Post #4,622
8/11/01 12:10:58 PM
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Good example of bad design.
To find out what the product costs you have to dig down several levels and actually enter the secure order form area.
The Web commerce industry is so concerned about why so many shopping carts are abandoned, but the truth is, on most sites you have no idea what the products really costs until you're at the cash register.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #4,637
8/11/01 2:02:33 PM
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*chuckle*
Heck, I won't buy anything in a 'real-world' store unless the price is clearly marked.
Why would anyone 'go to the register' in a virtual store to find out the price.
I guess stupidity is a way of life.
Imric's Tips for Living- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
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Post #4,647
8/11/01 3:22:40 PM
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Now there's an LRPDism!
-----
Steve
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Post #4,666
8/11/01 7:38:17 PM
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Hey I said the stuff seems to work, not
that they knew anything about marketing to peculiar homo-saps ('peculiar' - by def'n, anyone who would want, could use such utils today, that is).
Hell, send 'em a note! You might well be heard immediately.. I just ordered on seeing a friend's demo and thinking that, if we don't support such efforts - we'll be left with only the Symantec Disneyland comic bloatware demos, a bowdlerized scan disk which reports Nothing!
and SpinRite.. for a while longer (until the few who understand its purpose and its cleverness - also are replaced with the latest crop of MCSE College of San Mateo 'certificants').
(I also *bought* XTree - then.. and in the CP/M days a clever program called Power! which was also way-smarter than the prevailing 'retype everything forever' mindset.)
Fight Dumbth: pay good authors for decent work, so they can eat. Today.
A.
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Post #4,699
8/12/01 12:20:32 AM
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Xtree has been replaced.
[link|http://www.ztree.com/|ZTree] is available for 32-bit Windows and OS/2, and is much better than XTree Gold. At $30 it is clearly a "must have" (I have both Windows and OS/2 versions and use them incessently in-house and for field support). It is available from [link|http://www.bmtmicro.com/|BMT Micro].
Spinrite is, of course, a basic essential without which one cannot claim to be a competent technician (except version 2.0, which did not work (but cost as much as the versions that do work)).
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #4,717
8/12/01 2:42:53 AM
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Re: Xtree has been replaced. Huzzah!
Heh - I think I skipped V2 of SpinRite - was that the one which took forever (as if it were counting Avogadro's number to make up 1 mol of domains?) I think he replaced it with 3.0 for free?
Thanks for ZTree link, bookmarked. I've been using list.com (just today - getting the &*#^*@# ancient .dlls from Iomega replaced with later.) So far, looks as if the ZIP works still, with the later ones needed by Adaptec/Roxio and DVD aps. But list's alien - my brain wants the Tree back.
Will have to read a bit further - it's a 32-bit ap but some of the connections to .zip and other compressors - appear to use .bat files (!!) and even some graphics viewers from XTG-3.0 Ummm.. Anyway for $30 -
Looks as if, when booted to DOS mode, I'd still need list.com -?- for messing with the \\sys items which are locked by share normally, with win.com running. Damn - pity that some X-Tree can't be kludged to work with long filenames and really run in DOS of the Windoze kind.
Guy says he wrote it in C, compiled via M$ C++ (w/o seeing X-Tree source!). A true fanatic.
Cheers,
A.
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Post #4,737
8/12/01 11:37:03 AM
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Spinrite 2
Spinrite 2 worked fine if there was nothing wrong with the drive. If it found anything, it would stall right there, forever as far as I could tell.
When I complained they said they had an update to 2 that fixed the problem, but they wanted almost as much for the update as for the full program, so I declined and went back to Spinrite 1 for a couple of years.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #4,718
8/12/01 2:43:25 AM
8/12/01 2:46:07 AM
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Never mind: it's a ZopeDupe
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Post #4,707
8/12/01 1:12:39 AM
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Yeah, industrial companies are even worse
Many of them still seem to think their pricing should be a big secret. Well, as more and more engineers use the Internet for product selection, it's not going to help them at all. I don't really care about exact pricing, but ball park figures; for example, if I'm looking at omnidirectional barcode readers (which I will be if one project comes through), I don't care if it's $1800 or $1850, but I do care if it's $10,000 -- that's way over the budget.
The industrial companies that best "get" the internet seem to be the semiconductor companies and distributors; for example, I can search Arrow or Avnet Marshall and not only come up with prices, but also quantities in stock and sometimes other info such as lead times.
Realtors are another bad group -- they never want to give out price or location; that's why the on-line databases are so great (and still so depressing in the Bay Area).
Another pet peeve of mine is companies that are so caught up with marketing and "branding" and the latest special deal that they never clearly explain what they have to offer, and what it costs (AT&T is especially bad about this; every time I try to check out their services, e.g. web access or long distance -- I can't find out what they're really offering).
Tony
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Post #4,713
8/12/01 2:03:02 AM
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try our advertising
we have a spinning globe(now thats original) movies being piped here and yon with no descritions of how or how much. our web sites are are better. We have a billboard on the way to work that shows a bunch of people all linked together with the words convergence in bold letter. Unless you take the time to stop on the freeway and use binoculars you wouldnt know to goto www.sieweb.com(me actually they are www.siemens.com)
thanx,
bill
Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves.
Chuck Palahniuk
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Post #4,755
8/12/01 3:34:37 PM
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OT. Say Box,...
In your travels within the company in your neck of the woods, have you by any chance run into a tech named Dave Michalak? Hasn't been Siemens all that long. Came from Honeywell.
Also, any chance you would know Muriel and Jerry Oxer (husband and wife) that used to live in Charlotte, but retired to Hendersonville, NC?
I have heard that with at most 5 intervening people one can connect any two individuals on earth. Just trying it with one. :)
Alex
Only two things are certain: the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not certain about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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Post #4,866
8/13/01 12:30:05 PM
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Sorry neither name rings a bell
I am in the telecomms portion of the biz. NC has the corning/siemens fiber plant. If dave came from honeywell he prolly went into Siemens Controls.
thanx,
bill
Our bureaucracy and our laws have turned the world into a clean, safe work camp. We are raising a nation of slaves.
Chuck Palahniuk
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Post #4,912
8/13/01 4:41:15 PM
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Thanks! It was just a wild shot.
Alex
Only two things are certain: the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not certain about the universe.
-- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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Post #4,714
8/12/01 2:25:53 AM
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That's what "List Price" is for.
Nobody buys anything at list, but it gives you a pretty good "will be less than" number. A wise company will make a statement like, "$800 list price (see your distributor for actual price)".
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #4,742
8/12/01 12:41:48 PM
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Yeah, but most don't even give list price w/o calling
I'm talking about industrial barcode readers (I'm going to have to call most of the manufacturers to find out what their omnidirectional models cost), motors, stages, PLC's, sensors, etc.
It's slowly improving, helped by the Internet and companies like Automation Direct and National Instruments that give ALL their prices on the web, w/o needing a shopping cart -- but also let you order on line.
Semiconductor companies are sometimes bad about this too, but some are like TI,which is very good about giving reference prices (typically for 1,000 units! But this gives you a good enough idea of the cost in smaller or larger quantities).
Tony
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