From my first days in the industry, I was cautioned against knocking the competition. And, truth to tell, it’s a really bad idea. The CIA would call it blowback, my wife would call it uncouth, and my old-time hippie neighbor Dave would call it bad karma. Whatever, saying nasty things about the competition always, always, always comes back to bite you.

But, sometimes the competition deserves to be knocked. So every once in a while, Karma is OK with you indulging in that time- honored art form, damning with faint praise (DWFP). Let’s call it attitude management for the good guys:

Yeah, I have to hand it to them, they seem to have gotten a handle on that crashing issue.

I really like the way they are labeling their connectors now.

Yes, I’ve heard they are doing really well overcoming all those financial issues.  And no jail time so far.

I heard they are planning on expanding their quality control department. Smart move.

You have to admire a company brave enough to let interns run the show.

They are dominant in the retro technology market.

I see they’re finally expanding out of their traditional nonprofit market. Good for them.

They are almost as good as we are, and in certain very faint and unlikely instances might actually be better,  especially when used with other components from other Third World markets.

Maybe they’re right about those off-market components. It certainly improves their profit margin.

Yes, their case is much prettier than ours. It’s such a shame that it will be located in a rack inside a store room.

(Walking past the competition’s booth) OMG! Remember multi-media?

There – feel better? Just remember, DWFP is a sometime thing. Not that I think you’d overdo it – you have much better judgement nowadays.

JRR