reesesWeb

In some ways, I'm a pretty typical nerd, and in others, I tend to be a bit of a luddite. In terms of home hardware, I really tend to lag behind. I usually go on a binge every 3-5 years, bringing everything "up to date". (which really means, buying lots of stuff that is right at the low-end of the price/performance sweet spot -- that is, about two months shy of obsolescence.) Then I won't buy anything for several years, until it's time to throw out or give away the garbage I bought in the last round. If you looked through my hardware history, you'd see very specific geological strata:

1990-1996: 386 upgraded to "486" using those silly Cyrix upgrade chips, NeXT cube, Sun 3/80.

1996-2000: 486/120, p166, SGI Indigo2 Impact

2000-present: Thinkpad 600x, Athlon 700, Pentium III (given away prior to moving from SF)

As soon as the last generation is entirely too slow to do anything useful, and the disparity between home/work gets too wide to be palatable, I'll go nuts and buy a new machine, usually slapping Linux on the old box and stuffing it in a closet.

While I am always ahead of the curve on RAM, one thing I am _never_ up to date on is optical media. I didn't buy a CD-ROM drive until 1994 or 1995, and then it was a used 1x mitsumi, which you may recall as the first super-cheap drive, with a proprietary ISA interface. I can't believe I remember that.

Well, last night, I finally bought my first CD burner. We went to Staples last night for Post-Its for Kat, and ended up with a 52-24-52 (How's that for an hourglass figure?) CDRW, a spindle of 100 CDRs, and 50 slim jewel cases. The occasion was a barrage of rebates that brought the price down to about $50 for the whole shmear.

Those who know me (and some who don't) know my stand on IP theft. I'm quite strongly against it, and will bore at length anyone in the proximity when the topic is brought up. Don't steal music, don't steal software, don't steal young girls and sell them into slavery overseas. OK, I just meant the first two.

;>

Anyway, as we were at the counter, the clerk said,"Oh, you're going to burn some CDs?"

I thought this was an obvious thing to say, like,"Oh, it's raining out, is it?" when someone sees you soaking wet, carrying an umbrella. They're just making polite conversation. I'm buying a CD burner and a big pile of media. Yes, I'm going to burn some CDs.

"Yeah."

"That's a good idea. You'll never buy music again."

Again, those who know me will know that I have a little problem. I go from aloof and diffident to in-your-face and opinionated. I don't have grey zone. I have,"Yeah, whatever," and "Let me tell you a little about that...(rant, rant, rant)". If I care about something enough to have an opinion, I care enough about telling you about that opinion, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

It took everything in me not to try to back up that conversation. I was so stifled, I couldn't say anything else, and had to explain myself to Kat as soon as we left the store.

"Were you proud of me?"

"What?"

"Well, she asked if I was going to burn CDs (blah blah, story above, blah blah)"

"Yeah, I noticed that. I thought it was kind of strange, and I was thinking,'Wow, he changed his stance on that issue!'"

See what happens if you don't spout off all the time? People jump to conclusions and get the wrong idea!

Remember that the next time I go off, writing a hundred kb of email or ranting for ten minutes.

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