Comment on 'boardswapping' as part of the computer culture.

[Tony Duell]

> If you can prove that your repair business model would be more successful
> than the one that has evolved over time in the electronics industry then

You know as well as I do that manufacturers love the board-swapping idea. 
It means they can employ total idiots as field-servoids. It means they 
can sell a service manual that contains no information and therefore 
doesn't give away any secrets (for all said 'secrets' could be discovered 
if an intellegent person looked at the real hardware). It means they have 
a monopoly on spare parts (if I have to swap a board, I have to get it 
from the manufacturer of the machine, a TTL chip could come from 
anywhere). 

This does not mean there are good engineering reasons for not doing 
proper diagnosis and repair. 

As regards what's more successful, _every_ time I've tried 
board-swapping, I've had more problems than I started with. When I find 
the fault using test gear, I put it right, and the machine stays working. 
Quite likely board-swapping will get the machine to do _something_ again 
in a shorter time than finding the fault properly, but doing the latter 
will get the machine doing the _right_ thing, and will make sure it keeps 
on doing that.

> you should write a book and become a consultant and make millions.  Why
> waste your breath with a bunch of geeks like us?

There's no point in be wasting my breath with you, since you clearly know 
everything. Fortunately the rest of us are not in that position, so we 
find it useful to exchange information.

Serveral times you've made comments that suggest you want me to leave 
this list. AFAIK you are not the list owner, that's Jay. He's the only 
person who can kick me off. 

-tony