My first CD-Writer lasted me 7 years with very high usage(25CDs a month at least). My second one 3 years. And now I am using an LG-ReWriter which I hope will last me till college. And the prices of the 3 CD-Writers are Rs.10500, Rs.5000 and Rs.2500. As you read here, you will notice that the price of CD-Writers have become a fourth of what they were 10 years ago. And along with it, the quality too has decreased by about 80%. Who cares about whether your CD-Writer burns at 52X or 12X. I have found all my writers to be equally fast and all of them have turned down on me when I really needed them.

Recently I also got a DVD-Writer for $20 from the US. It SuXoR (in new internet language). Bought a pack of 50 Moserbaer DVDs and only 15 of them have successfully been burnt(You know what I mean).

My first computer costed my Rs.40000. All I got was a 300Mhz Celeron with my first pirated operating system Windows 95. Yes, I loved it. My obsession for computers started then when I saw I could draw on something other than paper(Pbrush.exe on Windows XP). That computer worked without a problem for 7 long years. I have used Photoshop 6 on it. I have installed Windows XP on it. I have done pretty much everything on it. That first computer of mine(believe it or not) never crashed, had never given me any problems until it’s motherboard died one day. Figuring that it would do me no good to continue using the same piece of machinery, I pleaded for a new PC. Then came in a brand new P4 with 256MB RAM(really great 4 years ago) and Windows XP preloaded. What is interesting is that since then my computer has crashed about a 100 times(little blame goes to me, but my tactics weren’t that great either). So I freaked out at most of these occasions and probably know the introduction to Windows XP by heart.

With all this I come to say that these days we often look only at the quantity and not at all at the quality. Now here comes the iMac into the picture. We would consider all Macs very expensive and can hardly find any repair centres. Why are they expensive is an interesting question to ask? I wouldn’t be surprised if a PC I buy along with an iMac died out faster(with a gap of 5 years between them). This is simply because Apple has always considered quality before quantity. And since they too need to follow trends they have given people the equivalent or better quantity without any decrease in their quality. That’s why iMacs are preffered by designers. And most users of Macs dont like PCs. This is because they always stay ahead. They can foresee the trends of tomorrow and convert their own products into futuristic trends. I thought the iPod was not good until I got one. The problem with most of us that we dont try to shift. Even we who call ourselves nerds, havent understood that knowing how to use Windows doesn’t mean we know how to use a computer.

So now I need to collect enough money to buy a shiny new iMac(after the release of OS X Leopard). For all those who haven’t used the iMac, go visit the Apple Store at Ansal Plaza while it’s there. I went there today and found it pretty big for a shop where you can only buy iPods, iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros. But yes, it would be more interesting to see a 20-floor Apple Store like at the 5th Avenue in New York. And speaking about quality, my P4 died yesterday. May it’s soul rest in peace…and the rest of the bullshit.