[BC] Radio Is Not what it Used to be

[Bill Sepmeier]

>If manufacturers could just make their devices web enabled this would 
>provide a common interface (HTTP) to all products.  The IP router 
>manufacturers have been doing this for years.

Which makes me wonder why it takes so long for our industry to adapt what's 
been out there to give us the amazing flexibility I used to have with my 
Cisco routers on three continents....

>2) I don't think the IP interface should be inherently required for a 
>transmitter to perform its intended function.  Is this acceptable in your 
>mind?  The net result might be that the cost of the IP enabled product is 
>more than the one without it.

Well, since I'm paying 2.89/gal for gas in rural South Park, Colorado, I'd 
really prefer to pay a bit more - or have the boss pay a bit more - to 
prevent that 140 mile drive that started this thread...  and when you look 
at the cost of the engineer's time, etc., I can't see that an IP interface's 
cost would be significant... with a couple of "saves" it would pay for 
itself.  Of course, transmitters don't really need the interface, as long as 
the remote control system used to operate them have it... right?

You must pardon me, Dan ... I've been "out" for a long time.  But are 
transmitters all fully integrated with internal remote controls these days?  
Or do you still have to run wires [gasp!] and use contactors and relays and 
such to run 'em?

>This is one area that I have been able to please no one.

Yeah, it's like being a divorce mediator or something, isn't it?  I found it 
much easier to package the options and discourage intellectual freedom when 
selling stuff ... LOL!  ... really ... you know your product reasonably well 
and you know how it works ... it's not that hard for YOU to find a common 
ground, or a few varieties of it, and then give people the full and free 
choice of which limited set of infinity they take.  Henry Ford came up with 
this ... any color you want, long as it's black!

>BTW, at Continental our engineers don't usually wear suits.  Is that bad?

Completely unprofessional, if you read the papers...  LOL!  Well, I had a 
written policy in our corporate handbook that forbid the wearing of suits 
and ties at work without a majority vote of the Board, and now I generate 
electricity for a living... perhaps if I'd worn a tie... [sigh]

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