Not too long ago you could buy a house in Ireland FROM €50,000. One assumes, as any sane person would, that when you go to take advantage of such a bargain, you may end up paying a bit more than advertised. If you feel that this is an incorrect statement I would suggest you stop reading right now
OK so you're still here and have realised that the bill boards advertising the prices should have been taken down because those offerings are all sold out. And as your "apologetic" Estate Agent comforts you by informing you that the cheap houses "wouldn’t have suited you anyway"; But while you're here, have a look at these nice houses for €300,000.
In the same land we have a locally written and published broadsheet newspaper called "The Sunday Business Post". It is primarily marketed at people in business, people that have an interest in business, people who work for a business and of course is headlined with obligatory political scandals of who is spending tax payer’s money on €11,000 curtains for their home. So everyone is fair game.
The first Sunday of every month features a supplement called "Computers in Business", which is what I have chosen to focus on today. Yes I do buy it and each Sunday morning I get frustrated with their so called journalistic approach.
This is copied from their site advertising their current issue
"While Irish companies brood about a’ high cost economy', the biggest-ever sale has been taking place in IT hardware equipment. On offer are computers for €250, laptops for €300 and printers and external hard drives for €50.This is no once-off extravaganza, either. Mass production and relentless competition have slashed the cost of IT hardware for Irish firms. If you're thinking of replacing, upgrading or adding to your company's IT prowess, now is the time to do it, writes Adrian Weckler"
Sounds like a very useful article alright. One particular item was a HP Proliant server for about €200 when bought from an online store (the one that probably provides the most advertising revenue for The Post). "Advice on how to save money" I hear you ask, "what could be wrong with that?"
For the thousand of readers that are told, "to run your new software you need a server" this is the ideal advice to follow if you are in the money wasting business.
What sparked this blog post was the recent site visit I had to a potential customer whom like many, had followed the advice of such insightful people as Mr Weckler.
This customer had requirements for 10 users. This server was to run MS Small business server, Symantec Mail Security, Symantec Backup Exec, share printing and file sharing duties and their new accounts and stock control system. The Owner and manager also wanted remote access to their files and their new accounting system using terminal services. The online reseller had as much knowledge of the product in the cardboard box he was selling as he had about his new customer! Zero!
I had the unfortunate task of explaining that you cannot plough a field with a Ford Fiesta and expect it to perform like a tractor.
It's not just servers, it's low powered PCs, with entry level processors and minimum RAM expected to run Windows Vista at an acceptable pace. It’s the masses of Windows XP home edition PCs scattered throughout the LAN unable to access domain shares and printers each time they expect to.
It's the leftovers that the manufacturers and retailers want to get rid of that are being pawned off on naive readers. The only benefit of these "articles" are for the publishers to sell papers, while selling advertising to the on line retailers that are only too happy to sell you a box, that may look like what you need, but is more often a long way from it.
I believe they make our estate agent friend appear quite helpful. At least amongst all the false advertising there was an option to purchase something that perhaps was more likely to fulfil the end users needs.....
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