Sad experience

From: John Foust <jfoust_at_threedee.com>
Date: Sun Jul 22 08:42:41 2001

At 09:45 PM 7/21/01 -0700, Sellam Ismail wrote:
>On Sat, 21 Jul 2001, John Foust wrote:
>> These folk may be working in the cloaca of the massive State
>> bureaucracy, but they're not stupid. This stuff looked like
>> software - hard case, binder in case, "IBM" on the side, etc.
>
>Pussy.
>Next time just kick some ass and take names.

Oh, you're just saying that because I made you
look up "cloaca". :-)

That box would've been nice, but I'd rather have good
relations with the folks for the next thing I want that's
actually sell-able and unmarked in price. I'd also
like to find the real Dumpster where all this goes.

I suspect they have one of those enclosed compactors
behind an overhead door. Bummer. I used to get quite
a lot of stuff from their old open Dumpsters - especially
all the disks and manuals they'd toss that week. The
last I got was three years ago or so, when I got an ASR-33
from the scrap metal bin.

Those paying close attention would also note that
a year or so ago, I bought a stack of mag tapes from
this place that were almost 20 years old that actually
contained files I worked on when I was working for
the university. While an IBM hardcover box looks
like "software" to them, apparently mag tapes don't.

Similarly, they don't religiously zap software from
systems unless they're PC-compatible, so the SGI Indigo
that some guy got for $25 this week probably still
had Irix and e-mail on the hard disk. The desire to
enforce policy apparently ends at having to learn much
about the system they're selling.

Fortunately, this also extends to pricing. A few
months ago I got a pair of Spectra Logic Bullfrog
robotic backup libraries for $25 each. Each had 4
DDS-3 tape units in it, and the carousel held 58
tapes, so this puppy can handle more than 450 gigs.

I eBay'd one for $400 or so and kept the other.
I thought it should've gone for much more. A Wisconsin
state agency paid $31,000 for it in 1996, according to
Spectra's customer history.

- John
Received on Sun Jul 22 2001 - 08:42:41 BST