Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Technology Allowance

My company gives each member of the technical staff a bonus each year, thanks to our Raving Employees team, with which we must spend on some cool techno-gadgety stuff. The idea is to keep us loving and playing with technology to "feed our inner geek." I am having a hard time deciding what to do with my allowance this year. Here are some options:

1. Buy new headphones (I listen to music at work all the time, but do I really need to spend more than the $3.99 I spend on my current pair of ear buds that lasted 4 years?)
2. Buy a smart phone (T-Mobile kind of stinks in what they offer, but I have read that the Blackberry 7100T is okay.
3. Buy a wireless mouse. (This option doesn't eat up much of my budget, and who really cares if your mouse has a wire)
4. Buy a desktop for at home, so I can install all of the beta versions of software without harming my work environment. (But a desktop I buy today will be a dinosaur two years from now)

What do you think I should spend my money on?

7 comments:

Greg said...

Why get a desktop when you can get a notebook and take your geekness where ever you go? :)

Sure top of the line desktops are better than top of the line notebooks, but not by much. And notebooks are much easier to transport... Add Virtual PC and your beta fun never has to end (or screw up a host OS)

Notebook + WiFi means never having to say goodbye. LOL ;)

RG said...

Oh, so many choices:
* External USB hard drive - great for quick and easy backups and moving data around quickly between computers. (Or at least a USB flash drive, if you don't already have one.)
* Spare desktop computer is a good idea, but I recommend combining that with VMware. That way, you'll have unlimited test environments. VMware has a cool new subscription option.
* Does your laptop support dual display? If so, what about an extra LCD panel? Even when I was dragging a laptop around, having double the screen real estate when I was working from home was a dream.
* Pocket PCs are always fun. One of the things I like about carrying mine is that I have my addresses, phone numbers and calendar easily available to me. Even if you drag around a laptop, it is a pain to start it up just for my calendar.
* New mouse is a good idea, too. I love my Logitech optical cordless (although it chews up batteries).
Well, those are my quick thoughts. Can you tell I love gadgets?!

Neil Bergman said...

I'm kind of in agreement with Greg on this one, Val. Laptop + WiFi + virtual PC software -- sounds like a pretty sweet combo.

On the other hand, though, new headphones. Hmmm. You just may be on to something there. Say, I saw an advertisement earlier today for a pair of Dolby 5.1 SurroundSound headphones. Mmmmmm. Wouldn't your music sound great on those? You might never want to go home. ;-)

Valerie Vogt said...

I guess the reason I was considering a desktop over a tablet is because of budget limitations. I have $750 to spend. Maybe I should see if I could bid on a tablet...Avonelle - where did you buy yours???

And I agree that surround sound headphones would ROCK :)

Anonymous said...

Get a and learn how to use mono!

RG said...

Mac Minis are cool, and it would definitely fit in your budget.

My laptop (if it ever shows up) is a new Lenovo tablet pc, and was just under $2,000, so that is outside your budget. I assumed you were not considering a laptop because of price and also because you already have one through work. Thus, you have a portable computer, and for a second computer, it is not unreasonable to get a desktop. You will definitely get more bang for the buck going that route.

That being said, if I was going to buy a laptop on a budget, I'd look at sites like TigerDirect.com, or perhaps even Micro Center off of hwy. 100 and 36th. My son's friend got a pretty good laptop deal from them, and then he sold it to us for a steal. TigerDirect lists 20 laptops for under $700.

Anonymous said...

ok, if you want the best headphones how about a pair of ultimate ears expensive but supposed to be amazing. It would be what I would buy!