Reading this article from The Register got me thinking about my recent laptop purchasing failure. Hannah and I tried to buy a very nice Sony Vaio laptop with bells and whistles, but both of us got refused the credit to buy the laptop. The current financial “credit crunch” is such that your everyday bloke can’t afford to simply spend £1,500 upwards on a nice shiny new laptop. There’s the other end of the rope where the retailers (or rather, the lenders who lend to the consumer so the retailer can sell their products) aren’t willing to give credit to consumers. It’s not a new situation, and anyone even remotely keeping up to date with news will know this.
It fustrates me though when people (even an established name like Intel) are trying to lower the cost of laptops (or in this case Ultra Low Voltage technology) such as the Macbook Air when, even at reduced prices, most consumers still can’t afford them, and lenders still can’t afford to give out credit. All they’re doing is reducing the value of these laptops and (although ULV tech is a bit expensive even for the current climate) making them almost a “cheap” alternative to a decent laptop. Essentially, the market won’t be stimulated until people have money again. How that happens isn’t really my area of expertise.
In my personal situation, I can afford repayments on a laptop but no-one will give me credit in these “exciting” 0.5% base rate times. That means I won’t be getting a new laptop any time soon.
Now is the time I really wish I was one of those fat cat execs with $1.2 million bonuses after 5 months of work. I want a new laptop, damnit!
OK, so it’s not money, but it’s a pretty good money saving idea. The Watermill, developed by Element Four, is a dehumidifier for the outside that purifies the water it collects for drinking. As the cost of water increases in recent times, this becomes a fantastic idea. The problem I have at the moment is that it runs off normal electricity, and this thing is 300W, which is slightly less than that of an average personal computer. The good news is that Element Four are working on a Solar Powered version, which should hopefully reduce, or possibly even eliminate the cost of running electricity! That would truly be water from nothing but air!
Have a look at the Element Four website for more info! I’m also interested in finding out how much this thing costs…
Update [4th Oct]:
I e-mailed the company asking for more info, and where it will be distributed in the UK, and aboute the solar version. The response was that it can be run of a 600 Watt solar panel, and it will retail at $1299.00 (I assume Canadian, about £680 Sterling) and be available February 2009. Nothing specific was said about UK distribution, but £680 is a hell of a lot to shell out, as well as buying a 600W solar panel… it’s definately a long term investment, and as I’m still in rented property, I doubt I’ll be getting anything like this any time soon!
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Well it looks like I can’t afford to go airsofting after all tonight. Hannah keeps offering to pay for me to go, but I can’t accept that – that’s money we have to use to buy food and stuff, I can’t spend half on it just on doing a hobby which isn’t critical to life. Right now we just need to keep living, feed and water ourselves, and work ourselves out of money problems. It’s absolutely stunning how much money affects your life when you don’t have any. It’s really been getting me down, and now that the landlord has said that Hannah can’t move in with me, I feel even worse. I’ve written and posted a letter to him to hopefully change his mind, so hopefully things will turn out OK. It’s just a waiting game now. Just feeling a bit distressed at the moment, and kind of at a loose end. I just want my life to be better again!
I’m sitting in the Deco on my new laptop, well not really new, and it’s not really mine, it’s Hannahs, but it’s mine now. As some of you will probably know I’m ridiculously poor due to work messing up my pay, but after several telephone calls I’ve managed to sort it out, but I’m not gonna get paid til next month. So I’m really poor this month, really really poor. Hannah should be moving in soon which will be awesome, but the money problem is really dragging me down at the moment. I can’t even afford to go Airsofting which is like my favouritest hobby ever (apart from being with Hannah 
). Hopefully I’ll have money next Wednesday so I can go to UCAP, but I don’t hold out much hope for now.
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