Compensation for engineers in the Bay area will average much higher than $200k, and that's not counting benefits (medical, etc.). So cost to the company will be way higher than 200k/employee.
For a project that has hardware, there will be large expenses associated with that
custom silicon has huge setup costs, for example.
You mentioned ham radio
definitely fun! It's a process to get into it though, as you need to study/pass an exam, and then you need a radio. Radios range from cheap ($25 or so) in the VHF/UHF ("walkie talkie"-style) to more expensive for an HF rig ($1000 range for 100W HF). If you want to get into low power ("QRP") it can be much cheaper. You also need a fair amount of space for a good antenna setup...
There are tons of different communication modes, some without a computer and, like you mentioned, some that use computers. wsjtx and fldigi are popular programs.
Good luck!
D'oh, I'm a doofus
it's search that I was thinking of (apt-cache search, not apt-get search).
~~Can apt-get refresh package list?~~
Edit: yes...yes it can. I was confused.
I could be wrong but I think these are prepaid, not paid on delivery...
They specified 1 significant figure
at that level it's the same.
This is the same argument used for blaming the cost of college on government loans for education, for $$$ housing prices in cities that offer low income subsidies, for food prices due to food stamps...
That's because you're thinking of trucks used first and foremost for heavy duty "truck stuff." That is not the only market for trucks, at least in the US: https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
According to Edwards’ data, 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling—putting something in the bed, its ostensible raison d’être—once a year or less.
0-60mph is mostly deprecated these days in favor of 0-62mph, which just so happens to be the same as 0-100km/h
what a coincidence!
It's an interesting (predictable?) look into the psyche here.
I work for a big company, and while yeah it's a big faceless company, the people treat us ICs as assets, not liabilities; the company makes money because of its employees, not in spite of them, and they
colleagues, manager, director, SVP
acknowledge that.
My partner's company OTOH seems to treat employees more as a liability
the kind of attitude of "we'd be more profitable if we didn't have to pay you," which is really aggravating (different industry than mine, so this is more the norm mindset unfortunately).
It's really clear how this whole farce of a government agency views the world.
"...and there are no comments, because it's Self Documenting™"
My comment from another thread: https://startrek.website/comment/16491624
tl;dr: tiny production, would be astonished if they got $6k out of it, and that's not counting time, props, transportation, etc.