Cool gear for the cheap set
It’s funny. Even though I don’t intend to do so, I collect computer hardware. Since my budget is limited, I’m not a leader in acquiring new technology. In fact, I’m more the opposite. Sort of like the bird that brings up the tail end of the queue heading for the south. Lots of hardware that used to be expensive, until the laws of economics come into play, allowing me to also own what once was valuable.
Take the lowly USB ramdrive. In the beginning, the price kept me from doing anything more than dreaming. Later, I was able to purchase certain models as gifts for my children. Expensive dog chewtoys, in passing. This evening my trip to the Future saw me purchase a pair of 1 Gigabyte ramdrives for under ten dollars each. Think about that.
One Gigabyte for ten dollars means one hundred megabytes of storage space for a loonie. The equivalent in diskettes would set me back about… hmm, no prices for diskettes at the same store. Okay, so let’s guess. Priceless? I think you get the picture. The same ramdrive, just two years ago, was listed at $120 in a computer magazine review. This is a reasonable example of deflation, should you need one for some project.
So, by waiting until everybody else in the house had a couple of their own, I now own a series of nifty storage devices. Maybe I can get into “making” some of those software distros on a thumb drive I’ve been reading about. A complete web server. More recordings of the world around me. A place to stand, a place to grow (heard that song on the radio recently and can’t get it out of my head).
Cheap technology; cool gear for the cheap set.
