I want one of these!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Lets do some fun stuff first. I want one of those things! I love little PC's, having purchased a 1.5 pound JVC almost 3 years ago. I got tired of hauling a "regular" laptop around with me, and running our internet business, I had little choice but to be connected and working no matter where I went or what I did. I thought I was wierd, and was totally surprised by the popularity of the "Netbooks" of late. I think the swing point for everyone jumping on the band wagon is the pricing.... I paid over $2k for the JVC, but you can buy an Asus E for less than $500. The Vaio P has a hefty price, and there's no word of how comfortable the keypad is. So if the pricing assumptions I'm making are true, it won't be a big seller.
 
But alas, I'm not in the investment mode. From the business perspective (and what's going on medically) I need to keep spending to a minimum, and fight for every dollar of revenue. I did make some investments in the last couple of weeks though. A new Seagate FreeAgent Go 320 to replace the 3 externals I had on my desk because I was afraid I'd have them start failing. (I had an old Iomega network drive that failed on me 6 months ago, wiping out the "early" development work I had archived). I also purchased a Synaps 21.6" wide screen monitor to make my posting and devlopment tasks easier ($150 from Tiger Direct). Finally, with the weakening economy and living in an urban area, I decided to install the camera security system we used at the old house. The PC that drove the system got wet in the move (a long story), but still worked. When I hooked it up, I just couldn't live with the whine of the power supply and CPU fan so I tried to clean and oil them. It didn't work, and I killed the PC. So I got a cheap Systemax system for $ $300. I have all the software, and the video card was working, so the postulation is that I can upgrade the PC part of the system for a minimal amount of money.
 
And I have more laptops than you can shake a stick at. The JVC interlink is sitting around, the screen is too small to be effective at anything heavy.  I still use Wifey's Dell Inspiron 6000 (replaced with a Vaio VGN-CR220E last Christmas) around the house when I want to work but don't want to sit in the office. Then there's the Dell Latitude D420 - a super machine. I use that one for client calls and when I travel. Light, great battery life and durable. So you can see that I don't need any more laptops. Still, wouldn't it be nice?
 
Can you believe you can get a desktop PC for $300? Who woulda thunk? My gut tells me that its gonna get better too, as PC's rarely need to be replaced, and other than using them for graphics applications, there's no compelling reason to change out an older one used for general development with a more powerful one. I think we're going to go back to the way it was 6-7 years ago, where you upgraded the components - add a drive, memory, maybe a better processor - because you don't want the cost and inconvenience of buying and setting up a new system.
 
So that's it. Shouldn't have done it. I had a good December money wize and wanted to reward myself. Morale is everything!!!
 
Links to recent investments:
 
 
 
 
 

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