 |
 |
The Business Blog at Intuitive.com
|
Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and
is recognized globally as an expert on both technical and business
issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related
startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed.
He's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and
Linux Journal and frequently appears
in other publications both online and in print.
Additionally, Dave maintains four weblogs:
The Business Blog at Intuitive.com,
Ask Dave Taylor,
Dave On Film,
and
GoFahterhood.
Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and
frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, as well as active member of
his community and busy single father to three children.
|
My new Mac G5 arrives...
I've been thinking about upgrading my main computer for a while now, figuring I'd put it off until 2004 just because... and when a few days ago I realized that my desktop system, an Apple Mac 450Mhz G4, was older than my 3 1/2yo son, I realized that the time had come. So I spent some time exploring and settled on a dual 1.8Ghz G5 tower system as a suitable upgrade. Sort of like going from a worn Yugo to a Ferarri.As a faculty member of the University of Colorado, Boulder, I have access to academic pricing, which is a hit-or-miss thing. I found out that pricing is pretty standardized on Apple hardware, so I went to the Educational area of the Apple store and priced the system out at $2295. Plus tax. Plus shipping.
That didn't seem like a great bargain, so I ....
...Called around and talked with the sales folks at a variety of different Macintosh outlets, and finally settled on MacZone. With a little wheeling and dealing, they sold me the dual G5 system for $2495, no tax, no shipping and the threw in a free 1GB RAM upgrade too. Sweet!
And today I wasted about four hours getting it up, on my network, hooked into my dual monitor setup, and ready to fly. And, oh boy, is it ever faster than my old computer. I forgot what it's like to have a snappy response, and I can most see it when I'm working with my digital photographs that are typically 1-3MB per file. On the old system it would take 10-30 seconds to decompress the images each time they were opened, and now it's not even long enough to put up a dialog box to tell me something's hapenning.
I like it!
What wheeling and dealing did you do to get free shipping?
Posted by: SnapCracklePop on January 29, 2004 1:03 PMNothing too radical. Just talked to a real person and explained how I really was thinking about buying with the academic pricing, but wanted to see "what they could do for me". He told me that MacZone was offering free shipping through a current catalog anyway, so he basically credited me for having had that catalog (and I'm sure I'll see PLENTY of their catalogs from now on). Good luck!
Posted by: Dave Taylor on January 29, 2004 1:07 PMTrue, academic pricing is no longer as drastically lower as it was in the days when Apple's gross margins were obscenely high...
But you DO know that shipping from the Apple Store is free, right? That $200 difference is easily enough to pay for high-quality 1GB RAM. Legally, you are obliged to pay your state's sales tax on that machine, it's just that MacZone isn't authorised to collect it, and that law just happens to be enforced very laxly :).
I fully support buying from independent resellers, but I don't really see what makes this such a great deal.
Posted by: Erick on January 29, 2004 10:25 PMTo Eric: What are you the self appointed Tax and Moral police? Give the guy a break ... he just got a new G5. Let him enjoy it, instead picking the flys**t out of the pepper.
Posted by: cspheres on January 30, 2004 3:54 AM
|
Before you leave a comment, a tip: If you're interested in blogging, you should sign up for my Blogsmart News so you can stay up to date
on the latest insider tips and ideas for your Internet business and marketing
efforts. Sign up right now and you'll get a free copy
of my "Insider's Guide to Blogging" ebook too! |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Business Blog
