On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 03:53:02 GMT, Joseph Bartlo
wrote:

JATO

Well there is an old saying you get what you pay for. If someone in the
private sector can produce data that are so much better than the free
service the government provides, then the knowledgable people who need
these accurate forecasts would be able to tell the difference by
comparison. I believe a good product sells itself.

I agree that is true to some extent, but for example suppose someone says he
likes Osama Bin Laden and makes the most accurate forecasts. Do you really
think he'll be hired by many people in our country? Suppose a person makes
crummy forecasts and has a name like AccuWeather behind him or the endorsement
of many of his peers, is friends with people high on the proverbial
meteorological totem pole. I've been in the science long enough to realize
that it is to some extent not what you know but who you know - sort of like
a network of a bunch of people of like mind patting each other on the back
and leading themselves into wherever.

I've been around long enough to know you do your homework and choose your
vendors based on who provides the best product. If you choose someone as a
vendor just because of popularity verses the quality of their product, then
you deserve what you get. I like choices. If I have a need for a high end
product and the Gov product can't product that, then I would go with the
vendor that could. Pretty simple and straight forward. It's not rocket
science.