Sunday, June 16, 2002
Let me explain something to you all...
I love my computer. I'm also a diehard PC fan for (mostly) one simple reason: all the software I need, someone can give it to me -- I would probably not be a graphic design student if I had to buy all the software I need. I know that's saying something bad... but it's not easy to be a student of graphic design with a computer... first there's the computer -- that's like 1,000-2,000$US -- and that's not including monitor and printer... then there's peripherals: Monitor, Printer, graphics tablet, USB hub, Zip drive, Digital Camera (or Digital Video Camera), scanner, video capture card -- this list is rediculous. All that is well over 3,000$US! And I thanks to many loving people I have most of it.
Then you tack on buying major software: Microsoft Office (with Publisher -- or I'll have to get...), Adobe Pagemaker, Photoshop 7, Illustrator, Steamline, Premiere, Acrobat (not the reader, the program that actually MAKES PDFs); Corel Bryce; Creative Labs Poser; Macromedia DreamWeaver, Flash, FreeHand; Quark xPress; Jasc PaintShop -- and don't forget that most drawing software also needs plug-in filters which cost sometimes like 40$US! Each piece of software is about 500-700+$US. How fair yet uncontrollably really uncool-unfair! And that's JUST for software for school/drawing!
On a PC, it's just much more common (I'm not sure why) for there to be 'pirated' or cracked software. There just is. I don't happen to have a Mac or go surfing around for it... but I'm thinkin it's much harder for a Mac to be cracked-- which is really good...but sad as you're seeing from a student's perspective. So after I have all that software, I'm upto about 10, maybe 20 thousand dollars!!! Think about other programs I might want -- like telnetting, privacy software (anti-spam, firewall, anti-virus), Spanish language software, decompression software (for zips, rars, aces -- those all want money too!) There's more than just what comes with the standard system...
So there I have it. A PC with mostly all the trimmings. I spent somewhere around 1,500$US on JUST my tower (as I own my own monitor and I had a zip drive, printer, camera, and scanner.) And my career, my choice, tells me, I need to spend more money -- me, a student -- and buy (even at university discounted prices, are still astronomical) all that software I listed on top of everything else. UNREAL! So where is all this money going to come from? Because I worked 2 jobs at my uni last year just to pay for gas for my car (you know, so I can go to CLASS and go HOME.)
And they (you know ... 'they') say 'well, you already have a few scholarships and government grants and loans just to pay for tuition! We cannot give you any more! There are other students who need money too, you know." And my poor parents are looking at me, saying 'it's hard just paying for ourselves and you -- don't look to us for financial assistance.' Because I'm not from a rich family. And I don't act like it. I think lots of (if not the world) people think I come from a rich family -- I don't!
So now, I'm looking at getting a new computer (maybe) especially since I might be able to sell this one in Spain... which led me to looking around and I thought... hey, I do like the new Mac OsX .. and Miami (my Uni) has a deal with Apple, maybe (heh -- why did I think it would be something extra-ordinarily helpful??) I should look into getting a Mac (I really like the cute new generation 3 iMacs, but they don't have all I need.)
So browsed and made a custom Mac -- because, even I need some fun. I think the only things I put in that were 'for fun' were the iPod and instead of getting dull speakers, I got bass speakers so I could use my 'new' computer as a TV (since I won't be able to afford a TV with a new computer!)
Here's the breakdown
I'm done. I just want to scream and cry and sleep and eat until I just die of heartfailure from bacon or something bad-for-me -- because it's just too depressing being a poor student with dreams. *sigh*
I love my computer. I'm also a diehard PC fan for (mostly) one simple reason: all the software I need, someone can give it to me -- I would probably not be a graphic design student if I had to buy all the software I need. I know that's saying something bad... but it's not easy to be a student of graphic design with a computer... first there's the computer -- that's like 1,000-2,000$US -- and that's not including monitor and printer... then there's peripherals: Monitor, Printer, graphics tablet, USB hub, Zip drive, Digital Camera (or Digital Video Camera), scanner, video capture card -- this list is rediculous. All that is well over 3,000$US! And I thanks to many loving people I have most of it.
Then you tack on buying major software: Microsoft Office (with Publisher -- or I'll have to get...), Adobe Pagemaker, Photoshop 7, Illustrator, Steamline, Premiere, Acrobat (not the reader, the program that actually MAKES PDFs); Corel Bryce; Creative Labs Poser; Macromedia DreamWeaver, Flash, FreeHand; Quark xPress; Jasc PaintShop -- and don't forget that most drawing software also needs plug-in filters which cost sometimes like 40$US! Each piece of software is about 500-700+$US. How fair yet uncontrollably really uncool-unfair! And that's JUST for software for school/drawing!
On a PC, it's just much more common (I'm not sure why) for there to be 'pirated' or cracked software. There just is. I don't happen to have a Mac or go surfing around for it... but I'm thinkin it's much harder for a Mac to be cracked-- which is really good...but sad as you're seeing from a student's perspective. So after I have all that software, I'm upto about 10, maybe 20 thousand dollars!!! Think about other programs I might want -- like telnetting, privacy software (anti-spam, firewall, anti-virus), Spanish language software, decompression software (for zips, rars, aces -- those all want money too!) There's more than just what comes with the standard system...
So there I have it. A PC with mostly all the trimmings. I spent somewhere around 1,500$US on JUST my tower (as I own my own monitor and I had a zip drive, printer, camera, and scanner.) And my career, my choice, tells me, I need to spend more money -- me, a student -- and buy (even at university discounted prices, are still astronomical) all that software I listed on top of everything else. UNREAL! So where is all this money going to come from? Because I worked 2 jobs at my uni last year just to pay for gas for my car (you know, so I can go to CLASS and go HOME.)
And they (you know ... 'they') say 'well, you already have a few scholarships and government grants and loans just to pay for tuition! We cannot give you any more! There are other students who need money too, you know." And my poor parents are looking at me, saying 'it's hard just paying for ourselves and you -- don't look to us for financial assistance.' Because I'm not from a rich family. And I don't act like it. I think lots of (if not the world) people think I come from a rich family -- I don't!
So now, I'm looking at getting a new computer (maybe) especially since I might be able to sell this one in Spain... which led me to looking around and I thought... hey, I do like the new Mac OsX .. and Miami (my Uni) has a deal with Apple, maybe (heh -- why did I think it would be something extra-ordinarily helpful??) I should look into getting a Mac (I really like the cute new generation 3 iMacs, but they don't have all I need.)
So browsed and made a custom Mac -- because, even I need some fun. I think the only things I put in that were 'for fun' were the iPod and instead of getting dull speakers, I got bass speakers so I could use my 'new' computer as a TV (since I won't be able to afford a TV with a new computer!)
Here's the breakdown
| Power Mac G4 |
$4,085.00 |
| includes: |
|
| 2 Apple Studio Displays
(17" flat panels) |
$1,858.00 |
| APP for Power Mac |
$237.00 |
| SmartDisk FireFly 5GB
FireWire Hard Drive |
FREE! (oh joy! something I didn't even
need!) |
| HP Deskjet 990cM Inkjet
Printer |
$294.00 |
| AirPort Base Station
(which prints on both sides of the paper -- I can save money on paper! I almost got the other printer which had a card reader for my digital camera) |
$281.00 |
| Retrospect Express
5 (backup software) |
$49.95 |
| Adobe Photoshop 7 |
$599.95 |
| Adobe Illustrator 10 |
$399.95 |
| Norton AntiVirus 8 |
$59.95 |
| Microsoft Office v.X
for Mac ('academic version'?) |
$199.95 |
| Roxio Toast with Jam
(to burn CDs) |
$199.95 |
| Virtual PC 5.0 (Windows
2k -- so I can still use my old PC software) |
$219.95 |
| and
for fun (since I'm spending thousands of dollars...) |
|
| iPod |
$469.00 |
| Apple iPod Power Adapter
(so I don't have buy batteries!) |
$45.00 |
| Harman Kardon SoundSticks
(they're the speakers) |
$199.00 |
| Promotion Savings Discount (I'm not sure this is
from MU -- just Apple trying to be nice) |
-$200.00 |
| TOTAL (not incl.tax *groan*) |
$8,997.65 |
I'm done. I just want to scream and cry and sleep and eat until I just die of heartfailure from bacon or something bad-for-me -- because it's just too depressing being a poor student with dreams. *sigh*
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