Websnark

Comment from: John Bankert posted at April 27, 2005 12:54 PM

Hmm...

I don't lust after such things much as I used to. Now it's more of a "I'd like something nicer (or newer)" sort of deal. I don't feel the need to run out and upgrade constantly (not that I can afford too), but would still like to get the best that's out there when I do buy, as it will have to last me for a good three to four years before being upgraded again.

Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at April 27, 2005 1:10 PM

Speak for yourself! :)

I'm sort of a digital redneck -- I've got half-built PC's sitting on cinderblocks in the back yard, which I use to scavenge for parts for that dream chassis I bought the other day. It doesn't run yet, but someday it will scream!

At which point I'll get bored and start all over again...

Comment from: jpcardier posted at April 27, 2005 1:29 PM

I must admit that I haven't conquered my lust for STUFF. I want a new machine badly, can't afford one. I want hangliding lessons, not even close to enough cash. I want a motorcycle. I want to make my own PVR, can't afford the card. And books. I always, always want more books. Always.

But I do realise that most of the stuff I want I don't have time for. Time is more limiting than money. Even if you gave me enough money to buy all that I want, I wouldn't have the time to devote to most of them.

But I still want them. Especially the books. Precioussssss.......

Comment from: Shadowydreamer posted at April 27, 2005 2:15 PM

I'm also in the category of "upgrade only when I absolutely have to!" .. I used a C64 to surf the internet until 1994. At the time 14.4k was excellent and it wasn't like I was downloading stuff.

Then I discovered MMORPGs. *Sigh* I've been upgrading every couple of years since..

Comment from: Steve C. posted at April 27, 2005 2:19 PM

In case you're wondering, Tablet PC's make FANTASTIC book readers. I've stopped shopping for physical books for the most part, because I can buy all the books I want as eBooks (from the wonderful people at Baen via www.webscriptions.net or via Amazon), have them immediately, and curl up on a chair and read. Its In case you're wondering, Tablet PC's make FANTASTIC book readers. I've stopped shopping for physical books for the most part, because I can buy all the books I want as eBooks (from the wonderful people at Baen via www.webscriptions.net or via Amazon), have them immediately, and curl up on a chair and read. Its In case you're wondering, Tablet PC's make FANTASTIC book readers. I've stopped shopping for physical books for the most part, because I can buy all the books I want as eBooks (from the wonderful people at Baen via www.webscriptions.net or via Amazon), have them immediately, and curl up on a chair and read. Its In case you're wondering, Tablet PC's make FANTASTIC book readers. I've stopped shopping for physical books for the most part, because I can buy all the books I want as eBooks (from the wonderful people at Baen via www.webscriptions.net or via Amazon), have them immediately, and curl up on a chair and read. Its

I currently have the TC1000 and think its fine, if you're curious. But I only use it for reading, surfing the web, and irc. YMMV.

Comment from: Pooga posted at April 27, 2005 2:26 PM

I'm with you entirely on this one, Eric. It seems as my ability to afford bigger/newer/faster/shinier has increased, I've come to the realization that I don't need bigger/newer/faster/shinier. More to the point, I don't really want it, either.

Oh, there's still a part of me that does. About a month or two ago, I started playing around with digital editing on my home system and realized my system wasn't up to snuff for decent video capture rates. The stuff on MiniDV captured well enough through the Firewire connection on my sound card, but the stuff on Hi8 was dropping about 10% of the frames coming through either the composite video or the S-Video connection to my ATI All-in-Wonder 7500 card.

I started looking around on Google and various price comparision sites for hardware and the next thing I know I'm putting together the specs for a dream system to run Video Toaster with delusions of starting a semi-professional video production service for the local theater community. I had a bit of fun, because I realized it had been years since I'd even thought of upgrading my system, and I was out of touch with the latest technological advances in motherboards, video cards and expansion card interfaces. I spent two days researching PCI-Express vs. AGP, pros and cons of a dual processor Xeon based PC vs a P4, whether it was worth it to use a SCSI RAID with disk striping for video capture purposes, comparing $1000 video editing software suites, and all sorts of other video tech geek issues.

Then I came down to earth and realized I'm just doing a little editing project for my own amusement. I used the S-Video connection on both camcorders to transfer the Hi8 stuff to MiniDV, and then to the computer. I bought a decent $70 video editing software package (Nova Development's Video Explosion Deluxe for the curious), and moved on.

The other thing I realized is that I'm not into computer games anymore. At least, not the ones that require the bleeding edge hardware to run. The last two compture games I've gotten obsessively involved with: Roller Coaster Tycoon and The Sims (for the second time). Granted, there was a stint with GTA in there, but that was on the PS2, so it doesn't count. In all cases, I got hooked on the games long after most everyone else had moved on.

I can't recall the last time I saw an ad for a game and thought, "I must own that game as soon as it hits the shelves!" Considering I got into software engineering with the idea of going into game development, that makes me sad on many, many levels.

Comment from: Doug posted at April 27, 2005 2:46 PM

Wait. One day, some kid will boot up at the desk next to you, rev his CPU a few times and then take off and leave that comfy-old-duffer machine of yours in a cloud of incredible graphic performance and sheer data crunching power as he zooms off at speeds you thought impossible, leaving you gaping.

That's when your blood will rise, your heart race. That's when you'll reach up the chimney to grab the boots of that red-suited, bearded SOB and drag him over the andirons to demand that he bring you your new heart's desire- and it had better have quad CPUs running a clock speed that unravels causuality and enough storage to make the Library of Congress' entire collection look like a Post-It note, and all wrapped in a case that has more bling than a Pimp's convention.

Then, right after that, you'll hit mid-life crisis, and things will get really batshit crazy.

Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at April 27, 2005 2:54 PM

I replaced my (as in, owned by me and not my family or school) first computer when it started to look like it was dying. I replaced my second computer when it WAS clearly (if reparably) dying. Still using my third computer. As long as it'll run stuff I want to use, I'm happy.

Mind you, when I DO replace computers, I try to get something at least near the cutting edge, if only because I know I'll probably be using it for a long time.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at April 27, 2005 3:05 PM

I hit this point a few years ago myself, although for a slightly different reason. I personally feel like computer manufacturers constantly want to throw at the consumer hardware that looks flashy but isn't built to take advantage of everything.

For me, this harkens back to 1999, when I bought a Celeron 300 MHz with 32 megs of RAM. The thing ran like it was running molasses-based circuit boards for programs as simple as Notepad. I finally bought 256 extra megs of RAM and watched my computer actually beep for mercy (possibly the sweetest sound I've ever heard from a machine). Suddenly, it was cruising like a Viper on a Montana highway.

Every single person I've talked to has complained about the same thing, so I've come to the conclusion that computer manufacturers are more interested in giving you flashy numbers (3 THz processors! Voodoo Infinity graphics card!) rather than the simple hardware you actually need (like enough RAM for the computer to process everything it could do, or enough hard drive space to store everything the computer can work with).

To me, it's telling that Photoshop runs just as well on that old Celeron from 1999 as it does on my wife's computer, a Dell with over 2 GHz of processor speed that's only about a year old, no upgrades. For all of the improved hardware, it sure seems like we aren't moving forward at all.

Comment from: quiller posted at April 27, 2005 3:46 PM

Getting older may not be the only cause. 10 years ago getting a hardware upgrade would give you a dramatic improvement in performance from pretty much everything on your computer. These days you often see the improvement only in high end applications (like Video Editing or certain games). Pretty much nobody is upgrading their machines like they used to since they can get by on what they've got pretty well these days.

Personally, I'm still a PC gamer, so my machine isn't too ridiculously out of date, but if I wasn't a gamer, I'm not sure if I'd have any reason to upgrade past this point.

Comment from: John Bankert posted at April 27, 2005 6:17 PM

In case you're wondering, Tablet PC's make FANTASTIC book readers. I've stopped shopping for physical books for the most part, because I can buy all the books I want as eBooks (from the wonderful people at Baen via www.webscriptions.net or via Amazon), have them immediately, and curl up on a chair and read.

That's cool that it works for you, but for me, part of the allure (and pleasure) of reading is the tactile interaction with the book.

Comment from: UrsulaV posted at April 27, 2005 6:22 PM

These days, I find myself lusting after...cameras. I had one, I loved it, for many years, and then...it was all the little things. I couldn't get as close as I needed to. I couldn't get the shots I wanted. I ...saw what someone else's could do.

Now I have mad unrequited camera lust for a digital SLR with mad telephoto lenses. The computer, eh, as long as it plays WoW and runs Painter, I'm happy.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at April 27, 2005 7:44 PM

I find myself, more and more, looking at what computers do for me rather than what they are.

Well, duh.

But then, I'm the only guy left in the world who does his webcomic in MSPaint, so go figure.

Comment from: kirabug posted at April 27, 2005 8:04 PM

Can't say I've joined the club yet. Yes, I'm running a two-year-old iBook, and at work a four-year-old G4, and no, today's update didn't do a dang thing for me. But when the next *big* bump takes place, I'll be drooling along with the rest. Maybe not buying, but definitely drooling.

And I've found that a lot of my drooling has shifted in recent years. Right now I am absolutely lusting after a cruise. I. Want. To. Leave. The. Country. And. Sit. On. A. Beach. It isn't gonna happen this year, but that's what I want.

That might just be because I've never left before (not even to Canada), but it's definitely indicative that the lust for stuff hasn't left, just the price of the stuff.

Comment from: gwalla posted at April 28, 2005 1:24 AM

I tend to run computers until they die, rather than constantly upgrading. Unfortunately, around me they tend to die fairly often. I seem to have a knack for causing hard drives to eat themselves.

Comment from: Shadowydreamer posted at April 28, 2005 2:01 AM

Ursula, you're not the only one in that boat. My dad was bemoaning for months about how he wants to go digital but all the fancy do-dads he has for his spiffy film camera aren't available and yadda yadda.. I introduced him to ebay. He's been happily taking digital pictures since.. and of course, had to buy a laptop so he can download the pictures on the go and .. and.. :)

Comment from: DocN posted at April 28, 2005 2:12 AM

UrsulaV- I was in that same boat. I'd made the jump to digital five years ago with a point-and-shoot, and wore it plumb out. Finally picked up the latest Rebel and in less than three weeks, I've taken over 1,500 frames.

Picked up a low-end Canon zoom/telephoto and it took all of a day to realize just how limiting "cheap" glass is. Now I gotta save up for a better lens, and I'm lusting after the (far too expensive) high-end image-stabilized units... :)

But hey, if you need some high-resolution reference photos of golden and bald eagles, or some various ducks, I took about a hundred frames yesterday. :)

Still running a 4-year-old 1.5 Ghz box, just to keep the post on topic. I never gamed much, this thing is just an E-mail receptacle and low-power Paintshop box for B&W comics and small website pics.

Doc.

Comment from: Denyer posted at April 28, 2005 11:39 AM

Heh. Don't fight the growing up. Far more gets done and far more fun can be had by concentrating on output rather than boxen.

My next upgrade is probably going to be for component volume, assuming everything keeps ticking over smoothly. Volume. That's how much of an old fart I'm becoming...

*shrug*

No-one said we have to grow old gracefully, though.

Comment from: miyaa posted at April 28, 2005 10:40 PM

Funny, I was never like that when it came to computers, partly because I didn't get my own computer until about four year ago. I lived on a family farm where everything went to helping the farm survive, and that was pretty much it. We had a television, but no cable or satellite (and still don't). My parents made do with a computer so old, it ran Windows 2.0. They only updated after their computer died.

Now, if you come to the point where you feel like you don't need every Adobe software upgrade or new software, then please let me know. If Adobe came out with a fruit juicer, I'd probably buy that too. That's sad.

Comment from: Mush posted at April 29, 2005 1:12 PM

You're right, it sucks to want things only for their functionality instead of their shiny shiny goodness. *sigh* Nice post.

Comment from: MrNexx posted at May 2, 2005 12:01 AM

I know the feeling, though for me its not tech toys... I tend to like my computer games about four or five years behind their release (about when you can find them really cheap), so a computer that is still working is likely to run most of what I want it to.

For me, its RPGs. I used to be able to spend hours in RPG stores, and this is from a guy who can go shopping for most things in under five minutes, provided the store is laid out sanely. I write RPG stuff for fun, and occasionally get it printed (here's to almost 3 years waiting for Palladium to publish the manuscript they accepted from me!). These days, though, I go into a store and its just... eh. Nothing has caught my attention recently. D20 was disappointing. Hackmaster was too crunchy. Fading Suns is nice, but I'm more looking for swords n' sorcery, which it doesn't do as well. Palladium I'm probably not going to play again until I "fix" it, and my wife has talked me out of pouring more energy into rewriting the entire Palladium Fantasy game (I finished the combat chapter, and was casting eyes at skills, races, magic, and psionics before she did that). All that I really pay attention to anymore is Ars Magica, because have a couple PBEMs with that system, and D20, because I have hopes of getting published, and that's the best shot, these days.

Nothing's grabbing me. My dice don't even call to me like they used to... in a truly scary development, I'm not even sure where they are, right now (found 'em eventually). It may be, in part, that I don't have a good group, but there doesn't seem to be anything exciting left in gaming. Hell, I even sold off all my Shadowrun, and I used to love that.

*sigh* I used to live for gaming. Used to write for hours, getting so into it that I didn't notice that we lost airconditioning upstairs in a Houston summer. Now I just scrabble at books, looking for something to intrigue me again.

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