Re: [cobalt-users] Cobalt Wish List

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony wrote:

> When you are responsible for paying $1000+/mo telephone bills, $200+/mo
> photocopier leases, $3000+/mo equipment leases, $300+/mo insurance premiums

How about the $300,000 to $400,000 in monthly salaries?  You forgot that
<smile>.

> etc etc you get a clearer picture of the value of a $3000 machine like a
> Raq3 that can produce
> $60,000 worth of annual gross hosting revenue. Try buying a $120,000 Sun
> Ultra server and NOT buying a support contract to go with it. This is not
> limited to the computer industry. In the photofinishing industry there are
> machines that crank out 8x10's & 11x14's in a hour that a lab can sell for a
> paltry $5 to $10. When they first came on the market these machines listed
> at around $150,000. A lab would be lucky if it could clear $20,000 in gross
> annual revenue from a machine like this.

Which is exactly why I never bought one <smile>.

> No support contract? $75-$150 an hour for a tech to travel to your lab when
> it breaks and break it will...usually on a weekly basis.

Many years ago I was in the typesetting business.  We had "Alphatype"
systems; a wonder of engineering that would do Rube Goldberg proud, with
levers, springs, hinges, and a high-voltage kick that knocked me across
the room more than once.  When they needed repair we ended up calling
Chicago (Skokie, actually) and getting one of their three (count 'em)
technicians to fly out and help us.  We had to pay about $100 an hour
(this was over twenty years ago) including flight time, and we had to
pay for the airline ticket.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205