[mdlug] Reverse-engineering data protocols

[Aaron Kulkis]

David McMillan wrote:
> On 3/3/2011 2:36 PM, Aaron Kulkis wrote:
>> Sounds like this company is creating an IMMENSE
>> business opportunity for anyone who can create
>> decent test equipment AND
>>
>> a) be responsive to customer requests
>> 	OR
>> b) open-source the software
>> [After all, you're making money on the test
>> equipment, not the hardware drivers -- something
>> which massive numbers of hardware manufacturers
>> utterly fail to comprehend.]
>      Yes, it would see fairly intuitive that expanding the flexibility 
> of the equipment for end users would almost inevitably increase sales.
> 
>      The pushback I see from vendors on this subject generally runs 
> along these lines:
> 1. opening up that level of access and/or releasing that level of 
> details makes them vulnerable to reverse-engineering by competitors who 
> then can sell a matching product at a lower price point without having 
> to recoup the sunk R&D debts of the original developer
> 2. Doing this generates pressure to divert more of their experienced, 
> skilled personnel into tech support roles for weirder and weirder things 
> that end users and OEMs keep doing with the original platform, and away 
> from doing more profitable R&D.
> 3. certain classes of "800-lb customers" who start insisting on all 
> sorts of customizations and ruffles and flourishes, leading to...
> 4. severe product fragmentation, the kind of thing that people keep 
> complaining about in regards to Android.
> 
>      To be fair, I've seen all of these play out in real-world scenarios 
> -- there are some actual, concrete reasons for some of this attitude on 
> the part of vendors.  I've personally been a victim of the "800-lb 
> customer" waving his "you'll never get business from us again" club, and 
> didn't have any leverage to push back b/c there were always a half-dozen 
> competitors ready to offer 90% of my quality for 80% of the price (the 
> purchasing scheme in a lot of corporate America is broken these days -- 
> the guys who save money by cutting corners up front are not the ones who 
> have to pay the cost of fixing those cut corners later).

This is a basic problem with most current MBA programs...
they're breeding a herd of managers who only care about
their own little fiefdom within the company, but aren't
all that interested in the health and well-being of the
kingdom as a whole.

> 
>      But now I'm REALLY off-topic, so I'd better stop.


It's OK.  There's a reason that after I get back from
Afghanistan, I plan to get out of IT entirely -- and it's
due ENTIRELY to shortsighted management nearly everywhere.