Getting out of my comfort zone

gilligansyle

I've been trundling round, seeing what everyone was up to, and felt so guilty I had to come up and update this.

Have had a few days with family etc. sister loved her card and the little pressie. Her dh looked at me a bit strange for what I bought, as he'd forgotten about the weekend trip.

But... its official.. I am a sad, obsessive, untrusting ......

as I got my VAT statement from the accountants, and checked it line by line! I need to check what is the actual tax point etc. as I think I actually owe HMRC more than they've said, as they've included something they shouldn't and missed something out. The net effect isn't much, but I've sent them an email to ask for clarification.

Heres a tip, don't watch Masterchef if you are hungry.

savingholmes

hi gill glad your sister liked the card

zagubov

gilligansyle wrote: »

Oops! I nearly bought a new computer on Ebay!

This will mean nothing to most people but I really want a mac, I hate windows stuff with a vengeance, but obviously mac's are so much dearer than the equivalent pc. My trusty red imac is on its last legs, so spent last night moving the last of the stuff I really want to keep onto a memory stick, I really only use it now for watching DVD's or listening to music when pottering round the kitchen.

I have this little netbook, but you can't load stuff on it.

So, ..... I set myself a realistic limit and waited. I was outbid by 50p! But managed to restrain myself from getting carried away.

.

You can upgrade your imac without breaking the bank. Is your imac an all-in-one?

Have you got a monitor? If yes, you can get something modest but fast without paying 3-digit sums. Backwards-compatability is the main Achilles heel of the mac world. Decide what old software you want to keep and get a machine that'll run it (some/most of the older mac software is tip-top and can't easily be beat).

G4 dual macs come up reasonably often and can run shedloads of old software (also they often run at 1GH or faster). You can burn CDs and DVDs no bother on them and stream videos form the internet.

Be wary of G5s and intel macs is they are fast but can't handle old stuff so decide what your needs are. They're also £100s more.

To avoid being outbid, register with auctionsniper.com put in the highest bid it wouldn't hurt you to pay and see what happens. Wait till its over and see if it wins. Note that if you're collecting Airmiles on ebay this bidding system's not for you, but with a little thought and preparation you'll get a bargain.

Get a firewire lead and transfer your account from the old imac and you'll be running your old system faster in a new machine with more tricks.

A lot of "old"macs are surprisingly robust and you'll be amazed what they can do.

gilligansyle

Hi - my imac is the original all in one G3, only got a 20gb hard drive,so it won't take the latest OS, it struggles with 10.3. It also needed itunes reloading and you can't load itunes now without the latest os, so caught in a bit of a trap. It also won't do wireless, so it has to have wires trailing round the house.

I don't really want a base and monitor type thing as it restricts me a bit, so looking at a G4 laptop, which don't really break the bank, just need to be realistic about what i can afford.

Karmacat

Good for you for checking line by line - I've been with my accountants for years, and the number of mistakes they make each year is increasing steeply, which is why I'm seriously considering doing them myself this year, even with the French property to take account of.

zagubov

gilligansyle wrote: »

Hi - my imac is the original all in one G3, only got a 20gb hard drive,so it won't take the latest OS, it struggles with 10.3. It also needed itunes reloading and you can't load itunes now without the latest os, so caught in a bit of a trap. It also won't do wireless, so it has to have wires trailing round the house.

I don't really want a base and monitor type thing as it restricts me a bit, so looking at a G4 laptop, which don't really break the bank, just need to be realistic about what i can afford.

I understand about the flexibility of a laptop - just not sure you'll find something affordable that's very much better than your current imac. The G4 dual macs I mentioned were tower models that could be upgraded by any idiot with a philips screwdriver and are much faster than G4 laptops at many jobs. They're noisier, though you stop noticing it, but they could potentially do good work for ages.

For laptops, looking via macbookmart.com for example there's nothing under £300 as eBay Buyitnow. (With Buyitnow you can get Airmiles of course). You can try grabbing a bargain with auctionsniper.com (first bid's free , load on a few quid via paypal for later ones; they take 1% from you but nothing if the bid fails).

Gumtree's got wireless ibooks and macbooks under £200 if you are happy to risk that - it's an unknown area for me.

You no doubt know the main retail second hand mac sites and free software sites (seen them on many other threads)

Good luck and keep us in the loop.

savingholmes

luckily I've never been into macs. I sympathise with you re the netbook - I was considering one until OH bought me one home to try. I felt it couldn't do big enough screen and my fingers tripped over themselves - so I avoided that one. The laptop I've got now is wireless which is brill - I couldn't be doing with a wire all the time

Good luck whatever you decide

gilligansyle

BIG NEWS!!!

DS got a letter from Head Office during the week saying that due to budget there will have to be staff cuts on his site, they need to lose a post. Last night he was told they are doing a scoring matrix to decide who goes, but the person who goes will be moved to another site.
The other site is in the city centre, PERMANENT WEEKEND NIGHTS, so will mainly be dealing with drunks and prostitutes.
Because of everything else that's gone on, its likely they will swing the scoring so it ends up as him. So he's resigned.

savingholmes

ouch gill that is big news

Hope he manages to find something much better from this whole experience

macgirl

Sorry to hear DS was backed into a corner over the job. As SH says, hope he gets something even better and soon.

As for Macs, well as you know I am a mac user. I have a Macbook Pro and work on a G5 in the office. I doubt I would buy a secondhand one as I think they get sold for a reason, but I guess I'm a heavy user and for what you want, it might be worth it. I think if I was buying - rather than work, I'd get an imac rather than laptop and if you have a monitor all the better (though the cinema screens are sooo much nicer ) I'll get my coat and stop encouraging you to spend