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RE: Re: Computer repair/upgrade (was RE: A data point on offshoring
Subject:RE: Re: Computer repair/upgrade (was RE: A data point on offshoring From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:24 Nov 2003 18:51:46 GMT
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On
Mon, 24 Nov 2003 12:56:09 -0500 Mike O.?wrote:
>And it pays off literally, because once you build and
>configure your own PC you never need to pay a repair guy >again.
High-end scientific and engineering apps (which is what
I'm documenting these days) often require the latest
processor architecture. They also often require me to
swap out different display and networking cards, and to
temporarily install things like DAQ and other nonstandard
cards. This past year, I've reconfigured my main working
system about a half-dozen times, and finally ordered two
new ones so that I could run SW betas from different
clients without worrying about whether client A's alpha
was going to crash client B's beta (or my working system).
I like having my local guy research the components and
build new systems because (a) he charges me less for doing
it than my hourly rate, and (b) I'm know I'm going to
be spending so much time under the hood once the darned
thing gets here that I just don't want to have to build
it myself on my own time when I can be billing the hours
or spending them out on the deck sitting in the spa.
>I've used plenty of higher-spec systems at my clients'
>sites, and it really doesn't seem to run any faster
>than my system.
One of the *really* bizarre aspects of the current
"technology stasis" is that a lot of SW actually runs
*slower* on the latest CPU architecture than it does
on older P3s. A lot of SW companies are still not
compiling their new apps for new CPUs, because they have
concluded that their customers aren't buying new systems
and will be unhappy with new SW releases that don't
perform well on their existing ones. I use P3s, P4s,
Athlons and even keep an old PII on hand, just in case.
You never know what a client is going to list as a
compatible platform.
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