Obtaining a unique, "unchangeable" number associated with an SGI workstation

[Steven C. Holzworth]

In article <9001111538.AA09715 at aero4.larc.nasa.gov>, blbates at AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") writes:
> 
>   Here, Here.  I agree, if software is reasonably priced I don't mind
> paying for it, but it it cost as much as or more than the equipment it
> is going to be used on then it is too expensive.
> --
> 
> 	Brent L. Bates
> 	NASA-Langley Research Center
> 	M.S. 294
> 	Hampton, Virginia  23665-5225
> 	(804) 864-2854
> 	E-mail: blbates at aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates at aero2.larc.nasa.gov

This is the second person to say this, so I feel I have to respond...

We are a VAR for SGI computers.  Our product is a high-end civil engineering
and landscape architecture design system.  (Sorry if this sounds like an Ad)
Two configurations are available, one for approximately $10k and one for
approximately $20k (roughly the price of a Personal IRIS).  You would argue
that that is too much to charge.  There are several reasons for that price.
The system has been under development for over five years, and has involved
lots of dollars and lots of risk.  The nearest equivalent products in the 
CE CAD market sell for approximately twice to three times that, and don't
give the same performance (IMHO).
  Looking at it from the viewpoint of a potential customer:  Is it worth it
to invest approximately $40k-$50K to double or triple the productivity
of a $40k a year engineer?  At the end of a year, the investment is recovered,
after that you are ahead of the game.  Will this product allow you to compete
with larger firms? On larger projects?  With fewer people?
  Looking at it from our (the developer's) viewpoint:  What is the relative
worth of this product?  How long will it take to recoup the cost of develop-
ment?  Further development?  Marketing?  A typical three day trade show costs
approximately $25k to attend.  A typical magazine ad, $4k.  More importantly,
how many systems can you REALISTICALLY expect to sell? 10? 100? 1000?
This is not the microcomputer market.  We can't expect to sell a hundred
thousand copies of our software.  AutoCAD can do that; it runs on micros. It
also doesn't approach our capabilities (IMHO).

I apologize profusely if the above sounded like ad.  I'm merely trying to
show some of the rationale that goes into pricing software in the mid to high-
end computer industry.  Note that I didn't mention the product name once.

Protection schemes:

We use the sysinfo number, in addition to some other things :-) for our
our software.  Is it secure?  Yes, enough so for our purposes.  Is it
impregnable?  No, not by a long shot. In our market, there just aren't that
many grade A hackers who could defeat a reasonable protection scheme. Most
companies with any sense would not risk it anyhow.  (Again, this isn't the
micro market.  We're talking MAJOR lawsuit, here). I STRONGLY suggest you
don't use the Ether address.  As mentioned before, this is easily defeated.

I personally feel that most professional programmers can defeat any copy-
protection scheme devised (including dongles).  Most _professional_ programmers
won't try.  The idea is to make a scheme that is secure ENOUGH.

Note also: on the Personal IRIS, only the first few groups of the sysinfo field
are significant, the rest are zero; on larger IRISes, all (64?) groups are
used.

Again, I apologize if this was construed as an ad, that was not my intent.
Flame or respond to me directly, don't overload the net.

P.S.
   The folks at SGI are doing a wonderful job answering questions on the net.
I keep seeing new names appear in their responses, indicating a lot of
people there are paying attention.  Keep up the good work.

						Sincerely,

						Steven C. Holzworth
						Vice President.
						Stephen Dedalus, Inc.
						rti!tachyon!sch