This appears to be freaking brilliant.
I also notice that he supports open source hardware designs free of charge.
The API should allow one to even publish the quantity and price of the items
you mfgr from the parts along with a paypal or other shopping cart button.
Then people who want to order that product from you, will have instant
updates on availability. If they place the order, PayPal IPN could, again
via the API, update your available quantity for you. If that makes any
sense, check out:
http://www.ecomorder.com/techref/ecomprice.asp or paste:
Into a web page and check out the results. Actually, that part number is
backordered at the moment, so 416026 might be a better example.
The point is that you can get live availability on the web page and you
don't have to piss off your customers by emailing them hours AFTER they
placed the order saying "I'm sorry, but I'm backordered on that part..."
And that is just my poor example. The point is that the API for Aligni could
allow integration with a shopping cart on a web page.
The best part is that it says it makes it easy to compare quotes from
different vendors. I wonder if it pulls up the published prices
automatically across multiple vendors the way
http://www.findchips.com does?
The only other thing I can think to suggest is that it would be good if it
allowed users to "share" or "sell" their inventory to other users. E.g.
Wouldn't it be great to find out that Kelly, just down the road from me, who
also happens to be an Aligni user (he isn't actually) stocks the same part I
do? I could make him an offer, assuming he had set his preferences in Aligni
to enable such things, and then just arrange to stop by and pick them up or
combine orders for greater savings.
Now, if I could just afford it...
--
James.
-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
David VanHorn
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 13:04
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [EE] Parts management
Any comments on the Aligni service, or suggestions of something better?
http://www.aligni.com/
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View/change your membership options at
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View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
Into a web page and check out the results. Actually, that part number is
backordered at the moment, so 416026 might be a better example.
The point is that you can get live availability on the web page and you
don't have to piss off your customers by emailing them hours AFTER they
placed the order saying "I'm sorry, but I'm backordered on that part..."
And that is just my poor example. The point is that the API for Aligni could
allow integration with a shopping cart on a web page.
The best part is that it says it makes it easy to compare quotes from
different vendors. I wonder if it pulls up the published prices
automatically across multiple vendors the way
http://www.findchips.com does?
The only other thing I can think to suggest is that it would be good if it
allowed users to "share" or "sell" their inventory to other users. E.g.
Wouldn't it be great to find out that Kelly, just down the road from me, who
also happens to be an Aligni user (he isn't actually) stocks the same part I
do? I could make him an offer, assuming he had set his preferences in Aligni
to enable such things, and then just arrange to stop by and pick them up or
combine orders for greater savings.
Now, if I could just afford it...
--
James.
-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
David VanHorn
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 13:04
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: [EE] Parts management
Any comments on the Aligni service, or suggestions of something better?
http://www.aligni.com/
--
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
--
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist