Parents of the HS Class of 2009 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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<p>CBBBlinker
S too is signed up for his A and B terms but he has some issues - not allowed to sign up for the courses he wants without professor permission but too far away to go to advising and figure out how to GET permission. So I am once again trying to help him get the info he needs. He is signed up, but not for what he wanted. sigh</p>

<p>He ended up with a solid B in Spanish - he did the entire last 3/4 s of the course in 2.5 weeks. Talk about a marathon! I am proud of him and frustrtated with him all at the same time. But at least he did the work and got it done, even though he did not need it to graduate.</p>

<p>We are now having trouble because he thought he was getting a computer for graduation (and I had suggested that that is what we would do) so he built it on paper (well online in a shopping cart) and e-mailed it to us so we could order it.</p>

<p>Holy crapola. It is $5000! So we said , uh no and he said, well this is instead of a car (for some bizarre reason, the kids around here all get cars for graduation) and how it is going to last him 8 years and blah blah blah. He did mega research on it, what’s the most dependable and a bunch of other arguments meant to convince us this was the only appropriate choice. He is very angry now, feels betrayed, etc. I asked him to come up with an alternative that might be more affordable or else we would have to come up with it oursleves, and he said he would just go without a computer then (yeah right).
Then he went into this thing about how he never asks for anything and this is the one thing he wants (it is true he never asks for much) But I told him it is not the asking (or the not asking) for things that makes the impression, it is what one GIVES. When one gives, others feel like giving. I then told him how little he contributes to our household, and that any spare moment he has, he hangs out with his online buddies. That unless I nag him, he does not do his laundry, clean his bathroom or his room or help with the dishwasher.
I guess he really wants that computer - I now have two clean bathrooms and a semi-clean boy’s bedroom.</p>

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<p>My D is becoming someone I don’t know. organizing her room. she went through all her jewelry and organized that too. For the last years everything has been everywhere. I guess she is preparing to launch. has been going online and preparing for orientation. ???
I’m glad I don’t have to nag . Sorry about your puppy, I give you credit as I see people hang on to long.</p>

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<h1>theory, did he design a gamers computer? Is he planning to do intensive graphics or something? $5K is crazy.</h1>

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<p>He is planning on double majoring in math and Interactive Media and Game Design - however, if that is what was needed by students for the course work, no one could afford it. I think he just designed his dream machine (and I would think that would encompass wowie-zowie game playing potential) and was in lala-land thinking this would not be an issue for us. He could have a desktop with all the bells and whistles he wants for about half that but you can’t fly with a desk top. I would prefer he had a desk top - less likely for someone to walk off with it, but I really see no way around the fact that he would have to pack it up every year and ship it home and that seems dumb. Hopefully we can come up with an acceptable alternative for all of us.</p>

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<p>downtoearth - congrats on the new daughter!!!
Not to nag would be HEAVEN!</p>

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<p>oh, Moda, so sorry about your doggie.</p>

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<p>IMHO as someone who used to spec out computers to last for years… building a computer to last 8 years is a really dumb strategy. In 8 years, hardware and software will both be SO far beyond what we have now as to be just about totally unrecognizable. Eight years ago, we were installing software from floppy disks! And what costs ridiculous amounts of money now will be dirt cheap in a year and a half. My advice to buyers now is to spend less money up front, but budget for a replacement every other year. If the money isn’t there to replace, you can usually skip a cycle by upgrading disk and RAM and perhaps replacing the video card or the laptop battery.</p>

<h1>theorymom, I’d suggest a compromise. He’s probably built it fully loaded. Have him downgrade what’s easily upgraded (disk, RAM, peripherals e.g. monitor). You will buy the base system, and he can earn the upgrades – either from a job, or in exchange for more clean bathrooms. Just a suggestion. :)</h1>

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<p>Missypie – try Hobby Lobby for the poly-cotton tux shirt. I guess some people make projects out of them, but we’ve found them very satisfactory for orchestra. And I have never ironed one!</p>

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<p>modadunn-so sorry about the dog. It’s hard to lose a pet. </p>

<p>DD received a very nice letter from DH’s father’s wife who was unable to attend her party. (FIL is deceased, and we rarely see the wife) The big surprise was some very real jewelry that came with the letter. It was a very nice gesture, but DD won’t be taking it to college. One of the items was a ring that FIL gave to wife. It fit D perfectly which was kind of strange. I’m wondering when she will wear it.</p>

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<p>great suggestion and one I will put forth once I can get him to open his mind up to another idea than the one he has been harboring for good long time. He’ll come around once he gets used to the idea. </p>

<p>I am sure upgrades are in his 8 year plan, he is very knowledgeable about computers. He has built his dream machine and he just needs to temper the dream a bit. Hopefully we’ll come up with something</p>

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<p>rrah
It may come to mean something to her and she will be very happy to have it some day.</p>

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<p>yes geek moms idea was great. 5k for a computer wow! We don’t have the math graphic minds here but it seems like a ton of money. I think it is interesting how they think the supply of money is endless. But I guess my fault as I rarely said no. My kids know not to ask for designer stuff, but I have always tried to give the utmost from an education standpoint. a heavy dose of reality never hurts.</p>

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<p>I agree with geekmom. I bet you can come up with a compromise. I would guess there are some requirements/min gigs etc maybe found online for the school he is attendng? Until he is really sure of his environment, I would hesitate to have anything that expensive with a freshman - son or daughter. And I strongly recommend all good jewelry to stay at home. Mine all disappeared. :(</p>

<p>Thanks for all the kind thoughts sent our way.</p>

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<p>kind of humorous in a way. He thought it would be doing us a favor since he wasn’t asking for a car. I got nothing for graduation, neither did my H. Other than the gift of getting to go to college. I expected that would be enough, but we never really told him that was how we felt, so I guess he thought it was a reasonable request, since most people he knows get cars. sigh
He’ll adjust - no choice…</p>

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<p>TM - We had no gift for our S either. Yes, the gift to go to college is huge and S knows that.
I am glad things worked out for your son.</p>

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I’m sure he is, but there is no way he will be satisfied eight years from now with any computer he can build today. The fact that he wants a super-tricked-out $5,000 computer now is evidence of that – do you really think he’ll be happy with 5-year-old technology after five years of rapid industry innovation? Either he’s pulling your leg with the “8 years” line, or he believes it himself because he lacks some experience with Moore’s Law.</p>

<p>Eight years ago, there was no YouTube, Myspace, or Facebook. There were no iPods or XboXes. People didn’t “text” or take pictures with their cell phones. There were no consumer DVD recorders. There were no consumer SATA hard drives. Most of these things – along with widely available consumer broadband and wi-fi, and a host of other developments – were unforeseen at the time.</p>

<p>Eight years ago, the first USB flash drive (IBM’s DiskonKey) had just been introduced, with a storage capacity of 8 megabytes and a retail price of $49.99. Four years ago, a 2GB USB drive cost $159. Today, a 2GB USB drive can be had for $7.</p>

<p>Eight years ago, a 3 megapixel prosumer DSLR camera from Canon was the top of the line and cost $2,990 without a lens. At the end of the same year, Canon would release its first professional DSLR, with a whopping 4 megapixel resolution and a street price of approximately $7,000. Today, you can buy a 15 megapixel prosumer Canon DSLR for $1,200 (and incidentally, that $7,000 camera is now available used for $349).</p>

<p>Eight years ago, MacOS was not based on Unix, the thought of running a Macintosh operating system on an Intel processor was completely absurd, and the thought that a Mac system might someday include an Intel processor was sheer blasphemy. Home PC users were mostly running Windows 98. Production servers in Microsoft-based shops were running Windows NT 4. The only computers that had a full gigabyte of RAM were Sun Enterprise servers, a cluster of which would serve the research or communication needs of a university (actually, none of my campus’s Sun boxes had that much RAM; it was far too expensive for that).</p>

<p>Eight years ago, I had a $5,000 computer, a laptop. It had a 6GB hard disk, a 333MHz processor, and could support up to 512MB or RAM. It was one of the first ever to support USB. It was one of the last ever to support SCSI peripherals.</p>

<p>Before that, I had a $9,000 desktop computer with top-of-the-line specs. It had 64 megabytes of RAM, which accounted for over half of the price. It had a 4x CD-ROM drive, and I think an 80MB (megabytes, not gigabytes) hard drive. I used it to digitize video.</p>

<p>When I purchased my current (~ $2,300) laptop three years ago, it was tricked out and top of the line. I wanted to max out the RAM at 4GB (two DIMMs, 2GB each). Dell wanted nearly $1,000 extra for that, and nearly $600 extra for just one 2GB DIMM, so I stuck with two 1GB DIMMs for half the RAM. About a year and a half ago, I replaced my RAM (with two DIMMs, 2GB each) for somewhere around $250. Right now, Crucial Technologies is selling the same 4GB kit (two DIMMs, 2GB each) for $55.99.</p>

<p>Good things (and good prices!) do come to those who wait.</p>

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<p>TM - geek_mom gave good advice. Even a $2000 computer is still too expensive. A computer life time is less than 2 years now. There is a high probability that your son will not be able to upgrade his computer in 2 years. The USB-1 on my old computer could not work with the USB-2 devices. The bus system for hard drives, the wireless interface,… could be obsolete soon.</p>

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<p>he built his last computer and it has lasted 6 years. But I think it makes more sense in desk tops that can be more easily upgraded.</p>

<p>He has some money coming to him (a deal we made him when he was about 6 that we would pay him $1000 when he turned 18 if he had not smoked cigarettes) SO if he wants to add that to the amount we would have been willing to spend, he can. If ithe computer is outdated in a few years he will have learned I guess.</p>

<p>There are certain requirements for his school that up the price -Vista business or ultimate is required - (home edition won’t cut it), a large memory, and he is convinced he needs speed to go with these things, or else the programs he will need to run will hang. I think the ulterior motive is to have a great gaming machine (he will be designing games but somehow I think he is misinformed about what hardware will be needed). I have reconfigured his virtual computer several times and it is still expensive from Dell. So next we will look at other brands, I guess. He has to cut somewhere. Even with the $1000 no-smoking money, we still need to get it down another $1000 in addition to the amount we managed to shave off it tonight. I will get his Dad to do some research. As a former computer industry employee, he has more understanding of what all the numbers mean than I.</p>

<p>Or he may just be destined to want to buy the top of the line like you geek_mom - but I want him to wait until it is he paying!</p>

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<p>Many colleges sell Vista Business and/or Ultimate upgrades at a severely discounted student price. D1 upgraded her laptop’s Vista Home Premium to Ultimate for a ridiculously low price, ~$30 I believe. Other software is available for low prices, too. Have him check with his college’s IT dept. He’ll have to install the software/upgrades himself - should be no problem for him given his interest and skills. </p>

<p>Have your son check out the following forum - they have great advice on various laptops and DIY upgrades (processors, graphics cards, etc.):
[Notebook</a> Forums and Laptop Discussion - Powered by vBulletin](<a href=“TechnologyGuide - TechTarget”>TechnologyGuide - TechTarget)</p>

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<p>ellemmenope-(sorry if I spelled that wrong) - that is awesome! </p>

<p>modadunn- I am so sorry to hear about your dog. They really are both members of your family and good friends. </p>

<p>D’s grad. is tomorrow. H’s parents have arrived, I just got a call from my Mom, they were supposed to fly out today but Dad is in the hospital, having problems with his heart. I am worried…</p>