NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article
Needs and Wants, again!!!
by Betty Davis, co-President, August 98
bdavis@ipa.net
(click to email author)


Yes, I'm back on this kick, so bear with me. The subject of scanners came up recently and I made a statement: It would be nice to have a scanner. Do I want it? Maybe. Do I need it? No. However, the Want thought remains in the back of my mind. Really, I need a scanner about as much as I need another head. (Come to think of it, maybe I could just upgrade the one I have).

There is no possible way I could justify buying a scanner. I don't do graphics or newsletters. There has been only one occasion in the past 6 months that I wanted to send a photo to someone. But each time I see a great discount on a scanner, the idea immediately pops into my head....maybe I could rationalize this. Think of all the clippings and cartoons I could send to people....and think of all the people who are living in mortal terror lest I start inundating them with all the things I think are terribly important and they couldn't care less about.

And then there are printers. My printer works very well. It's an Epson, 21 pin, dot matrix and it's a good old dependable thing. But it doesn't do color. After I hear people say, with a sniff of disdain, "You don't have a color printer?", I feel like I should crawl back under my rock and hide among those lower on the evolutionary scale. But it would be nice to have a color printer. Do I want one? Well, maybe. Do I need one? No. But I could print out colored graphs. What for? I don't like some of the information I have in the colored graphs anyway, so why would I want to print them out?

And then there are speakers. How about five speakers placed around the room for surround sound? I really don't think my nervous system could handle animals crashing around behind me in the underbrush. As it is, I use earphones with the computer. If I want to listen to music I use the stereo system. Somehow, this arrangement makes a lot of sense to me.

If I had a job that required a lot of fast and/or graphic productions I would probably be inclined to go for the bestest with the mostest, but a 400 MHz chip would only allow me to make mistakes twice as fast as I do now.

I hope I don't sound too negative. I like computers and all that they can do. I think what bothers me is the push to always have the biggest and fastest and to want computers to do applications that they aren't particularly well suited for. As in listening to music.

So I'll stick with my old printer and earphones, and skip the scanner and color printer for now. It seems to help my serenity to be able to just sit back and enjoy what I have.

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