Re: slanted article "Inside System Storage -- by Tony Pearson"

--- In [email protected], Paul Raulerson <paul.raulerson@...> wrote:
>
> I do not see where IBM has anyone BTB's, as you say.

Well, plenty of others do. Including those who
know that there's no good alternative to paying
IBM whatever they feel like demanding today.

> I see people who think the IBM products are 
> quite superior, and are willing to pay for that 

Even those who think they are superior products
realise they are being ripped off. On Monday this
week my boss's boss complained about being ripped
off by IBM charging 10 times what anyone else
charged and how it drained the limited budget.

> One other thing I will dispute - IBM customers 
> did NOT pay for the IBM R&D. 

Any R&D costs were recouped by bleeding customers
dry.  And then some.  That's how they actually
make a profit. I mean, a huge profit.  I mean.
Bleed people dry.

> IBM Customers paid for IBM products, delivered 
> to their satisfaction,

Did you ask any of these people whether they
were satisfied at being bled dry after having
unwittingly invested heavily in an architecture
that ended up having a monopoly?

> IBM took those profits and choose to re-invest 
> them, which is hardly a "predatory practice" - 
> but the profits were for goods delivered. 

Yeah, higher profits than a capitalist economy
normally delivers, thanks to their monopoly.

> The closest analogy to what you are saying 

> Silly, right? 

Right, we agree at last.

The closest analogy is in fact this:

I, Paul Edwards, buy a careful selection of blue
chip stocks. I focus on companies who have a
monopoly, or are likely to get one, ie Microsoft,
IBM, Intel.

I am an astute investor, and my predictions come
true, and I make huge profits.  I then set up my
share fund and have all the profits reinvested,
so that I get the multiplying effect of filthy
profits upon filthy profits.

I go from being not just a millionaire, but to
being a billionaire.  People ask whether I ever
do anything to help the world, instead of just
helping myself, and I respond with this:

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-10-18/

Then, to my surprise, someone who shall
remain nameless, let's call him Dilbert, much
to my surprise (ie not because I slipped him
$50) writes to the Pope and asks for me to be
beatified for having made a significant
"contribution" to the world of overpriced
mainframe hardware, overpriced mainframe
software, overpriced PC software, overpriced
PC CPUs, and in the final appeal to Mr
Benedict says "listen cobber - this guy could
eat Mother Theresa for breakfast". And he says
this sincerely, rather than (with popcorn
at the ready) just to get a predictable reaction 
from some guy on the internet well-known for 
his predictable reactions to such things as the
thought of beatifying a vampire.

Next we'll be beatifying Hitler for his enormous
direct and only rarely challenged (by the likes
of Ahm-a-dinner-jacket) contribution to reducing 
greenhouse gasses. Or giving Nobel Peace Prizes
to terrorists. Or have rulings from American
beaurocrats that "z/ is just another server".
Or people saying that American beaurocrats are
something other than either on the take or the
biggest bunch of dingbats that side of the 
Atlantic Ocean for agreeing to such a preposterous 
notion. Or human rights groups opposing Bush ending
Saddam's institutionalized rape of Iraqi women.

Man, what a world. Who needs B-grade movies when
you've got real life?

BFN.  Paul.