MediaOne dns problems

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, Ron Peterson wrote:

> Seth Gordon wrote:
> > 
> > Shapiro and Varian, in _Information Rules_, mention how one
> > manufacturer of laser printers (HP? IBM?) used the same motherboard in
> > both the Foobar 1000 and Foobar 2000 printers -- except that on the
> > Foobar 1000, one jumper on the motherboard was cut, so that it would
> > only print half as fast.  Thus, they could sell Foobar 1000s to folks
> > on a tight budget who were satisfied with the slower print speed, and
> > make extra profits off the people willing to pay more for the Foobar
> > 2000s.
> > 
> > That's capitalism.
> 
> That's disgusting.

That's capitalism.

Do you know what the main difference is between NT Workstation and NT
Server?  Registry entries that trigger the right behavior, "cutting the
jumper".

It is obvious to the average technical person that it costs the phone
company less money to handle touch tone calls than pulse dial calls, since
the call takes less time to route and is more accurate.  But we used to
(and may still, I don't remember) pay extra for touch tone.

In all these cases, the customer is gaining some benefit, whether it costs
the vendor more or not.

When the gas companies convince you that you need to pay extra for 89 or
92 octane gas, when very few modern cars will run better than on 87,
that's wrong.

When consumer electronics companies sell the same exact components with
different model numbers at different stores so you can't compare prices as
easily, and list the features differently, that's wrong.

When you drive through the car wash and pay for the Ultra Deluxe Kink Lord
G*d Treatment for $12 more, and they squirt some stuff under your car that
will wash off with the next rain or two, that's wrong.
 

> Here's a simple question: did the manufacturers tell their customers
> that they made this modification?  I'd guess not.  Why not?

Because it sounds bad.  Why don't companies print their profit margin on
the side of the box?  Should they list the environmental impact studies of
their factories?  How about the CEO's income?  If the customer is paying
more for a benefit and gets it, why should they care if the devices were
almost identical?  If HP had manufactured two different printer
motherboards, their costs would go up, making one or both units more
expensive to the consumer.  Is that what you want?



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DDDD   David Kramer                   http://thekramers.net
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