The price quote that comes in from the contractor: US$3,000 for the RAM and $950 for the flash.

Astounded fish sends e-mail to the contractor's sales rep: "Let me try to put this tactfully: $3,000 for 256MB of RAM??? $950 for 64MB??? Totally unacceptable. I have directed my staff to look for more reasonable alternatives elsewhere."

Sales rep's response a few hours later: "There are alternatives out there I found that are a lot cheaper. But they are not your vendor's brand, and we offer your vendor's memory. If I find anything else out or another solution I can offer, I will let you know."

Tongue firmly in cheek, fish fires off a quick reply: "I went ahead and pulled some memory out of an old Commodore 64. Looks like it will do nicely."

The following day around noon, fish gets another e-mail from the sales guy, this time with a memo attached from the contracting company's regional director for engineers -- both of whom apparently missed the joke: