On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 4:54 AM, Dario Greggio wrote: > I've come to thinking that we have a broader choice. We can spend a lot > for "more robust" products, or a little for "last-one-year" products. > > It depends on the final use. In some cases, it still makes more sense to go cheap - You can get 18V cordless drills from Harbor Freight for $20, or you can get a nice brand name durable cordless for $80 on the cheap end. At the end of the day, I can buy 4 cheap drills for the cost of a good one, and I don't worry about really beating them up, or tearing them apart for use in a project. The key, however, is recognizing the trade-off and making decisions with full knowledge. Price and quality have a very good relationship, though, so I would have expected the consumer to assume the lamp is inexpensive because it's cheap, not because the store is simply giving them a good deal. About the only thing I've ever complained about at length was the cordless anti static wrist strap from Spark Fun. Fortunately they took action and discontinued that line - I can understand best buy selling them next to the other snake oil products, but it surprised me that a supposed electronics place would even consider selling such an obvious rip off. The mean course of action would be to buy expensive parts from them, wear the strap and charge myself up before working on them and repeatedly returning the expensive damaged items stating, "I'm wearing the ESD control solutions you sell..." Generally, however, it's just not worth my time. Caveat emptor. -Adam -- EARTH DAY 2008 Tuesday April 22 Save Money * Save Oil * Save Lives * Save the Planet http://www.driveslowly.org -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist