filePro upgrades (was Re: Encrypting credit card data)

[Fairlight]

Is it just me, or did Jose Lerebours say:
> Fairlight wrote:
> > There's still no way we've spent $590 on talking about it combined--even at
> > my rates.  Probably not even $190.
> >
> > mark->
> >   
> Are you kidding?  The list has about 300 members, you have posted about 
> 12 to 20 different posts on the subject, lets
> just settle for 15.  Given 15 messages read by 300 members and due to 
> the lengths of your messages, I would say it
> takes an average of 3.5 minutes to read through them.  So, 300x3.5=1,050 
> minutes  or 17.50 hours at an average billing
> of $90 per hour it comes up to $1,575.00

If you're actually accounting for everyone reading it, sure.  I was
counting the actual time in discussion by the actual participants.

I've posted 5 messages on the subject--this one being the 6th.  You just
lost what credibility you had right there by saying 12-20.  But we'll
continue, because it gets really fun later on.  :)

http://dorsai-01.celestial.com/pipermail/filepro-list/2009-June/thread.html

Check the thread and count the times my name popped up within it.

I'm going to do something I rarely do, but which your snarky attitude
warrants:  "LRN2COUNT"

> Oh, I am not taking into account the after hour rate.  Messages read
> or posted over the weekend or off normal business hours should be on a
> higher billing rate.

Only if you had no choice but to read them then.  You didn't have to read
them at all.  You just enjoy being a snarky little so-and-so.  May your
exemplified ignorance serve you well.  Three factual errors at a minimum in
one post, that's quite the record for you.  I think...

> Let it go!  Adobe does not know you exist

Actually, they do.  They got my name on the sales call when I told them to
go to hell regarding their pricing on something.

>  and we all know no one writes anything worth of your approval other than
> yourself.

Not entirely true.  Well, I say not entirely, but I mean mostly not.  Well,
I say mostly not, but I mean you're off your gourd.  

Companies that write decent code that I trust:

Iarsn
Serif
High-Logic
TechSmith
River Past
Sun
NullSoft
CoffeeCup Software
MySQL
RAR Labs
Screeming Bee Software
Rasmussen Software
Nitro PDF Software
Avast
Avocent
Beepa

And it practically kills me to say it, especially after the last bad patch
from MS that screwed up FRAPS, but Microsoft is in there as well--to some
extent.  I mostly like XP.  They occasionally surprise me.

Note that those are all commercial productivity or other utility suite
producing companies.  I didn't even -start- on games, so you wouldn't
scream about apples to oranges.  That just covers only about 1/4 of my
Utilities/Applications menu.  I have a lot of good Open Source stuff as
well as more commercial stuff.  Not that all of it is bugless or never
crashes, but I trust it all enough that I bought the full versions of the
products I own.  Some of them were not trivially priced, but were worth
more than I paid (Camtasia Studio comes to mind).

And your credibility sinks lower with another incorrect absolute statement.

> Interesting enough, you charge $1000+ for OneGate but yet find CS4 is not
> worth the same amount of money.

You're really not having a good Fact Day, are you, Jose?  OneGate is $995,
not over $1k.  Okay, I'm going to break my policy a second time in the same
email--this is actually a record day:  "LRN2READ"

Additionally, NO, I -don't- feel CS4 is worth the money.  CS4 doesn't need
to keep your enterprise-level services making money 24/7/365.  OneGate
does.  You use PhotoShop CS4 once in a while, or periodically a couple
times a day (more times if it crashes on you, losing your work).  It
can crash and you get to restart it--slowwwwwly.  I mean, seriously,
Adobe -Reader- is practically a CPU speed benchmark based on how slowly
it loads.  They're not known for their lightning fast operation in any
of their products, TTBOMK.  OneGate is driving requests day and night,
unattended, and very quickly.  I don't think I've ever seen it "crash" due
to anything other than a configuration error, either--in which case it
politely logs the issue and exits politely.  It definitely has never just
up and -crashed- without a trace--more than I can say for any Adobe product
I've ever used, straight back to my first PC in 1993.  In fact, my record
is crashing PhotoShop on a PowerPC Mac 12 times in an hour and a half,
doing the most simple filters you'd ever want to apply--first-party ones,
no less.  It would have crashed more, but it can only restart so fast.

And additionally, OG is priced competitively against its "competition".
It's at least as inexpensive as one of its primary competitors (while
delivering a tonne more features and superior design and security).  Adobe,
on the other hand, pretty much leads the field in reaming their customers
on high prices for equivalent features--many of which you can get elsewhere
for far less money, and often greater stability.

As for OG at $995...  Right, so I'm driving a lot of different things with
OneGate at various sites.  It costs them $995 -once- per server.  If they
get 50k transactions per day that make $0.50/ea for their company, I don't
think "cashing in" for $995 -once- is a great issue if the product -makes-
them $25k/DAY.  By way of example.  In such a situation, the cost of the
product would be recovered in under an hour of operation, assuming a level
transaction flow that's completely evenly averaged over a day.  Know how
many paid upgrades there've been?  -One-.  Versions 1 through the last 3.x
were all free.  Adobe charges for every major version upgrade, TTBOMK.  In
fact, my not charging for upgrades for 2 major versions was a mistake, in
retrospect.  For $995 in a scenario as depicted above, heck, I don't feel
guilty, I feel like I should be charging a percentage akin to royalties
or service charges (a la PayPal and many credid card processors).  But I
don't milk it like that, because I'm a reasonable guy, and I'm not horribly
greedy.

You go ahead and slam my product and me all you want.  I sleep quite well
at night, apnea notwithstanding.  And my product speaks for itself in terms
of results.  So feel free to dig yourself a hole, if you like.  Hell, I'll
lend you a shovel if you need one--although I think you're doing -just
fine- on your own. *big wink*

"Let me tell you what you did wrong, here.  First... [...] And two, you
just lost what little credibility you had with me!"  --Major John Sheppard

</thread>

mark->