29 May
2000
29 May
'00
4:58 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vintage Computer GAWD!" <foo(a)siconic.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: A moment of silence...
Workers will start to realize spending 3-5 hours (or
more!) a day in
traffic just doesn't make sense anymore at ANY salary and will move
somewhere else to find work.
3-5 hours? Wow. I thought I had it bad in Sydney when a long commute
was around 45 minutes.
I now live in a country town/city where 10 minutes is the maximum
commute time. 2&1/2 hours to the capital city when necessary. Average
home prices around AU$70,000 for a 3-4 bedroom, depending on which part
of town. Lots of cheaper places in the AU$40-50k range. Downside is
that only people making $50k a year are 12 hour a day shiftworkers at
the lead smelter. I get AU$24k for administering a Vax/VMS
box(Mail/web/proxy/ftp etc),a Novell Server and 200+ PC's in a school.
Permanent part time 25 hours a week. Run a small business (internet
cafe/retail new & s/h systems/repairs etc) in the spare time. Not easy
to survive on that, even here. BTW,the exchange rate to the AU$ is
around US58c at the moment, and petrol just went through the 94c a litre
mark again, so it ain't necessarily as good as it sounds.
I don't believe we have a single area like Silicon Valley here, much
more spread around, there was an attempt to build a 'high tech city of
tomorrow' (polispeak) near Adelaide a couple years ago, but it never got
off the ground.
It's an equilibrium. I think we have seen the
peak of the Silicon
Valley
money machine and it's all downhill from here.
It's just not fun any
longer.
Doesn't sound like it. Time is more precious than money. Ask anyone
over 40.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie,
South Australia
geoffrob(a)stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
ICQ: 1970476