Sean, you and Wagner bring up good points. My choice of the word;
"culture", should have read "corporate culture". Still, it's
frustrating... I agree with your comments about large orders from major
customers. This started with the comments about the Futaba VFD which
was being promoted at the time. They were quick to send me a sample
display but I had to jump through all kinds of `hoops' to get a
data sheet mailed to me. Why in the world would they take the time to
send me a relatively expensive sample with no data? There is simply
something wrong with this picture and I think it relates to
`corporate culture' as far as customer relations. In this day and age
of the Web, I think some companies are `behind the curve'...

   Other `nits'... I have a Brother IntelliFAX machine with all kinds
of features. However, the manual is absolutely terrible! They do have
an index but it doesn't even reference setting the clock! To their
credit, it turned out to be Y2K compliant ;-)

   I also have a Toshiba VCR with several innovations. Yet the manual
has neither a table of contents nor an index. Also, though you can set
the time and date, you can't display the date!

   Wagner mentioned how fortunate we are to have access to such data
compared to some other countries. This is true but this is 2000 and
if you are going to do business in the Western world, it would seem
to be advantageous to know the culture when supporting products and
writing data or owner manuals. The reverse is also true...

   Finally, I have a great deal of respect for all cultures, especially
Asian since I served in the 'Nam war and got to know folks from several
countries in the region. The experience has changed my life to this day.

   - Tom

At 07:32 PM 1/24/00 -0500, Sean Breheny wrote:
>Hi Tom,
>
>I too have noticed that the web sites of many Asian companies lack
>documentation AND when you DO get documentation from them, it usually
>explains the obvious things (like mechanical mounting considerations) but
>not the vital details (what, for example, the symbol Vo might mean in a
>particular context).
>
>However, I fail to see how this could be a cultural difference. Clearly, if
>you are Chinese, Korean, or whatever, you STILL need the information as
>much as a Western engineer.
>
>I have always assumed that the difference was that they were used to
>filling ONLY very large orders and would work out the details one-on-one
>with whoever was willing to buy at least, say, 100K units.
>
>Sean
>
>
>At 12:11 PM 1/24/00 -0800, you wrote:
>>   David, when I recieved an engineering sample it did not have a data
>>sheet. I had to call Futaba America to get one. I'm fairly sure they
>>have a UK presence. Check the web. At the time, they had a big promotion in
>>EDN and other publications but they had no data sheets on their web sites.
>>I've been very frustrated in dealing with Asian companies over this issue
>>not to mention product manuals. It's a huge cultural difference that exists
>>to this day. If they are going to market products to the western world, they
>>should hire folks from that world... Sorry to `babble'...
>>
>>   - Tom
>| Sean Breheny
>| Amateur Radio Callsign: KA3YXM
>| Electrical Engineering Student


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Handley
New Age Communications
Since '75 before "New Age" and no one around here is waiting for UFOs ;-)