Sabbatical update / HTC Universal Defense

[Jon Westfall]

Ah, time for a good old fashion thought post &amp; poll. Lately with the news pouring in, we've been a bit scarce of these. Just me and my thoughts on this one - no link needed. I'm writing to update everyone on my so-far successful tech sabbatical, and why when I'm off of it, I'm planning on procuring a Universal.<br /><br />First the sabbatical. Not much has happened in the last 20 days or so since the Mid-August update, however I have had quite a few temptations and close calls. I've made some purchases which I've deemed necessary and thus not under the umbrella of "impulse tech that Jon doesn't really need but wants". This included some substantially discounted hard drives for my home-fileserver to replace old &amp; dying drives during the august re-configuration, a new docking station to replace the old one that was broken, and a desktop DVD drive that will eventually go into my fiance's new computer. Argue with me if you like (And vote as you feel), but I don't count these against me as they were regular purchases, not impulse buys or new technology.<br /><br /> <!> <br /><br />So I feel the sabbatical is going well, and October 1 it will be nice to have completed it. My bank account has grown without the tech purchases it normally endures, so that's cool as well. <br /><br />Now on to the HTC Universal. I've heard a lot of clattering in the forums about why this device makes no sense to the US market, mostly focusing on the fact that it does not support Cingular's network. I'm not a Cingular subscriber, and despite their lagging support for faster networks, T-Mobile works fine for me. I've learned over many years as a sys admin that when you're using something that works and there is no substantial need to upgrade, stick with it! T-Mobile might be slow, but it has service where I need it, it supports all the features of the Universal that I need, and when it comes to high-speed, if I'm going to be doing any work needing it, I'll 99% of the time be at a WiFi hotspot. So in my opinion, any T-Mobile user out there wishing to get one shouldn't be deterred. Sorry Cingular folk that they didn't include the bands you need. <br /><br />However, the sticking price with the Universal, as with every previous HTC phone, is the price. While I do have a pretty high price range (I've been saving for awhile now for this thing), I'm not going over what I've spent in the past for a PPC/PE, which currently sits around $800-$1000 range (I paid a REAL premium to get my I-Mate PPC/PE less than a month after it debuted in Dubai back in 2003). However, with prices as they are now, I'm not going to place my order. Besides, I'm on sabbatical ;)<br /><br />And one last note in my update for those of you saying "As soon as he sees that thing in his price range he's going to jump on it, sabbatical or no sabbatical", I must admit to you - you're right. However it's only to make sure I can grab one for my off-date of October 1. I promise to you all that if a HTC Universal box happens to be in my hands before October 1, it shall not be opened until that day - And just you wait till you see the initial reactions post!

[Rod3]

I voted undecided. It's that desktop DVD drive that bothers me. I have a zillion PDAs that "eventually" will belong to a nephew or two. Doesn't really work as an excuse.

[MG]

I don't know, if you had to replace a piece of hardware because things would not turn on, that is justified. Replacing aging equipment with "upgrades" is still impulse and not necessary. The Universal will will make up for any "savings" you may have had in one purchase. Sounds like the average including the Universal would be a wash.

I think we might need to see a spreadsheet!

Mark

[PDANEWBIE]

I want to say your sounding like a quitting smoker who says "Oh man I just had to have that one more drag." Not saying technology is wrong but isnt a purpose of a sabbatical the chance to go and find enlightenment? I am not sure how much non technology enlightenment you plan to find when you walk out of CompUSA with a few HDD's and a DVD player. Other than that little snippet though I think what your trying is admirable as I don't think I could even slow down my purchasing to your level (but then again I do have to deal with purchases for the entier company).

[Phillip Dyson]

The DVD player bothers me too.

The HDDs I can probably accept. I don't think having your infrastructure falling down around you was apart of the deal. Assuming that when you said
"dying" you meant actual or imminent failure not just slow or inconvenient.

I think the Universal would absolutely be a breach of the Sabbatical. If it arrived prior to October 1, then that means you aquired it during your sabbatical.

Think of it this way, if you wait to purchase it afterwards there may be potential savings. Or not. But you never know.

[Robb Bates]

I don't have a problem! I can quit any time I want! I just don't want to quit right now.

-or-

I can quit any time I want! I've done it thousands of times already!

-or-

I didn't really BUY that gadget... I just HAPPENED to leave my credit card on the counter and the clerk just HAPPENED to swipe it and I just HAPPENED to sign the slip and the gadget just HAPPENED to fall into my bag.



DENIAL is the first sign of addiction. :lol: :roll:


You see, I don't have to deny my addiction... I'm quite happy with it. :wink: And to make things worse... my wife is an enabler!

Robb

[aroma]

You've already violated your sabbatical. First and fore most, the DVD drive that "will eventually" go into my fiance's new computer should have been purchased "eventually". That one was a big No-No. The docking station, IF it was indeed broken, I can accept. The hard drives to replace old hard drives, I don't agree with. Unless they were DEAD and needed replaced, then they should have waited.

[martin_ayton]

I promise to you all that if a HTC Universal box happens to be in my hands before October 1, it shall not be opened until that day
If you could really take delivery of a new HTC Universal, all boxed up, shiny and just crying to be opened and played with and you could still walk away and leave it on your shelf for a couple of days, you're a stronger man than me... and the sabbatical would have been worth it.

[DaleReeck]

I think you did break your sabbatical, but who cares what I or anyone else says. I mean, why bother with a sabbatical in the first place? As long as you can afford it without putting yourself in the poorhouse, why limit yourself? Life is too short to be putting up all these artificial barriers to enjoying life. If gadgets are one of the things that make you happy, go for it. Just my opinion...

[Jon Westfall]

Geesh, the DVD drive, for those of you who are bothered by it, is sitting unopened waiting to be put in a system later this year. I guess that's what I get for being honest about a $15 ebay purchase ;) Thanks for the comments though, this is getting interesting.

[duncanhbrown]

I'm a guy; I can change, if I have to, I guess.

I buy technology on implulse, and then it sits on my desk waiting to be installed. So, it turns out it was an "optional" purchase; I could have waited. That 160 GB HDD I got last month? Still waiting. The new computer and the new OS? I'll get to it.

I'm not ready to go on the wagon with technology purchasing, but if I announce to the world I'm not buying anything non-essential (i.e., something broke and only throwing money at the problem will fix it) then I would, reluctantly, have to forego purchases like new (impossible-to-pass-up-because-the-price-is-so-darned-low) hard drives and DVD burners (that I'll be installing, sometime).

As Mark Twain said, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times."

Duncan H. Brown

[MG]

It's nice to know that 31% of the people in the pool (option 2) are also in denial. At least there are people to hang out with! :lol:

Mark

[Jon Westfall]

It's nice to know that 31% of the people in the pool (option 2) are also in denial. At least there are people to hang out with! :lol:

Mark

I prefer to think of these people as "Those who see the data clearly and make the correct judgment", but you can refer to them as you like ;)

[Paragon]

I don't know Jon, I think you are rationalizing. ;)

Regardless, you have shown more constraint than I ever could.

Every morning when you get up say to yourself "My name is Jon, and I'm a techoholic" and remember there are "User" groups around the world full of people just like you who are willing to help you in your time of need.

Good luck

.....My name is Dave, and I too am a techoholic. ;)

[Ir0nman]

I guess the people that are complaining about buying harddrives have never had one go out on them..... lucky you. The smart thing with hard drives is to replace them when they get older before you have problems and lose all your data. I personally usually replace my hard drives every 6 months to a year.... I had a year and a half old drive crash on me so I don't take chances anymore. After a year the drives go in the trash. New hard drives is a perfectly justifiable purchase.
-Ir0nman

[applejosh]

The hard drives I can certainly understand (having had 2 die on me within weeks of the warranty running out). The docking station, well, that's a push unless it was absotively necessary. I agree with the others that the DVD drive was a bad thing (even if it was a good deal). It's just rationalization. Even if it is unopened and all that, it was still purchased during the self-imposed hiatus.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step. (I'll let you know when I'm ready for that step. :D )

[JDTagish]

Poor Jon...everyone's jumpin on him! :roll:

Actually, looking in at the situation, it seems to me that there are 2 levels of tech purchases, 1 for himself and one for everyone else around him that expect him to build/fix their stuff for them.

Category 1 purchases have to be justified...Category 2 should not be (an maybe better left unmentioned in the future! :wink: )

The DVD for his fiance, well, that's a category 2 purchase, even if he did pay for it himself. I mean, c'mon guys do you want to be the one who tells their woman "nah, I'm not gonna buy that for you" for ANY reason, let alone a self imposed sanction that will end within days? I'd duck and cover before that conversation!

Me, I got hurt a couple of months ago in an accident, and have been off on disability since then, and now am going to be going in for surgery soon, and will be on disabilty probably til close to the end of the year. This has SERIOUSLY curtailed any tech purchases on my part! (Partly because of the $$ and partly because I can't get anywhere by myself at the moment.)

All I can do is sit an surf or watch daytime TV, which I have to tell you, blows! I'd love some new toys and some stuff to play with now, but what can you do...

Anyway, give the poor guy a break. It seems to me that he has thought carefully about every purchase, and the whole point of the exercise was to stop IMPULSE purchases, rather than any purchase at all.

[Phoenix]

Keep in mind, Jon, that the HTC Universal will only run on the 1900 MHz band here in the States, and that although T-Mo only runs 1900 on their networks, they do have agreements with other networks to operate on 850 from time to time when roaming - and without this, you'll be out of luck using the Universal.

As much as I've been saying that the Universal/JasJar (or whatever you want to call it) would be my next phone, I'm about 99% decided that the Imate K-Jam/HTC Wizard will be my next phone instead. It has just as good and even better specs than the Wizard in almost all areas, and exactly what we need here in the States: Quad-band GSM, EDGE, and no incompatible 3G.


Oh, and uh, I promise not to bug you about your tech purchases, I mean, sabbatical. :wink: :razzing:

[Jon Westfall]

Just for the record, I'm clarifying the docking station purchase:

For the last year, my docking station has had short in the connector that causes my laptop to loose connectivity for any reason if the slightest amount of pressure or movement occurs to the station. This was originally just a USB problem (All the devices would be disconnected then reconnect - or atleast try, WinXP didn't like that on a few of the devices and they'd be disabled until the next restart). However in July it became a bit more bothersome since it now resulted in video-out loss. Since it now required a bunch of tapping, wiggling, moving, jarring, and persuading to get my computer docked and to keep it docked (Nothing was worse than simply walking by the desk and having the vibration of the floor be enough to knock the connection loose), and since I found a new docking station on ebay for under $30, I decided to save myself the hassle of going insane and pick on up.

Do I have a problem, as some of you have suggested: OF COURSE I DO! As I've told my friends though - I don't drink more than once a month, I don't gamble, I don't buy new clothes more than twice a year, and I don't like eating out at fancy restaurants - so I feel I'm entitled to ONE vice.

However the sabbatical has been good for me - I've stopped buying things I don't need and when October comes, I can truly say that unless a universal were to pop onto my doorstep on October 1, I probably won't rush to start buying more things. Right now a certain kind soul has given me an amazon gift card which I have no idea how to spend. Isn't that sad - all the stuff on Amazon and I'm at a loss of what I feel I'd USE enough to buy. My attitudes are changing already, and it's scary ;)

[Steven Cedrone]

I don't think the DVD or the docking station really violate the sabbatical. but hey, that's just my opinion!

[Macguy59]

Sorry Jon. It's pretty easy to justify a purchase as neccesary. I'm sure you've shown considerable restraint compared to non sabbatical buying habits but having the item usually means you've used a monetary resource to acquire it regardless if it sits unopened. Nice try though :wink: