paul smith's Snaps & Bytes e-home
October 2002: Paul Smith - On that evil green stuff in his pocket.
I need your help in researching this month's subject matter. All I've firmly proved thus far is that it's X, where X=
All Evil. It also appears to be funny in a rich man's world. At least to Scandinavians.
Cash. Dough. Folding. Dosh. The pursuit of it is presumably why you're in business for yourself, or equally why you drag yourself to work for 84,000 hours of your priceless life. It won't make you happy, but it will allow you to be miserable in comfortable surroundings.
Thought 1- Console price drops are clearly designed to increase sales of a console, and thus the more profitable software for it. But there must be a point (perhaps around the £50/PSOne mark) that people will buy a second console for another room of the house. This is certainly true of HiFis, TVs, and, I've just realised, DVD players - my kitchen and bathroom are the only rooms without one! Critically though, I don't buy multiple copies of every DVD film I get. Software is affected in the same way, which is why you'll never see a decent console being given away with cornflakes, no matter how outrageously inflated the software for it is. I wonder if Microsoft know where that optimum point is?
Thought 2- eBay is a bloody good idea. I've just flogged a digital camera on it for way more than I actually wanted, or it would've fetched in my local paper, and for less expense. Looking at some user profiles, it's clear there's a lot of people making a good living dealing through this particular medium. Minimal overheads and an eye for a bargain - there's lots to be seen - are all you need. Could this be somewhere to move some of your dusty stock? Also, in these times of Christmas run-up product shortages, I wonder how long it'll be before distributors cotton-on to the benefits of an auction sales process. Why should they sell you stock when someone else would give them more for it?
Thought 3- Changes to the three-year warrantee that Hard Drive manufacturers offer has been on the cards for a while, and it's now happened for desktop (IDE) drives. When they were £100+ each, you wanted the reassurance of a long guarantee period. But now the fat end of the HD business is on £35 units, who needs it? They're as disposable as Pampers, and 12-month warrantees reflect this. Live with it.
Thought 4- How can you save the price of a train ticket or petrol plus exorbitant London parking rates? Easy! Just don't bother going to the ECTS. This year was the first in seven that I've not made an investment of time and money in the show and I feel all the richer for it.
If you'd like to help me scientifically investigate the phenomenon of money further, please send a Cheque or Postal Order for no less than £10 to Paul Smith, c/o Indie Magazine. Your generosity could change someone's life. I hope.
Please e-mail your offers of exciting jobs to Paul Smith to Info@snapsandbytes.co.uk.
501 greedy words Dale. There may be an invoice to follow later this month.
Regards,
Paul