[LINK] a bit of a GST and online buying tangent
Andrew Thornton
secretelf77 at gmail.com
Thu Nov 28 11:35:45 AEDT 2013
As a bit of a curious tangent, I buy 3D software
online. I've found this to be a curious market in a few ways.
One, I like to render stuff. For anyone who's not
into 3D stuff, rendering is taking a flat 3D approximation of a shape or
scene, such as a CAD creation, and making it into a lifelike 3D picture.
Now, there are hundreds of render tools [often called render engines].
Some are free. Some are commercial. One of the best commercial renderers
is called V Ray. You can't get it online here at all!! There is some
weird licence-geo restriction that allows V Ray to be sold in the most
obscure, tiny Caribbean islands but not here! That is bizarre. Not that
I need it; I use Lightwave.
Two, there is a weird brick and mortar situation
here. There are some brick and mortar stores that specialize in selling
high end 3D software. One of the biggest is
http://www.stormfx.com.au/. Now things get weird. First, they claim
to sell V Ray. They don't! Because they can't! Second, their site is the
most most rank amateurish load of garbage that I have come across. I've
bought enough 3D software etc online to probably, after more expense
than I would care to numerate [ and yes, I buy it all legally; I've
never pirated anything in my life] , be in the category of a
professional buyer. If someone gave me X dollars and gave me Y time to
buy 3D software I would know what I was doing. Now, I already have
things like Z Brush. I bought that from the pixologic site online ages
ago. But for the heck of it I pretended to buy it from Stormfx. The site
runs me around in circles. Then it does the following:
IT ASKS ME FOR A QUOTE.
Is this Monty Python? Oh man. Here we have an online
site trying to be some sort of wackjobbed pseudo brick and mortaresque
emporium/store. Who the heck wants or needs a quote on Z brush???????
You just go to the pixologic site and buy the jolly thing.
Oh man. If stormfx is typical of online selling then we
are still in 1995. That is the funniest thing that I have come across.
That's like someone selling gramophones at a massive mark up.
We can't make clickfrenzy happen. GST being added to
online overseas purchases below 1000 bucks. Welcome to the madness. Put
your hands on your hips. Turn to the ri-ri -ri-right. Let's do the
timewarp again. Da da da dah dum.
Andrew
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