This morning we learn that Google has signed up the British Library to its digitization project: holdings published between 1700 and 1870 will be added to the 13 million books Google has already scanned. Much of this stuff is available free on the iPad.
{sigh} I had decided to reward myself for the crushing amount of work I just ground through by having The Copyeditor’s Desk, Inc., buy me an iPad. It would be handy for editorial and teaching work (to say nothing of serving as an incredible toy!), and I figured CED could afford the $25/month ATT connection. And with Skype or some such on it, the thing would function as a cell phone, too.
But when I went over to the Apple store on Saturday, they didn’t have the model I want, and their manager seemed less than enthusiastic about selling one to me. Basically he said that you have to keep coming back to the store to see if they have the desired iPad in—often to nail what you want, you have to go back several times a day! He suggested ordering it online.
Well. I don’t want to order it online. I want to see what I’m getting and ask questions of real human beings and read the paperwork before I walk off with it.
So, I guess I don’t really need that thing. I’ve managed to stumble through 66 years without it, and I expect I’ll live another 20 or 30 years without it.
The interruption in the drive to buy an iPad was just enough to raise the question: Is this a need or a want? And more to the point, can CED really afford the thing?
Answer to the first question: want.
Answer to the second: apparently not.
The delay in gratifying that want gave me time to reconsider the S-corp’s performance. And I see that because Adsense has been underperforming over the past few months, CE Desk is just barely earning enough to pay my sidekicks and cover the operating costs I’ve recently shifted onto its books.
Fortunately, a couple of new clients recently appeared at the door. And we’re supposed to start a big project management account in July. If we perform decently on that, there’s a good shot the project management thing will develop into steady, long-term work.
Tina is extremely good at project management—that is, as a matter of fact, what she does on her day job. She’s so good at it that the Chinese government is going to keep her on contract as managing editor of the huge international business management journal she runs through the Great Desert University, even after the GDU gives her its second shafting (they’re laying her off again). So, I’m expecting that she will take over management of this huge client and farm out the grunt work to me and our other sidekick. But…it could be awhile before we see actual work and pay come in from this enterprise.
At any rate, when you run a business you have to apply the same frugalist principles as you do in operating your personal finances. To wit: always ask if it’s a need or a want!
But darn. I really did want that gadget. Way to market a product, Apple!
We’ll revisit this question later in the year, when we see how 2011 shakes out. Which leads us to another rule in common between business and personal finance: never bet on the come. 😉
Image: Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland on a first-generation iPad.
Evan-Amos. Public domain.
I had iPad envy when my BF first got one. His was issued through work so he didn’t have to pay anything for it, and when the iPad 2 came out they upgraded him. The 2 is even nicer than the first version. (His work doesn’t require him to be roaming with the device so it is the WiFi only version.)
The hefty price tag of the thing made me hesitate a lot. Then I heard about the NookColor by Barnes and Noble. eReader? Yes. WiFi enabled? Yes. Color touch screen? Yes. Can download apps? Sort of. When I bought mine just after Christmas they had yet to upgrade the software to allow for apps to be loaded. But, clever people had figured out how to “peel back” the B&N overlay and expose the Android OS on which the tablet really runs. It’s called “rooting” and there were easy to follow instructions available through the Nook Developers forums online.
I waited a couple months, enjoying it simply as an eReader on which I loaded open source books from Project Gutenberg and FeedBooks, as well as a few cheap books through the B&N store. After two months, I didn’t want to wait anymore and I rooted it. Love, love, love it! Through the Android Marketplace I downloaded the Googlebooks app and the Kindle app, so I have several choices for ereading software now. I also downloaded a game or two and Dropbox, which enables me to share/store files from my laptop, and I side load scanned or PDF knitting patterns on it.
B&N has since released a software update that allows you to easily use their store to download more apps, some of which are free. (Of course competing ereading apps are not there, though!)
Although I do not have a data connection with my NookColor tablet, it functions as a pretty good contender for the WiFi-only iPad at half the cost (NC is $250). If you’re mainly looking at using it for pleasure and personal business, I can highly recommend it!