Invasion of the Pathetic Techies

I find it amusing/annoying to see people lining up to buy the latest and greatest gadget, only to end up using them wrongly so they will end up not spending too much on their gear.

Take for example a typical business-type guy. He buys an expensive laptop but ends up loading it up with pirated/unlicensed software. The justification? "I already spent almost Php 100,000 pesos on this thing, why would I spend more for software? Isn't that pathetic?

Another example is that other guy to bought the latest/greatest Apple iPod. He ends up filling his digital music player with 100% "downloaded" MP3 files. Again, the justification: "This thing set me back almost Php 20,000 so why would I spend more in buying music?"

Yet another example: someone literally starved himself for months so he can affort to buy a Nokia e95. The SIM he uses for the phone? A Php 65 SIM card, the load of which never exceeds Php 50 (does this need a justification at all?)

Its not bad to lust over the latest and greatest gadget but isn't it pathetic to have a high-end PC yet the program installed on it are all pirated (including the OS)? Its like putting a surplus Isuzu engine on a Ferrari Testa Rossa body! Equally pathetic is having the latest generation iPod filled with illegally procured music -- its like buying a Louis Vuitton bag and filling it up with stolen stuff. Or getting a car and filling it up with a liter of gasoline at a time.

If you are planning to buy a gadget, there is such a thing as "Total Cost of Ownership". This is the cost of using, and maintaining your gadget. To avoid the pitfalls I enumerated above, a techie must consider that the cost of owning a gadget does not end with the purchase of the said gadget. One must consider that there are costs involved in using those gadgets -- software to buy, cases/bags for protection, airtime charges, etc. All these additional expenses/costs must be factored in before getting that latest/greatest gadget of your dreams.

Excuse me while I ask my friend to give me a Php 20 pasa load for my Dopod 838 Pro which I bought at 12 months 0% with my credit card...

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