Once upon a time, I was a relentless purchaser of Maximum PC and PC Plus magazines. I tried to stay on top of current trends. I started on a PDP-8i in 1976, bought my first personal machine (an Acorn Atom) in 1982, and have amassed a veritable museum of 80's and 90's computers: CoCos, Sinclairs, Pentium this and that, old Macs. I bought my Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno 4 years ago, and a Micro:bit last year. So, I'm no luddite.
But once upon a time if I was in the vicinity of a decent computer store I just HAD to pop in and see if there were any bargains that could goose my computing capability, and now I just drive on by. I seem to have hit "peak computing" whereby the capability of my system/holdings is pretty much all I need or expect to need for the foreseeable future. I have 4gig of RAM on a 2.6G dual-core Athlon, running XP SP2, and I have only recently cracked 80gig of space on a 200gig hard drive (which needs pruning). I recently got a newer and larger used 22" monitor because my previous one was acting bizarrely. But that seems to be it. I'm not gassing for anything anymore. I'm pretty much done.
I'm not disparaging anyone who does. And my older son regularly shows off things he has bought to me at his uber-wired and blue-toothed apartment, including his recent acquisition of very good VR headset. So I understand and remember the appetite people have. But when it comes to that particular buffet, I'm full and I ain't going back for thirds. I have enough to do what I need, am disinterested in reading more manuals and learning about yet more features that will suck precious hours away.
Have you hit "peak computing" yourself?
But once upon a time if I was in the vicinity of a decent computer store I just HAD to pop in and see if there were any bargains that could goose my computing capability, and now I just drive on by. I seem to have hit "peak computing" whereby the capability of my system/holdings is pretty much all I need or expect to need for the foreseeable future. I have 4gig of RAM on a 2.6G dual-core Athlon, running XP SP2, and I have only recently cracked 80gig of space on a 200gig hard drive (which needs pruning). I recently got a newer and larger used 22" monitor because my previous one was acting bizarrely. But that seems to be it. I'm not gassing for anything anymore. I'm pretty much done.
I'm not disparaging anyone who does. And my older son regularly shows off things he has bought to me at his uber-wired and blue-toothed apartment, including his recent acquisition of very good VR headset. So I understand and remember the appetite people have. But when it comes to that particular buffet, I'm full and I ain't going back for thirds. I have enough to do what I need, am disinterested in reading more manuals and learning about yet more features that will suck precious hours away.
Have you hit "peak computing" yourself?