The difference between the parts and shipping (±$90) and a comparable CE card (±317) is $227. Assuming three hours of work including research you'd need to earn about $75 per hour to break even. Assuming a 40 hour work week, 4 weeks of holiday time and no other benefits, that amounts to a yearly wage of $144000, placing you firmly in the top 1% of the world, and the top 10% of the USA (according to https://www.compareyourincome.org/)
After taxes, my current salary comes down to about €12,28 per hour (≅$13.27). Not a great rate, but higher than 36% of the rest of my country assuming a full time working week. That means I can work at least 17 full hours on such a project and end up making a profit. The 30-60 minutes of work that this project takes saves me over $200.
Most of the world doesn't work for the ridiculous rates FAANG pays. Good for you that you're too rich to even bother about spending $200 extra for a memory card. However, your skewed expectations don't detriment the value of this article in any way.
Even if I'd made enough I'd make it a point to use workarounds like these to avoid the scams or inefficiencies of the overpriced CFE cards, just to make a point.
You realise people can have hobbies right? People can save up for an expensive camera for their photography hobby.
Do you think only Silicon Valley programmers have cameras like these? I can assure you that professional photographers don't make that much more money, not nearly enough to justify the expense anyway.
After taxes, my current salary comes down to about €12,28 per hour (≅$13.27). Not a great rate, but higher than 36% of the rest of my country assuming a full time working week. That means I can work at least 17 full hours on such a project and end up making a profit. The 30-60 minutes of work that this project takes saves me over $200.
Most of the world doesn't work for the ridiculous rates FAANG pays. Good for you that you're too rich to even bother about spending $200 extra for a memory card. However, your skewed expectations don't detriment the value of this article in any way.