Planet Geek

Decisions, Decisions.

Geekitude

So a rare alignment of the planets has happened, and I have a little bit of cash available. Enough to not only pay off some credit card debt (wootah), but also indulge in a little toybuying. Of course, the eternal question comes up, what should I do with it?

Here's the current list of candidates, in a very rough order of preference. It is possible to get more than one, but I'd like to keep things down to somewhat reasonable.

• EeePC or similar small-mobile laptop (Approx $350)
  I've been hauling Clipper around as my primary 'mobile' machine for about 2 years now. It's large, heavy, runs RIDICULOUSLY hot, and is saddled with WindowsXP. I don't need to have a Core2 running just to get my email and chat on IRC, or SSH places. An EeePC will do 95% of what I need to do when out and about, at a fraction of the power and weight.
• A Nokia N95 ($590?)
  Boy o boy is this a sexy phone. I'm tired of my Treo and it's abysmal 2' range on Bluetooth. The N95 is a beautiful platform. I'd need to change providers to AT&T though, and that means getting off my wife's phone plan. Complex and dangerous!
• Get Rock Band ($170)
  This is pure unadulterated Fun. Zach loves playing it, I have a Playstation 2 to run it on. I wanna beat some drums! (Probably add another $30 or so for a second guitar)
• Upgrade my desktop machine(Approx $200)
  I'm realizing my desktop machine, yawl is not the powerhouse I had thought it would be. Sure it says Pentium 4 2.26gig, but the P4 CPU is an absolute dog. I can get a motherboard, ram, and CPU from newegg that will outperform this machine for $150-$200. I even have a chassis to put it in.
• Decent GPS ($300)
  My travails with my Mobile Crossing GPS are well documented, and that machine has now been tossed into the trunk, awaiting some other project. There are several really good GPS platforms around now, and getting one for the my car (Cat has one built into her Prius) is on the list of "really want"s. The TomTom 910 was on the top of my list last time I did this search, as the platform is very good, and it includes blueooth hands-free usage for my phone. A total bonus. Looking around, it looks like the 910 has really come down in price ($300?).
• A new monitor ($200?)
  You'd think I had enough monitors. But I sacrificed one of my monitors to the Mame cabinet, which leaves me with a really poor 1024x768 monitor as screen #3. I'd like to get another Dell 19"er.
• Upgrade the Mame cabinet ($100)
  Rebuilding the controller on the Mame cabinet would be a win - I'd like a trackball and some better joysticks. Not really a big expense - it's more work than cost. But still on the wishlist.
• Zoom lens for the Canon (Approx $600)
• Flash for the Canon (Approx $250)

Decisions, decisions...

Posted by dbs at May 29, 2008 2:07 PM