Re: upgrading, was Power adapter

[dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)]

"My 755CD (remember those?) was the fastest IBM had to offer 7 months ago.  Now
I think it's been supplanted 3 times.  That doesn't even count jumping between
brands as one or the other has more chache' (pardon the pun)."

First, the 755CD was released more than 7 months ago, so you are starting
this evaluation at the end of a product cycle. Second, it has been 
supplanted 2 times (760CD and 760ED) not 3 times. Generally the cycle for
actually obtaining new cutting ednge machines it you stick to one brand is
more like 2 a year (this is based on experience, at least with thinkpads :-)
of course if you jump brands, then you can increase this arbitrarily, but
that's hard to believe that this would result in increments big enough to
be worthwhile. The TP->Tecra jump is an oddity really, resulting from other
factors (namely the fact that for the first time in a while, Tecra is
clearly a jump ahead of IBM in screen technology).

"At that point, you are implicity depreciating it to the price at which the guy
with less requirements could buy a used machine that meets his needs.  You save
the overhead of actually buying and selling, but it's sort of the same."

That's not right at all. These machines are fully configured for exactly
our use, and we know they work fine, and have been carefully treated and
maintained. Furthermore, they are still under lease, the depreciation
has nothing to do with who is using it, I don't know of any concept of
implicit depreciation that makes sense here (certainly I don't think you
can get the IRS to agree to such a concept!) You would have a hard time 
getting a leasing company to lease used equipment from a miscellaneous
seller!

The point is that buying new machines may make sense especially in the
context of requiring new machines, but it depends on the individual
circumstances. I have always found it easily worthwhile for my work to
be close to cutting edge technology, but I think that's very unusual, and
most people would do better to avoid he "I-must-have-the-latest-and-greatest"
syndrome, since if you don't really need it, this can cost you mucho $$$