david@geac.UUCP (David Haynes) (07/11/88)
(Seems to be my month for volunteering...) Lyndon (lyndon@ncc) and I have been exchanging a few messages about the difficulty of obtaining software releases from the United States. Primarily, the cost, timing and customs hastle. Here is a portion of his last message to me. What do people think of this? ----------------( Lyndon's message follows )---------------------- I'm thinking of addressing the tape question specifically. It's a royal pain in the ass to get tapes from the US. What I'm thinking of doing is setting up a tape library and duplication service. We already have things line GNU, TeX, MH, Icon, the Sun User Group tapes (have to check on redistribution restrictions), etc. What I can do is provide these in various formats (1/2 and 1/4 inch) on a cost recovery basis. Doing a quick calculation, we should be able to put out 1/2 inch tapes for about $50, and 1/4 inch for $75. This covers the cost of the tape, shipping, and my time for making the copies. To build the library up, I'll exchange one tape in the archive for any new tape someone adds to the archive. Why don't you bounce this around the people out east. If there's enough interest I'll do a posting. --lyndon ---------------( End of Lyndon's message )---------------------- The sysop folk around here thought it was a good idea, so I'd like to solicit a larger sample from the net. -david-
glee@cognos.uucp (Godfrey Lee) (07/13/88)
In article <2982@geac.UUCP> david@geac.UUCP (David Haynes) writes: >I'm thinking of addressing the tape question specifically. It's a >royal pain in the ass to get tapes from the US. What I'm thinking >of doing is setting up a tape library and duplication service. Great idea. >What I can do is provide these in various formats (1/2 and 1/4 inch) >on a cost recovery basis. Doing a quick calculation, we should be >able to put out 1/2 inch tapes for about $50, and 1/4 inch for $75. This sounds like a very good price, you may want to double check your calculations, and add in labour cost of someone in your organization (rather than just your personal time - we tend to undervalue that sometimes). The standard price for free software distributed on a tape seems to be 100 units of money, be it US$100, Aus$100, U.K.Pound 100. By the way, should you not have posted it to can.general? -- Godfrey Lee P.O. Box 9707 Cognos Incorporated 3755 Riverside Dr. VOICE: (613) 738-1440 FAX: (613) 738-0002 Ottawa, Ontario UUCP: uunet!mnetor!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!glee CANADA K1G 3Z4