10 things not to buy in 2010

[MotionMan]

I think many of the online backups, like Carbonite, only backup your computer's internal hard drive (or maybe only your boot drive - not sure).

I have way too much stuff to put on one HD and get rid of my external HDs.

MotionMan

 

[allthatisman]

Sorry, I'll keep buying my external drives.

SERIOUSLY... the author's alternative is to pay for a yearly service that costs almost as much as a terabyte external/internal HDD... which you keep... and doesn't require the internet...

 

[Kelemvor]

DVDs - can't remember the last time I bought one.
Home Phone - Have oen but it's VOIP so it's cheap.
Ext Hard Drives - I sync my pics and music amongst the PCs in my house
Smartphone - Wife has a Centro but won't be buying a new one.
Compact Cameras - Just bought a DSLR but still want a pocket one for ease of portability.
Newspaper - Still have the Sunday paper for coupons and ads
CDs - They still make CDs?
College textbooks - No use for them
Gas guzzling cars - 32mpg on my '99 Grand Am
Energy Inefficient stuff - wouldn't buy it anyway

 

[Anubis]

you can get a 1TB HD for less then it costs to have carbonite store your shit for a year and most HDDs last longer for then a year

seems very stupid

 

[darkxshade]

I don't see online backup is as secure and private as an external HDD. Still a buy.

Just because Crackberry and iPhone dominates marketshare does not mean you should roll over and follow the herd. Get the phone you like, not the phone everyone has.

Compact Cameras? So ridiculous that it's not even worth refuting.

New college textbooks? Well gee whiz mr obvious, this can be applied to any year, not just 2010.

 

[SunSamurai]

11. Anything on yahoo!

 

[mb]

SERIOUSLY... the author's alternative is to pay for a yearly service that costs almost as much as a terabyte external/internal HDD... which you keep... and doesn't require the internet...

I suppose it could be worthwhile if you have a super fast upload speed and the need to store vast quantities of data off site. Even then you'd still want a local back up and an external hard drive is a good choice.

 

[xanis]

DVDs – Never bought them, not about to start.
Home Phone – Never paid for one, not going to start.
External HDDs – Still going to use these. I like having my data accessible without an internet connection.
Smartphone – Own an iPhone, plan on keeping it as long as possible.
Newspaper – Never subscribed to one, not going to start.
CDs – Haven't bought a CD since I was probably 9 or 10. Not going to start buying them again now.
College Textbooks – Bought all of mine used, so I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.
Appliances – I live in an apartment with new-ish appliances (~3-5 years old).

Yeah, I think I'm good for '10.

 

[skyking]

Offsite is a completely different class of backup. house fire, theft, lightning strike could take all your stuff away in one moment without it. I sync up servers to do that stuff and I don't trust some company to take care of it. How many online businesses have closed doors over the years?

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Until these online backup servers (and tacitly my own connection) have the same bandwidth as eSATA I'm not going to waste my time trying to back up 1TB of my data on them.

 

[nageov3t]

If people stop buying compact digital cameras it'll be because of camera phones, not DSLRs. We have two DSLRs and some awesome lenses, but we still use our point & shoot a lot because of the convenience and ease of use. It's only after we both got phones with decent cameras that we've started to use our Canon SD550 less.

I don't expect to stop buying external hard drives, but my uses are probably in the minority. I can't use Mozy to serve up videos to my Xbox/PS3

same.

I recently "downgraded" from an SLR to a compact digital camera just because of the ease with which I could drop it in my pocket and forget about it till I needed it (as opposed to lugging the DSLR around my neck all day).

if I had a cellphone with a camera that could replace my sony point and shoot, I'd probably drop it as well.

 

[Svnla]

DVDs - yes, only if they are on sale such as $2 at WM on BF. I would never pay $20 for any single DVDs.
About $10 to $15 for TV series and such.

Home telephone service - no, naked DSL, now only if ATT can lower the darn price to $20/month or less.

Ext HDs - yes, not going to trust my data on some online companies.

Smartphone also rans - yes, not going to pay a premium for Apple/ATT while my $30/month SERO plan
with Moto smartphone is good enough for me.

Compact digital cameras - yes, bulky SLRs are good for serious picture taking, but P&S camera which you
can put in the pocket will work for 90% of what I need.

Newspaper subs - no, online most of the time or the library. I am paying 1 magazine subscription which library
won't/unable to carry.

CDs - yes, but only if they are on sale ($10 or less) or I really like the songs/artist(s).

New textbook - no, done with school for a while.

Gas guzzling cars - no, my vehicle is about 23+ MPG highway/local combined.

Energy inefficient homes and appliances - in between, still looking for a new house and I try my best
to converse energy/less waste whenever I can.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Who buys DVDs anymore anyway? It's all about Blu-ray.

So, I could buy a year subscription to Carbonite, or buy an external hard drive for roughly the same price, but the hard drive is mine forever and always accessible. Yeah...

This article brought to you by Apple, AT&T Wireless, Carbonite and NetFlix!

 

[Miramonti]

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, more than one in five U.S. homes (22.7&#37 had cellphones — and no landlines — during the first half of 2009, up from 10.5% during the same period in 2006.

Land lines cause cancer!

 

[KeithTalent]

I still buy DVDs and Blu-rays like crazy! The used place I go to is awesome and I can't help myself. It is right on the way home from work and I stop by almost every day to see if anything new of interest has come in. I may have a problem actually. :hmm:

KT

 

[KeithTalent]

Who buys DVDs anymore anyway? It's all about Blu-ray.

So, I could buy a year subscription to Carbonite, or buy an external hard drive for roughly the same price, but the hard drive is mine forever and always accessible. Yeah...

This article brought to you by Apple, AT&T Wireless, Carbonite and NetFlix!

I buy some DVDs because many documentaries do not come out on Blu yet, same with some smaller films.

KT

 

[ElFenix]

i just buy more/bigger internal ones

i've cut the number of internals down to 2 (1 for xp and 1 for 7), and moved the others to an external enclosure and swap amongst them as needed. no need to have all those drives spinning all the time as they're really used for near-line storage anyway.

 

[Newbian]

I consider dvd's and blue rays as the same thing so not sure why people think they are separate items.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Terrible list. External hard drives?! Wtf? Shit, with USB 3 and 3TB drives around the corner, there's more reason than ever to buy one. No way I'm uploading my por...uh....fashion movies to some sleazy ass website.

And SLR cameras? Yeah right. Not everyone is a photo junkie. I just want something that takes pics.

Dumbass writer.

 

[Linflas]

The guy seems to forget that in the heyday of film camera's there were a lot of people that were satisfied to take pictures with Instamatic's and Polaroids.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I buy some DVDs because many documentaries do not come out on Blu yet, same with some smaller films.

KT

Yes, this is true, but DVDs are SO 1999.

 

[nageov3t]

Terrible list. External hard drives?! Wtf? Shit, with USB 3 and 3TB drives around the corner, there's more reason than ever to buy one. No way I'm uploading my por...uh....fashion movies to some sleazy ass website.

And SLR cameras? Yeah right. Not everyone is a photo junkie. I just want something that takes pics.

Dumbass writer.

I could see a credible argument for flash drives replacing most external hard drives except when you need a ton of external storage.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Some of those are off. Landline for one. Not everybody likes using a tiny cell phone as their main phone. I find a good quality desk phone is still way better to speak on, easier to hear etc...

And external hard drives have their use. Online storage is great for offsite backup but I would not use it for actual storage. I have a 1.8TB server for that, and I will keep expanding as I need (guess that sorta can fall in external hard drive category).

I loled at compact cameras. Yeah because it's more cost efficient to pay $2k for a mid end DSLR for a typical user, instead of paying $400 for a quality point and shoot that fits in a pocket.

 

[dullard]

I agree that so much of that list is not well thought out. I think all the recommendations were to pay MORE. Why pay more for the same thing?

Why should I pay $60/year for a online backup service when I can go out and for $60 total buy an external USB drive, copy everything, and bring that drive to a relative's house? $60 one time is FAR cheaper than $60/year.

Since I don't watch many movies, lets do the same math for DVDs. $10ish one time for a DVD forever vs $10/month forever. Hmm. I'll take the $10 one time fee.

Same money wasting advice on the cameras. The cheapest Canon SLR is double the volume, double the weight, and more than double the price of a really nice Canon SX120 IS camera. Sure the SLR might give a slightly better image - assuming the photographer has the proper timing, training, and knowledge to do so. The simple point-and-click Canons do give fantastic photos in Auto. Why pay more for features that 95% of people won't be capable of using?

 

[Anubis]

Who buys DVDs anymore anyway? It's all about Blu-ray.

s:

people that don't have a blue ray player or a HDTV or those that just don't care. most people fail to realize that the majority of people don't care and feel that DVD is fine