Foreign Perspectives

As you know, we upped the ante with the camera a few months ago. Up until then the computer was doing fine as the image size was around the 600k mark but now each one is more like 5mb which obviously eats up the storage space somewhat faster.

In tandem with that, we’ve both been using the computer a whole lot more than we had in the past so a) we’re fighting over it and b) it’s filling up much faster than expected.

And that’s before you even consider the usual expansion into other websites that happens over the Winter. We’ve been plugging away with Whole Earth Guide as you know and today Cultured Views was born.

Finally, we have pencilled in a slide scanner so that we can mine the slide library that I have which will, of course, eat up the storage even faster.

Or, in short, we’re in the market for a new computer.

As usual, prices have dived and performance have soared since we bought this little guy last year. Whereas our £650 bought us 60GB, 1.5GHz, 256k cache and XP Pro, this year our £600 will buy 200GB, 1.86GHz, 2GB cache, DVD writer and Vista Business. It’s even possible to weigh in at the £350 mark for 120GB, 1.86GHz, 1Gb cache and Vista Home but somehow I suspect that 1GB cash and 120GB disc plus Vista probably isn’t a long term option.

One big plus this year is that the new member of our computer family is being paid for entirely out of our Internet income whereas last time it had to be paid for out of real-world income.