iBook G4 DEATH WATCH!

No, this is not another series of articles from me as the ongoing iWeb tutorials is taking more than enough of my time and attention. This is mostly just a blog about how automatic some online decisions can be. Case in point: My recent purchase of a MacBook Pro.

I buy stuff for myself online all the time. I buy stuff for the family online all the time as well since my wife is cautious (also referred to as CS disease) about using credit cards on the internet. Not an unwise choice I suppose in these days of identity theft and credit card fraud, but it means that I end up buying everything for the family when it comes to online purchases.

One of the main places I buy stuff from is Amazon. If you have ever shopped before at Amazon, you’ll notice that their shipping and handling charges are insane. Very high unless you’ve purchased above a certain amount and then they offer free shipping. I like free. Free is good. Of course choosing free shipping means that your purchases are shipped on the back of a diseased yak with an attitude problem, but as long as whatever it is you’re buying isn’t life enhancing, who cares how long it takes? I mean really, I’m buying books or DVDs or Pop-Tarts (though waiting for my 12 boxes of non-frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon toaster pastries can be an eternity) so what difference does it make? The problem lies in when that attitude rolls over into other online purchases like, I don’t know, computer laptops.

I’ve been waiting a very long time to get an Apple pro laptop (like since mid 2003) and I almost bit the bullet when the 2.16 GHz model were selling for $1499 at the refurb section of the Apple Store, but decided to wait until the next round of updates and it looks like that was a wise move. Right after the page was updated with the new MacBook Pros, all the previous models were marked down and I grabbed a 2.33 GHz model for $1499. Yay for me and all that, but as I was filling out the information required to get it to me, without thinking I chose the free shipping option. Saved a few bucks, but after all the right buttons were pushed and the deal was finalized, I realized that I could have had that MacBook Pro either today of tomorrow if I had chosen next-day delivery. It was only $18 and I could have had the fastest computer I’ve ever owned in my hands that much quicker. I just spent over $1500 with tax and I denied myself near instant gratification for $18?!?

I make jokes all the time about the fact that since I’m from Florida, I’m a little slow. I’m beginning to wonder how much of that is really a joke and how much is true?