Cheap (ahem, frugal) people unite!! - Page 9

SameOldStory · 01-30-2011, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertblues

I shopped at the internet today for the cheapest La Cie external disk 2TB.
In the LaCie store it was €159.90, but I found one in another store for €127
Allright; I bought it and later on I saw it somewhere for € 107.

Rule 1 of buying electronics - NEVER, EVER, look at price for at least one year. Even if the price drops the day after you bought it and stays the same for one year, you can say "Hay, look! The price must have just dropped.

Sweetpea · 01-31-2011, 01:56 AM

My Rule #1 of Buying Electronics is much easier: never look again at the prices of a device you've just bought.

desertblues · 01-31-2011, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Rule 1 of buying electronics - NEVER, EVER, look at price for at least one year. Even if the price drops the day after you bought it and stays the same for one year, you can say "Hay, look! The price must have just dropped.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

My Rule #1 of Buying Electronics is much easier: never look again at the prices of a device you've just bought.

Yes, you're both very right. I broke my own number one rule.

But 2TB....yeahhh. I'm looking forward to backing up every single digital file I own. Perhaps I'll get rid of my box of 1,44 MB floppy's this time.

Sweetpea · 01-31-2011, 04:11 AM

Hmm, I was looking at our NAS, (2x2TB in raid config) and saw that we were nicely in the progress of filling it up!

(at one time of my life, I thought that I'd never ever fill that 80Mb HDD!)

Freeshadow · 01-31-2011, 05:07 AM

sweetpea that was before mp3 and games with fullspeech existed and "computer-porn" meant ASCII-pinups

Jaime_Astorga · 01-31-2011, 05:48 AM

One thing I always recommend to save money is to buy netbooks instead of laptops and desktops. The vast majority of people use their computers for things like surfing the internet, storing pictures, and writing word documents; these are not activities which require large, powerful computers.

Sweetpea · 01-31-2011, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga

One thing I always recommend to save money is to buy netbooks instead of laptops and desktop. The vast majority of people use their computers for things like surfing the internet, storing pictures, and writing word documents; these are not activities which require large, powerful computers.

Yes. Whenever somebody asks what they should buy, I always ask: what do you want to do with it. Only a few messenger services, email, some pictures internet and maybe some small games (such as bejeweled

)? Why buy an expensive device if you can buy something a lot cheaper that works perfectly as well...

Freeshadow · 01-31-2011, 06:16 AM

yeah most people don't actually need the number crunching power offered today - so their OSes use it up for eye candy. or they play games. but... well even when it cames to word processing only: I think I'd go mad when working on some paper of length on an eeepc screen. and even the average user would whine doing printing preparations for his self made "Our Jackie" family-dog calendar on such a thing.

But yes it's my 1st question too. Some people really only need a kind of autonomous web-terminal.

kennyc · 01-31-2011, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

yeah most people don't actually need the number crunching power offered today -...
But yes it's my 1st question too. Some people really only need a kind of autonomous web-terminal.

....or the right cell phone.

Sweetpea · 01-31-2011, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

yeah most people don't actually need the number crunching power offered today - so their OSes use it up for eye candy. or they play games. but... well even when it cames to word processing only: I think I'd go mad when working on some paper of length on an eeepc screen. and even the average user would whine doing printing preparations for his self made "Our Jackie" family-dog calendar on such a thing.

Way back when, we got my inlaws a PC. We got a nice second-hand 286 and a nice 14" monitor. Installed DOS on it, with a nice shell (freeware prog). My mother-in-law started playing with it and got herself a nice printer and later a nice little hand scanner. At that time, that 286 was really bursting at the seams.

So, we replaced it with one of our own computers (and got a new one ourselves, as we're both gamers). This was a 486. The scanner and printer got replaced by an all-in-one. My mother-in-law started to make t-shirts and got bigger pictures. So, that 486 was also getting a bit slow. By this time, we were in need of a new PC as well, so one of our pentiums was moved that way.

Now, they have a nice, new (or rather it was new when they bought it) laptop as they moved to Spain and they needed something up-to-date that would last a while.

Friends of theirs got that super-de-luxe-awefully-new-and-expensive P60 shortly after we had given that 286. They never learned how to use it. They never actually used it, in fact. It could do so much, that they had no idea where to start (it was their very first computer-like thing) and so they never really started. My mother-in-law started to really play with and constantly tried to do more. She wasn't overwhelmed with it all (even after several years of computer experience, she was overwhelmed when she got that brand new laptop!)

wannabee · 01-31-2011, 07:43 AM

Don't ya' just hate it when you tell someone what you just purchased and they tell you, "You should have asked me, I can get 'em at half price."
Why do they even open their mouth?

Freeshadow · 01-31-2011, 09:03 AM

you're so right sweetpea if people don't grok the idea what a computer might be used all for they'll never be using it for anything.

I got my 1st (386SX-16 1MB Ram 40 MB HD) as my ma once after not finding a fitting new kitchen she tought of buying spontaneously said "let's forget that we'll get a comp for you, might be usefull for school and in general" a VGA CRT and 24pin printer went with it. I was fresh and clueless (and shocked too

) so i actually started reading trying and installing all from scratch. my 2nd was a P90 so I am wery aware of power differences.

because I really began at some point worth to be called a beginning I came to an idea quite fast: "a computer is a kind of swiss army knife for the brain." a multitool for non-manual tasks. this allowed me to try things out and not only learn how to operate it (my 2nd idea was "you either figure how to make it do the things you want or 'll end up pushing keys when it says push here."
Your ma-in-law HAD an idea too and went her road for it.

Nowdays there's the problem that:

people can't really see how much power is in there - backdays you saw it always when hittin' the limits
comps are "common" and people buy them mindless don't respect the tech.
the too shiny UIs suggest them that they are easy so people don't even get the idea learning might be required - they think a glimpse at some kind of quickstart leaf is sufficient.
they are mentally overpowered with a comp's general approach or (coming back to my swiss army tool metaphor) they don't grok the need to stick the right bits in and start tinkering.

they start loosing initiative getting used to automation - just like Asimov predicted...

ProfCrash · 01-31-2011, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertblues

Yes, you're both very right. I broke my own number one rule.

But 2TB....yeahhh. I'm looking forward to backing up every single digital file I own. Perhaps I'll get rid of my box of 1,44 MB floppy's this time.

I would check in the first 30 days. Many stores have a price matching policy. If you can bring in your receipt and the advertised price from a competitor you can get that price.

Sweetpea · 01-31-2011, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I would check in the first 30 days. Many stores have a price matching policy. If you can bring in your receipt and the advertised price from a competitor you can get that price.

Maybe in the US, but I've not seen anything like that here. Yes, before you buy it and maybe within the first few days, but beyond that...

desertblues · 01-31-2011, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Maybe in the US, but I've not seen anything like that here. Yes, before you buy it and maybe within the first few days, but beyond that...

Yeah..........

But.......I could sent it back (within 8 days I believe?).......and buy the other one; that would save met 52 euros in all

01-31-2011, 05:48 AM	#126
Jaime_Astorga Member Retired Posts: 274 Karma: 4446 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Florida Device: PRS-350-SC: Sony Reader Pocket Edition	One thing I always recommend to save money is to buy netbooks instead of laptops and desktops. The vast majority of people use their computers for things like surfing the internet, storing pictures, and writing word documents; these are not activities which require large, powerful computers. Last edited by Jaime_Astorga; 01-31-2011 at 06:19 AM.

01-31-2011, 09:03 AM	#132
Freeshadow temp. out of service Posts: 2,815 Karma: 24285242 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Duisburg (DE) Device: PB 623	you're so right sweetpea if people don't grok the idea what a computer might be used all for they'll never be using it for anything. I got my 1st (386SX-16 1MB Ram 40 MB HD) as my ma once after not finding a fitting new kitchen she tought of buying spontaneously said "let's forget that we'll get a comp for you, might be usefull for school and in general" a VGA CRT and 24pin printer went with it. I was fresh and clueless (and shocked too ) so i actually started reading trying and installing all from scratch. my 2nd was a P90 so I am wery aware of power differences. because I really began at some point worth to be called a beginning I came to an idea quite fast: "a computer is a kind of swiss army knife for the brain." a multitool for non-manual tasks. this allowed me to try things out and not only learn how to operate it (my 2nd idea was "you either figure how to make it do the things you want or 'll end up pushing keys when it says push here." Your ma-in-law HAD an idea too and went her road for it. Nowdays there's the problem that: people can't really see how much power is in there - backdays you saw it always when hittin' the limits comps are "common" and people buy them mindless don't respect the tech. the too shiny UIs suggest them that they are easy so people don't even get the idea learning might be required - they think a glimpse at some kind of quickstart leaf is sufficient. they are mentally overpowered with a comp's general approach or (coming back to my swiss army tool metaphor) they don't grok the need to stick the right bits in and start tinkering. they start loosing initiative getting used to automation - just like Asimov predicted...

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01-31-2011, 01:56 AM	#122
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	My Rule #1 of Buying Electronics is much easier: never look again at the prices of a device you've just bought.

01-31-2011, 04:11 AM	#124
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	Hmm, I was looking at our NAS, (2x2TB in raid config) and saw that we were nicely in the progress of filling it up! (at one time of my life, I thought that I'd never ever fill that 80Mb HDD!)

01-31-2011, 05:07 AM	#125
Freeshadow temp. out of service Posts: 2,815 Karma: 24285242 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Duisburg (DE) Device: PB 623	sweetpea that was before mp3 and games with fullspeech existed and "computer-porn" meant ASCII-pinups

01-31-2011, 06:16 AM	#128
Freeshadow temp. out of service Posts: 2,815 Karma: 24285242 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Duisburg (DE) Device: PB 623	yeah most people don't actually need the number crunching power offered today - so their OSes use it up for eye candy. or they play games. but... well even when it cames to word processing only: I think I'd go mad when working on some paper of length on an eeepc screen. and even the average user would whine doing printing preparations for his self made "Our Jackie" family-dog calendar on such a thing. But yes it's my 1st question too. Some people really only need a kind of autonomous web-terminal.

01-31-2011, 07:43 AM	#131
wannabee Media Bloke Posts: 2,382 Karma: 113956855 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: NSW - Australia Device: iOS	Don't ya' just hate it when you tell someone what you just purchased and they tell you, "You should have asked me, I can get 'em at half price." Why do they even open their mouth?