[rescue] [off-topic] Vacuuming your servers is like cleaning them with a Van deGraff generator

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 01:07:20PM -0600, Robert Darlington wrote:
>Why would I, as a designer of boards for mass production, include an extra
>$0.02 part when the fan will never run without me powering it?  I can save
>$20,000 on a one million board run just buy cutting out that part.  If you
>break it by doing something dumb, my warranty won't cover it and you'll buy
>another one from me.  It makes sense to not include protection there.

It's more than that. If it's a consumer device it will most likely mean that
you buy a new one. Credit card companies included extended warranties with
purchases because everyone thinks they are a great idea when they buy 
something, but almost never (97%+) remember they have them when it breaks. 

So if they do open it up, and damage something with a vacuum cleaner, it's
a good bet that they won't bring it in for service, and if they do bring it in,
they won't remember that their credit card company will pay for the repair,
so they'll just toss it in the trash and buy a new one when they hear the 
price, or pay for the repair out of pocket if it's cheap enough.

If it's a commerical item such as a computer, it becomes a service call, which
may make as much profit as the computer itself, or sell service contracts
which are often pure gravy. Service contracts are like insurance if it
would be sold by a casino, you get value for your money, but they NEVER lose.

When I was designing a hand held device, we planed to have a no questions
asked warranty. For $75 plus postage, if you sent in enough we could identify
your serial number (needed for encrypted games) and we would send you a new
one with the same serial number. 

In reality, the only thing we were giving you was the service of programing
your old serial number into a new device, the cost per unit was $75. :-)


Geoff.



-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Making your enemy reliant on software you support is the best revenge.