The WOW! Buzz

From the standpoint of what is the best consumer computer technology today for any one individual, there isn’t one.  What you need may be different from what you want which may be different from what is even available to you.  Then there is the age-old (at least in computer years) MAC vs. PC debate which if anything has given all of us computer geeks some great material to philosophize and deliberate about over the years.

Buying a new computer system or adding a new component can be a daunting task considering the speed at which technology is evolving and how quickly computer equipment today can become outdated.   Since picking a new computer system or add-on is hopefully something one does only every few years the choice you make needs to be well thought out to insure it is going to meet your needs.

The best advice I can give you if you are looking to upgrade or add-on to your existing set-up is to find a good source you can rely on for reference and reviews on what you are looking for.  A few that spring to mind are pcmag.com, macworld.com, consumerreports.org, or cnet.com.  Even better, find a user-community or discussion-group that shares your same interests or needs and find out what they are recommending (or sometimes even more importantly NOT recommending).

That being said, always keep in mind that today’s “winning” computer technology could be tomorrow’s “worst use of landfill space” technology.

This is the first part of a two part series on this particular topic.  Next week we are going to take a trip in the way-back machine and look at some of the computer technologies from the not too distant past that seemed like real winners at the time but now exist only in our faint memories (or on the back shelves of thrift stores where they have been marked down to pennies, or less, on the dollar compared to what they cost new).

Talk to you next week…