Re: tlug: parallel-port IDE

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> >>>>> "jdh" == John De Hoog <washi@example.com> writes:
> 
>     jdh> "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com> wrote:
> 
>     >> Who will pay my bus fare and substitute in my classes?  Oh, for
>     >> the freedom to hang out in Akihabara!  Just once a month would
>     >> be nice.
> 
>     jdh> You've done a context switch.
> 
> This is true.  Sorry.
> 
> Still, one shouldn't _have_ to hang out in Akihabara (in the back
> streets, yet), any more than one should have to hang out in Silicon
> Valley.  :-(
> 
> Nor do all businesses have choice of location (although Scott's did, I
> presume).

Pretty much.  Basically PHT just sort of started up where the founders
happened to be at the time.  PHT Japan is located in Setagaya-Ku, near
where Cliff lived as an exchange student in his youth (correct me if I'm
wrong, here, Cliff :) ).  And a while back we also had a couple of shops
in Akihabara and (I think) one in Shinjuku, selling shareware CDs - very
hot back in '92 and '93, apparently.  

Our office was in Salt Lake City for similar reasons - Cliff and his wife
happened to be there at the time that they started PHT... 

However, we could theoretically move our operations anywhere, since
there's nothing special about having the office in this particular part of
Tokyo.  However, our choice of locations seems to have been a good one
(ie, being in Japan as opposed to Europe).  There was a gapingly wide
niche for a Japanized, commercial Linux distribution which we were able to
fill, and it's worked well.

However, the points made about computer-savvy people in Japan is correct -
just looking at tech support issues, Japanese customers seem to need a bit
more 'hand holding' than the Americans I was dealing with back in Utah.
I'm not even going to speculate on why this might be, as I have no idea
whatsoever, but I'd be interested in hearing other peoples' views on this.

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


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