PDP-10 programming [was RE: Dumb Terminal games (was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine)]

[Ian S. King]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 5:11 PM, Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> wrote:

> On 2016-Mar-01, at 4:36 PM, Sean Conner wrote:
> > It was thus said that the Great Rich Alderson once stated:
> >>
> >> For most hobbyists, even $100 is too much.  I was simply astounded at
> the
> >> chutzpah of the seller--right there on the Amazon list--who was asking
> >> nearly $1500 for a copy.
> >
> >  I think that comes from an unchecked computer algorithm, not simple
> greed.
> > I think what's happening here is someone (some Amazon third party)
> offered
> > the book for, say, $5.  Another third party scans Amazon for such books,
> and
> > offers it for say, $6, with the hope that you (the potential buyer) will
> > only see their their offer for $6 and buy from them, at which point they
> > will buy it for $5 from the original seller, sell it to you for $6 and
> > pocket the $1 profit.  The problem comes when a third third-party seller
> > sees the offer for $6 and does the same thing as the second one, only now
> > they're offering it for $7, will pay $6 for it and pocket $1 profit.
> >
> >  Keep repeating that process and you end up with books selling for $1500.
> >
> >  -spc (Who knows?  If you keep searching, you might find the original
> >       seller selling it for $5 ... )
>
>
> For example:
>
> http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/why-did-amazon-charge-23698655-93-for-a-textbook/
> I've come across other articles about this in the past. Don't know the
> specifics of the book mentioned by Rich.
>
>
On abebooks.com, the lowest price is right around $100 with shipping.  Yes,
this sucks.  Yes, this is how capitalism works.  :-)  I've paid serious
money for books that are relevant to my research that aren't available in
libraries - one of them was no closer than Paris.  (I bought it from India
for about $50, and I won't loan it out.)

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."