[time-nuts] Serial to Excel utility

[Jim Lux]

On 11/7/11 6:24 PM, Justin Pinnix wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Jim Lux<jimlux at earthlink.net>  wrote:
>
>
>> $100k/hr ->  about $1000/day..   If the $250 widget and an hour meets the
>> need, it's a win.
>>
>
> Might oughta check your math there, buddy. $100K/hr is quite a lot of money
> :-)

Oh no... I guess I misread that last paycheck.. Time to send the fleet 
of Ferraris back.


>
> (just kidding, was obviously a typo)
>
> But, back to the original point - people who sell software have significant
> fixed costs and almost no variable costs.  So, if  you only expect to sell
> a few copies of a piece of software, it's going to have to be pretty
> expensive if you are to break even.
>

yes..
And for something like the wedge product being mentioned, a lot of what 
goes into the cost is probably the downstream support.  You might start 
with a fairly simple product, price it at some perceived "pain point", 
and strategize that you'll build adapters to whatever weird piece of 
gear someone comes up with, and add it to the library.

Maybe they've got a room full of people who know their software real 
well, perhaps at fairly moderate wages, and a real good system to do the 
high end type support (to the point of having a customer photocopy the 
manual and send it to them).  I've not had that particular experience 
with this particular company, but I've worked with others where that was 
the case (particularly in pre-internet days)  You paid a pretty penny 
for the software, but still less than a custom development for your needs.