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I bought into IOM nearly a year ago--incidentally, my parents asked for the advice on their IRA and I had them invest aout 20% their fund in IOM and they got in around $9, post-split, so they still think I'm pretty smart even after the last few weeks. Anyway, when I bought in I told a few friends about my investment--I was surprised when not one of them was familiar with IOM or knew what the Zip drive was and when I explained, they said, "oh ya, wasn't that the stock that was hyped on the internet or something?" I'm in a Ph.D. program, so these people weren't technical newbies, and I have to admit that it worried me a little. Over the last month two of these same three friends purchased a computer--one bought a machine from Dell, the other from a local computer shop that builds machines. Both had Zip drives. I didn't encourage them to get a Zip--I didn't even know they were buying new computers. I asked the guy who bought the Dell machine why he got a Zip and he said that when he ordered the machine, which doesn't come standard with a Zip, the guy on phone said he should get one and explained what they were. He said the guy said the everyone was getting them and that they were really convenient and only added $99 to the machine. My question: Does everyone ordering a machine from Dell get this kind of sales job? The other guy said that he has gotten tired of trying to fit some of his larger Excel files on disks--he has a couple of files that are over the 1.44 limit and he said he as been using the backup feature to save them onto disks--he said it was a pain the ass. I asked if he had any trouble getting the local shop to install it and he said no. This morning when I got into my office I noticed that two of the professors down the hall were unpacking new computers that had just been delivered (the start of the year is when professors around here are allowed to spend department money on hardware, so I wasn't surprise--we Ph.D students still have 486s however. . .). I stopped and admired the machines. One of professors was showing the other his Zip disks and built in Zip drive. The other was asking if he could take his computer some where and have a Zip drive installed since his didn't have a Zip drive and now he wanted one. The first professor was telling them just to go to Sam's and buy an external. . . What a difference a year makes. Neither of these professors is particular computer literate, neither are the two friends of mine that bought computers and yet they now have Zips. . . Is anybody else having experiences like these? This is the one thing that is keeping me in the stock--I figure if everyone in College Station, Texas (A&M University--by no means a bastion of computer-literate techies) is buying these things, then they must be selling pretty good. |
