On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:53:50 +0800, John Summerfield wrote: >On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 12:42, you wrote: >> $13K entry point (not 20K) for their own system with software loan amounts >> to an impediment that forecloses their effort. I am aware of one-man >> shops taking IBM up on the offering, so Mr. Szumovski's post to the >> contrary is factually incorrect. > >Some may find $US13 000 affordable. For me, it's sometthing to dream about.
I certainly don't find $13K all that affordable either. But I can't help thinking - I am a licensed radio-amateur - haven't been active for a while, but - the costs involved in either buying ready-built equipment or buying the equipment necessary to build your own were not something to be ignored. I bought a 2nd hand HP scope 2 or 3 years ago - not the top of the line, ended up paying EUR2000. And then think of prices for eg. spectrum-analysers or digital signal analysers. They don't come cheap. Putting up a tower-mast for a short-wave arial is not cheap either. Etc. etc. PCB design software like Protel will cost you USD5000 or so - and they don't have a hobbyist license either :-( So, although I *totally* agree with all of the arguments why IBM should make eg. OS390 available on a hobbyist basis (and not at $13K), doing other things on a hobbyist basis are expensive too. regards, Per Jessen, Zurich http://www.enidan.com - home of the J1 serial console. Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
