“Damn economy. The industry is bringing out cool new toys and I can't afford them (I don't dare run my credit cards up again). Damn Sony. Damn Canon. Damn Amazon. Sigh. :-)”
1 hour ago
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Baard Overgaard Hansen, Mark Krynsky, Jeff P. Henderson and 14 other people liked this
Robert: My SO made a rule for me a couple of years ago: I can replace any gadget I want as long as I sell the one I am replacing, but to add a new gadget requires her strict approval. And I feel your pain, I really do! - Mark VandenBerg
Robert, methinks you should see your way clear to buying some medicine to calm your nerves. - Dimitrios Diamantaras
Welcome to life as the rest of us. ;) - xero
It sucks for sure. I'm going to hold off buying the new 5D and I had definitely been looking forward to that one. - Thomas Hawk
Ask for bribes Robert. Surely you deserve a free Canon D90 by now? - Mark Bean
That's the credit trap most American's are facing. I'm glad you have self control. - Michael Fidler
via twhirl
I do the exact same thing Mark. The only thing I regret selling was my 1978 Les Paul Custom. I wanted an acoustic with an amplifier at the time and that was the only way I could afford it. - Mattb4rd
Mark: FastCompany doesn't let me take bribes. I'm not under blogger rules anymore, but journalistic separation of church and state rules. :-) - Robert Scoble
Bummer Robert - do they let you do long term journalistic evaluations? You know, just until the next shiny toy comes along. - Mark Bean
Mark: the problem with selling old gadgets is that they aren't worth very much. My Canon 5D probably would get me a grand. That still leaves me with quite a bit to come up with, which I don't have. So, I'll be like Thomas and stick with the old one for now. 2009 is gonna be a tough year cause I don't see the gadget budget improving much. - Robert Scoble
No, no smiley face :( I have to wait for everything. Winning a free iPod classic was a cause for celebration for me, because I sure wasn't going to get one any other way anytime soon. (I had bought an original iPod off of eBay about a year after it came out; that one lasted about 2 years and then I accidentally killed it by leaving it in my freezing cold car. This new one never leaves my side when I take it out of the house.) - Kamilah Gill
Robert, here's the deal. Your employer (or whatever) should pay you enough to buy the gadgets you need to do your job or allow you to expense them. You shouldn't need to go into debt. Why aren't they buying these gadgets for you? It is in their best interest. - Steve Olson
@Matt Yeah, sometimes the choices are tough. I usually employ the "rule" for upgrading and then dump the old one off on one of her luddite family members for a low price. I may have tried the "but acoustic /= electric" reasoning, but it may well have needed a ppt show... - Mark VandenBerg
For those of us that live for tech, we need to decide what is so damn cool about these new gadgets that we must have them. Likely they do all the things the last one did, just slightly better. So slight that we wouldn't notice much except for the fact that we are spec crazy. Our kind will be fine living with what we have for a little while. - Eric @ CS Techcast
Steve: we just laid off 20 people. I'm not going to increase expenses at this time. I might be able to justify a new laptop or a new camera here and there, but I'm not a gadget reporter and have to justify equipment purchases just like anyone else does. - Robert Scoble
Robert, I didn't know about the layoffs. Now this all makes sense. This is hitting really close to you... right now. I'm not seeing it here in the midwest. - Steve Olson
Steve: isn't Detroit in the midwest? GM just announced a major plant closing yesterday. - Robert Scoble
What specifically are the cool toys you want Robert? I have the same TV as you (Sony KDF-60XS955) and have been holding out for a similar sized decent priced true LCD replacement. - Mark Krynsky
Mark: I want a new laptop (lots of cool ones from Apple, Lenovo, and Sony coming out). A new Canon 5D. A new Amazon book reader. A Google Android phone. A few new games for my Playstation. A new Flip that's coming out that's HD. I should start an Amazon wish list. But I don't really need any of this stuff. - Robert Scoble
I feel your pain. I want a Macbook pro, 24" widescreen monitor, new Canon 5D. Nothing really needed, but the wants are driving me crazy. - JodyUnwired
Robert: I'm in Minnesota. I guess Michigan is in the Midwest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.... But they've been reeling for decades. That great lakes area from Gary Indiana through Michigan and Ohio up to Buffalo New York has been an economic basket case since the late 70s. I don't think it has ever quite recovered. During the housing boom (2006) you could buy a house for under 100K in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Buffalo. - Steve Olson
I call that area the rust belt. - Steve Olson
I was in inner city Detroit for a concert in 1994. It looked like a frickin war zone. Beirut or something. I could write a blog post about that experience. - Steve Olson
Scoble, sir, how can you not afford these things? You earn several times more than I do and I have no credit cards. I don't get it, you and your wife are good earners. - Mark
If you take the plains states from the Dakotas and Minnesota all the way down to Texas, they didn't experience the boom/bust you guys are getting on the coasts. My sister in-law is a real estate agent in south Texas and she said things are great right now. Home prices in my area are going up too. - Steve Olson
Mark: you ever see the housing prices in Silicon Valley? It's not cheap to live here. Especially when you need to replace a shower and bathtub that has a crack. That'll cost $15,000 and we're putting it off. So, if I do have extra cash (I don't, cause I'm making sure I keep a few months of cash on hand) it'll go into that first before my gadget budget can recover. - Robert Scoble
Steve, home prices are still appreciating in my area as well. We didn't have the big boom other areas of the country saw, just steady 6-10% growth year over year. Things are slower now, but still going positive. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
@Mark...it's prob not that he _can't_ afford them but as you saw he said he doesn't _need_ them. Setting financial priorities is extremely important. I have zero credit card debt and always teach my kids all the time the difference between want and need. - Mark Krynsky
Steve: if you go to http://hotpads.com and do a search on Foreclosures I don't see any coastal bias. There are some good areas, yes, but lots of red (this site shows you maps of where the pain is). Keep in mind that the pain hasn't really hit the Silicon Valley area hard yet either. I'm expecting that over the next quarter. Startups, though, are still getting funded, so even here there'll be some pain and some good news. - Robert Scoble
That being said I currently have been watching and _want_ the following. Canon SX1 IS camera but since not coming to US will prob get Panasonic FZ28, Canon HF10 solid state HD camcorder, iPhone or Android or Storm, Apple TV to run XBMC, and an Xbox 360. - Mark Krynsky
Detroit Real Estate and YES those ARE the real prices: http://www.realtor.com/search/... - Steve Olson
