns.
Since the ship was constantly in motion it was a tough problem.
The machine filled a big room on the first floor of the Moore School of
Electrical Engineering. Now these were the days before the invention of
transistors and microchips. All the switching was done by vacuum tubes, which
were radio tubes. There were thousands of them. They glowed like tiny light
bulbs and produced so much heat that the windows had to be kept open all the
time.
The heat and light from the vacuum tubes would attract moths and other
insects, and some of them would get fried across the connecting terminals and
short out the wiring. This would bring whatever calculation was running to a
halt, and graduate students would be sent around the banks of vacuum tubes
to literally find the bugs in the system.
Alas, finding the bugs is a little more difficult these days.
Bob Schwabach may be contacted by writing to him care of Universal Press
Syndicate, 4900 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo. 64112.