On Tue, 2 Apr 2002, Brian Hechinger wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 08:46:25PM -0800, joseph p bennardo wrote:
> > 
> > >> i don't think any of us expects you to give it away for free, we're 
> > > just saying it would be nice if you could. :)
> > 
> > I'm not sure everybody shares that sentiment.
> 
> no, probably not.  but of the people on this list?  it's probably something
> like 95% saturation of people who do feel that way.  otherwise we wouldn't
> be trying to get NetBSD on VAXen. :)

I'm not sure I share the full sentiment. He says "fair price", which to me
means that he'd rather sell it for more money to someone who really don't
care about preserving a functional system and sharing and helping other
people. At the same time, he's trying to use our knowledge for free to get
an assessment about how much he can make from salvaging the scraps.

So, in my book, he might be someone doing things I really dislike.
But until I really know what he's asking, I'll reserve judgement.

But as a diehard capitalist, I think we should charge him for being a
member of these lists. Nothing should be free to someone who don't pay
back in the same coin.

> > Well, I'm mostly driven my the almighty dollar, but it's nice if they
> > went to a good home as well. I'd sell what I can get on e-bay only if
> > nobody was willing to pay what they are worth. 
> 
> there is nothing wrong with the dollar being your motivation, and i'm sure
> you will find buyers without having to resort to ebay.

Yup. And he can start paying me my consultant fee for every question that
I answer (I normally do get payed for answering questions and helping
people solve problems with computers).

My view is that of course people should get back whatever expenses they
have, and a margin on that as well. But this is not based on what is
believed to be the value of the items, but on what it cost you.
You can probably not set a correct value on these items anyway. For
someone who have a running system in a commercial installation, the value
could be very high, and for someone who don't care, we're talking about
the value of the scrap metal.

> > I can't say why they want them destroyed, but if you knew the company
> > you'd understnad a bit better.
> 
> i probably still wouldn't understand.  there is no good reason that i know of.

Military-related companies often have very special opinions...

	Johnny

Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt@update.uu.se           ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol