Every so often I get this urge to have things, things that I really shouldn’t buy. I usually end up making a list of these things and throwing them away. This is probably a good thing. But occasionally, I list them here so you can all see how materialistic I am.
I’ve been pricing out new desktop PCs lately. I’ve been trying to stay minimal but get the most for the money, knowing very little about individual components. My interest in knowing the minutia of component performance has waned over the years. What I’ve been pricing is a Core 2 Duo 2.67mhz (it seems that when you go Core 2, you might as well get the fastest one you can find), 4GB of RAM (I have 3 now, so I can’t do with less), a super-fast system drive and a giant secondary drive, the fastest pair of DL-DVD writers I can get, and a motherboard that supports dual 16x PCI Express slots to hold matching dual-head video cards. What are my needs here?
Well, the main problem with the current machine sounds kind of silly, but it’s the sound. It wasn’t really a problem when I was using the PC at home for a few hours a night. But now that I work on it for 10+ hours a day in a small room, I’m beginning to notice a bit of hearing loss. Seriously. That just can’t be allowed to continue. So I get to the point where I don’t know what parts I need to replace to make the current PC quieter without crippling it (do I need a new power supply? different case fans?), and then I look at the server PC I bought a couple of months ago and don’t hear at all and think that maybe it’s time to step up.
If I got a new system, it would need to perform at least as well as the one I have, and be less noisy. Performing as well as the one I have is tough, because it already has two dual-head video cards. On newer machines, it seems you can only get PCI Express slots, and you can typically only get one good one. I would like two good ones so that I don’t have to futz with differing video cards like I did with this system.
Anyway, $1500 is about what it would cost for the system I’d like. It doesn’t sound like much compared to prior systems I’ve bought, but I’m still paying off my notebook from the fall. At least that should soon be done, and I can focus on retooling the desktop. But not right now.
I’ve also been poking at video cameras. I really don’t know why. After looking at a few of the cameras on the market these days, it turns out that the camera that I bought 6 years ago - for way too much money - is still a good contender. The trick is that miniDV, while not likely to disappear as professional media, is only likely to continue in the consumer market for a little while longer. And really, I hate the tapes. If I could consolidate all of my media into one format, preferrably SD, then I would be very happy.
The JVC Everio looks nice for that exact reason. It’s a hard drive video camera, recording all of its video directly to an internal hard drive, which you can then move to your computer or a DVD. It’s stored interally as MPEG-2, which is not DV, but it’s not MPEG-4 like the Xacti. It’s light and has some interesting power-saving options.
There are some downsides, of course. It doesn’t have a viewfinder you can use with the screen closed. At least, the lower-priced models don’t. And not all of them have SD slots, either. The controls on the Panasonic recorder are better, since you don’t need two hands. I really liked that feature, but the Panasonic camera itself didn’t appeal to me. Likewise, I won’t buy another Sony camera - I refuse to buy another memory stick.
The best of the bunch is the high-definition version of the Everio, which clocks in around $1600. Once again, I don’t have the slightest use for a video camera. If I spent that much money on one, I would surely have to concoct one.
I’ve been eying MP3 players. I like my Zen, but I would like something that would play video, too. I’ve considered upgrading to the Zen V Plus, which apparently has some video playback features. I think I’ll need a little more hands-on with it before I would commit to it, though.
Also of interest to me is the XM Inno. I’ve recently let my XM subscription expire, and I’m missing it. If I had a reason to spend more time in the car, then it would make sense. The Inno would allow me to take the XM out of my car. And since it seems to have its own FM modulator, I could use it in Berta’s car without a car kit, which would be great for impromptu trips when I can’t download an audiobook.
The Inno has support for playback of MP3s by transferring them from the computer, but it seems you have to use this special version of Napster to do it. Plus, it doesn’t support Plays For Sure, which means I can’t put downloaded audiobooks from Audible on it, and even if I could, it has a scant 1MB of memory for storage, of which half is reserved for XM buffering. It’s the cheapest thing in this list so far, at $299.
Let’s head toward the cheaper end of my list for a moment. I’ve been thining about upgrading my Vegas Video to version 6. Vegas is one of the easiest to use editing packages out there. I don’t care what people say about the power of all that other software, Vegas has a good interface. Why people keep saying Avid is great, I cannot say. Anyway, that would be $99 well spent. To go with all of the video I’d be digitizing from my new video camera, right?
I’ve also been thinking about setting up a photo studio in my basement. I’d like to get a few indirect lights and some reflectors and a screen to pose people and things in front of. A nice new tripod would also be very handy. The kits I saw at the Camera Shop were around $300-$500 for a couple of lights and some background thing. Pretty good for my needs. And what are my needs exactly? Do I expect to run a small business in the basement taking passport photos for neighbors? Not likely.
I’d also like to upgrade my cell phone. It’s killing me when I go places that I don’t have minimal broadband connectivity wherever I go. Over last weekend when we tripped to Johnstown, I had to peruse a few things on the server. This would have been fine at EvDO speed. But at the blinding swiftness of 36 kilobits-per-blazing-second, I was going to get donuts between page loads.
Upgrading to the next Treo would fix me. But I don’t know if I want to do that. First, it’s darn expensive for a phone. I don’t know what it is – I find the prices high but reasonable for the rest of the items in this list, but $600 for a phone is outrageous! Even the next generation Treo doesn’t have a great camera, doesn’t have built-in GPS (that you can access via software, anyway), and doesn’t have a whole lot of storage for the brick that it weighs. Plus it’s kind of ugly compared to some of the more sleek phones out there.
I’m wondering if I’m willing to forgo the Palm OS altogether to get a cheaper, more-modern phone that has bluetooth connectivity to broadband (so I can access it via my notebook) and simply not use the phone for much more than a phone. The Helio Ocean looks like a great contender for this. It has some built-in IM capabilities, seems to allow the bluetooth to EvDO connection I want, and has a very slick two-way sliding keyboard and dialing pad. Plus a 2Megapixel camera with a flash. (Hear that Treo?)
What I would really miss is SSH and IRC directly via the phone, which I can do on my Treo. Plus all of the games I like to play (which seem to be a lousy subscription model on the Ocean) and software I like to use (ouch, no Aguendus?). There is a definite downside. PalmOne (or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) really needs to release a svelte Treo with a hard drive and GPS. Please, please me. I could rant about this for hours, and I have before.
You know what else? At Kitchen Kapers they sell Shun knives. I don’t consider myself any kind of expert chef, but you know, I’d really like a good kitchen knife. We seem to keep buying these cheapie knives and throwing them in the block or the drawer. They last for a while, then get dull, and that’s that. The next thing you know, you’re sawing tomatos.
Is the expense of one of these knives worth it? Will a $180 knife (yes, one) really outlast $180 worth of common kitchen knives and be as useful? What I’d really like is a small set of essential, general-purpose cooking knives, all of good to excellent quality, all of the same brand so that the handles are all the same. It sounds weird, but I think it makes a difference.
Cooking is something I usually enjoy when I do it, so I think that some expense is warranted. After all, you would do good to cook for yourself every day. But is it worth all that? I think I need some non-chef friends to vouch for the value of the knives before investing that kind of coin.
