How much are you willing to put on a credit card?
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Certainly for our line of work we don't need the graphics capabilities of some machines, don't need an incredible amount of number crunching power. Win 7 seems to be less memory hungry than Vista. I don't know about you, but I store very little on my laptop because laptops can grow legs, so most of my storage is on a thumb drive and then permanently stored to my desktop once a month. My laptop has about a 225GB hard drive I am using less than 1/4 of for installed software and stuff occasionally saved to it. The valuable features for me are the 5-in-1 digital media reader to stick in the card from my camera and 3 USB ports, one of which has an octopus expander to allow me to plug in 4 devices through 1 USB port. I've got 4GB of memory, though of course 3GB is about minimal to run Vista or Win 7 and like chocolate, more is better 
HUH....your talking to a non techie, but, I'll take your word for it....I was laughing and actually got a headache. Been a very bad day, car went in for a power steering problem, can't do my hotel tomorrow, and this tech stuff is way too much.....lol.
Live consciously....
My laptop is packed to the gills with the Adobe CS5 and CS 4 master collections, student work, emails, lesson plans, and any shopping stuff from the week that was. I so wish I had sprung for the next model up last year. I am hopeful to get a newer one at Christmas and then this will go to hubby or son.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Which, of course, is because your major use and needs for it are not mystery shopping. I have not loaded my laptop up with applications and data because that is not what I need to be using it for. My laptop is the primary machine I use for mystery shopping. A multitude of applications and data for other things are on the desktop machine that is used for everything else.
But it is also the one I use to report my shops and do my spreadsheets. Other people besides me probably multi-task their system, and if so, should consider both parts of the equation. Just saying I wish I had gone up one model.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
I just need it for mystery shopping, but one needs to grow into a computer, there seems to be more and more you want to do with it....wouldn't be as involved for me, as you Dee with your profession.
Live consciously....
Last month Target had the Western Digital 1 TB external hard drive for $69.99. Very easy to store all your mystery shopping data on the drive and access it from any computer at any time. This one had a 3.5" form factor, so it required connection to an AC outlet. There are 2.5" models that get their power solely from your computer's USB port. Target had that model in a 500 GB configuration at the same price.
1 tb for $70? I can only drool. They don't sell for that low here.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
dee said: "1 tb for $70? I can only drool. They don't sell for that low here."
Have you tried Costco? I rememeber their prices being reasonable when I was in Hawaii Kai. What about Sam's Club in Pearl City? Do any of the online stores such as Newegg, Amazon or Fry's, etc ship to HI?
Prices for HDDs are dropping fairly rapidly and I'm certain that in 6 months you'll be able to get 2 TB for the same price as 1 TB today.
Have you tried Costco? I rememeber their prices being reasonable when I was in Hawaii Kai. What about Sam's Club in Pearl City? Do any of the online stores such as Newegg, Amazon or Fry's, etc ship to HI?
Prices for HDDs are dropping fairly rapidly and I'm certain that in 6 months you'll be able to get 2 TB for the same price as 1 TB today.
The shipping usually eats the savings. Not always, but often. Yes, prices keep dropping. They still never go as low in stores here, Sam's and Costco get close at holidays, though. The other day 1 TB was $99. In 2001 I bought my first FW portable drive. A whole 2 gigs! It was $99 on half price sale from Frye's. $15 shipping.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Dee: Black Friday is quickly approaching. ;-)
I don't know if buy.com's "free shipping" applies to Hawaii, but I picked up a 1TB Black Friday last year at Staples for about $70 and another from buy.com in the spring for about the same.
Flash Wrote:
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> I don't know if buy.com's "free shipping" applies
> to Hawaii, but I picked up a 1TB Black Friday last
> year at Staples for about $70 and another from
> buy.com in the spring for about the same.
Free shipping does not apply to Alaska and HI, at buy.com or mostly any other vendor.
Are these portables you got at that price, or desktop externals? Although I have one 1 TB desktop HD, I have switched over the past couple of years to only purchasing the portables due to my needs to take them around to various places with me. I was specifically talking about prices of protable drives, but I am not sure whether I said that or not.
Last BF I got beaten to a couple of better deals online because they sold out, but scored two 500 gig portables for $70 each in-store at Costco that day. That was the lowest price around, even still. I am not unhappy with $99 for a portable 1 TB, but I would prefer to get it for less if the shipping did not eat up the savings.
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> I don't know if buy.com's "free shipping" applies
> to Hawaii, but I picked up a 1TB Black Friday last
> year at Staples for about $70 and another from
> buy.com in the spring for about the same.
Free shipping does not apply to Alaska and HI, at buy.com or mostly any other vendor.
Are these portables you got at that price, or desktop externals? Although I have one 1 TB desktop HD, I have switched over the past couple of years to only purchasing the portables due to my needs to take them around to various places with me. I was specifically talking about prices of protable drives, but I am not sure whether I said that or not.
Last BF I got beaten to a couple of better deals online because they sold out, but scored two 500 gig portables for $70 each in-store at Costco that day. That was the lowest price around, even still. I am not unhappy with $99 for a portable 1 TB, but I would prefer to get it for less if the shipping did not eat up the savings.
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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Flash, I started my search for a new laptop and went to Best Buy, I have their Rewards card. They had a Toshiba (which I have now), but a more powerful model, AMD Turion 11, Core Processor P520 for $529.99. Going to Office max next, but I thought this a great price, do you think I can do better?
Live consciously....
Office Depot has sent out their preliminary Labor Day sales ad and they have a couple of laptops under $500 with 4GB of memory and a reasonable size hard drive. One is a Lenovo (the folks who bought IBM's pc division if I recall correctly) with an Intel Pentium dual-core T4500 for $400. They also are showing 1.5TB external hard drives for $90, a GE camera with 12.2 megapixels for under $50 and printer paper under $3 per ream. I'm sure that the other office supply places will be having similar sales.
Yes, it makes sense to check around. The Office Depot sale does not start until Sunday I think.
How much? Not enough to give me problems.
Problems could occur in 3 areas not already mentioned above.
1) Credit limit. If my card has a credit limit of $5,000.00 and I charge up $4,500.00 on it -- That is too much for me because I want more than $500.00 to charge for normal and emergency expenses.
2) Authorizations towards my credit limit. Typically, restaurants, hotels, and car rental transactions authorize (or freeze a certain amount towards your credit limit) more than the initial transaction. So, I stay aware of these types of transactions. Why? See #1 above.
3) Credit score issues. Many things contribute to your credit score. The amount of your total credit limit used is just one of those factors. (For more info, google it, or try Bankrate.com) Most of the time it doesn't matter much to me. However, if I am in the process of taking out a loan, my credit score will matter and it is better to have less of your credit line taken.
So, do the math and figure out what works for you.
Problems could occur in 3 areas not already mentioned above.
1) Credit limit. If my card has a credit limit of $5,000.00 and I charge up $4,500.00 on it -- That is too much for me because I want more than $500.00 to charge for normal and emergency expenses.
2) Authorizations towards my credit limit. Typically, restaurants, hotels, and car rental transactions authorize (or freeze a certain amount towards your credit limit) more than the initial transaction. So, I stay aware of these types of transactions. Why? See #1 above.
3) Credit score issues. Many things contribute to your credit score. The amount of your total credit limit used is just one of those factors. (For more info, google it, or try Bankrate.com) Most of the time it doesn't matter much to me. However, if I am in the process of taking out a loan, my credit score will matter and it is better to have less of your credit line taken.
So, do the math and figure out what works for you.
Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut
My neighbour, who does not know I am a Mystery Shopper, just told me that the store in which she works has just figured out that I am the Mystery Shopper. She said they took my return information (address) and matched it up to the report they received. When they noticed that I lived on the same street as one of their employees, they told her. I am going to be very careful about taking return shops now.
It is cause for concern. The identifying information should have been deleted from the report before it got to the store. The client at the Corporate level may see the unscrubbed version, but the store level should not. I'm curious if you have heard anything from the MSP about being identified, albeit only on paper. Your neighbor may have been asked to provide a physical description. In any event, you may be disallowed from shopping that location in the future, due to an oversight on the part of the MSP or the client.
Did you know before you performed the shop that your neighbor worked there? Many MSPs prohibit you from performing a shop if someone you know works there. Do you think your neighbor might have identified you as the shopper?
These jobs scare me to death. OfficeMax for example charges a percentage for returns of computer items if they have been opened. What defines "opened" may be different for me than for them. What if the seal, if any, is accidentally broken while in my trunk? What if they open the box and it appears that the computer has been previously taken out, repackaged,and resealed by a previous customer, or by an employee for that matter?
And lastly, who says that the MSC will go to bat for me if I have a return problem?
And lastly, who says that the MSC will go to bat for me if I have a return problem?
You can bet your last dollar that the MSC will not go to bat for you. If they charge you the 10% nobody will reimburse you.
Look for the purchase policy before you take the shop. Even ask your friendly scheduler for that detail.
Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut
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