Gas and cigarettes would be cheap if it weren't for the taxes.
Obama really pissed me off talking about trying to reduce energy prices the
same week he raised the tax on gas!
Printer ink - the refill store, for sure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Babaganoosh
HDMI cables are another ripoff item that pisses me off. Specifically "Monster" cables and the idiots who try to push them on you at big name retailers. I get into an argument every time one of the salespeople recommends Monster Cables to me.
They'll try to sell you an HDMI cable for $100+ when you can get a $4 cable that does exactly the same job.
|
Heck yeah. I recently bought up a bunch of gold plated high quality cables,
including Monster brand, for $1.09 each at the dollar store. Otherwise, eBay
for cables.
Name brand computing equipment generally is a lot like the cables.
Just as Best Buy will charge you $28 for a USB cable you can get on eBay for $2,
this morning I was looking at the same thing with servers. Some of the corporate guys
who run big backup systems were comparing specs on $40,000 and $50,000
back up systems. The primary control box we use for the Clonebox has
similar performance for about $3,000. Clonebox has better features too!
It's just that we don't use a $28 cable on each drive, we buy the same cable
made in the same factory ten for $20.
They spend $5,000 on a KVM for remote administration. That let's them use
their local keyboard and monitor just like they were sitting right at the
computer, even working with the BIOS if need be. We spent $150 on a KVM
for remote administration, which let's us use our local keyboard and monitor
just like we were sitting right at the computer, even working with the BIOS if
need be. The only difference? Their $5,000 KVM has a neat GUI displaying
all of the different machines that they are NOT working at at the moment.
Ours just has a simple web interface. The actual KVM chip, the part that does the hard work, is the exact same chip.
They do get good service if something breaks. For $50,000, I can get TWO
spare servers just in case something breaks, AND stick $41,000 in my pocket.