[Physltest] [Phys-L] shopping techniques

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

We started with a question about buying a passel of
computers for classroom use.  There is no need for such
computers to run the latest compute-intensive and
graphics-intensive games.

Therefore any discussion of games represents something of
a change in topic ... which is OK, so long as we recognize
it as such.


Richard Tarara wrote:
> your choices [of games] are FAR wider in the Windows
> world and because of the way many of these games stretch the capabilities
> of machines, don't expect your emulators to work effectively (if at all).

Yeah.  I asked one of my most trusted cronies to look into
this a while back.  VMware in particular was observed to do
a remarkably good job of virtualizing everything *except*
graphics accelerators.

This should not be labelled as a msWindows/Mac/Linux issue,
because the issue is already visible at the _hardware_
level.  As an example, the $200.00 Microtel machine that
Walmart sells,
   http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3380786
is documented to not run all games, for lack of sufficient
graphics horsepower.

You can learn a lot about this and other issues by exercising
a PC configurator such as this:
http://www.dealsdepot.com/Shop/Control/Product/fp/vpid/1139500/vpcsid/0/SFV/14930
In this case at least, you find that:
  :-( A fancy graphics card adds somewhere between
   $80 and $480 to the cost of a $400 machine.
  :-( The ms operating system and office suite adds
   about $500 to the cost of a $400 machine.

I don't see how it is even remotely justifiable to buy those
things for classroom machines.  If you want to pay for such
things out of your entertainment budget, that's cool.  But
if you want to bill them to the education budget, that's
very uncool.

Again, I mention these vendors without endorsing them;  I've
never dealt with them at all.  My recommendation:  shop around.

On the topic of shopping around:  I find ebay to be a useful
source of information.  I rarely buy stuff at auction ...
instead, I use the auction listings to find out who's got
stuff for sale, and then contact them directly.  (That's how
I found the dealsdepot configurator mentioned above.)  You
can figure that if somebody has sold 10 items at auction,
he might have (or can get) 10 more that haven't yet been put
up for auction.

Also note that the "current bid" tells you next to nothing
about the market price of the item;  a typical 7-day
auction sits around doing nothing for 6.99 days, and then
the price is settled by a flurry of bids in the closing
minutes.  So.... to find out the "going price", ask ebay
to show you the _completed_ auctions for similar items.

Edmiston, Mike wrote:
> ... it did not make sense to spend $24,000 for a classroom
> that seats 18 students. Ha!  The technology folks showed up
> and started measuring the room and preparing to spend the
> money.  I questioned the director.  He said he still had some
> government money he needed to spend, and this was an excellent
> opportunity to spend it.  I said it was not ethical.  He said
> to shut up because it is "free money."
>
> Free money?  (1) It's my money because I am a tax payer.  (2)
> If that kind of money is available, and we still have some
> small classrooms without technology, why not spend $4000 and
> upgrade 6 rooms, or even spend $6000 to upgrade 4 rooms,
> rather than spend $24,000 on one room. Isn't that the
> responsible thing to do with the money... get the most bang
> for the buck?
>
> Well, I was told that I just don't understand the way things
> work, and this is the reason he is the director of technology
> instead of me.

1) It is indeed unethical to spend money that way.  In contrast,
a nice simple good ethical principle is:
   Spend other people's money at least as carefully
   as you spend your own.

2) The director of technology does not "have" that money to
do with as he pleases.  He has that money in trust, from
the government for the education of students.  He has shown
himself to be a scandalously untrustworthy trustee.  He
should be reassigned and replaced by someone who understands
the basics.

3) Institutions (educational or otherwise) that tolerate that
sort of nonsense tend to go out of business.  Another of my
little sayings is:
   They entrust you with some money.  If you spend it
   wisely, they'll entrust you with some more.
Conversely, if they find your institution cannot be trusted
to spend money wisely, they'll cut off the money supply.
This is not a new concept (Matthew 25:14).  When I see
situations like this, I escalate the issue until I find
somebody with enough understanding and enough authority
to rectify the situation.  If that doesn't work, it's time
for me to find a new job.

4) Whenever somebody uses terms like "free money" or "funny
money", I remind them there's no such thing.  Remember:
    Money is fungible.  That's why money was invented!
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