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Moneatur Emptor

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15:28 / 04.04.06

i thought it might be an idea to centralise the various requests for the more knowledgable to share where one should buy stuff, when one should buy stuff, and whether or not even buying the stuff at all is a good idea.

those who have knowlegde or the urge to appear as though they do may then post their reccomendations, secure in the konoweldge that they will not only have advised their contemporaries, but may well have helped/appeared to help several more people, some of whom may not even have been born yet!

its a resource, kids.
use it like you would an argos catalogue shop populated by a vocal cross section of the argos buying public.
i'm going to bold the product i want advice on to facilitate future scanning of the thread, by the way.
i dont mind if you dont.

my first ask is a simple one, one that has probably been asked before.

i want to buy an mp3 player for myself.
i will eventually get one that has enough room to store all my music (etc), but for now that seems unnecessarily detrimental to my solvency. while i would appreciate advice on that sort of t, i probably wont be buying one for a month or few just yet.

what i really want to get is something small enough to be worn safely(ie that wont catch on shit and generally be some kind of electronic albatross) around my neck or in a small pocket.
i will be using it as a transporter of data, so a fast and easy data transfer method would be good as well.
perhaps even one with several methods?

in terms of memory capacity, i reckon a gigabyte is about right. i'm probably going to rotate the albums on it fairly regularly, but i am a fickle prick with wide tastes and can suffer serious bouts of hating my favourite bands for a week. a gig should be enough to have several hours of music from which to choose, i figure.
more would of course be awesome.

any thoughts?
any places?
i'm not totally in the dark, having hit up froogle and google for some knowledge.
i would like to hear of the differences that make the differences, and i would like to be spending way less than a hundred pounds.
around fifty, perhaps.

15:35 / 04.04.06

toksik, do you have something against Apple?

+

I got my Nano for Christmas. I wear it everywhere and it's the most convenient walkman for working out. What's your budget?

15:39 / 04.04.06

1 Gig Nano starting at $149, thereabouts

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:46 / 04.04.06

My only issue with Apple (and Sony) mp3 devices is that you are strong armed into using their software unless you want to hack the device.

I would look at iRiver devices for their universal adaptability with both purchased and "aquired" music files.

15:58 / 04.04.06

i've two things against the nano, really.
its a bit more expensive than i want to spend.
i plan to get one that is bigger later, and i was supposing i would spend about 150 on that.
this will be in the future, where everyone has 200 terabytes in each headphone, and so it will be AWESOME.
also, it's a wee bit breakable for my gargantuan self.

i dont mind it being apple, and i do use itunes, but it's also a concern that you need your own itunes to use it.
i dont like the whole thing with synchronising your itunes and not being able to upload music freely, and i would ideally prefer to have something i can plug in, drag and drop, and go.

so three things.

it is pretty, though, and i did recently see this.

17:37 / 04.04.06

I´ve got the Creative Zen Touch 20 GB. It´s less expensive on amazon.de (139,99 € = 97,67 £) than amazon.co.uk (149.99 £).

Ninjas make great pets

18:05 / 04.04.06

I'm looking for a laptop

specifically one that can deal well with graphics (photoshop etc), has a good screen and a good lifespan.

I want bells and whistles and flashing lights.
and I want it for nothing. 'shoestring' is not the word.

happy to order online if a trust worthy source. Willing to pay a little extra for decent support/gaurantee.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

18:57 / 04.04.06

Well, unitl you said "for nothing" I was going to suggest an iBook, since graphics and sound editing (and whistles, sometimes bells) is their specialty.

You might look into Dell machines from a few years back, the old L400 are usually pretty cheap from reputable eBay resellers.

19:06 / 04.04.06

Dell laptops are simple, reliable, and I believe they are quite competitive financially. Mine lasted for 4 years before it pooped out and I put it through the wringer. I would heavily advise against a Gateway or Emachines laptop. Mine had to go in for repairs twice in a year and a half.

19:23 / 04.04.06

Cassandra, you looked quite different in the last photos you posted. Babelicious in an entirely other way now.

Anybody know if the dvd of Who's Afraid of Virignia Woolf can be got for Region 2 use?

And what do you call the thing that circumcises wine bottles, that removes the seal from the bottle before inserting the corkscrew? I can't really go into a shop and ask for a wine moil.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

19:35 / 04.04.06

Xoc, I always just called them Foil Cutter, and I am sure if you ask for one they will know what you want.

lonely as a cloud...

19:40 / 04.04.06

toksik - I agree with Elijah on iRiver mp3 players, I've had the 20GB model for nearly 3 years, and have never had any trouble with it.

19:43 / 04.04.06

An alternative to the bris-for-a-bottle session is just to remove the foil completly. You don't have the chance of slipping and losing a finger, you don't have the ever-blunter device that worked the first couple of times to dissapoint, and it looks much, much classier on the table.

On the laptop front, Dell do outlet machines for even cheaper than normal, or if you have anything to do with education, speak nicely to the local IT person, as they're likely to get bargin hardware from Dell and Apple. However, bang for buck it's really hard to beat Dell (though Acer can be quite good if you get one from a retailer who really wants to sell it).

20:01 / 04.04.06

i'm looking at the iriver stuff just now.
it seems sexy and solid, if a little expensive.
i like their sports one, the t10, buti reckon i may rethink my 'wee now, big later' and go for one of the over £100 ones.

it seems silly to pay the better part of the price for a fraction of the memory, but i dont know if a big one will be too big...
still thinking, basically.
cheers for all the input so far, dudes.

20:03 / 04.04.06

Toksik -

Boots are selling 512k iPod shuffles for £49.00. I know it doesn't quite meet all requirements but for the money you get a nigh on unbreakable device (I know of one that's survived the washing maching) and data transfer couldn't be easier. You don't need any cables as it plugs directly into the USB port. It's also small enough to use as a USB memory stick once you've upgraded to your terabyte ear stud.

20:46 / 04.04.06

hm....tempty tempty....
is that online?
or in the shops?

21:01 / 04.04.06

Right here

22:45 / 04.04.06

ordered.
and as soon as i did, i found one that looked more appropriate. on closer inspection, however, i have discovered that amazon have been painting the grass again.
it had bigger memory and cost not much more money, but it was a garish looking piece of shit and functionally awkward.

i shant share it for fear of being wrongly satisfied having one of you tell me.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:50 / 04.04.06

Only trouble with iRiver is they've pulled out of Europe support-wise- the firmware on my H10 fucked up last week and I've had to get a friend to sort it out for me because the downloads on their tech support forum don't work. Neither does the phone number.

I love the machine- but be warned their tech support outside the US is balls.

22:54 / 04.04.06

the one thing i will miss over HP's gizmo is the dictaphone fiunctionality, hey. i was hoping to write with that.
hearing their suport sucks the proverbial does help me feel a bit better about that lack.

23:28 / 04.04.06

Xoc -- regarding your question about Region 2 DVDs, you *could* always buy/rent/somehow find a Region 1 disc and decrypt it, then burn the movie back to DVD as region-free. A bit overcomplicated, but a solution, at least.

Not sure how to go about converting the NTSC format to PAL, though, so that may be a sticking point. Then again, maybe not; there are a lot of good programs out there with tons of options.

08:37 / 05.04.06

Toksik - maybe too late now but you could check out Dixons. They have plenty of cheapo ones. For example.

julius has no imagination

20:38 / 05.04.06

ninja, I'm tempted to recommend Apple laptops as well, and to point out that iBooks are actually pretty good value. But they're still not cheap, and whether you like Macs is always a matter of taste (and many people just don't). My sister's laptop is pretty sweet - it's an Averatec (don't know the model, but it's a year old so they'll have changed anyway). It was quite cheap AFAIK, small, light, sturdy and has good battery life. It's also been quite reliable as far as I can see, apart from the usual Windows XP wear and tear (easily fixed by just doing a format & reinstall). Judging from a brief experiment, it also runs Linux quite sweetly (and even the wireless card is supported). I'm also quite partial to Toshibas and Acers based on the handful I've seen.

The general problem with cheap laptops is that build quality is often abysmal - and I've seen a fair few, such as some of the ones occasionally sold by Aldi in Germany. Those are REALLY terrible. It's a matter of priorities, but for me, build quality (and reliability) is far, far more important than speed. I don't think anyone makes slow but well-built cheap laptops, so the way to go for that combination might be second hand. Which leads me to Macs again - I think second-hand Macs are quite popular, and they last well.

OK. My bit: Tomorrow (i.e. in 20 minutes, local time) is my birthday. Nintendo DS with Mario Kart, yay/nay?

21:02 / 05.04.06

I second the Toshiba because it is sturdy, generally has a great big screen with really high resolution and it's upgrade-able, which most Apple computers lack.

All Acting Regiment

21:56 / 05.04.06

I'm going to buy, er, some new glasses. Now, since I've worn glasses I've had to use the one optician in the village, to whom I was pennies from heaven: the shop was patronised only by me and Mr Jones the pensioner because the rest of that delightful hamlet beleived that wearing glasses made you into a "fucking faggot" and so people wouldn't buy them for their kids. Hence lots of people walking around squinting and staring and shouting at lamp-posts. The wankers. Why don't you just jump off a fucking cliff. And watch as you end up being suspended in mid air, because the sea won't have you! Noooo, see! The sea won't have you! Haha! You fuckheads!

Um. Where was I? Oh yeah. Now I'm living in a major UK city again I have lots of choice, almost too much in fact. Where's cheapest? I mean I probably just want to get black NHS style ones, maybe a bit thinner, I dunno, do Boots do those? Are they cheap?

06:14 / 06.04.06

it's upgrade-able, which most Apple computers lack.

What the fuck?

This is a _lie_. As far as Apple laptops go, at least. Memory is freely user-upgradable, and intended to be so. And there are lots of online guides to replacing the hard disk (though that is a little harder, I'll admit).

Similarly, the Mini is dead easy to plonk more memory and hard disk in. The Powermac is 100% user upgradable, and designed to be so. The hardest to upgrade is, unfortunately, the iMac, though it wasn't until the latest revision.

My point is: misinformation does not help anyone. And tbh, the few things you'd want to upgrade on a notebook - processor, graphics card - really aren't ever that upgradable. On anything.

07:27 / 06.04.06

Legba - Specsavers! Seriously. They do nice frames and they're cheap. Or, yes, maybe try Boots, or Vision Express - they have a good range, from cheap to fancy.

07:37 / 06.04.06

Yes, you should get something such as you describe in Specsavers, Vision Express or Boots, Legba. You can go in and scout around and see what their range is like before you commit to an eye test or have lenses made up.

I envy you because I can only wear a limited range of frames due to having a squint face with wonky ears. Moz type NHS frames always just dangle in space on one side. It's like I'm a human - Minbari hybrid.

Specs are sexy.

julius has no imagination

08:20 / 06.04.06

Much as I like to defend Macs (and am doing so), Paleface, I think there's more to this.

Yes, Mac laptops are upgradable as much as you'd expect from a laptop. However, some PC laptops (especially cheap ones) are quite stupidly modular, I believe - you can swap out the CPU (standard socket), in addition to expanding the RAM and swapping the hard drive. Some even have a semi-standard socket/slot for the video card, exchangeable optical drives and displays. Why you'd want any of that is another question - if you upgrade the CPU, it might end up drawing more current and generating more heat than the system is designed for, and the graphics card, CD drives and displays are still going to be special laptop versions and thus fairly expensive. And anyway, it's all faff and tinkering - another factor is that CPU and graphics sockets tend to become obsolete very quickly, so it won't be much of an upgrade path. Probably only applies to big (15"+) laptops as well, small and swish ones are going to be trickier.

As far as I'm concerned (and this is not just Apple fanboy-ism) there's probably generally little reason to upgrade anything other than the RAM or hard drive in a laptop. All the other components are so integrated that exchanging them, even if possible, probably has too many side-effects to be worthwhile, and will still cost a fortune.

All Acting Regiment

10:05 / 06.04.06

Cheers, Xoc and Ariadne. I may even add my peachy little countenance to the photo phread if I get some nice ones.

Tabitha Tickletooth

10:15 / 06.04.06

Legba - I just bought new glasses from Specsavers. They have a buy one get one free offer at the moment - two pairs of glasses with single vision lenses for the price of one. I think they start at about £59 which means around £30 a pair. When it comes to glasses, I think that is cheap - admittedly, I chose two for £99 frames.

I had an eye test there and thought it was really thorough and very good. They asked me all kinds of questions and talked about eye health etc. It cost £17 but I thought it was worth it (I had an eye test about 12 months ago through the civil service provider so could have used that prescription).

I am also conducting an experiment - I paid the extra £12 to have the alleged 'scratch resistant' coating on one pair but not the other. My old glasses, which had this, were scratched to hell - we shall see how effective it really is...

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:54 / 06.04.06

At the risk of slipping into self-parody, moneatur.

20:54 / 06.04.06

Thanks Elijah. Will track one down now.

And thank you, Celane. I didn't understand a word of what you said but I repeated it nevertheless to my nerdier friend J and he said he could do that for me - exactly what you suggested.

23:17 / 06.04.06

i guess that's what i get for selling my latin textbooks and trusting my wheezy brain and the internet...

i've been kinda waiting for the correction, to be honest, dude.
i was having 'people called romans they go the house'?!' flashes almost upon posting the thread but was starting to take your lack of correction as a blessing.

but you were just busy.
baws.

i'll be putting in for moderation from the monat to the moneatur after this post.
could you tell me what i did say?
it's just crap, isnt it?

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:58 / 07.04.06

I'm sorry, but I think so. Monat would be the third person present singular of a hypothetical first conjugation verb the infinitive of which would be "monare". "moneo", however, is third conjugation, with the stem "mone-" and the infinitive "monere". So, moneat emptor would be "let the buyer advise" - a third-person singular iussive subjunctive, like the (also third conjugation) caveat emptor. However, you need the passive form - let the buyer be advised - which is moneatur.

Meanwhile - digital video cameras, anyone?

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