Re: Smarthome Insteon Defective Switchlinc Replacement Program (Re: I think they've done it again)

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 5 Aug 2006 21:09:07 GMT, ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote in message
<1331963@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>In article <pkj9d2htptus4l3h66i4usavor5ul7qomf@xxxxxxx>,
MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Marc_F_Hult) writes:
>
>| (FWIW,  I think some folks have an inflated view of the impact of
>| comp.home.automation. This is jist my impression because I don't
>| actually have any data. I am particularly skeptical of _post hoc ergo
>| propter hoc_causal relations that I often read about in this newsgroup.
>
>I don't know.  Back when I was trying to use the original SwitchLinc
product and SmartLinc was stonewalling with the usual ``your wiring is too
>noisy'' line, a posting to comp.home.automation with some speculation on
>the nature of the bugs actually provoked a phone call from someone
>claiming to be in the development department at SmartLinc.  Granted it
>turned out that their real motivation was to prevent (or at least delay)
>me from posting a more complete description of the problems, but they
>certainly reacted.
>
>Similarly, years earlier a posting in comp.dcom.telecom about bugs in
>a Vive caller ID box provoked a response from (IIRC) the president after
>it was somehow brought to the company's attention.  Of course, the purpose
>of the response was mainly to attempt to deflect the criticism and confuse
>the issue.
>
>Hmm, maybe these examples support your thesis that there isn't much
>impact. :)  But it may be a good way to get the attention of otherwise
>unresponsive companies, and the availability of archives has made it
>much more difficult for those companies to use the, ``nobody else is
>having that problem'' excuse...
>

I have no doubt that SmartHome and others are smart enough to get free tech
help and head off problems by reading this newsgroup from time to time. And
that you and Dave and others with obvious technical expertise are heard and
have an incremental impact on decisions. And if you actually "closed the
loop" by having a conversation with them, the data would seem to be pertain
directly to causality.

That is not what I was referring to. I was trying to agree with the part of
Dave's comment in the paragraph above the one you (Dan) quote that
indicated that comp.home.automation was not important in creating the mass
_market_ for INSTEON.

(That comment was accompanied by the implication that this particular
individual purchased INSTEON because Dave posted about it which in turn
served as the vehicle for yet another ...1,2,3...10; 1,2,3...Ten! <rest
deleted>. Dave didn't set the price of INSTEON, or write HomeSeer, or build
and write ELK controller which _are_ the reasons why this individual
purchased INSTEON. )

In general we have no good way of accessing comp.home.automation impact on
markets as best I know. There are from time to time some faint return
'signals' such as the Ocelot controllers on sale at eBay that are sold and
described by homeowners as never having been used (What do you do with an
Ocelot if you don't program?) but hardly definitive.

My environmental advocacy work involves trying to teach non-scientists to
respect data and not to exaggerate or embellish, while not hesitating to
use the sparse data that we do have.

Folks that can understand these two favorite assertions in context with
each other

"No data is better than bad data", and

"One data point is infinitely better than no data point"

are at least on the right track in my opinion. Unfortunately we sometimes
'create' bad (qualitative) data here in comp.home.automation which is
constitutionally anathema to me (hence my reaction to demonstrably false
statements).

my 20 mils ... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org