RE: iwindsurf

From: Tracy Pierce (TPierce@goldengate.org-DeleteThis.com)
Date: Wed Apr 04 2001 - 07:52:51 PDT


X-OldHeader: From TPierce@goldengate.org-DeleteThis.com  Wed Apr  4 07:54:14 2001
Return-Path: <TPierce@goldengate.org-DeleteThis.com>
Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com [130.29.244.179]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id HAA27647 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 4 Apr 2001 07:54:14 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (msgbas1.cos.agilent.com [130.29.152.58]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id HAA00411 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 4 Apr 2001 07:54:13 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from ggexsf.golderngate.org (unknown [199.88.74.119]) by msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FEA69AE for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed,  4 Apr 2001 08:53:43 -0600 (MDT)
Received: by ggexsf.engineering.goldengate.org with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) id <2HHWL2MB>; Wed, 4 Apr 2001 07:52:51 -0700
Message-ID: <87372ECCA42DD3118E3200508B2E11466977C6@ggexsf.engineering.goldengate.org-DeleteThis.com>
From: Tracy Pierce <TPierce@goldengate.org-DeleteThis.com>
To: "'wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com'" <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>
Subject: RE: iwindsurf
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 07:52:51 -0700 
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)


Greg, thank you for rushing to George Haye's defense; you beat him to it
(maybe he was out sailing?).

As most of us know, George is a very enthusiastic and seemingly tireless
SFBA board member as well as a relatively new iWindsurf employee.

> where do YOU think Ken's old "Coyote and Waddell" readings were coming
from?

I don't know, and I don't really know Ken, but I'd assume, based on other
clues of his intelligence, that all his sources are legitimate; I'd
certainly not off-the-wall suggest that he was stealing data from Call of
the Wind. Gotta admit it kinda rankles me when someone in an authoritative
position spews wild guesses as if they were fact being handed down. Honest
mistake? I sure hope (and trust) so.

Again I pose the question: Does anybody know who owns the sensor (possibly
dead, as is a similar unit at Candlestick) mounted on the roof of the
snackbar building at Coyote? I'd venture to guess that it was quite likely
installed by windsurfers, but I sure wouldn't state it as fact.

> The real funny thing when I read your mis-information officer remark as
<snip>
I'm glad you found it funny, which was my intent. I really didn't mean to
trash George as badly as you seem to interpret; I'm truly sorry it sounded
that bad.

I certainly don't envy the position in which George finds himself: the SFBA
(on whose board George sits) sponsors a few windtalkers, yet it's George's
livelihood to promote iWindsurf. Sounds to me like a conflict of interests
which could easily become difficult to balance.

(It's certainly not the *fault* of George Haye or iWindsurf that those SFBA
windtalkers have mostly fallen into disrepair (tho Berkeley's now working,
and Candlestick is very close), but the degree of penetration enjoyed by
iWindsurf tends to cause apathy where this SFBA member service is concerned;
iWindsurf ends up being the only game in town, which then bolsters their
dollar-extraction position.

I agree with most of the respondents to this thread: the more info, the
better. To that end, I'm thrilled to see iWindsurf now making the NWS
readings available (I'd sure like to see them show up on the pager, too, but
that's not a huge issue for me - I get several of them on the pager from
'other sources', and I sort of like not having all my eggs in one basket).
I'm also quite happy paying iWindsurf for all the lovely WIND info showing
up in my pocket.

But since the point of this thread is to bash iWindsurf, let me say I
-don't- like paying them for bs such as snow reports and or fancy web pages
with little content ("You are in a maze of twisty passages..."). I realize
they need some perks to keep summer-only sailors subscribed, but I
personally don't care a whit about 'realtime snow reports' - that info is
available from more likely sources, such as the ski areas themselves, and
iW's efforts in this area look to me like a waste of expert time. Ditto the
fancy kludge web pages with less info than ever. Hell, I'm happy to pay for
the info, just keep on DELIVERing!

Someday soon (again, fondly hoping), we're gonna see customizable pager
maildrop slots, and *really* get what we want: "Members, here's the list of
available broadcasts, choose 12 for your pager. When you press Submit, be
sure your pager's turned on and getting clear signal.". Quite do-able, but
could easily require an icky dissection of existing infrastructure.

> Maybe you might even notice that iwindsurf does things
> like providing information about access issues on their website in an
> attempt to help keep people informed and involved. Is that the
> caringless corporation of rich beaurocrats you dream of? I mean who
> really thinks the people at iwindsurf are pulling in piles of money?
> Every so often it seems that people start whining about the fact that
> iwindsurf shouldn't actually behave like a business and attempt to make
> some money. Grow up.
Uh, 'you first'? I guess you're speaking to the entire thread here. I
personally would love to see all the fine folks at iWindsurf get VERY rich.
Then they could can the hype and really just deliver the info, more and more
of it. I'd be more than happy to see iWindsurf re-broadcasting the data
from the SFBA sensors, too. And their web pages seem as likely a place as
any for access issues etc, though these are probably better taken care of by
local associations (ain't that what links are all about?). I'd have to
suggest that iWindsurf got caught up in the dotcom frenzy along with many
others, and wasted a vast amount of resources (read money) trying to become
the only game in EVERY town.

Again, more (relevant!) info is always welcome.

Tracy Pierce



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 07 2002 - 02:10:08 PST