Re: ZoomFloppy - formatting a disk in a 2031 disk drive

> On May 10, 2018 at 11:29 AM Steve Gray <sjgray@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> 2 cents:  I think it's safe to say most 8-bit Commodore users now are 
> from the post-PET days. The IEEE people are a minority, and so for 
> most users a simple IEC solution is perfectly fine. Having said that, 
> Jim, I find your products to be useful and very cost-effective. I'm 
> one of the IEEE people, as are many cbm-hackers here, so I like the 
> option. I was not very much into parallel speeder cables, so for me 
> that's a feature I don't need. I do, however, have lots of IEC systems 
> and sometimes the ZF is a bit bulky.

I responding to the comments about price, not size.  I would also ask if 
folks have seen these other offerings.  I looked at a few variants, and 
the mini-xum1541 doesn't seem very "mini" to me (not all that much 
smaller than the 1591 case of the ZF, and the xum1541 I see on eBay and 
other places was made purposely long and big so folks could hand solder 
it.  It is smaller, though not much less bulky, as it is longer.  
However, I was not aware bulk was a significant concern.

> Basically, it's finding a balance between demand, features, and price, 
> and not everyone agrees, which is why it's good to have different 
> designs to choose from. It's true somebody is gonna find a way to make 
> money on bare-minimum hardware, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I think it has the potential to drive away hardware (and firmware) 
developers from releasing their designs or producing them.  Why go to 
all the trouble to produce something you know has limited profit options 
if you won't at least get the satisfaction of community members sending 
you an email/order saying "Cool, thanks for doing this, set me up with 
one"?  It's not the money, it's the people and the interactions.  Leave 
those off, and I think most folks will just design something for 
themselves and just not release the design.  How do we encourage people 
to further the design, release it, produce it, sell it so we can enjoy 
it, and continue in the community so we can all further the idea?

Note that I do not paint all eBay sales with the same brush. Some 
community members drive innovation (little adorable 1541-looking sd2iec 
units, home brew carts, etc.) and choose to offer their wares on eBay.  
And, competition in the space is not horrid either (drives innovations, 
which we all like).  But, these low-cost sellers contribute nothing to 
the community, and they tend to use the community goodwill to provide 
free support.

I know my comments will carry the stench of bias, since I sell things, 
but I truly believe I would feel the same way regardless.

Jim