What happened to Briel Computers?

[jac_goudsmit]

arduinoenigma wrote:

As a KIM-Uno owner, the Micro Kim kit was looking attractive, much better display control. If the motivation to keep the store going is gone, I second opening up the design. OscarV has all the design files up in the website and still sells kits to those not willing to source all the parts by themselves.

The MicroKim was based on Ruud Baltissen's "build your own KIM" page and of course the original KIM-1 schematic. As far as I know, the MicroKim schematic has always been "open" though there's no explicit license anywhere on the website.

The PCB design is not open-source. That's understandable; otherwise any opportunist could produce their own PCB's or kits and make a quick buck at Vince's expense. I could probably reverse-engineer the MicroKim PCB design pretty easily and sell it as a kit, but I'm not going to, at least not without Vince's permission. And I would think it's only fair that he would make some money off every sale, even if I would redesign the board from scratch and made improvements.

I think Vince did an excellent job with the MicroKim (and his other designs too). MicroKim is a good compromise between an exact replica with all the original parts (like, say, the Mike Willegal Apple 1 clone) and a low-cost emulator that's nothing like the original but just works that way (like, say, the KIM-Uno). It used parts that weren't anachronistic to solve the problem that the 6530s are unobtainium. Of all Vince's replica projects, MicroKim was probably the most true to the original, and it was reasonably priced.

===Jac

[ChuckT]

jac_goudsmit wrote:

I worked with Vince Briel on the Superboard III and it was a pleasure and an honor. But I think even before that, he was kinda getting burned out on the retro computer replica idea. I can only speculate, but I think sales were going down and it was costing him a lot of time that he didn't have. He didn't

From my own personal experience of being online, other uses suck your time out of you because you know a little more than other people and every one wants help from someone who knows more. And they want to know why you don't have something built when you are helping them.

I'm sure that building something from scratch takes a lot of time and computers are built by corporations with hundreds of people and lots of money. When I was in high school, one of our math teachers said that HP was only hiring people with Master's or Doctorate degrees. It is that competitive and way more.

The fact that computers can be obsolete in two years makes the whole proposition hard and difficult for everyone. Even engineers have to read a new book every three or four years.

[cbmeeks]

ChuckT wrote:

From my own personal experience of being online, other uses suck your time out of you because you know a little more than other people and every one wants help from someone who knows more. And they want to know why you don't have something built when you are helping them.

This is my experience as well. Especially in the software world. I find that 99% of people will just ask you for the answer instead of trying to solve anything for themselves. Once they learn that you know more about something than they do, they assume you are an open book of information...willing to answer any question they have at any moment without any regard if you have the time, desire or even the knowledge. They just want the answer now so that they can brag to other people about how smart they are.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical....

[KC9UDX]

Maybe you're not cynical enough, that they keep coming back to you.

[ChuckT]

cbmeeks wrote:

ChuckT wrote:

From my own personal experience of being online, other uses suck your time out of you because you know a little more than other people and every one wants help from someone who knows more. And they want to know why you don't have something built when you are helping them.

This is my experience as well. Especially in the software world. I find that 99% of people will just ask you for the answer instead of trying to solve anything for themselves. Once they learn that you know more about something than they do, they assume you are an open book of information...willing to answer any question they have at any moment without any regard if you have the time, desire or even the knowledge. They just want the answer now so that they can brag to other people about how smart they are.

Maybe I'm a bit cynical....

Nothing is free anymore.
Some companies went broke trying to provide support so now if you call support, you have to pay.
Manuals are online or CD if you get one at all.
Games are even coming with in-app purchases to pay programmers.

What is 5% of a million dollars? $50,000. You have to charge at least 5 percent to pay a salesman.

[cbmeeks]

KC9UDX wrote:

Maybe you're not cynical enough, that they keep coming back to you.

HA! Good point.

ChuckT wrote:

Nothing is free anymore.
Some companies went broke trying to provide support so now if you call support, you have to pay.
Manuals are online or CD if you get one at all.
Games are even coming with in-app purchases to pay programmers.

You know, I don't think most things like that were ever really free. I believe that companies that produced a quality product would just charge enough to pay for X amount of support, manuals, etc. The customer believed these were "free" and "perks".

I think this is a good thing. I remember when we used to install Cisco routers and when we had trouble, we got a very competent support staff that would spend all day and night to help us. It was about the quality product.

Now, competition is so fierce that companies have to provide less.

Competition is a good thing. But it's gotten so bad that startups come in and work "miracles" for almost no money. Many of them fail later because they learn that the cheapest product isn't always the best.

It still amazes me how companies can be "valued" at $100+ BILLION dollars when they have NEVER turned a profit.

[BigEd]

Back to the question of small outfits making vintage tech, I do wonder if it's better to present yourself as a very small outfit, to be sure to set expectations at the right level, and to convey the idea that there's a real person at the other end.

[cbmeeks]

BigEd wrote:

Back to the question of small outfits making vintage tech, I do wonder if it's better to present yourself as a very small outfit, to be sure to set expectations at the right level, and to convey the idea that there's a real person at the other end.

I believe that's a good idea.

People get all kinds of crazy once money becomes involved.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

cbmeeks wrote:

Now, competition is so fierce that companies have to provide less.

Which, of course, is why airlines now charge you for a bag of peanuts on a flight from Chicago to London. Before long, they will be installing pay toilets on their planes.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

BigEd wrote:

Back to the question of small outfits making vintage tech, I do wonder if it's better to present yourself as a very small outfit, to be sure to set expectations at the right level, and to convey the idea that there's a real person at the other end.

You do make a good point. If money is the root of all evil then letting it be known you are in business to earn a profit must make you the very incarnation of Lucifer in the eyes of some if you don't give away freebies.

Periodically while at a social event where it becomes known what I do for a living I will get the inevitable queries about how to fix various computer maladies—mostly involving MS Windows. As I am at the event to socialize, not work, I employ a tactic I learned from a doctor who was often bugged by people who would approach her and ask something like "My elbow hurts. What's wrong?" She would hand them a business card and suggest that they call her office to make an appointment for an examination.

[KC9UDX]

Money is not the root of all evil. This is a common misquote.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

[DerTrueForce]

That's also a misquote(but less of one). It's "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Quite different to "all evil," if you ask me.

[EugeneNine]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

BigEd wrote:

Back to the question of small outfits making vintage tech, I do wonder if it's better to present yourself as a very small outfit, to be sure to set expectations at the right level, and to convey the idea that there's a real person at the other end.

You do make a good point. If money is the root of all evil then letting it be known you are in business to earn a profit must make you the very incarnation of Lucifer in the eyes of some if you don't give away freebies.

Periodically while at a social event where it becomes known what I do for a living I will get the inevitable queries about how to fix various computer maladies—mostly involving MS Windows. As I am at the event to socialize, not work, I employ a tactic I learned from a doctor who was often bugged by people who would approach her and ask something like "My elbow hurts. What's wrong?" She would hand them a business card and suggest that they call her office to make an appointment for an examination.

There was a comedian that did a skit on this a while back. He played the tech guy and hit brother in law was always asking him how ti fix his PC every time they were together, usually things like thanksgiving meals "hey, my computer is doing this, can you take a look at it?". His Brother in law was a doctor so he said during the meal he stood up and said "hey doc, I have this lump on my behind, can you take a look at it?" and dropped his pants.

I used to fix up and give away old computers but would then be expected to fix them, for free of course. I quit running windows in 2002 so now a days I tell them I don't know how unless they want me to install Linux.

[KC9UDX]

DerTrueForce wrote:

That's also a misquote(but less of one). It's "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Quite different to "all evil," if you ask me.

Not in my copy; I Tim. 6:10.

[unclouded]

EugeneNine wrote:

I quit running windows in 2002 so now a days I tell them I don't know how unless they want me to install Linux.

I've installed Ubuntu (dual-boot just in case) on many friends' laptops. To my great surprise, none of them boot Windows any more. These are casual users of course: browser, word processing, photos from the camera, playing DVDs; Altium and SolidWorks don't work so well on Linux. The worst I have in the way of support is installing the security updates and the occasional dist-upgrade.