Re: Building a rackmount looping computer as an alternative to theReceptor for Mobius

[Jeff Larson <Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM>]

Yes, yes, the "non real-time" aspect of PCs has been beaten to death
here.  Sure it is a concern, but frankly it is overblown.  Time will
tell.  I do however completely agree that purpose built hardware will
be better than a general purpose computer attempting to do the same
thing.  No question.  Unfortunately, no one makes hardware that
does what I want so I'm forced to use a computer.  It is a sad, sad
existence.  Pity me.  Luckily I'm not "pro" :-)

 >> It would cost what, 12 or 13 thousand to duplicate what mobius will do
 >> with edp units! and that doesn't even consider the nightmare of trying
 >> to wire up and control 16 edp's
 >
 > Well, you also have to consider the whole ethical dilemma there, and
 > what your conscience allows.

Ok I'll bite.  Ethical dilemma?  Oh I get it, did I "steal" your ideas?
Well, they weren't hard to steal, they were all published quite nicely.
Everyone on this list whines about how manufacturers aren't listening
to the looping community by failing to incorporate some popular feature
into their product.  If they did would that be stealing?  Do you
own the concept of "multiply"?

Some people believe I somehow copied the actual assembly code off the
EDP ROMs and built an emulator to run that in Windows.  This is untrue
and I would in fact consider that unethical.  Mobius was a *lot* of
work.  I have invested well over a thousand hours in it.  Had I chosen
to make my usual consulting rate during those hours I could have made
a lot of money.  Now I give it away for free for the benefit of
those that can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on hardware.
I'm sorry if you consider that unethical, I don't.

And as I've said before, I really don't think Mobius is affecting the
sales of EDPs at all.  Based on some of the feedback I get I've
probably even sold a few EDPs for you.  There are plenty of people out
there that are curious about the EDP but they're not going to spend
a thousand dollars to find out.  Now they can get a pretty good idea,
but for all the reasons you so eloquently point out they don't
want to deal with a laptop on stage.  So they decide to buy an EDP.
You're welcome.

I have an enormous amount of admiration for the EDP designers.  This
device quite literally changed my life.  It saddens me that Mobius
irritates some of you, but I honestly cannot understand how it
adversely affects you in any way.  No one else was going to do this,
it is incredibly difficult and you can't make money selling it.
This is my hobby, I build the things I want and if there are other
tone deaf rhythmically challenged amateurs that like it too, well
fine I get some karma points.

Warmly,
Jeff