[Coco] Oblique Triad: A real straight-shooter!

[Tony Cappellini]

*(this is a letter which was originally mailed to the Glenside Color
Computer Club, and is being posted here for COCO-nostalgia's sake)



Oblique* Triad: A real *straight*-shooter!


You're probably wondering why I am sending a $100 donation to the Glenside
Color Computer Club.

In the previous letter/article entitled, "What did the Color Computer ever
do for me?", (which was posted on the Maltedmedia list in 2006) I made a
reference to being ripped off by a Canadian company called Oblique Triad,
for a product called Studio Works Pro, which was a hardware/software audio
sampler for the Coco.
Oblique Triad was a two-man company comprising of Jeff Noyle and David
Triggerson.
(I was always impressed with the name, "Oblique Triad")

It all started approximately 12 years ago, when I had purchased Studio Works
Pro from Oblique Triad. The product worked fairly well, but there was some
problem with it, which I cannot remember now, which caused me to return it
for a refund. After many weeks had passed I had not received my refund. So I
had called Oblique Triad, and left several messages which were also not
returned. Not knowing how to deal with a fraud case for a Canadian company,
I had called something of the equivalent to The Better Business Bureau, in
Canada. For some reasons which I cannot remember now, they could not help me
with this problem. Over the following months I had tried calling Oblique
Triad many times, still not having any success. So I gave up on my pursuit
to get reimbursed, and forgot about it over the years.

After having discovered the GCC's web page, casually following a trail of
links from it, I came across an email dated 2003, from Distant Systems, the
company which Jeff Noyle was working for, granting permission to put one of
their coco games into the public domain.

I had sent an email to the address from Distant Systems, but it was
returned. By dumb luck, I had then tried substituting Jeff's name then
adding the domain for Distant Systems. This time the email was not returned,
but I had not received a reply.

A few days later, I had found an email from Paypal regarding payment from
Jeff at Distant Systems, accompanied by the following letter.

"Subject: Refund for Studio Works Pro

Hi Tony,

I deeply apologize for how long you've had to wait for this, and I am
impressed by your perseverance!

I recall getting an email from you about 12 or so years ago and consciously
ignoring it at the time because i didn't have $100 to my name. I said to
myself "I'll pay him back some day" and promptly (or conveniently) forgot.

Anyway, here's the $100. I hope paypal works for you. If not, please let me
know at the <email address removed> address and I'll send a check or
whatever you'd prefer.

Apologies again

-Jeff (and Dave in absentia) "


I was really happy that this problem had finally been resolved. It wasn't so
much about getting my money back, but just having a confirmation and
admission of the problem by Oblique Triad.

So I am donating this $100 to the GCC to help with their expenses, since
because of my involvement with the Coco from their web page, I was able to
finally get this issue resolved.