Thinking twice
My computer will be passed on this week to another user less demanding, and hopefully, very careful of this 3-year old, 30GB HDD Pentium III 933 MHz artifact. It has served me well, especially its monitor which enabled me to create the colors I wanted for my pictures. At the same time, while I took care of other specifics for the new PC, I seem to be feasting on dichotomies these days:
black or white?
I went for the all-black casing, as the white ones yellow over time, or drab grey if you're living in the city. I don't think heat absorption would be an issue.
LCD or CRT?
My hp700 CRT was great, but real estate is precious in the house. LCD is a very good candidate with its small footprint plus its energy efficiency, but it comes at a price. My bad, I asked the phphoto yahoogroup for advice, and looks like the LCD vs CRT is a classic battle that sprouts every now and then, just like monitor and printer calibration. Most photogs lean towards the CRT as its technology is already mature and is cheap. What made me decide on CRT just at this point was this:
So maybe not all lcd's are created equal, some are better than others. If you got the money to spend, buy the best you can and then calibrate if necessary, if money is an issue maybe you can scale back to crt first so that you won't have to worry as much for the meantime about the colors.DVD-RW or DVD-ROM?
Burning a DVD given my budget and processor preferences might take forever. My EQ can manage. DVD-ROM, period.
DSL or stay on dial-up?
TBD. I want to give the finger to dial-up, but the origin of the word budget was the French term for a little bag. Yep, the Christmas bonus filled the bag a bit, but a significant amount went to the nest egg. Think think think.
Then there was the barrage of domain names I thought of a hundred times before buying (which I will announce in a future date) plus the webhost and hosting package. Hands-down to ploghost, probably out of herd mentality, since Angela and Sassy and MLQ3 were on Yuga's territory.
Wordpress or Movable Type?
I'm always fearful of the unknown, and I'm poking Wordpress with a stick right now. I had the same feeling years ago with Movable Type, but due to security issues and spam comments I received in my photoblog (takes a deep breath and buys an HTML book with lots of CSS), I'd go for Wordpress.
More than a year ago I was on a similar situation: where to go for an MBA degree given that Ateneo and DLSU were the only choices due to the planetary distance of my office.
It's like choosing between boxers and briefs and there's the tempting option of wearing nothing.
11/30/2005 02:36:00 PM
Wear a diaper! LOL.
Ako talaga hindi masyadong particular when it comes to buying gadgets, but recently medyo natuto na ako. My PC's a year old, dell na black. it's doing well, pero gusto ko ng mas malaking memory at hard drive. :)
DSL is worth it. Pero considering the ones handling the dsl business in the Philippines PLUS their service... I dunno. Buti na lang nilagay mo ito dito, makakakuha ka pa ng ibang opinion. ;)
11/30/2005 11:53:00 PM
uy ang taray, bagong PC. being in singapore for a month and a half, i've gotten so used to broadband, i feel like it's going to be difficult without it. broadband is such a Godsend. makes me appreciate the wireless concept even more. try it!
12/02/2005 02:50:00 PM
angela: I'm gathering opinions especially on the DSL thing. Sassy's on PLDT myDSL. Hmmmm.
lola ai: Singapore is always ahead. I won't be surprised if in the next year it will be one big wi-fi hotspot.
12/02/2005 08:09:00 PM
I'll play the tukso, ha. I'm loving myDSL. Uploading photos takes just a few secs. Since you're a food blogger now, speed counts a lot.
WP is definitely better than MT. I used MT for over a year and the page rebuilds eat up lots of bandwidth which you will pay for. Of course, I'm partial to EE hehehe
Am so glad you'll have your own domain. About time, I say.
12/05/2005 01:40:00 PM
Lucky for me, my dad does the PC buying. If you ever do get a broadband, I really suggest getting a DVD writer. And goodluck with your domain name. :D
12/05/2005 03:40:00 PM
Sassy: of course, DSL is mucho better than Dial-up. Lately I find myself finishing a book chapter before I can hook up with those prepaids.
Dude: I won't be needing a DVD writer now--I don't do movies, or eherm, personal videos, so I had it chopped off.
12/05/2005 04:38:00 PM
Hey, this is not related to your post. I read your comment on Jessica Z's blog...the Aaarggh thingy. Guess what, i won one of the five books and i'm giving it to you. I'm stuck here in Baler and can't redeem it. Check your gmail for more details. Consider this as an early xmas gift from a kababayan.
Exit...stage right.>>>