Click here for the gallery of my 2005 Fall Lake George photos.
Sunday Morning on Lake George
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Bought my fourth Corvette
Back in 1999, I was hanging out one Saturday with a fellow Corvette enthusiast and the guys at the now-defunct Quality Corvettes in Triangle VA, and I accidentally sold a white 1992 six-speed targa coupe to a customer. Jerry, the owner of Quality, was very appreciative, and all I wanted was to take a certain 1994 roadster in polo green metallic with tan top and 300hp LT1 engine with automatic out for a drive. So he tossed me the keys and we toured around in it for the rest of the afternoon. I didn’t have the money at the time to buy it, and it was sold the next week. But that car hooked me on roadsters and was what I eventually planned to buy once Excalibur (the silver ’98 coupe) was paid for and I had money rolling in again.
The dealership went bankrupt just a few months later, and Jerry died of a sudden heart attack shortly after that. By the time Excalibur was paid for and money started rolling in again in 2003, it was stolen and I bought the navy roadster instead. Things don’t always go according to plan.
I’ve had the Fiero GT for a daily driver for five years now, but I need a change – and when I stumbled upon a Corvette dealer in Downers Grove, IL on Monday I knew it was time. They just happened to have the same 1994 LT1/automatic polo green roadster in their showroom that I liked so much at Quality years before. But they wanted $25,000 for it, as it was a show-quality, low-miles car. Not what I want; too much money in the dealer and mileage premiums, and after the ’87 coupe I decided I don’t want any more automatics.
So I went home and checked on eBay, and the prices there are really cheap for some great cars. Now that C6 is out, C4 prices are a real bargain. Not only that, but the credit union rates are at 3.5% for up to 60 months. Could it be any better? I found a polo ’96 6-speed roadster that fit the bill perfectly, so I started watching the auction that night (Monday) and decided to bid on it Thursday night. It hit the reserve Friday around noon. I was okay with the reserve price but didn’t want to go any higher. Nobody tried to outbid me from that point, so I won it three hours later. I’m having it shipped out from Phoenix tomorrow.
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Commentary on Intel vs. AMD, the lawsuit
1. AMD makes a superior CPU to Intel. This is indisputable.
2. Intel is deliberately engaging in actions which are keeping AMD’s superior CPU from being used in systems produced by manufacturers who also utilize Intel by withholding millions of dollars of cash “rebate” money based on bogus quotas custom-tailored to a wholesaler’s volume which make it virtually impossible for one to survive without it – and the only way they can lose it is by selling AMD or Transmeta chips. Use Intel, stay afloat. Sell AMD, go out of business. Unless you’ve got the balls to abandon Intel entirely, and apparently even IBM doesn’t, they own you.
3. Startup costs for new CPU production facilities is in the neighborhood of 3-4 billion dollars. That’s why there aren’t lots of small startup companies competitively nipping at Intel’s heels now and there never will be.
4. AMD is being forced to sell its superior CPUs at prices well below their worth, because of Intel’s rebating practices which make it uneconomical for wholesalers and integrators to use AMD’s chips. They couldn’t afford to lose their rebate money even if AMD’s CPUs were priced the same as Intel’s, despite their superior performance.
5. If AMD can’t make money selling its products because Intel is so actively working at destroying them through abuse of their monopoly power, they can’t afford to produce better products and greater quantities of those products because of the prohibitive costs of new production facilities as discussed in #3.
There is a LOT more going on here than simple free market economics.