Unisys DIFAX Update

Here's an update to my suggestion that some of you might want to consider 
getting DIFAX from Unisys instead of Alden.

Our current DIFAX agreement with Unisys ends on Sep 30. I contacted Mike 
Porreca at Unisys to set up the next year's blanket purchase order for 
DIFAX. He told me that there would have to be a price increase for the 
service. That didn't surprise me, everything costs more today than it did 
yesterday. Then he told me what the increase was and I was surprised.

For educational institutions, the price is going from $300.00 per year to 
$3300.00 per year. That's a modest 1000% increase. He said it costs Unisys 
over $300.00 just to process the paperwork for one school. It sounds as 
though they intend to pass the costs for their bad management practices 
along to their customers.

Needless to say, we will not be getting DIFAX from Unisys next year.

He did tip Unisys's hand a bit. He said "Where else are you going to get 
DIFAX?" Sounds as though they've been following the Alden epic, too. And 
then he said "If Unidata were to contract with us, instead of individual 
schools, then the schools could get DIFAX for $300.00 per year." The 
quotations are approximations, I never bothered to learn shorthand. The 
dollar costs are exact, however.

Sorry if I raised anyone's expectations. I guess we'll just learn to live 
without DIFAX. This is sad, because Dan Vietor has created a really neat 
PNG format version of DIFAX and it's as good as any other DIFAX product 
I've ever seen.

Larry




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-----===(*  Climate's what we expect, but weather's what we get.  *)===-----
Larry Riddle | Climate Research Div | Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego | La Jolla, California 92093-0224
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