new name was [Re: [mv] [soothing commentary] Interchange, OpenMethod and the Sandbox]

["birgitt" <birgitt@cais.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from "birgitt" <birgitt@cais.com>     ******

> "birgitt" <birgitt@cais.com> writes:
>
> > ******    message to minivend-users from "birgitt"
<birgitt@cais.com>     ******
> >
> > Hi list,
> >
> > I love the new Akopia site and the new buzz-words 8-).
But
> > does all this mean that the old guard of minivend-user
list
> > participants have to play with their MV- oops,
Interchange
> > tags now in the "Sandbox" ? Are we going to be sent to
the
> > OpenMethod's playground ?
> >
> > Well, Minivend can "interchangingly" play anything, I
guess,
> > even   a  Sandbox ! 8-)
> >
> > Nice service plans. Nice, simple, straight forward
layout.
> > Nice job. Too bad I have no business to do business with
> > OpenMethods. Who came up with this name ?
>
> Akopia, I think. In my very personal opinion Interchange
is a lame
> name. MiniVend sounds not so buzzy, but at least achieved
> some popularity so for me the new name is not an
improvement.
> But over all, it is most important that MiniVend will be
> this great product we know and improves over the time.
>
> Bye
>         Racke
>

Well, I guess there's always a problem to change a name of
something which has become known and somewhat popular. They
do it here in the US a lot, one stupid example was a very
well known drugstore chain for example. They changed it from
something very simle and easy like "People's Drugs" into
"CVS" (and of course _nothing_ changed otherwise). Imagine
just because of a merger, they would change the name
"Mercedes" or "VW" to something new. I guess they better
would not try to do that....! 8-)

Interchange has to me also not much of a meaning, but the
name is true to the old MiniVend thingy, that you basically
can change those tags any way you want....(grrr) and never
know when they finally will do, what you want them to do. So
something has found its way into the new name...8-)

OK, we will get used to it. Let's wait for the knowledge
base and docs to become slowly available That's what counts
IMHO. I mean they offered the "OpenMethod" to handle their
business and service relationships. So. let's take them by
their word. Let's be open with Akopia and speak our minds.
Let's be open minded to accept their way of thinking. Let's
HELP them to make the best open knowlegde base you have ever
seen online. Don't let the product go down, only up and
better.

And for the _openess' sake_, put your technical comments and
evaluations to the MAILING LIST and not into private mail to
akopia.com if at all possible.

For all it is worth, by the end of 1996 I became a believer
that MiniVend can scale upwards any way it wants to (though
I had no idea that that was intended by the author). I
understand that Akopia might feel the need  to convince big
business first of being capable to handle their demands. I
have no doubt they will.

More interesting to me is,  if they will be able to scale
downwards to the small business customer without letting the
product scale down to the "dummy, handy, dandy prepackaged,
off-the-shelf, unflexible" version which you handle in five
minutes to install and everything is set (and boring) behind
a GUI, which doesn't invite you anymore to see under the
hood.

Let's also hope that Akopia doesn't hide behind the
"technical boys and men's country club"-atmosphere and close
doors to the public when it comes to discuss technical
matters. "Gurus Only"- clubs don't mix with "OpenMethod"
services !

To me the appealing thing would be to get the full
complexity of the product with the full clarity and
simplicity of a text-based extended documentation usable by
anyone who can read English and has patience to learn. No
"Firlefanz",
just plain good old engineering with a bit of spice here and
there... 8-) Something like the _real_ beetle of the
fifties, where you could get a screwdriver and a pair of
pliers, exchange any part of the whole thing yourself, put
any motor under the hood you liked and were able to end up
with a Porsche motor, a Mercedes-like quality vehicle in a
gutsy beetle outfit to run for twenty-five years - and all
of that for almost nothing. 8-)

Ok, I think there are drivers wanted now ! Go, get it and
don't write too much interesting stuff anymore which gets me
upset or distracted. I need to get my driving lessons done.

Good luck, Mike et al., it's a pleasure to see the beetle
moving !

Cheers,
Birgitt

> --
> LinuXia Systems && Cobolt NetServices, eCommerce and more
> Shop- und Datenbanklösungen mit MiniVend, Firewalls auf
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> http://www.linuxia.de - http://www.cobolt.net
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