I feel like I have got to ask a question of you all.
I would like for you to, if you’d be so kind, put your hand up if you own a HD DVD player.
Now, if you are sat at your computer holding up your hand up as sheepishly as the owner of a fart in a lift, then I want to ask you how it feels?
For once in my life I have decided to hold back from buying a gadget that was new to the market in order to see which ‘version’ won the war. And do you know what? It feels, well, pretty fucking good! It makes a change not to be sat looking at some practically worthless piece of technology that just a few months ago could have bought be an all expenses paid week in Magaluf.
I do not know what has led to this good fortune, whether it is a new found maturity that has snuck upon me, or the fact that I have been pretty skint in the last few months, but I really could get used to this completely new level of smugness.
So come on, tell me your tales of worthless toys and make me feel a whole lot better about myself for the weekend. Ta muchly.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Bloody Betamax, there I’ve owned up.
Oh, and to compound my stupidity, LaserDisk as well.
It’s not true HD yet. Anybody whose bought into it early may find they’re stuck with a Betamax VCR equivalent.
I’m such a Luddite for one who works with state-of-the-art technology. I had a recording studio in my bedroom but no CD player ’till the mid-90s. I like to think of the digital-analogue argument thus:
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p42/glammerocity/digital-analogue.jpg
As we say in my Luddite Support group, “Technology delivers, sometimes.”
Technology… um… pass.
My hairbrush broke a bit this morning, though! Does that count?
I hardly get caught out by this, it’s not fantastic common sense, it’s merely that I never have enough money to buy anything shiny and new. I have to wait until it’s been out for a couple of years and come massively down in price. Ahh the advantages of being poor!!!
Although waiting doesn’t always help, I waited forever to get a digital camera, and then I bought one which was a “bargain” except it wasn’t, 6 months later it was a fifth of the price. Which sucked. As did the camera. Tsk. To add insult to injury my mobile phone company then sent me a new phone with my contract which had a better camera incorporated into it. 
I bought one of the first digital TV’s when it came out at the end of the 90′s a whacking great Sony widescreen that weighs an absolute ton. When I turned it on I discovered that the only digital channels I could get were BBC1 and BBC2 the signal just wasn’t strong enough on the rest. Since it had an analogue tuner as well I didn’t bother upgrading the aerial till it came down in a storm a few years later.
Still got it though everyone else I know including my Dad who is National President of the Luddite Support Groups has got a flat screen TV and my living room is still dominated by this monster, it just flatly refuses to break down and I’m reluctant to replace it.
My Dad was the very last person in the town where I grew up to swap his black and white set for a colour one, the manager of local rental company came to our house to ask him to upgrade. The guy who took our old one away when straight from our house to the tip with it.
I am also too skint to make these kind of mistakes, maybe when Ibecome a millionaire I will be able to choose not to buy things and enjoy your level of smugness.
Can work a hairdryer, sewing machine, vaccuum cleaner etc., in fact all the white stuff in the kitchen – and hooray can type usually even on a computer keyboard. Had a mobile phone but sent it on holiday to Kathmandu for a few months with my daughter but have no idea what an HD DVD player is (!).
Was actually bought a DVD player at Christmas, was plugged in for me as well, but have to admit I have yet to use it…..aarhhh, sad
but happy 
I have time for other things.
I can’t afford an HD DVD player but then that isn’t a problem as I can’t afford an HD telly to play HD discs on even I did have one. And I don’t really understand what HD is anyway. My other half said it is ‘telly but better and clearer’. But if I’ve had normal telly for years and been happy with it why would I change? And surely if I got better and clearer telly at my house then if I watched it at anyone else’s house I’d just get pissed off because their picture was shite?
It depends on how good your eyesight is anyway, you might be better off just getting better glasses or sitting closer. And remember most things have not been recorded in HD anyway. Like buying a cd of the Beatles, its still recorded onto a cassette and then transferred to cd by the man …
I dont usually back the wrong techno horse – I just buy to early, and get a bug ridden overpriced status symbol (but oddly enough I dont have a Mac). For once I held off – partly as I am just not convinced its worth it as DVD hasnt been exploited to the full, and even Blueray is in fact not a great step forward (its basically just CD technology so a lot of the Tech savey are dissapointed that it won).
The other reason is I am also a bit skint at the moment – As I just bought a new 2nd Motor (A 2008 Sentra Type R Spec V) and guess what – its a new model and turns out it has issues that mean im likely to need the entire steering column replaced. I just bought a Betamax car.
Asshats
I still have a steam radio, does that count? Someone bought me a digibox for Xmas but the programmes are cr*p! QVC is good though,(no, not really). I still use cassettes, does anyone remember those? The trick with technology is to wait. The market decides and Bill Gates lets the first suckers do his testing. That is why he is a very rich man and I still have a box full of cassettes that say things like” Smootchy tracks”, and ” The best of Paul Weller”. (That is a blank cassette by the way!)
My personal technology blunder was buying a Chevrolet Vega. The engine chewed itself to pieces after only 30,000 miles, which as I discovered, was typical.
After seeing a brother-in-law stung by BetaMax, kept out of the DVD format war. Might later go with Blu-Ray if the prices drop. Maybe.
Sigh… Atari computer, Betamax, Sinclair computer, Original Apple computer, one of the early analog mobile phone formats that stuck around about a year (size and weight of a brick and it didn’t even impress girls), Nine inch floopy drive, MP2 player (yes, there was MP2 before MP3 and MP4), Psion…
Oh I could go on and on. Can I stop now? Are you feeling better?
Atari game console, 8-track player, Ford Pinto (in which I was hit from behind by a Jaguar, and lived to type this!)
Stuck with DOS until I absolutely HAD to switch to Windoze for work purposes, fought to not have to use a mouse until V3.needtoupgrade, have Win2K at work, XP (reluctantly) at home…
I’m a software conservative in a liberal body…
Does a husband count……….
I’ve got an Edwardian wind-up gramophone
My Parents aren’t divorced or separated yet. Does that count?
I don’t have one, not going to get one. I’m going to spend more time camping.