[rescue] Re: OT: Linux and USB on Intel

[Dave McGuire]

On Sunday, April 20, 2003, at 11:56 AM, Gavin Hubbard wrote:
> Heh. I once tried to work out the rough cost of assembling PC style 
> SMPS
> using a component catalogue (IIRC Farnell or similar). I stopped 
> counting
> after I got to about $250.
>
> I have _never_ understood how they can manufacture the components, 
> assemble
> the PSU, ship it around the world, sell it for around $20, and still 
> make a
> profit. Truly a miracle of the modern age.

   No, it's more a miracle of sweatshops in China.  I've just gone 
through a big manufacturing plan for a product I just built.  I learned 
more about high-volume electronics manufacturing than I ever wanted to 
know.  Both component and fabrication costs plummet (and I mean 
PLUMMET) once you get up past the 100,000 quantity range.

   Those factories are basically big communes...the workers live in huge 
dormitories no more than a few hundred feet from the assembly 
buildings, and all worldly needs are provided for...food, laundry, 
etc., and those people get paid literally pennies per hour.  And most 
of them are pretty happy with their situations, scarily enough.

         -Dave

--
Dave McGuire           "She's a cheek pincher.  I have scars."
St. Petersburg, FL                          -Gary Nichols