[rescue] RE: E5000 Pricing?

[William Enestvedt]

Dave wrote;
>
> Exactly. Which is another reason why, when "suit procedures" invade
> a company or other organization, it just bleeds money everywhere.
>
   Suits? I wish! Worse: inertia.
   Imagine a purely hypothetical purchasing system that's still mostly
on paper -- which gets *mailed* when it's finally executed -- because
you can't put the legal fine print on the back of a fax.
   There's more, but go ahead, clean off your monitor, I'll wait.
   Sure, and any supporting information for a purchase request -- like
multiple competitive quotes, or explanatory materials, or lists of
specific requirments -- are discarded when the forms arrive for
processing; they usually get their own quotes, thanks. (This results in,
for example, a media safe, requested as fire-prrof, which is actually
only "fire resisitant." I'm certain that the total loss of data that
would result after a fire would only render the hypothetical system
administrator "employment resistant" and not homeless.)
   And that "date needed" field is routinely ignored: consider a wholly
pretend person who requests a half dozen books in mid-February; he
received all but one of them on...Monday. (Yes, _this_ Monday.) The best
part is, he included the page from ora.com or amazon.com where he found
it, but they found a shipping method which required six weeks to arrive.
This stupid thing, USPS Media Mail, is great for saving whole _twos_ of
dollars, but a problem if you need your books soon. And the last time I
needed a book ASAP, this hypothetical person bought the new Samba 3 book
and expensed it with his boss's blessing -- and then got a hand-written
memo from Purchasing empasizing the importance of using their process.
[Perhaps it really talked about the *impotence* of their process.
Whatever.]
>
>    Smart (i.e., non-suit) people buy those boards on eBay.
>
   "Smart" people aren't asked to look away when someone in Purchasing
whips out the Holy Corporate Credit Card (a la the Holy Hand grenade of
Antioch) to make a telephone order. "I'm averting my gaze, O Purchasing
Agent" indeed.
>
> Worried about some moron grabbing your spares and putting
> them into production?  Lock them up in your desk.
>
> Some moron picks the lock, steals your spares, and puts them into
> production? Find the moron and either fire him or break his
> fingers. Either way, you get your spares back.
>
   Like when they stole the laptop off my desk 'cause they wouldn't buy
me the cable lock I'd requested? Mmm-hmm. Good thing I don't belive in
PKI certificates in this atmosphere of "academic freedom. *spit*
>
> Suits, however, often get large kickbacks from said VARs, so...
>
   Is that like seeing an entire conference room full of fruit baskets
(when everyone in the room outside weighs over 250, ladies included)
from Thanksgiving through Christmas?
   "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity"
-- or sloth.
-wde
P.S. The above remarks represent a completely imaginary place of work,
where a rational person wouldn't last a week. If you work where I work,
don't imagine that I'm talking about you.
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
J****** & W**** University -- Providence, RI