planetdan

Wednesday, February 09, 2005 :::

Costly Mistakes

I always make stupid mistakes that end up costing me bunches of monies. For example:

1. Back when Y2K was approaching and all things millenial were cool and stuff, I proudly spent $60 to register the domain name thirdmillenium.net. I was shocked it hadn't already been registered. Then I realized that millenium is actually spelled millennium.

2. A few years ago I went against every instinct in my gut and spent $90 on an extended service contract for a surround sound system at Best Buy. Of course, the system broke, so I brought it into the store for repairs. Over two months later, I finally got it back, only without the remote and even more busted than it ever was before.

3. A door-to-door firewood salesman (yeah, I didn't know they existed either) came to my house a couple months ago and offered to sell me a cord of wood for $130. I talked the guy down to $100, thinking I was an expert negotiator, and he delivered the wood right to my storage space. It wasn't until the next day that I found out that a cord is actually 128 cubic feet of wood and usually costs around $75. I got about 36 cubic feet.

And here is the latest:

The day after my last Hewlett Packard Desktop had a catastrophic crash for the third time, I ran out and replaced it with: a Hewlett Packard Laptop. Eight months later, the power port for the laptop is failing and I have to ship it off for repairs. Now they are telling me that they will have to erase the entire harddrive to troubleshoot the problem. So basically I gave Hewlett Packard $2,500 for a second chance to fail me. And the withdrawl I have from my laptop being so far away from me is giving me the shakes.

::: posted by dan at 9:41 AM :: [ link ] :: (30) comments

Comments are Closed On this Post

30 previous comments:

Solution: MACINTOSH

By

Colleen, at 10:25 AM

OK, so I never understood why you had to buy that one in the 1st place because you had been looking at a bunch of different ones, saying the whole time not an HP, & even helped me pick out a kick ass one (Sony Viao- *love* it). So those times you told me your laptop was better than mine because of the amount of memory it had- IN YOUR FACE.

Whoa, sorry, but B*Dubb must have temporarily taken over my soul & thus caused that outburst. Sorry. I hope you get you laptop back in tip top shape soon.

By

hot babe, at 12:00 PM

If you remember correctly, my old computer crashed, and the new laptop I really wanted was on backorder thru Dell for over a month and I needed an immediate replacement, and at the time the only in stock laptop on the market that had a gig of RAM was the HP. I was forced into it. So it wasn't as if I chose the HP from a number of alternatives.

Macs are for people who want half the power at twice the cost just because it is in a prettier case. And I know plenty of people whose Macs have crashed.

By

dan, at 12:46 PM

#3 would have been even more costly if it turned out that you didn't even have a fireplace!

By

Rob, at 1:16 PM

I agree that you should get a MAC. I am not a die hard MAC person, but they're less susceptable to viruses, as far as I know and they're way cuter. Come on. You know you want to buy something cuter than a dell.

And never, ever trust a man who comes to your door and offers you his wood. I've fallen for that before and now we're engaged.

By

Biglug, at 1:36 PM

Things I have spent sorry amounts of money on:

Self propelled mulching mower with all the bells and whistles - $350. Lawnservice to have the grass cut bi-weekly $25. But being the total moron I am I have the mower and still pay the lawn service.

Any electronic equipment by Harmon Kardon. Piece 'o SHIT. Two recievers dead, CD player dead. From now on I am only sticking to mid-fi to high-fi gear even if it means nothing for a period of time.

The sunday paper. On two separate occassions I have subscribed so we could clip coupons. They just accumulated in the corner, we never clipped coupons and only shop at byerlys.

Your things. No one sells a cord of wood anymore. Most cords are generally half cords. A cord of wood is a hella wood. Secondly the price seemed pretty fair. I noticed a Hardware store on Xerxes and 46th selling a 1/2 cord for $130 just last friday. The price must have been from someone who buys their wood from outside the city. Most of that cost is associated with transportation.

HB -- Feels good don't it.

Lastly Alienware ma boy! There is the solution to your PC issues. Just a reminder cause I know you know, but back up, back-up, back-up. One other suggestions, install PGP on your PC to encrypt your porn, that way the techs wont know what floats your boat. That can always be a little embarassing.

Oh one more last last thing, Millenium HYSTERICAL.

By

BigDubb, at 1:49 PM

I totally forgot about the month long back-order. And I did say my soul was briefly possessed by Brent, thus the mean outburst. But you did mock my laptop & it wasn't on back-order & you could have gotten it with 1 gig of RAM, so...

And Macs are for people that like to be "different" from everyone else. One 2nd thought, Dan, maybe a Mac is just for you. The hassles of a Mac just don't seem worth the pretty package- & I am one that would kill for a red laptop. I made the Verizon guy scour the Twin Cities for my cute little red cell phone, after all.

Jen- you crack me up! Now you're engaged to him... ha ha ha

By

hot babe, at 2:37 PM

I spent 2,500 dollars on a personal trainer...does it look like I got my moneys worth on that deal?

I also bought a food dehydrator...I have a hard time waiting on the cooking time of a healthy choice meal like I am going to wait around 48 hours for a dried apple ring.

By

Stacy, at 3:59 PM

Hi. I surf the web looking for people talking trash about Macs, and correct their misconceptions.

Two comments posted above must be rebutted. I have never heard of any Mac user claiming that using/owning Mac involved a certain amount of "hassle" that they're happy to put up with. It's completely the contrary - "hassle" is the one thing that Mac users pay the extra money on to avoid. Instead, complain about the costs if you want. However when you break it down you'll find that for what you get they're only about 10-15% more expensive than there Windows counterparts. That's pretty reasonable for the hassle-free prettiness that Macs give you.

Also, while Macs are pretty and more expensive, you're about 8 years behind the times if you think they're less powerful. Macs systems have been right with Intel/Athlon + Windows systems for years. Need I post a lengthy explanation of exactly how to measure "computing power" - and the answer has only a fraction to do with GHz.

By

Anonymous, at 4:06 PM

Did Hotbabe just claim I am more mean than she? I always figured on the Mean-O-Meter she was like a 12 (out of 10) and I was an 8. Perhaps I'm confusing her arrogance as spite?

PS Dan doesn't want to get a mac because then he would actually have to design something good for a change. Good deisgners = Macs. Bad designers = PC. Yeah I said it...and it's true.

By

brent, at 4:08 PM

Brent is so much meaner than me. And arrogance, please. I don't claim to be nice & I don't claim to not be arrogant, but I learned from the pro. And that pro is Brent.

As for the hassle element, I meant that if I had a Mac than I'd have to do some extra stuff when submitting tests or when taking finals for school. And don't come back saying the univeristy should become more compatible with Macs because its simply not realistic. Having a Mac would mean more hassle for me because of what I need to use my laptop for, plain & simple.

By

hot babe, at 4:18 PM

I like Macs and I worked on both.

I'm just surprised there are people out there that cruise the internet for people talking smack on macs. What would his super hero name be?

By

amyd, at 4:18 PM

Steve Jobs.

By

sparky, at 5:09 PM

Do you surf the internet looking for people talking about Macs in your free time? Or is this how you make a living?

I should surf the internet spreading information about soy foods they are healthy and taste good too.
Don't even compare a boca to a hamburger, a boca would win hands down.

By

Stacy, at 5:24 PM

It's not that PCs are more susceptable to viruses than PCs, it's just that nobody writes viruses for Macs yet. This is because nobody develops on Macs, which means Mac versions will always lag behind PC versions. This goes for software, web applictions like gmail and napster, all of it. As for performance, the top machines on both sides perform close to the same, even though the PC is slightly faster and a good deal cheaper. The only areas where MACs win over PCs are product design and because they get less viruses since they are less popular. But a virus didn't cause my problem and it's easy enough just to have antivirus software, so those facts don't sway me at all.

It's funny, because every time a Mac person hears about a new piece of cool software or some custom made web application or tool, their first question is always "Is it Mac compatible?" because they know that the answer is most likely "No." Go on CNET and you will find a million free FTP clients and other indispensible freeware. Look for comparable Mac versions and you'll find nuthin. PCs are easier. As long as you don't buy an HP.

By

dan, at 5:31 PM

I can't do math under pressure. One time I ordered a pizza and paid with credit card. When the pizza guy showed up, I added the tip to the receipt, and in my frenzied stage, I gave him a $10 tip. It took me a full minute to realize why he was so happy when I gave him back his pen.

I thought he was flirting with me. Doh!

By

Robert, at 5:55 PM

Ok, did the MAC tirade creep anyone else out? I mean honestly, in this day and age we all pretty much know enough about systems to form our own opinions. Do they really need a roving PR system? EEEEKS!

By

elcynic, at 6:22 PM

Okay - first, I don't know what it is about your blog, but it rarely lets me post...the page doesn't want to load from my home or work computer...weird. Anyway, I wish Sprint would have talked me in to the insurance. I *smashed* my phone in a taxi door the other week and now the display doesn't work and has a big black blotch in the shape of California...great.

By

Kiddo78, at 6:54 PM

Yeah, sometimes it's REALLY hard to post. Anyway...

My wastes, not a ton of money, but I'm poor:

We bought two $50 covers for the cheep IKEA couch, convinced we would buy 2, then convinced our cat would ruin the one, thus needed two, now we are thinking about getting a whole new couch.

Before going on vacation to England I bought a cute backpack at a little Asian store here in town. $25, and much more then I would normally spend but it was perfect with all sorts of pockets for security and Pucca (little Chinese girl, himan Hello Kitty)... anyway, the minute I step out of the cab at the airport on our way to England, RIPPP! There goes one strap, then in teh line of the check out counter... RIPPP! There goes the other. So I had to run to gift store and buy the lest obnoxious tote bag they had. And of cours,e to avoid walking around with a huge flourecent "SAN DIEGO!!" bagf, I had to pay an addtional $15 for a subtile San Diego Zoo gorilla bag. Next time, it's the obnoxous boring back pack from Target...

By

elcynic, at 7:04 PM

Dan,

I'm a fan of your site (love your taste in tunes, sillyness, and movies), but I'm a bit disappointed in your crappy attitude about Macs (and the people who use them, for that matter). Most of what you said is "so totally 10 years ago."

It isn't only because there are fewer Macs that there are no viruses. It's also a better system architecture that is simply less susceptible to invasion (whether or not anybody's trying to get in). It's got friggin' Unix under the hood, and that's been battle-tested in networks for like 20 years longer than Windows has been failing at security.

Third, almost any software worth having has a Mac version or something equivalent. And there are plenty of FTP clients (including the admittedly less good one built into Finder, plenty of shareware ones and the whole world of open source ones). I doubt you can name any important type of application that isn't available on Mac. (Specific ones, sure. But so...)

And with cheap machines like a Mini, you really can't say they are SO expensive because a comparable system to a mini is going to be scraping the very stankiest part of the bottom of the PC barrel.

Anyway, I suggest you lighten up a bit and at least have another honest look at them before you decide what to get next. I run an office of 25 Macs, and I can tell you that hardware failures are rare, and yes when it happens, it's usually just the HD and the rest of the machine is fine. That's probably the case with any system.

Also... what, you didn't back up your HD? Jeez, man. We all have to learn that one the hard way, sometimes twice! I feel for you on that one. It's hell. Seriously.

Peace.

By

Anonymous, at 8:12 PM

My baby bro and I have had the Mac vs. PC battle for years! Sibling rivalry, oh well.

I may be mistaken, but I seem to remember working on Excel, word and powerpoint on a Mac before it was ever available for PC like 15 years ago. Everyone on PC that needed spreadsheet capabilities used LOTUS, Yikes! And Macs are becoming relatively comperable in price, if you want to compare "apples to apples" {{{snicker}}}.Plus, I don't know about your school district, but there aint a school in our that's not 100% mac. I've had 5 macs starting from the IICi, never had a major system crash. Upgraded only because MACs are soooo awesome. No crashing (o.k. minor crashing), no virus', built in firewall....hmmmmm...MAC RULES!

Only inconvenience, software isn't as easily accesible.
But technical support and harware support is at the MALL OF AMERICA and I can get all kinds of time with the mac geeks there because they love the mac and we love to talk about it.

Hey anonymous, where you located? 25 MACS?! I'd love to work there.

I do work on PC's though at least 2x a week. It's o.k. But it's still not a MAC.

On to the next costly computer purchase mistake. Sorry, Dan, I really don't mean to rub it in....much.

By

Colleen, at 9:05 PM

I did back up my HD. I back up regularly. All the data is safe, it's just the fact that 8 months of configuring my system and getting it tweaked to perfection is going to be poof gone. You can't back up everything.

By

dan, at 9:09 PM

Hi. I surf the web looing for people who are interested in promoting the advantages of a soy diet. Soy protein has suffered from many misconceptions regarding...

Don't worry, Apple doesn't actually employ robots that do this, nor is that my actual job. It was just a joke. Let the Mac/PC debate continue... or is this supposed to be a regrettable mistake discussion?

By

Anonymous, at 9:32 PM

You are 100% Genuine Nerds

You better go off and check your gigawattage and zap your p ram...quick, quick, better go set that VCR b/c the Screensavers is on G4 tech TV.

okay - so I'm 100% genuine nerd too...

http://www.chud.com/graphics15/toby-radloff.jpg

By

Biglug, at 10:01 PM

Thank god!

I feel so much better knowing there is someone else in my age range who still makes mistakes like these.

By

Anonymous, at 7:29 AM

Jen, how can you call us nerds/geeks then use VCR in the same sentence. TiVo girl.......

By

BigDubb, at 11:42 AM

That's all totally tongue in cheek. I am the biggest nerd ever. I have a mac, AND A TIVO and my tivo has actually tivoed the screen savers on it's own, because it guessed i'm a dork.

:)

By

Biglug, at 1:28 PM

Oh, Jen, your TiVo guessed you were a dork... how cute & sad all at the same time. I know if I had TiVo it would record every sappy Lifetime movie out there because I'm such a huge geek.

By

hot babe, at 2:16 PM

This is all making my head hurt. I should just invent the P-MAC and be rich. My slogan would be: "Best of Both Worlds, Beeaachh!"

By

stapler, at 8:05 PM

phenominal idea stapler! I've been waiting for mac to do just that for years. Can't believe they haven't merged.

Mac's are still the coolest in my book!!! Sorry Dan.

By

Colleen, at 5:50 PM

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