[time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut them a little slack

Mike Naruta AA8K aa8k at comcast.net
Fri Dec 31 21:00:59 UTC 2010


Hmmm, sounds like the Microsoft model.

What did you expect for $100?


On 12/31/2010 12:49 PM, J. Forster wrote:
>> Well, I won't rant back at you, Dick, but your expectations are way off
>> base.  GPS cartographers have to designate billions (yes, billions) of
>> addresses and the fact that they miss a few scarcely justifies a backhand
>> brushoff as "shoddy work."
>
> Look at it another way:
>
>   They are producing one product for 10s of millions of customers. The
> reproduction costs are trivial, so they have hundreds of millions of
> dollars to get one product right!
>
>> Can you have a product of this size and complexity that is completely
>> error free.  No.  No matter how hard you try, the answer remains...no.
>> (References on stochastic processes available on request.)
>>
>> Can you have a product with* fewer* errors?  Of course.  Can you have it
>> for eighty bucks.  Nope.
>
> The $80 is for one copy. Try near a $1,000,000,000 for the digital map of
> the USA.
>
>> Be a good capitalist and take your choice.
>
>
> -John
>




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