October 29, 1989

FORESHOCK: On Earthquake Tuesday, my doctor told me that my hand injuries, caused by too much typing, had worsened considerably and I would need to spend a full month off the keyboard if I wanted to let my hands heal.

Thus I share the vast frustration of those afflicted with repetitive strain injuries, known as RSI, and of people like inventor/crusader Tony Hodges. Hodges has tried for two years to find a manufacturer for his split-and-tilt keyboard, designed to ease the excruciating pain of RSI.

His keyboard, endorsed by prominent hand specialists, cracks down the middle and allows the hands to rest in their natural position, fingers parallel to the floor.

Sources close to Apple Computer say Apple is working on a similar design. John Moon, in charge of Apple’s peripherals engineering, was out of town and couldn’t comment.

In any case, Hodges claims to hold patents on any split or tilt keyboard design, so if Apple is working on one, it could mean a David v. Goliath lawsuit. Hodges is waiting to see what happens, but “‘can’t believe Apple would do such a thing — I can’t imagine John Sculley being a thief.”

It’s disgraceful that computer vendors don’t acknowledge the devastating nature of RSIs. They seduce us with propaganda, but don’t want to take responsibility for obviously related physical problems like RSI.

“The irony to me is that we have something that we believe in and love, our office of special education,” says an Apple employee. “But we’re crippling people (with keyboards) in much larger numbers than the good we can do in special education.”

The situation calls for Steve Jobs and his legendary charisma to step in and champion a healthy keyboard with a standard interface — to the Next machine, of course, as well as Mac, IBM clones, Sun, DEC, etc. Jobs could charge a ton for it (I’d pay $500 for one), one-up the competition, and gain the undying gratitude of those whose livelihoods depend on a solution to RSI.

AFTERSHOCKS: The day of the earthquake, Dataquest’s annual Semiconductor Industry Conference in Monterey didn’t miss a beat. The post-quake session was a heated debate between Makoto Kuroda, adviser to Japan’s MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) and key negotiator for the U.S./Japan semiconductor trade agreement, and Linn Williams, deputy trade rep from George Bush’s office.

Mel Thomsen, Dataquest’s director of strategic analysis for the chip industry, monitored the debate from the front row. During the Q&A, Williams told attendees to ask Kuroda about “the letter” — an alleged addendum to the trade agreement that supposedly guaranteed the U.S. 20 percent penetration into Japan after two years.

Kuroda replied that he wasn’t in a position to discuss the letter if it existed, and that Japan was “deeply offended” that the U.S. claimed it was violating the trade agreement. Hmmm . . .
Thomsen said he noticed three other strange things about the Japanese presentations. This year, they used yen, not dollars, as the currency in their talks. They also kept referring to Hiroshima. “It was just mentioned in passing,” Thomsen said. “I concluded that Hiroshima is a lot stronger in the Japanese memory than Pearl Harbor is here, or maybe we just don’t associate Pearl Harbor with doing business.”

And last, he said, were passing mentions of Japan doing busienss with Russia. “I wondered if they were making subtle implications that they’d go elsewhere” if the U.S. market got too demanding, Thomsen said.

AFTERSHOCKS II: One of the industry’s most public post-quake errors in judgment was the misguided Microsoft Corp. employee who posted a gloating message on the CompuServe Informaton Service (CIS), insinuating that arch-competitor Borland International, based in ravaged Scotts Valley, was K.O.’d because of the quake.

“California Earthquake does NOT affect Microsoft’s CIS support. Unlike Brand X — grin — the earthquake can’t affect (us) . . .,” read the message.

Borland chairman Philippe Kahn quickly sent out a slew of angry electronic mail with the message attached. Microsoft quickly removed the message.

Marty Taucher, chief spokesman for the Redmond, Wash.-based company, said the staffer got a formal reprimand and apologies were whizzed to Borland and onto Compuserve.

“We feel horrible that it happened,” said Taucher. “It was just stupid, and it doesn’t at all reflect our real feelings.” He says Microsoft’s Santa Clara office is still closed, and the company has raised $30,000 for the Red Cross relief effort.