Hi, Buddha -- and Jim. When I was working on the floor of the Comex, years ago, one of my fellow thieves quoted SOMEBODY (I don't think it was Barnum, but it could have been ... somebody in the brokerage business?):
"It is absolutely immoral to let a sucker keep his money."
Jim, the MARKET definition of "commodity" (or the process of "commoditization") is now accepted by Wall Street and the zit-faced loons on CNBC as "subject to the laws of supply and demand." The integrated chips (or the entire computer industry) business became "commoditized" when the price of IC's could be driven down by a sudden influx of new supply, no matter HOW ingenious and unique a product of human engineering these items were originally. In THAT sense, the affordable but still "high-end" components and systems that now sound ALMOST as good as (better than, in some environments, I would argue) yesterday's 100-thousand-dollar pieces have been commoditized. My Triangle Volantes can be mass produced (and can thus flood the market) in ways that the $36,000 Magellan's originally couldn't. THAT portion of my argument I will still maintain: it is good when a knowledgeable OR a moronic purchaser "supports" a prototype by overpaying for it, whether to be the first one on his block or out of impatience to get a sound he HAS to have, NOW, into his home, thus allowing the manufacturer to "commoditize" it to the extent he can now bring economies of scale to the marketplace and even undercut the original prototype's uniqueness. This is ONE of the reasons our pursuit is becoming increasingly affordable at the HIGHEST possible levels of quality. Cheers, and happy tunes, Clifton.



So, being virtually a member of the House of Hilton and the House of Jolie, I must stand up and proclaim that your analogies are completely out of line.