I must admit that the article posted by Jeremy John Ahouse is delightful
to read. However, the author is enitely wrong with respect to the costs.
In article <ahouse-230693133134 at 129.64.1.172>, ahouse at hydra.rose.brandeis.edu (Jeremy John Ahouse) writes:
|> Notes on a sequencing project.
|>|> -Eudora <free>: recieving mail, sending off Blast requests. This is a
...
|> -Turbogopher <free>: getting lots of software, searching GenBank, PIR,
|> SwissProt,... This is a wonderful application, and if you have access to
...
|> -NewsWatcher <free>: to read newsgroups like this one. Reading news
..
|> -SeqApp <free>: This application does many things. I used it primarily
|> for sequence alignment (SeqApp can align using ClustalV and also by hand).
...
(lots and lots of free software and resources...)
...
...
...
...
It should be strongly emphasized that this article is representative for
today's misunderstanding of the biocomputing environment.
NOTHING IS FREE.
THE FACT THAT IT IS FREE OF COST FOR YOU
MEANS THAT SOMEONE ELSE PAYS.
The resources you used (like software, searching and storage at remote
sites) are part of an extremely costy business. Unless YOU (the 'end user')
realizes its price, and quotes the resources accordingly, these resources
are severely endangered, and might fail to maintain quality and existence
in the long term. This also applies for networks. These nets are horribly
expensive, and this should be kept in mind while using them.
Never think of 'free' resources, like software, blast or gopher searches.
Always think of 'provided as a service from XXX, which is appeciated to
be available without cost to me'.
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