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Macs being 2x as expensive is a misconception.

Sure, individuals can go to sites like slickdeals.net and find deals on Dell machines running XPHome that make them cheaper than a Mac (though in most cases we're talking 2/3 or 3/4 as expensive, not half). But most companies are going to purchase through the corporate stores at Dell.com/HP.com/etc and those prices are usually comparable to Apple's.

We've rolled out a few Mac Minis were I work. They're much cheaper than our Compaq EVOs, the Minis are just as capable for almost any task, and people like how quiet they are.

What about if they make it deliberately hard to cancel? Like forcing you to print out a form and fax it long distance to a number that doesnt always pick up or is often unreachable at all?

All of this of course from a webhosting company, a buisness with absolutely no need for deadtree anything.

It would be unethical to name names, so I'll just give some random links of others accords instead of my own:
http://forums.slickdeals.net/t108278.html
http://www.kylemanning.com/index.php?q=node/25
http://www.webdevsites.com/Reviews/597

Plenty more where that came from. I'd love to start a site listing shitty companys that do this kind of stuff with as much evidence as possible. Things like this wired subscription and the hosting companys are really bad, but I'd even include the slightly more obvious scams that are still just as bad, like the autorenews on cellphone sms services. All it takes is one text message from anyone that borrowed your phone, and all of a sudden you're being billed $7 per WEEK for a daily joke. Next time we have someone in office that cares about the daily life of citizens, we need some serious smackdown laid on these buisness practices

include:

http://www.bargainshare.com/
http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.cfm?catid=4 0
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/categories.cfm?cat id=18
http://www.slickdeals.net/

besides tech deals, one thing i would definitely recommend tech people check out are the finance and grocery forums at these sites (if they have it). you can save so much more money than from purchasing tech equipment.

Hardcore shoppers will take advantage of the various coupon/deal sites, and forums, such as:
100 Big Coupons
SlickDeals
Headlinedeals
Tech Bargains
Hot Deals
Of Course Fat Wallet Hot-Deals Forum can't be forgotten

Just keep in mind that these sites do have affiliate agreements with companies, and so are making a buck off the purchases you click-through from their sites. Some of their recommendations may be skewed based on their affiliate agreements.

These are the sites where you'll find out about last minute clearances, specials, % off coupons, and pricing errors. Often you're being the 'evil consumer', but you're getting a heck of a deal.

Free Linspire Five-0: http://slickdeals.net/#p6196

$199 with better stats(double the ram, double the harddrive space), its expired but it probably come back in a week. Also it comes with XP and is cheaper since i don't count rebates in the actual price. I don't see how linspire can compete against Dell and Windows when obviously its more expensive with less features.

There are a number of sites I check daily, some are 'deal sites' such as SlickDeals..., but one of the more interesting has to be w00t !

They have a new deal every day (except weekends), once they run out, that's it ! Don't miss their famous "Bag 'o Crap" specials, and always read the details and the photo (they have some of the most entertaining descriptions evar), and keep and eye out for bravewoman.

I actually bought and actively use the RoboMower RL850 I saw there one day (love it, by the way).

Like...
Fatwallet
Slickdeals
Spoofee
Ableshopper
etc. etc.

You probably can't get this deal in europe but here it is anyway. Dimension 3000 P4-2.8GHz Desktop w/ 17" LCD.

Well, in response to the article, I think it makes sense in this case to buy...a Pocket PC:

1) The basics - my PPC uses (64 MB) SD and (512 MB) CF memory to hold a lot of 256 kbps MP3 files. I can take it jogging, in the NYC subway, and at work, and attach it to my belt with a nice hard plastic clamshell to protect my Dell Axim.
2) All the goodies - you mean you have FM radio and included speakers? I can have GPS, games, and develop MY OWN PROGRAMS for my music player. Oh, and voice recorder, notes ability, and Office sync. And this other thing called WiFi. Woohoo!
3) My display is more intuitive than yours! And I can view web pages on mine...
4) I can access and stream online (ad-free) radio stations using a free player with the little wiFi available...or pay for an FM-enabled CF upgrade.
5) Pick the right size, eh? And upgrade at a whim...using my mix of 32, 64, 256, and 512 MB CF and SD cards, I can fit a iPod shuffle's worth and then some...oh, and would you believe WMP on the PPC actually has this "shuffle" feature. STOP THE PRESSES!
6) Online store...whatever. I can use iTunes to "buy" songs if I wish or get them free through various promos (Paypal, Pepsi, etc.) and burn them from to a CD. Then, using Musicmatch, burn them to hi-quality MP3s and copy to my PPC. DRM...oh that! Oh, and I can play WMAs on my PPC...can you do that on your iPod?

And the funny thing is these PPCs when there's a Slickdeal, can be cheaper than the 20GB iPod and much more useful as an all-in-one device. Which is why I canceled my order for an iPod shuffle...twice, because I couldn't live with myself if I bought that rip-off. Anyway, with computers so ubiquitous today, how often do you really use the full 12+ hours of music on YOUR device without "plugging in"?

And what else is cool...I wear my Axim in a sexy silver clamshell and turn more heads than an iPod because it is...different. They ask, "You mean...that's a computer? Cool!" Otherwise, "Oh, another iPod - that's SO 2004!"

Inspiron 700M $1449 + $51 upgrades - $750 = $750
Pentium M 1.6GHz, 12.1-in WXGA, 4.1lbs w/
512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 600M $1299 + $201 upgrades - $750 = $750
Select 1 year limited warranty option.
Pentium M 1.5GHz, 14.1" XGA, 4.98lbs
512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 8600 $1349 + $151 upgrades - $750 = $750
Pentium M 1.5GHz-M, 15.4" WXGA, 6.9lbs
GeForce FX Go5200, 512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 9100 $1549 - $750 = $799
P4 2.8GHz HT, 15.4" WXGA, 8.92lbs
Radeon 9700, 512MB, 40GB, 24X CDRW/DVD

Inspiron 5160 $1149 + $351 upgrades - $750 = $750
P4 2.8GHz, 15" XGA

Inspiron 700M $1449 + $51 upgrades - $750 = $750
Pentium M 1.6GHz, 12.1-in WXGA, 4.1lbs w/
512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 600M $1299 + $201 upgrades - $750 = $750
Select 1 year limited warranty option.
Pentium M 1.5GHz, 14.1" XGA, 4.98lbs
512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 8600 $1349 + $151 upgrades - $750 = $750
Pentium M 1.5GHz-M, 15.4" WXGA, 6.9lbs
GeForce FX Go5200, 512MB, 30GB, 8x DVD

Inspiron 9100 $1549 - $750 = $799
P4 2.8GHz HT, 15.4" WXGA, 8.92lbs
Radeon 9700, 512MB, 40GB, 24X CDRW/DVD

Inspiron 5160 $1149 + $351 upgrades - $750 = $750
P4 2.8GHz, 15" XGA

iRiver has been including FM tuners in their stuff for awhile. I wish they'd put an AM tuner in tho.

If the iPod played MP3 natively and supported Linux, I'd have 1 today. The iRiver 20GB version looks fantastic, but it is over $300! I got in on a http://slickdeals.net/ deal from Dell on their 15GB Jukebox for $129. If it play halfway decent - WOW! The usability isn't as good as the iRiver and iPod, but for less than half the price, I'll live with it. Here's the Tom's Hardware Review of the iRiver device
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20041005/index. html
impressive.

I'm amazed at the number of people here who don't consider the need for a radio important to a portable device. If you just survived a hurricane, wouldn't it be nice to hear local news on a radio? With the long playing time of FM on the iRivers, this could last a week easily of real use when there is no power at your house.

Not the same exact deal I referenced as it is gone now (like I had stated) but much better then the one the original poster cut and pasted. It was only $599. Again, the deals change every few days, the amount of memory, HD space, XP Pro-home, monitor options, with or without speakers etc.. change but they can always be found in the "Outrageous deals" of the small business site for Dell. If you are really interested in tracking these, I suggest a deals site like slickdeals.net or dealnews.com.

As I mentioned in a different post. I do not own a Dell and I have no intention of buying one. Although I do suggest them to others that do not want to white box it themselves. It helps me out as I do not have to be the 24x7 support for them and they are getting a computer at a good price without me having to get involved other then showing them what to get and where to get it. I have personally ordered for or with 30 different people from the small business section of Dell on these type of deals and they seem to be happy and I am very happy to not be supporting 30 peoples computers that I would have had to put together for them XX years ago for a few bucks. To keep things in persepctive here as this is getting off topic.. I was just pointing out to the original grandfather poster that the example Dell used for a reference was a very bad example and it seems everyone jumped on it as informative and insightful.

Imagine my surprise (and luck) when I saw this same movie on slickdeals this morning.

My Neighbor Totoro DVD is on sale for $4 !

If you want a free subscription to many of the nation's popular magazines, check out this thread on Slickdeals.net. Updated each week, this list will point you to websites that provide subscriptions to some of the magazines already named by other Slashdot members -- Wired, Stuff, etc...

Whichever ones show up for free on slickdeals.

Clinko.com is just a module off of my full site Protista.com. But, it's the main attraction because it parses bensbargains and slickdeals so I can check them at work.

I'd say this was a shameless promotion, but i make Jack and shit off of this, so enjoy it.

this news doesn't affect anybody who uses a customized HOSTS file to stop the majority of ads from appearing anyway.

1. MSIE (heaven forbid!) can block a list of sites. I think the effect is the same (but I may be worng)
2. Tools
3. Internet Options...
4. Security tab
5. Restricted Sites
6. Sites...

I wish there was something similiar in Firefox! My employeer's virus scanner (McAfee) can restrict sites by IP address or URL.

A problem is that these days, some web sites (SlickDeals.net) are doing some things that causes valid pages to fail to load because of my "blocked sites". I usually get a "Cannot find server or DNS Error" because I've blocked various ad sites.

Lemme help you out. First of all, SlickDeals is selling it for 225, not 255. There's a direct link to the deal, which uses an anchor.

No, I'm not affiliated with slickdeals or target. I just think it's cool that an EDU-priced deal is available to the masses.

Lemme help you out. First of all, SlickDeals is selling it for 225, not 255. There's a direct link to the deal, which uses an anchor.

No, I'm not affiliated with slickdeals or target. I just think it's cool that an EDU-priced deal is available to the masses.

CompUSA has a $30 rebate on 9800 Pros purchased between February 14 - 21, 2004, which brings the price of that card down to $200. Sounds like a sweet offer to me, considering that the same cash bought a 9500 Pro a year ago.

Why do we need them to care? Frankly, I don't care about them either. As a consumer, I want low prices on quality products, not a hug and a lollipop when I walk in the store. And I don't see how that means I'm getting screwed by "big business"- if I don't like their product, or think it cost too much, I don't buy from them. If I can find rebates or haggle a lower price, I could care less what it does to their bottom line. But if some guy can get rich giving me what I want, good for him- we both win.

Way I see it, you have two choices: big business or big government. I think the later is way more likely to screw you over than the former.

I can't speak to your experience, but when I ordered the Rio Karma 20GB MP3 player when it was going for fifty bucks (expired link here), I knew full well that there was only a slim chance of actually receiving the product. I don't mind trying to take advantage of a pricing mistake on the web page, but I don't expect Dell to fill 1,000 orders and take a $200 loss on each of them.

I feel the same way about rebates. I've had my fair share redacted and/or ignored, and at this point I look at a price after rebate only after considering the probability of the manufacturer actually sending a rebate. Hence, if I see a Seagate drive, in my experience, I will ignore the rebated price because I no longer expect them to honor their rebates.

That way, I vote with my wallet, _and_ I avoid getting screwed out of money I thought was already in my pocket.

They sure do, IMHO, but it's not going to happen unless they find a spine and use it. Has anyone else checked the fatwallet forums and noted that the "Hopefully FatWallet will stand up for themselves again..." doesn't seem to be happening? Heck, seems to me that Tim from Fatwallet has folded faster than Superman on laundry day, to wit:

Here's FW's current position:

Message from the FatWallet, inc.

At approximately 11PM CST on 11/14/03, We became aware of a D.M.C.A. notification and subpoena from what appears to be the legal firm representing Best Buy Enterprise Services, Inc. (The email appears to have been sent at 5:20PM)

Due to the late hour and legal counsel not being immediately available, we are taking the action to remove the content we believe the notification is referring to. We ask that FatWallet members do not post further information regarding this matter or links to third party sites containing the information. Under the terms of the D.M.C.A., we will have an obligation to remove such information as we become aware of it.

We will follow up with legal counsel and take further action as appropriate.

Thank you in advance for your patience, cooperation and understanding.

Tim Storm
President
FatWallet, inc


What does the unavailability of counsel have to do with anything, other than as a weak excuse to cave instantly? I mean, it's the same thing as last year, and it's the same DMCA, yet there are thirty-five (35) instances of "content removed" in that thread alone. More in others. Even links to other sites with the balls to keep the info up are being removed!

FYI, some of the deals sites with spines (so far!) include: slickdeals, Anandtech's hotdeal forum, and Dealcatcher. I've posted the "offending info" in as many places as I can and will continue to do so in hopes that increasing the number of potential defendants will increase the odds that one of them sticks up for sanity in this.

There was a thread on SlickDeals' Forums, linking to a scan of an upcoming post-Thanksgiving special at Wal-Mart. $80 USD for GameCube, Zelda game and a game carrying case... oh how the temptation rises!

Actually I don't know where you get your info, but,
right from ATI

Also bestbuy has the coupon for HL2 on ALL ATI cards now check here for a good deal

I don't know what benchmarks you refer to but please check out the hardocp review. They actually give you graphs of in game performance rather than crap like 3dMark2003. Last I checked I didn't play benchmarks.

Please show me these benchmarks where the 5700 "utterly destroys the 9600XT" I really don't care one way or the other as long as I get the best deal.

I'm just filling everyone who doesn't keep up with hardware in here.

The 5700 and the 9600XT perform very closely. The 9600XT gets you HL2 and until it is released ATI has worked a deal with valve to give you all previrous Valve products through Steam. Now I've seen people bitch "who cares it's all old games" You know they could've just said "tough shit blame the hacker" Either way you get the $50 HL2 game when it comes out, so factor that into the $200 price.

Neither is a bad buy for $200 but in my mind the 9600XT is the clear winner.

( from Slickdeals.net )

Dell Small Business has the Dimension 4550 2.53GHz Desktop for $339 after $200 rebate. It has AGP Slot, 4 PCI Slots, Intel 845PE chipset, 256MB DDR, 30GB HD, 48x CDRW or 16x DVD, 32MB Rage, Integrated NIC & Audio, XP Home, WordPerfect, and 1yr warranty.

Go to Dell Small Business.
Click on "Featured Systems" under the Dimension 4550 column.
Click on "Customize It" under the "Advanced Technology" column.
Select the following options:

SPECIAL OFFER! 256MB 333MHz DDR SDRAM for the price of 128MB!
FREE UPGRADE!! 16x Max DVD-ROM Drive OR FREE UPGRADE! New 48x/24x/48x Max CD-RW Drive

Optional suggested upgrades:

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.66GHz w/533MHz front side bus/ 512K L2 Cache [add $20 or $0.75/month1]
SAVE $100! New 4x DVD+RW/+R Drive w/CD-RW [add $80 or $3/month1] SAVE $100!!
64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX(TM) Graphics Card with TV-Out [add $30 or $1/month1]

Continue to check out. Price should be $599.
Apply coupon code 4491A592C8BB for 10% off.
Send in the $200 rebate.

Final price is $599 - 10% ($60) - $200 rebate = $339 + tax w/ free shipping. The 2.53GHz CPU alone costs $184 at NewEgg.

You can hear a faint whir from the fans if you place your ear next to the system, but otherwise they are completely silent.

Furthermore, they are extremely inexpensive. The latest deal on slickdeals.net was a $340 Pentium 4 2.53GHz system with 256MB PC2700 RAM, a 16X DVD-ROM or a 48X CD-RW, 30GB hard drive and 32MB Rage (in an AGP slot so it's upgradable) Slickdeals went so far as to say "You cannot build your own system for less then this."

I see no reason to spend more money on an underpowered EPIA silent system when a Dell can be had for significantly cheaper.

An 18.1 LCD monitor for a tad less than 400 including overnight shipping. Its all about the slick deals.

I also picked up the Logitech 5.1 THX certifed speaker system for $230 shipped overnight from the Dell store as well.

What you're getting at is this. You can't get it anymore, but on 03/06/03 I bought an 18" LCD monitor from Dell (I think it's a Dell-branded Sony monitor) for $384. DVI and VGA, does 1280x1024 at 75hz. Very little ghosting. You want it. Check out that site and maybe it'll come back--this isn't the first time Dell has had a sale like this.

Purchase a $9 ieee1394 PCI card?

Another good site that I found useful for daily bargains are www.hotdealsclub.com and SlickDeals.net, the former one being more useful and frequently updated than the latter. I got my HP digital camera and Dell laptop with the help of HotDealsClub in the few days that Dell had supersales on its site.

I bought a Gateway awhile back and have been very happy with it. I am upset that GW has dropped AMD as a processor. I am happy that GW is doing something against this stupid legislation. I still don't know if I would buy another GW PC though.... and I am in the market for 2 for my kiddos.

Honestly, I had the idea for this a while ago while talking with a friend. I've been waiting for someone else to implement it. Its not that much different than those sites that collect and list internet deals, in the hopes that you'll follow their links and they'll get the referer fee, Like this one.

While I personally see this as a bad thing, since they do it behind the users back, I would probably have no objection to installing something similar for slashdot. I don't exactly feel the need to subscribe, but I would have no objection to them collecting a referrer fee off of my internet purchases.

Freedom, now that is a dangerous option for the consumer. Looks like marketing is trying harder and harder to take it away from the rats in the cage.

Or... you could not use it. I don't tend to read magazines next to my computer and I have a CueCat still in the package that I got from Slickdeals. As for marketing in general, you could do what most people do... flip past the ads in magazines, take a piss during the commercials, and change the station on the radio.

Marketing people aren't my favorite people, especially in my company, but they aren't evil. They're people who are trying to drum up business with a hook. In short, if you feel like a mouse in a maze, don't go after the cheese. They'll build the next maze around a different mouse.

Yea I tend to agree with the 'so what' crowd. Here are a couple of factors that play in my mind:

1. Brick and motor places have praticed this for many years. The best example I can think of is Las Vegas Hotels. Not only do they alter the prices from day to day based on availabity they also adjust the prices for when you stay, how long you stay, and on top of all that they may even adjust the prices per individual. If you don't believe me go to www.treasureisland.com get an online quote and then call to get the same quote. I promise they will be different. Also play around with adjusting the day, in a recent purchase I made for a hotel, adjusting the arrival date one day changed the price of the room almost $1000. No joke, you can try this at www.treasureisland.com now. Pick Sepetember 16 ($1200) as arrival first, then Septemeber 17 ($376) for a 5 day stay. Prices are slightly different.

2. I practice my right to choose my vendor. I check prices, look around for deals, and would notice if the price was jacked for me. I feel, let them jack the price for people who don't care (impluse purchase anyone?) and pass the saving on to me!

Summary: I and hopefully all consumers are educated enough to know that all vendors will try to sell something at the highest price that they can get. (Shop around and save money) or (Save time and waste money). Adjust for your situation and taste, salt to perfection and serve.