I am moving down the road of gadgetheadedness. I’m not a real gadgethead, and I doubt I ever would be, at least until my career changes; simply put, “stay at home dad” isn’t a career that calls for advanced technology. But ever since I bought the iPOD a few weeks ago, I am fixated on all the accessories associated with it, as well as computer related stuff in general. Now I’m convinced I need a new digital camera (true), a new laptop (not quite true, but I wish), a desktop (not true at all), a really fancy laser printer for photos and other things (not really), a PDA (so far from true that it could be a Bush Administration statement), one of those cool little portable hard drives (right), a Wi-Fi setup (really, high-speed of any sort would be just dandy and should happen soon), and whatever else you’d like to think of.

I know that there are some techies that patrol the murky waters of Hyperbole. Any thoughts on must-have gadgets for the non-techie?

And a larger question is about laptops. I’ve had this Compaq Presario for about a year now. I despise it--it had some problems, and Compaq’s help service is shamefully bad. I sent the computer in for three problems--the DVD player had stopped working consistently, the computer always overheated, and the battery didn’t work. They sent it back, proclaiming it fixed. Then I noticed that the overheating was still there and the battery wasn’t working. When I called back, the “help” guy said that they’d actually only changed the DVD/CD-RW drive. When I asked why the F they didn’t do the other two things, he said “I don’t know.” They sent me a new battery, but there wasn’t enough time to send it back in to fix the overheating, so whenever a CD or DVD is played, the fan on the computer runs at max, and the whole thing gets super-hot. Great!

But I digress.

Anyway, I’ll certainly never buy Compaq again, and I am getting closer and closer to going Mac. I can’t pretend that a big part of this possible decision is not aesthetic--Macs look great, and the Apple Store in Virginia was so stunningly well-designed that I wanted to buy everything. Plus I love the iPOD so much that I just want full integration of technology.

Also, Microsoft sucks. S-U-C-K-S. I’ve started using Mozilla instead of IE, and I’m gradually shifting away from other MS products like Outlook Express. I hate Windows XP--mine crashes all the time. And the last “critical download” I used forced a full system reboot. Microsoft simply doesn’t give a damn--privilege of a monopoly.

This decision is a ways away--as much as I would absolutely LOVE to get a new computer now and kick this piece of shit to the curb, ultimately Melissa is pretty likely to put the ixnay on that for at least one more year. So I have time to weigh opinions, and I want to hear them. Any Mac users out there that have switched from PC? Should I do it?  11:00:53 PM    comment []