Sunday 30 September 2007

laptops - the cheaper the better

I am currently working in an office where everyone has a laptop. Some of us already have a PC. I am one of those with both, and I loathe the laptop for most things. The only thing I find it good for is sitting on the couch at home, watching the rugby and being able to read my favourite blogs at the same time. Apart from that, it is a waste of space. I should rename it the "blogatop".

I got into a discussion in the office last week about laptops. The guy to my right, who is an uber-geek, has two laptops worth over $2000 each. They appear to have every bell and whistle known to man. Two of his fellow consultants turned up on Friday, and they also had very expensive laptops with them.

I, on the other hand, have bought two laptops for a total of $1500. They do everything I want them to. They are a bit heavier than your more expensive laptop, but given that most of the time mine is only being carried from the office to the loungeroom, a few extra grams are not going to be a great cause for concern.

I hate laptops for many reasons. I hate the stupid mousepads. I hate the cramped keyboards. I hate the fact that most have two USB ports only (mine have one). I hate the fact that the company that I am working for at the moment mandates that you must have one. Most of all, I hate the poxy little screens.

Now I know that screens on laptops are a good size these days, but my PC has a 20" widescreen to go with it, and the next desktop that we buy will have at least a 22" widescreen. If I can get enough desk space, I will have 2 x 20" widescreens next to each other. A 15" screen on a laptop just doesn't cut the mustard when compared to that many pixels lined up next to each other. Yes, you can get laptops with huge screens. I saw one recently with an 18" wide screen. The laptop was ridiculously enormous - you could not use it on a plane for instance, unless you were in first class, and it cost about $5000.

My attitude to most technology is that you should buy it like business shirts, rather than suits. A shirt is an expendable item - you wear it for a year or two, then it frays around the edges, and it goes in the bin. Our laptops are like that - if we get two years use out of them before they are pounded to bits, I will be content.

Expensive laptops though are like suits. You buy a suit to last a very long time. A suit can last 30 years or more if treated well. Now I doubt that any technology will last that long, but men get very upset when their suits get damaged. They tend to care a lot less if a shirt gets wrecked (unless you only bought it that day). All electronic gadgets will eventually be trashed. Mobile phones and heavily used cameras take one hell of a beating, and tend to die fairly often. They are throw away items, and should be treated (mentally) as such.

Which is why I refuse to spend hideous amounts of money on fancy gadgets. At work, I spent millions of dollars on hardware and software. I have put systems in, only to rip them out a year later because they have been a complete failure. I have seen fortunes spent on technology that was superceded shortly afterwards. Technology is so ephemeral, it seems silly to pour large amounts of the pay packet into something that has such a short life span, and generally limited utility. My mobile phone cost me $50. It does everything I want it to. A $500 phone is not 10 times as good. Given that I have all the features that I want in a $50 phone, a $500 phone is unlikely to be even twice as good. I am not someone that needs my address book to be displayed in colour. Monotone is quite adequate for me.

I think my problem is that I have spent so much money (other peoples mainly) on gadgets, it has taken all the fun out of buying stuff for me personally. Buying useless shit no longer holds any thrills.

Poor me.

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