Interesting Links for 14-09-2012

[andrewducker]

• How Buzz Aldrin's communion on the moon was hushed up
  (tags: moon religion space astronauts )
• Intel predicts 10GHz chips by 2011 (the first comment is _awesome_)
  (tags: intel technology speed )
• A Dozen Android Features Missing From iOS
  (tags: iphone ios android )
• Publishers Hate Money, Clearly (Stross, Doctorow and Tor all try to do the

Comments

[ashfae]

In the case of printer ink, what I learned is that the printer itself actually costs about the amount that you pay for it, and the company makes almost no profit on the hardware. They make up for this by overcharging for peripherals, especially ink. Same reason why cables are marked up so much. (if anyone knows better, please inform me; this info is years old and gleaned from when I worked in a computer store, so not exactly researched)

The fee for electronic transfer of funds between international bank accounts drives me nuts. They're moving numbers, no more; why the charge? Operating and processing costs, phooey, isn't that part of their job anyway?

Regarding more expensive drinking water in airports past security (too true), the argument that the water in the bathrooms is drinkable is problematic, because in most airports I've been in you can't fill an empty bottle in them, either because of the shape of the spray or because the water is automatically hot and not drinkable, so I call that a faulty argument. But then, I've never understood what the UK seems to have against drinking fountains.

...I could rant about a lot of these, come to think about it.

[andrewducker]

You're completely correct on the ink. And cables are similar - if you buy a 1m HDMI cable from Comet you're paying £20-£60. You can get an Amazon Basics one for £6.

There is a cost involved in money transfers - they have to set things up in the first place, and the cost of that and maintenance needs to be paid for somehow. But they definitely charge a surplus, because most of the customers are corporations who will pay for it without blinking.

[bohemiancoast]

Interestingly, the Olympics took on this criticism (because you could not take in drinks) and provided drinking fountains that you could fill bottles from. Not enough, and rather badly designed, so there were queues. But it was a step in the right direction.

Also, in the matter of outrageous charges for water, a chilled 500ml bottle of water, for which the going rate (in both Tesco and my local Turkish supermarket) is 59p, was £2.75 at the Odeon the other week. I thought that impressively ludicrous, far more than most airports or festivals.