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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ftth who wrote (3074)	6/17/2001 10:36:42 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 46821

That certainly sounds like an indictment against the industry's preparedness to produce user friendly fixes. I'm reminded of how awkward DOS first seemed, not to mention what folks endured learning to use UNIX shells, and how relatively simple Apple and later Windows appeared to first time users. Next, we found that the plug'n'play devices took some of the headache out of configuration of bus-attached NICs, controller cards and peripherals. Don't you think that autoconfig features can also be built into home networking devices (gateways, firewalls, routers, wireless assemblies... wait a minute, let's leave it at that for now) with the proper APIs to support implementation by neophytes? Engineering obviously needs to be put into the interfacing, and like you say, there will be pre-defined set of requirements as to which products, which versions, and so on can play. As for IT outsourcing, I don't think that it's far-fetched to expect that we'll see some retail organizations (e.g., Staples, Home Depot, Radio Shack, or Nobody Beats The Whiz <I can't believe I typed their whole name out>, say) come along and provide third-party support for home networking environments through dialup (or on net, in the case where they also have a deal with the SP) diagnostics and remote configuration management. Of course, and as you stated, they would only support the configurations that they specify and it in all likelihood would need to be purchased from them, or possibly customized configs that they pre-approve. One would think that such third-party arrangements already exist, but I can't think of one that is not solely contracted to an SP [as opposed to being independently elected by an end user]. Can you? Anyone? Of course, such an arrangement would cost money, and users have this notion that everything about the Internet is supposed to be free, or damn near free. Some of this thinking will have to change soon. I say this because the 'Net isn't scaling too well as a free ride anymore. Actually, the fact is, it has never scaled well free, as we can now tell by all of the SPs (and many of their vendors) who've never turned a profit since the day they went public. But I've digressed quite a bit from the main point here. Come back... anyone... FAC