Buying computer and software
　　At first, I was reluctant to buy computer products completely online. Many of the online computer stores used to sell exclusively through printed catalogs, addressing the technically astute. I found those printed catalogs intimidating and confusing. And preferred to go to a physical store, where knowledgeable sales people could guide me through the maze of choices, explaining the benefits and risks and costs.
　　When egghead, the prominent software retailer, closed its physical stores and decided to operate solely online, I was shocked and disappointed, as I had shopped hardware or software regularly at the local egghead store and depended on expertise, judgment and advice from their sales people. Also, I greatly valued the fact that when I brought new add-ons or upgrades for my PC, I could pay to have them installed on the spot. But now I was forced to learn more about computers than I ever expected to learn. As it turns out, that’s probably a good thing for me and for my budget.
　　Today, the computer industry is a commodity, standards-driven marketplace. Computer “manufactures” are really just assembles. They buy processors from one, software, disks, memories, from other sources, and assemble them into systems. The competition is fierce and the profit margins are slim. In terms of the basic specs—speed, memory, and storage—what we now define as a “complete system” for home use would have made a wealthy technical guru tremble with jealousy ten years ago.
　　Fifteen years ago, is seemed inconceivable that an ordinary individual would ever need a 100 MHZ machine with 1 gigabyte of disk storage space. Yet, with the predictable improvement of technology, the speed of commercially available processors doubles about every 18 months according to a rule of thumb (known as “Moore’s law”). While at some point, technology must meet barriers that will slow the pace of change, the computer industry has been adapting at this incredibly rapid rate for more than two decades now, with great regularity. And the software industry has been keeping in lock step with these hardware developments by making each new version of the common applications that people depend upon more and more complex and bulky, requesting the full capacity of the latest and greatest hardware. I believe this software inflation results from the consequences of human nature—software expands to fill the capacity available for it.
　　Basically, “Moore’s law” plus software inflation mean today’s computer system will not last. And the new versions of software will make your equipment seem painfully slow in two years, and obsolete in four. To stay compatible with other people with whom you have to share files, you should invest time learning about these add-ons gadgets, etc. to upgrade your system. Thus you can make full use of the shopping resources on the Internet, and save again and again.