RS> Sure, but some get fixed anyway. Bills latest Sportster rom helped
RS> heaps. I got the same result with one Supra rom change. Its very
RS> handy to be able to just flash some new code into the rom.

RS> Corse a separate question is whether the obscene price of the Courier
RS> is worth spending to get that. I personally cant justify spending that
RS> even with my STD phone call costs, let alone the other question of waiting
RS> till the warts have been mostly excised from V34 before I do go V34 myself.

BG> Which shouldn't matter at all if you buy a generic DSP-powered
BG> modem, because of their non-reliance on hard-coded, masked datapumps.

I meant more that if you had waited till now, even if you had bought
the Courier instead of the Sportster, for the flashrom, you would not
have wasted some money on the dud calls to Paul, even if you could just
flash the fix once it was available. Corse its hard to quantify whether
the faster sessions would pay for the dud calls before the fix too.
Obviously they couldnt while he was running the Spirit.

Certainly back in the days of the first VFC/V34 capable Couriers,
it might well have made considerable sense to stick with the V32bis
until the most basic flaws were excised, particularly as many of
them were actually in the CALLED modem, not the one you own yourself.

BG> The flash-ROM Courier, for example, started its life as a V.32terbo
BG> modem, and all extended protocols have simply been additional ROM code,

Sure, but with significant phone call costs while bugs were excised.

BG> so unless you specifically wanted to buy a Rockwell-based
BG> V.34, there's no real reason to hang off any longer IMO.

Cant agree with that either. Yes, the current Courier is useable
enough. BUT its still obscenely overpriced, and I really would
like to have a decent external continuous status display too,
particularly with modern V34 modems which may well be changing
their speed and stuff on the fly in most real live sessions.

I cant get within a bulls roar of justifying a V34 on the
saving on phone call costs. And a Courier would buy a 2GB
hard drive too with plenty left over for a CDROM as well.

RS> Usually with a decent modem supplier it does get fixed tho.

BG> Have you included NetComm in that comment, or are you still undecided?  :)

My problem with Netcon is more their obscene ripoff charges for
fixes outside warrantee and they have FAR too any new models as well.

PE> Besides, can't I get a ROM upgrade for $20 or something
PE> from Netcomm? $20 is one-year's interest on the $200 saving.

RS> Yeah, thats one consideration.

BG> As long as the modem is still within its warranty
BG> period, NetComm ROM upgrades have always been supplied
BG> FOC (dunno if that's still current policy though).

They can play silly buggers proclaiming that you have to buy an upgrade to
the new model far too much for my taste tho. Fuck them, I am a great believer
in punishing obscene business practice by withdrawing my cash. I expect to see
Netcon go down the tubes any day because I wont buy one of their V34 modems |-)

BG> The REAL advantage with the top-end modems, like the USR Courier
BG> and the AT&T Paradyne, is the future upgradeability of these products,
BG> and I for one am more than happy to pay a premium for that ability.

PE> It isn't worth $200 to ME,

RS> Sure, thats a valid point, and I basically feel the same way, the price
RS> hike just cant be justified. Corse if it was possible to get full DSP
RS> flashrom for the SAME price it would be a different matter entirely.

BG> It's only Paul's rabid insistence upon using only Austel approved
BG> modems which is why the Courier would cost him $200 more than the M34F.

Nope.

BG> I presume that like me, when the time comes you will be buying from
BG> the US anyway.  At US$249 for my Courier, I'm expecting to pay no more
BG> than A$450-odd, freight and sales tax paid, delivered to my front door.

Oh come on Bill, these figures are completely bogus. Thats the
tradin price, and they havent even delivered after a full year
of bullshit. A landed price for an external would be over A$700.

BG> Not being a sysop, I can't even buy an M34F for that price locally!

Well, its not hard to satisfy Netcon on sysop pricing,
thats one of the few things in Netcons favour.

BG> If you want to take advantage of that special trade-in price
BG> yourself, all you have to do is hunt around and find somebody who'll
BG> sell you their old Courier HST for $30 or $40, and you're away.

I'll believe it when I see it. And you dont see
too many ancient Couriers around anymore now either.

BG> I'd let you have mine, except I think I'll be needing it...  :)

I have your address and often know when you are away |-)

RS> What some Taiwanese devil should do is make a clone of the
RS> Courier, and just supply some adequate code, and arrange it
RS> so that it would always run the USR Courier flashrom code |-)

BG> Yeah, and I can just see USR standing around letting them do it too. 

They wouldnt have any say in the matter. Thats the
whole point of them supplying their own code which
the user just immediately flashes USR code over.

BG> Mind you, if they DID do such a thing,
BG> there's not a lot the yanks can do anyway.

Dead right. The only thing they could do is no longer supply flashrom
code at all. It wouldnt even be enough to implement stringent checks
on who they hand out new code to coz all the Taiwanese would have to
do is have one of theirs over there in the US with a real Courier who
always gets the latest SDL and promptly spreads it around.

Maybe I should buy a Courier, clone it myself at the hardware level,
and organise for mass production of the hardware in Taiwan. They
would no doubt rip me off and just flog them to anyone who wanted
one, but why should I give a damn, I want them to do that anyway |-)

RS> That would REALLY put the fox amoungst the chickens |-)

BG> Or the 7th fleet amongst the Chinese navy...

They havent bothered to send in the gunboats yet, they wont on that.

PE> so there's no point you telling me I've bought a lemming etc etc,

RS> Its lemon actually |-)

BG> Reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch, where
BG> Cleese orders a double martini with a twist of
BG> lemming.  Gross!  The RSPCA must have loved that one.  :)

True, its one of the weirder aspects of the human mind. The other one you
see heaps is 'sprouting' when they mean 'spouting', as in sprouting bullshit.
@EOT:

---