Comments on: Price discrimination http://www.pelennorfields.com/matt/2005/08/29/price-discrimination/ The Pelennor Fields White Book: Red Book reincarnated Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:47:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Matt Winckler http://www.pelennorfields.com/matt/2005/08/29/price-discrimination/#comment-172 Matt Winckler Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:40:21 +0000 http://www.pelennorfields.com/matt/?p=1178#comment-172 <p>True. Specialized software can be expensive, and that's ok if it's providing some unique service or functionality. But if I am willing to go to the minor inconvenience of writing my automated unit tests into the source code rather than having an (admittedly handy) point-and-click interface, I can get automated regression testing functionality for <em>free</em> with tools like NUnit. I doubt Mathematica has a comparable free alternative. :)</p> <p>The big selling point on this testing software was how much time it would save in regression testing, and how that would pay for itself. Now I don't know about everybody else's chargeout rates, but for $6,500 I can do a <em>lot</em> of regression testing, especially if I've taken a few one-time hours to write automated tests in the code.</p> True. Specialized software can be expensive, and that’s ok if it’s providing some unique service or functionality. But if I am willing to go to the minor inconvenience of writing my automated unit tests into the source code rather than having an (admittedly handy) point-and-click interface, I can get automated regression testing functionality for free with tools like NUnit. I doubt Mathematica has a comparable free alternative. :)

The big selling point on this testing software was how much time it would save in regression testing, and how that would pay for itself. Now I don’t know about everybody else’s chargeout rates, but for $6,500 I can do a lot of regression testing, especially if I’ve taken a few one-time hours to write automated tests in the code.

]]> By: Pat http://www.pelennorfields.com/matt/2005/08/29/price-discrimination/#comment-171 Pat Tue, 30 Aug 2005 15:30:23 +0000 http://www.pelennorfields.com/matt/?p=1178#comment-171 <p><i>or b) the item costs however much you have, and the vendor needs time to figure out just how much you’re willing to spend, then set the price at $5 below that level.</i></p> <p>Ah yes, we had that happen to us when looking for a GIS library last year. It was pretty humorous. I think this year the group working on it is using an Open Source library instead.</p> <p>I'm not suprised at how expensive that software is, though. Someone at work just bought a set of tools for Mathematica that were over $10,000. (And that's a one user single seat license).</p> or b) the item costs however much you have, and the vendor needs time to figure out just how much you’re willing to spend, then set the price at $5 below that level.

Ah yes, we had that happen to us when looking for a GIS library last year. It was pretty humorous. I think this year the group working on it is using an Open Source library instead.

I’m not suprised at how expensive that software is, though. Someone at work just bought a set of tools for Mathematica that were over $10,000. (And that’s a one user single seat license).

]]>