Re: ethernet card discussion

["**** ****" <***@***.com>]

Dude,
    I don't want to sell these. I just want to have one for my own, for less
than the $250+ it would take, if I were to try and buy the components
singly. I probably can't. You are correct in calling the project "hardware
hacking", and that's what it's meant to be. But by more than one person
doing it, printed circuit boards are cheap enough to buy professionally
made, components costs are lower, or in some cases, they are just buyable.
For instance, some of the chips necessary, they only sell in minimum
quantities. And at $8 per chip, you don't want to buy 15 of them, to only
use one.

I can say this, I'll never sell these myself. After the first 'run' is done,
if people are satisfied with it, I might try the group purchase thing again,
or not, but others will have everything they need to do it, waiting for
them. Schematics, parts lists, even no setup fees for the pcb's. Mature
code/drivers? I just want to see the method of this work, even more than the
card in particular. There are too many cool things that could be built, if
people work together.

Side note: Matt A. suggested early on, that another possible project would
be a USB card. Personally, I wouldn't care for one, and I made light of such
a thing. Actually though, he's not the only one to suggest such a thing, but
can we count on SSH or any other a2 hardware maker to make such a thing?
It's quite possible, that if this project is a success, that I'd be willing
to lend what little help I could to making a usb card. Same idea. We chip in
together to lower parts cost, to make pcb's affordable, and to help with the
software/hardware. It can work like this, if we can tolerate the idiots who
troll.

BTW, I'll keep you in mind, if I hear that anyone decides to sell a
completed board.

Thanks,
John Oyler
http://aIIethernet.tripod.com/
jojo4@va.mediaone.net