Best buy of the decade
Summary: An interesting question in the Hardware 2.0 mailbag:"What's the best thing you've bought over the past decade?"
An interesting question in the Hardware 2.0 mailbag:
"What's the best thing you've bought over the past decade?"
Good question! Initially I was just going to pick some latest bit of kit that I bought, but I realized that a lot of new kit is only "best" for a short period of time - basically until something smaller, faster, or with greater capacity comes along.
I needed to think a little more and work the question a little longer. Then it struck me. The one "best" thing, out of everything that I've bought over the past decade, is ... *** drum roll please *** ...
Sure, it wasn't cheap, but it's ultra-comfortable, still looks, feels and works like new, and should see me through the next decade.
What's been your best buy of the decade?
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Talkback
My Palm TX
I'll probably replace it at some point, but nothing I replace it with will have the same impact. iPhone? Android? Same old same old with a built-in phone. Nothing special there.
RE: Best buy of the decade
Hmmmmmm
(sigh)
Dunno. Did six driveways with the Ariens on Sunday and then flopped in front of the TV.
I love 'em both.
RE: Best buy of the decade
Micromac
HP Laserjet 1100 AXI
Glocks in .40 S&W
(o:
HP 5MP, Sig 929 SAS, IOGear KVM, Ready NAS
Actually don't remember when I got my HP 5MP printer but I just replaced it this year (it lasted 10 years!) I have a new HP P2015 with duplex!
My Sig 929 SAS custom. Did some work for a gun shop then traded a used computer for this custom (Rose handle custom imgraved) pistol
Sounds crazy but many years ago I determed that the main problem with Windows box's is having to many things on them so after 4 or 5 KVM I got this IOGear DVI switch that has served me for many years (I used 4 computer all day long. My Main Computer that has buisness email and Quickbooks and stuff. My Mac Pro for my Mac customers, a nice Windows XP gaming rig (Don't need to upgrade as I only play 3 games: Halo, Age of Empieres and Command and Conquer) and 4th a Surfing, research computer that I have setup for like 4 boots XP, Vista, 7, Linus.
And 4th my ReadyNas (now Netgear) It 5 years old and still works without any issues (I did replace all the hard drives about 1 year ago soas to have 2.7TB of NAS
Second on the 5MP
printing for a couple of years before I ditched it
when I moved countries.
My alternate choice is the 2GB Creative Muovo MP3
player. It's been submerged and even washed in my
pants, and it still plays just fine (though the
LCD screen didn't survive).
dual monitors
My old Dell Latitude D800 ranks second; it lasted five and a half years, and was retired only because I needed more memory (RAM and video) in a laptop. It still runs, but it's hard to find a video driver for it for Windows 7.
My HP LaserJet 4000 was a workhorse, but that's from the previous decade.
Drobo(2)/DroboShare, hands down!
Synology DS409 for me
RE: Best buy of the decade
RE: Best buy of the decade
of the Decade: Apple PowerMac G4. It is still running 24/7.
It is maxed out to two Gigs of RAM and the CPU is
upgraded and overclocked to 1.5 GHz. It could have a dual
core but I can't justify the expense on my electric
bill/cycle. This computer has defined stable; both in
hardware and software. I am only running Mac OS X
10.4.11 Tiger as it runs older software (even native OS 9
with a reboot). This computer lives up to my the
expectations of Apple computers since my SE/30 and
PowerMac 8600, and exceeds them!
I almost forgot to mention the eSATA 400 Gig Drive that runs the
system. This was has been a fun machine to work with. I hope the Mac
Pro I am waiting for (next edition) will be half the fun.
good news
Some recent kit will stay for a while...
more years. It's been far more reliable than any PC I've ever had in my
life, and it has one thing that I've never had on a computer (of any
scale) before.
The luscious 24" 1920 by 1200 beautifully bright display.
Sure, the 3.06 GHz C2D is nice but no longer bleeding-edge, and the
external FireWire 800 disks will do nicely until USB 3 gets good and
stable in another 3-5 years or so, but there's absolutely no substitute
for display real estate. I've had systems with two 19" monitors before,
and there was always some quirk or compromise that had to be put up
with to get all that space. Now, here, I've got 70% of my field of vision
occupied by the screen, Spaces set up with a nice workflow across
four virtual monitors, and I'm measurably more productive than I've
been in the last five years. All for less than the cost of the downtime I
had in 2008, and I've finally got Windows running the way $DEITY
intended - in a VM, locked down tighter than (insert tasteless
comparison here).
I can definitely understand the OP picking his Aeron; it's all about
what makes you comfortable enough to be productive.
Tivo
Agreed 100 percent! [nt]
Why is this douchebag not blocked already?
My bosch reciprocating saw
Defnitely the DVR...