Possibilities - Letter From Phil 6/91

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LETTER FROM PHIL 6/91
---------------------

*** From June 1991 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1991 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Letter From Phil
by Phil Becker

Many people gauge the start of summer by the start of the baseball season.  
Since I am an auto racing fan, for me summer starts with the Indy 500.  Auto 
racing organizes its season a bit differently from most sports.  NASCAR has 
its biggest race (the Daytona 500) as the first race of the season, and the 
Indy 500 is only the fourth race of the season for Indy cars.  This year these
two races brought home to me a point that is both obvious and easy to 
overlook.  It has to do with the dynamics of change, especially when change 
must occur. 

For most of you who probably know next to nothing about my favorite sport you 
need to know that NASCAR had to change their pit stop rules this year because 
last year six people were hurt very badly and one was killed because of pit 
stop accidents.  When lives are at stake no one can deny that changes are 
required. 

The NASCAR rules committee spent six months in meetings with every interested 
party to develop new rules which would prevent the accidents without damaging 
the game.  The Daytona 500 was the first race of the season so it was the 
tryout for the new rules.  They did their job, no one came close to being 
hurt.  But they ruined the race.  Fans were bored, drivers and their teams 
felt cheated by the effects and in general it was a disaster for the sport.  
It has taken six races with six different sets of rules to get their racing 
restored to a good game again. 

At the same time the most exciting Indy 500 race in years just finished.  But 
Indy cars are faced with rules changes too.  Engine rules will probably change 
in the next year.  Will it work or will it also be a disaster which costs 
millions of dollars to repair as was the case with NASCAR?  Only time will 
tell. 

These two situations brought home to me that even what appear to be small, 
absolutely needed changes can have strong unexpected consequences.  Even when 
everyone agrees that the changes must occur it can be a trying period while 
all of the side effects of the changes are dealt with.  It also indicates how 
hard it is to predict all of the effects of one change, even one which appears 
small on the surface.  Systems are fragile things, and usually far more 
complex than they appear. 

As I work on the design of TBBS 2.2 I constantly try to think of the impact of 
the changes we are making on our current users.  Sometimes in design meetings 
I come off as a reactionary because I constantly stress these impacts.  It 
isn't because I don't think that the new features or changes in our current 
system are needed, often the need is obvious and strong.  It's just that I 
have seen too many times where people are impacted heavily by what seems like 
a small change. 

A friend recently sent me a cartoon in which two people were talking.  One 
said "God created the world in six days" to which the other replied "Yes, but 
he didn't have an installed base."  This may overstate the case a bit, but it 
does indicate the difficulty inherent in upgrading a product without causing 
disturbances. 

In this issue you can read more about what TBBS 2.2 will provide in the way of 
new features.  I have also indicated that single line will only be an upgrade 
product after TBBS 2.2 is released, and that our new starter system will be a 
two lines (plus console) TBBS 2.2M[2] -- still priced at $299.95.  This change 
is necessary, but it will cause problems for some.  But as my favorite sport 
has so clearly shown, things cannot stay the same forever.  Changes must 
occur. 

I feel that TBBS 2.2 will be the most significant release of the TBBS software 
in history.  Many have told me I should have called it TBBS 3.0 because it has 
so much new capability -- maybe I should have.  A year from now you will look 
back at the days of TBBS 2.1 and wonder how you ever did your job with it.  If 
I do my job right, you will make the transition smoothly with the minimum 
possible amount of pain -- in most cases no pain at all. 

Included in the envelope with this newsletter is the upgrade form for TBBS 2.2 
so you can place your orders now.  I think you'll be happy you took the 
step... 

- END -
PS0691-1
Rev. 6/91

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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interested party.  Any other use requires the written permission of
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