Posing At The Round House
I know it's lame of me, but I sure do love articles like this: "Spring Cleaning - Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (or Not)". clyde-park did a similar post a few months ago. I'll just go down their list and figure out which ones I have gotten rid of, will get rid of, or do not plan to acknowledge.
1. DESKTOP COMPUTER
New York Times says: Lose it. You may have one now, but are you really going to replace that deskbound PC when it becomes out of date?
I'll have to agree with the NYT. I love my work iMac, but for home use a desktop doesn't seem practical. I still have an old Mac Mini from 2006 which I rarely ever turn on. It's mainly used as backup storage for songs and photos in case both laptops and my work computer are destroyed in an earthquake or something. (Actually the Mac Mini would probably be the first to go so that's not really a smart strategy now that I think about it.)
2. HIGH-SPEED INTERNET AT HOME
New York Times says: Keep it.
I pay $25 a month for AT&T internet, but I don't use it. I never even plug in the router unless we have 2 computers on at the same time. Instead I steal my neighbor's wifi, which is much faster. I'm pretty sure that if I cancelled my service, the neighbor's wifi would suddenly disappear or else become password protected, so $25 a month is a fair price for an insurance policy, at least for the time being.
3. CABLE TV
New York Times says: Sports fans probably will want to keep it, as many leagues restrict online content, but casual viewers who mainly want some shows and movies to watch could get by with a good Internet connection and some low-cost subscriptions to services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video.
I'm not much of a sports fan, and we already stopped paying for cable TV 3 years ago when we moved to Redwood City and found out that the cheapest package would be around $80 a month. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. I don't miss it, although occasionally we go to Charlie's to watch stuff like Big Love & Ricky Gervais, but that's mainly for the communal aspect. At home we can watch pretty much anything we want for free on the internet or DVDs from the library. Even the most recent season of Weeds, which is on a premium channel? We found every single episode on the internet for free within hours of it being broadcast on Showtime. I don't know how this plays out in the near future though. Eventually everyone is going to stop subscribing to cable and then where will the money for high budget shows come from? Or will sports revenue cover everything?
4. POINT-AND-SHOOT CAMERA
NYT says: Lose it. Yes, a dedicated camera will probably take a better picture than the small lens and image sensor of a smartphone, but it will not be that much better.
We still have a nice Lumix camera that we bought in 2008 and I hope it lasts a few more years, but yeah, I see no need to ever get another one after this one breaks or becomes unusable. iPhone 4 photos are already almost indistinguishable from those of a "real" camera.
5. CAMCORDER
NYT says: Lose it. That camcorder you have now is probably the last one you will own.
Yep.
6. USB THUMB DRIVE
NYT says: Lose it. File sharing does not require hardware anymore. A USB drive is just something to misplace or break.
I'm not ready to give these up yet. I do store most of my files on The Box & other sites, but I don't really trust them and they can still be a little slow. I keep a few USB drives with the entire Corner Laughers, Agony Aunts, Bigwheel, etc. catalogs on them hidden around the house and with me at all times. Also I like to keep back-up copies of recent albums that I buy. Putting them on a thumb drive seems legal; uploading them to a cloud site does not. I don't really know why.
7. DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYER
NYT says: Lose it (probably). Do you have a smartphone? Then you have a music player. Why load yourself down with an extra gadget?
Way ahead of you, New York Times. (You know where I store the majority of my music though? Desktop Computer. 27,348 songs in my iMac, fewer than 7,000 in any of our laptops. Definitely couldn't store that much in my phone.)
8. ALARM CLOCK
NYT says: Keep it.
Weird that this even gets mentioned. Is it OK if I also keep my microwave, TV and bike?
9. GPS UNIT
NYT says: Lose it. The least expensive GPS units cost around $80. But your smartphone can do the same thing, if not more, for half that price, or even free.
Again, way ahead of you, NYT. Never had a GPS (or SatNav as we call them in England), never needed one, never wanted one.
10. BOOKS
NYT says: Keep them (with one exception). Yes, e-readers are amazing, and yes, they will probably become a more dominant reading platform over time, but consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries.
Possibly they're joking here, but I do still prefer old-school books. I don't know how much longer libraries are going to be around though. This new crop of Republicans is trying to get rid of any programs that allow people access to free information or accurate knowledge, plus most people probably just don't use them anymore now that so much entertainment is available without leaving the house, just by pushing a button. I'll miss libraries the most of anything on this list. I've always enjoyed the act of going out the door, walking down the street and going to a central location in town that is full of books, music & movies and being able to look through it in physical form. It gives me a healthy reverence for the collected works of mankind, whereas looking at the internet sometimes doesn't.
1. DESKTOP COMPUTER
New York Times says: Lose it. You may have one now, but are you really going to replace that deskbound PC when it becomes out of date?
I'll have to agree with the NYT. I love my work iMac, but for home use a desktop doesn't seem practical. I still have an old Mac Mini from 2006 which I rarely ever turn on. It's mainly used as backup storage for songs and photos in case both laptops and my work computer are destroyed in an earthquake or something. (Actually the Mac Mini would probably be the first to go so that's not really a smart strategy now that I think about it.)
2. HIGH-SPEED INTERNET AT HOME
New York Times says: Keep it.
I pay $25 a month for AT&T internet, but I don't use it. I never even plug in the router unless we have 2 computers on at the same time. Instead I steal my neighbor's wifi, which is much faster. I'm pretty sure that if I cancelled my service, the neighbor's wifi would suddenly disappear or else become password protected, so $25 a month is a fair price for an insurance policy, at least for the time being.
3. CABLE TV
New York Times says: Sports fans probably will want to keep it, as many leagues restrict online content, but casual viewers who mainly want some shows and movies to watch could get by with a good Internet connection and some low-cost subscriptions to services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video.
I'm not much of a sports fan, and we already stopped paying for cable TV 3 years ago when we moved to Redwood City and found out that the cheapest package would be around $80 a month. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. I don't miss it, although occasionally we go to Charlie's to watch stuff like Big Love & Ricky Gervais, but that's mainly for the communal aspect. At home we can watch pretty much anything we want for free on the internet or DVDs from the library. Even the most recent season of Weeds, which is on a premium channel? We found every single episode on the internet for free within hours of it being broadcast on Showtime. I don't know how this plays out in the near future though. Eventually everyone is going to stop subscribing to cable and then where will the money for high budget shows come from? Or will sports revenue cover everything?
4. POINT-AND-SHOOT CAMERA
NYT says: Lose it. Yes, a dedicated camera will probably take a better picture than the small lens and image sensor of a smartphone, but it will not be that much better.
We still have a nice Lumix camera that we bought in 2008 and I hope it lasts a few more years, but yeah, I see no need to ever get another one after this one breaks or becomes unusable. iPhone 4 photos are already almost indistinguishable from those of a "real" camera.
5. CAMCORDER
NYT says: Lose it. That camcorder you have now is probably the last one you will own.
Yep.
6. USB THUMB DRIVE
NYT says: Lose it. File sharing does not require hardware anymore. A USB drive is just something to misplace or break.
I'm not ready to give these up yet. I do store most of my files on The Box & other sites, but I don't really trust them and they can still be a little slow. I keep a few USB drives with the entire Corner Laughers, Agony Aunts, Bigwheel, etc. catalogs on them hidden around the house and with me at all times. Also I like to keep back-up copies of recent albums that I buy. Putting them on a thumb drive seems legal; uploading them to a cloud site does not. I don't really know why.
7. DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYER
NYT says: Lose it (probably). Do you have a smartphone? Then you have a music player. Why load yourself down with an extra gadget?
Way ahead of you, New York Times. (You know where I store the majority of my music though? Desktop Computer. 27,348 songs in my iMac, fewer than 7,000 in any of our laptops. Definitely couldn't store that much in my phone.)
8. ALARM CLOCK
NYT says: Keep it.
Weird that this even gets mentioned. Is it OK if I also keep my microwave, TV and bike?
9. GPS UNIT
NYT says: Lose it. The least expensive GPS units cost around $80. But your smartphone can do the same thing, if not more, for half that price, or even free.
Again, way ahead of you, NYT. Never had a GPS (or SatNav as we call them in England), never needed one, never wanted one.
10. BOOKS
NYT says: Keep them (with one exception). Yes, e-readers are amazing, and yes, they will probably become a more dominant reading platform over time, but consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries.
Possibly they're joking here, but I do still prefer old-school books. I don't know how much longer libraries are going to be around though. This new crop of Republicans is trying to get rid of any programs that allow people access to free information or accurate knowledge, plus most people probably just don't use them anymore now that so much entertainment is available without leaving the house, just by pushing a button. I'll miss libraries the most of anything on this list. I've always enjoyed the act of going out the door, walking down the street and going to a central location in town that is full of books, music & movies and being able to look through it in physical form. It gives me a healthy reverence for the collected works of mankind, whereas looking at the internet sometimes doesn't.