[geeks] A bad month for tape

[Doug McLaren]

On Mon, Jul 02, 2007 at 12:24:32PM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:

| I think it has to do with any/all of the following:
| 
| They don't know how to test it
| They tested it and it doesn't work

A certain computer store in Austin used to do that all the time.

If it said `untested, as-is', that meant `tested, didn't work'.
However, the more unusual something was, the more likely it was that
they didn't know how to properly test it, and so it really did work,
even though they couldn't figure it out.

If they tested it and it worked, then it was sold as working.

This was 15 years or so ago though -- they seen better now.

They used to pass out business cards that said: Specializing in Apple,
Commodore, IBM, Amiga and pretty much every other computer brand I'd
ever heard of.  I guess they didn't realize what specializing meant.

| They have no idea where to get a tape
| They have no idea how to interface it to a computer to test it

They know where to get a tape, but actually buying a tape would suck
up any profit they make from the drive.

It's cheaper to sell the drive untested and wait for somebody to say
it doesn't work than to test it up front.  And it's quite possible
that whomever buys the drive may never use it, or take so long to use
it that when they find it to not work, they don't bother to return it.
Or may assume that the problem is their own equipment and give up on
it.

All testing would do for them is reduce the number of drives to sell
(when they find one that fails.)  Or they could take the drives that
passed and sell them as `Tested, Working' and then the drives that
fail are sold, probably under a different ID as `untested' or `power
up, but can't test them further' or ...

Speaking of tape, I picked up a SDLT 220 drive at Goodwill for $20.
Now I just need to find some tapes for it, preferably not at full
price ...

I doubt Goodwill knows how to test these at all, but even if it turns
out to be bad, it's only $20 ...

-- 
Doug McLaren, dougmc at frenzied.us