I am Scottish. I try to stretch nickels into dollars. Sometimes it’s because I feel the need, but sometimes I do it just to see if I can.
Don’t try to insult me by calling me a stingy miser. It won’t work, because I’ll take it as a compliment.
And yes, this has something to do with Scotch tape.Recently I was researching to see when Scotch tape was invented. I was thrilled to find out the name came from an insult. Originally, the tape only had adhesive on the edges, to keep costs down. A car dealer said the stingy Scotch bosses need to put more adhesive on it.
Eventually they did put more adhesive on it, but the name stuck.
And for what it’s worth, I was researching the history of the stuff because I wanted to know if I could legitimately use it when repairing really old toys. I try to use materials that would have been available when the toys weren’t so old. It turned out the stuff came out in the 1930s, so yes, if I want to use it to hold window inserts in place, I can do that and stay true to period.
And I will use Scotch brand. It’s more expensive, but it lasts longer. A Scot will pay more money for something if it saves money in the long run. It’s why I buy Compaqs instead of Dells.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Frugal is good. If you’re taking flak about it, fire "maximising benefit from scarce resources" at them.
‘Sides which, saved money is worth more than earned money. You pay tax on earned money. If you get paid earned money and you’re not in the "black economy" (a pejorative term if ever I’ve heard one, but we’ve got that "render unto Caesar" thing going), then if you get paid a dollar you only keep a dollar less tax. If you’ve already earned it, you’ve already paid the tax. Save a dollar on something you’d have bought anyway and it all ends up back in your pocket.
So – if they give you flak, boast! Tell ’em you’re proud of your gorgeous wife who’s a good money manager too (low blow on many, but hey – they started it). For those of you who haven’t got gorgeous wives who are good managers too, if you’ve got a vacancy in your TO then start interviewing applicants. As Peter Drucker said (paraphrase), if you’ve already got someone who fills part of your need, train her for the rest. Remember, good training gets the trainee on-side and working with the trainer. To do that, you can’t work them – you’ve got to work with them, then gently lead them to work with you.
Right, back to Dave. Dave, tell ’em you’re proud to squeeze your pennies.
Tell ’em you squeeze your pennies ’til they pop,
then bottle the pop so you don’t have to buy soda at the shop.
Dave,
In year’s past , you recommended NewEgg as a place to buy parts. I now have three P.C.’s built from parts bought from them. You were right about the parts and the quality of service.
Do you have any advice on brands of laptops to purchase? I’m especially interested in laptops that can be converted to Debian from Vista.
Thank You,
Joseph
Laptops? I always run away at that word. Especially when trying to run Linux on them. I could always get it working partially, but something wouldn’t work, whether it’s the network or sound or something else.
Dells are highly overrated, and frankly, I think that company is the Gateway 2000 of the 21st century. Stay away.
I think if I were going to buy something, I’d probably buy an Asus, logic being that they make laptops for lots of other companies and I’d rather have an Asus made to their own specs rather than to someone else’s compromises. I’d go with an Intel CPU and chipset, because Intel is a bit more sympathetic to open source than AMD and Nvidia and is more forthcoming with the information the programmers need. (And yes, recommending Intel pains me, but this is one area where AMD just doesn’t have a clue.)
But by all means, spend lots of time searching on whatever model you might be looking at. Search Google for the model number and whatever specific versions of Linux distros you’re intending to run on it.
Unfortunately I can’t offer much more advice. My work laptop is several years old and I don’t even have admin rights on it (long story). I own a couple of laptops, but we’re talking a 700 MHz P3 and a 266 MHz P2, and the companies who made those aren’t even making laptops anymore–not that what was good that long ago is any indication of current quality anyway.