The Technology In My Life

In our household, we have the following items:

1) iPod

2) 3 Laptops

3) 1 netbook

4) Phone

5) iPhone

6) Play Station 2

7) Wii

8) Xbox

9) Runner’s GPS (Garmin 305)

10) GPS

My family (yes, that includes my 7 year old) ask why I think I need a new gadget in my life (more on the gadget later), I decided to explore the technology in my life.

So let me explain each and everyone one of the items on the list above.

1) iPod : This is basically as useful to me as my right hand. I am a big music fan and I need to listen to music during all my activities (except when I am reading), in fact I am listening to music right now! The iPod really comes in handy during my long runs. I listen to podcasts, new music and books so needless to say without an iPod I feel naked.

2) Laptop #1 : My Windows 7 laptop is my workhorse. It’s the one where I run my web server, stores my photographs, acts as my entertainment centre and acts as my education centre.

3) Laptop #2 : My wife’s Mac book. It’s my wife’s workhorse. It’s the one she always uses for her minimal internet usage.

4) Laptop #3 : My old laptop. This is the one I use for experimentation. Although the last time I switched it on was about a month ago, I install everything and anything on it. I have Ubuntu and Vista. It’s a super slow machine but it helps the learning process.

5) Netbook : This one was purchased for my daughter. We were getting into dangerous territory when my daughter started using laptops. She would either borrow mine or my wife’s when we wanted to use it at the same time. As a pre-empt exercise, I bought a netbook for my daughter. Although I use it most of the time on my commute as a learning tool. I am practising MySQL and PHP on it at the moment.

6) Play Station 2 : Oh man!! The fun times I have had with this electronic piece! I remember staying up till 4am playing games :), all before my daughter was born!! Since her birth in 2003, I have not spent more than a few hours on the device. Time to sell it.

7) Wii : My daughter’s entertainment centre. She uses it regularly. In fact I have to cajole and threaten her to get off the Wii because she spends an inordinately long time on it. This is a keeper for the moment.

8) Xbox : Borrowed it from my friend to play Halo a few times. But ever since he upgraded to Xbox 360, he told me to keep it along with the games (apparently, Xbox games will not work with Xbox 360. How stupid is that???). But I have played it to my hearts’ content and it is now time to get rid of it.

9) Runners’ GPS : The reason why I cannot spend too much time on video games is mostly my daughter takes up my time and I have started running. I need to balance out my time so I decided it’s best to focus on what keeps me healthy (for the time being ;D ). This is a great piece of equipment and gives great data in real time! I have used it on my occasions including my first marathon run.

10) GPS : Well, this is a given. Everyone needs this to save arguments with your ‘better half’ when driving in a new part of the town.

So when we started to discuss about the iPad (the new gadget), I could not counter any argument put up by my family as to why I needed it. And I agree, for the moment, the iPad is basically an idiot laptop. Not of much use if you have all the above.

FOR THE MOMENT!!

Hmmmm……but what about a kindle?