BG> To be perfectly fair to Paul though, $200 IS quite a lot of money when 
BG> he's not

RB> To be perfectly Honest with you AND Paul, Paul is no doubt in a
RB> better finacial position that I am. I see that he also dabbles in the

Quite probably.  Having saved my money for a rainy day from the
age of 3, I would hope so.

RB> stock exchange ( you have to be able to afford this, no matter how
RB> "small a dabble" ) and has had the occassional bonus fall on his
RB> shoulders.

And the occasional loss too!  I just lost $3000 on options.  That
brings my profit on mining stocks, at today's prices, to something
like 10%, which I would have likely got from putting into my home
loan.  The $3000 loss was an abnormal thing though, I had an
opportunity to make a 50/50 bet and lost.  I don't mind.

RB>  I don't have what he has ...But I've got a Courier
RB> and I won't be looking back....Priorities I suppose

I have two completely different parts to my money.  There is money
that is for investment, and as you can see, I will lose $3000 without
blinking.

Then I have my PERSONAL spending, which is $30/week on a "death
budget", and $80/week when on a "working budget".  The $30 is 
meant to buy milk, rice, weetbix, toothbrushes, lollies and that's 
about it.  The $50/week on top of that, gives me $2500/year to
spend on whatever luxuries I want.  For me, that is electronics.
You will note that Rod doesn't buy a V.34 modem because he can't
cost-justify it, despite calling STD for 3 minutes EVERY DAY!

As a local caller "only", I couldn't even cost-justify buying a
tissue-paper to clean my V.32bis modem.  However, with $2500/year
to spend (for the last year I have not had access to that amount
though, because of death budgets and because of investment needs
encroaching on available cash), I have to think of what I would
like.  I've got hard disks, memory, cpus, modems, etc etc, and
was planning on getting a USR, even when the Spirit was still
working fine.

RB> If he is so careful with investing his money, Why the hell can't

I am careful about saving money.  I am not careful about investing
money.  Quite the opposite in fact.  Depends what you call careful.
I am of the opinion that risky investments will pay off in the
long term, and have made some VERY heavy gambles.  Like buying
about $20,000 worth of a small mining stock that I've never heard
of before.

RB> he see that a Courier is a BETTER investment than a Yum-Char.

A modem is not an investment.  It is a luxury.  It gets financed
differently.

RB> Different story if the Yum-Char meets ALL his expectations,

It may well do, I do not have that data available.  The Spirit
Viper was the most reliable modem that I used here.

RB> but if your expectations are High (as I feel Pauls are) then
RB> he must be prepared to PAY.

I have high expectations on performance, and I have low expectations
on price, and I choose the best compromise.  Like everyone does.
Value for money is the name of the game.

RB>  But even for a voluntary BBS I would have to have something that

So run your voluntary BBS the way you think it should be done.  That's
EXACTLY what I'm doing.  No users, just points.  Just reliable mail.
Just the moderator telling you what to do.  Just 10 minutes access
time.  It's the way I think it should be done.

RB>  came near the best. I don't drink or smoke and I can't chase wild
RB>  women, so I use the money that I save from that to buy my little
RB>  luxuries. Paul can have his cigars and wine and netcomm. 

I think you have me confused with an alien from out of space.  I
don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't have a car, I don't do drugs,
I don't go to parties, I don't have any friends, I don't chase
wild women, unless you count the odd abusive message I might send
to Denise about here stupid initials.  I eat lollies, and write
public domain code.  People like Brenton, who are Real Men, will
tell you that I am wasting my life, everyone should be like him.
The fact that he feels the need to convince me of my own plight
of despair gives me great satisfaction that I'm on the right track.

RB> Agreed, But Wouldn't he like to KNOW, that he has the best for
RB> himself and his users. He will have to take a BIGGER RISK, if he
RB> wants satisfaction in life.

You mean pay more, not take a bigger risk.  What is risky about
going with a USR?  I knew it mostly worked.

RB> I can't really understand why I had trouble logging into his
RB> netcomm. I dial them most every day, with out the trouble that I
RB> had with his, those few times... This EC thing, must have been user error
RB> somewhere.

Poor old Russ.  There is no AT command to say "fuck up low level
negotation".  On EITHER modem.  The reason you never saw it before
was because you have never run the modems with the particular line
characteristics you get with me.  Maybe every 5 seconds there is a
slight click in my line, because the bitch upstairs has a cuckoo
clock that emits EMR.  I don't know.  But you find out bugs in modems
by finding a single example.  You don't find them by saying "well
most people don't have the problem, so you don't exist".

RB> He really made me so mad, that he could use a Courier and then pass it up
RB> for the netcomm. (Money, not being the issue, here)
RB> Can't see the grass, for the green.

The ISP's words made a lot of sense to me, "It's not a $200 better
modem - it's not even a better modem".  That was a hell of a logical
thing to say, and it summarized his testing perfectly.  I had NO
evidence to suggest that he was wrong.  I KNEW I had a lot of
problems with the USR, I didn't know what the problems were with the
Netcomm in my environment.  Turns out he was wrong when he said 
"it's not even a better modem".  I didn't know that at the time.
The Courier is my preferred modem, assuming no price difference.  
BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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