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Top 10 Things You CAN'T Have For Christmas
Zothecula writes "It's getting a little late for a last minute Christmas shopping list, but not to worry, most of us outside the Forbes Top 100 couldn't afford any of these anyway! Still, it's fascinating to look at what's possible if the word 'budget' isn't in your vocabulary, so here's a look at what you won't be getting for Christmas (CT: Warning, gizmag features really intrusive advertising) this year – the most outrageous examples of high-end overkill from 2010."
Fairly poor “top 10” list. Nothing on this list was particularly extreme, and not really “geek” oriented.
I guess the problem with this kind of list is that _everything_ has an extreme. Pick something you like, and some millionaire probably has an obscenely expensive version of it. This list was mostly the extreme versions of things I have no interest in.
Often with these extreme versions they’ve just taken something existing and covered it in gold/diamonds/rare metals/rare woods.. which isn’t all that interesting to me either. I remember there was some vodka (touted as the worlds most expensive) that was basically just garden variety high-end vodka with a column of diamonds down the center.
The only thing on this list that really held any interest for me was those speakers, but at that cost it’s totally not worth the novelty, and they probably look terrible close up (as this kind of stuff tends to look great at a very specific angle but look ridiculous from everywhere else).
Ah well, can’t spend it all on philanthropic interests.. I guess after a while you run out of shit to do with that much money.
Now I have exoskeleton envy
"Hey, I know what we're gonna do today." -- Phineas Flynn
People still use web browsers that permit adverts to display?
Wow....
i can't haz cheezburger?
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
I got just a few sentences into the article and I noticed that their writers couldn't distinguish "it's" from "its".
So I closed the tab.
Reading your post, I feel like Diablo 3 is already out (even beta would have made my top 10 list of things I can't have for xmas 2010) and You somehow made it on to the North America realm.
I went to battle M.C. Escher, but drew a blank.
Does this mean that I can actually have a pony? I didn't see that on the list.
Just saying....
I don't know about the article in question, but the ZipBuds girl has reminded me that I need to check the air in my tires.
Proverbs 21:19
Warning, gizmag features really intrusive advertising
Well, let's not link to it, then.
While some of them are actually cool, many are just dumb. I mean, even if you had $2.2 million that you wanted to just throw away on nothing, would you actually want to have a 55-inch solid gold TV with a diamond border? What would be the point of it, other than to be able to say "I spent over two million dollars on a stupid TV that isn't even all that big by big TV standards"?
If anybody does buy that thing, then my hope for humanity is completely and utterly destroyed.
Android 2.2 for my Captivate.
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
peace and happiness ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
1. A kid
2. Sex
3. A girlfriend
...make it the "most expensive" object in its class is more of an art stunt than a technology stunt, and a fairly unimaginative one at that. The $2.3million television is $2.3 million because it has $2.3 million worth of diamonds on it - the actual price of the television without the diamonds doesn't even change the rounding.
At what point in time is this more about the diamonds than the fact that they may or may not be attached to a gadget?
Answer: The initial concept.
It's kind of like the "most expensive pizza" being so because it's covered in luxury foods like rare caviar and then topped off with gold flakes. It's more art project than food.
A girlfriend!
ducks
viewing platform would be a cool place to party with all your skydiver buddies at 30,000'
Nullius in verba
I don't know (or care) about the Titanium limited edition, but I could much more easily afford a regular M9 than I could a Leica M4 when it was contemporary (or even now!) Those Summicron lenses always were, and are still, very $$$.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Only the rich can afford poor quality
Thank god they got to keep those juicy tax breaks. Think of all the rotating wooden house builders and the hard-working people in the jet balcony industry. And the children.
God bless us, everyone.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
I didn't see any Zipbuds on that link.
The things I saw were much larger.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Net Neutrality
I don't know what you would expect with this kind of fluff all over the front page. This site is just putting more regular mainstream crap to expand its audience. A simple news aggregator is all we have here now with the same stories like all the other ones have. Ahhh, the love of money
With ad blocking, and judicious cookie blocking, it's not really a problem. Slashdot constantly has stories I never see on network TV, so I forgive the occasional symbolic sacrifice to our oligarchic overlords. I mean, we all need good crops and a productive hunting season.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
There's not a single item on that list that interests me. When I went to the Smithsonian in DC, I saw a lot of jewel-encrusted items (cell phones, Monopoly board). Once you spend a fortune on having a unique cellphone, what do you do with it when the next model comes out? Toss it away to the peasants? Perhaps donate it to the Smithsonian for others to gawk at? Walk through and take a look at some of the crazy jewelry and precious stones there, and for me, the only thing that comes to mind is: "You can't take it with you!" and "I wonder how many people owned these items before they ended up here?"
The submersible shark seems neat, until you realize that it's just a sub, and requires a lot of upkeep, in addition to a place to use it, and store it when not in use. As if a helicopter needs to be made more elite? Not many of us would have a place to land one, regardless of how it was outfitted. The Kid's walker seems pretty cool, but then I looked at the scale and found it frighteningly large. Would it fit through doors? At least handi-capable kids wouldn't be teased as much. Just need a few shoulder-mounted rockets, grenade launchers and machine guns.
The most expensive TV? Okay, it has diamonds...but what device besides a computer would be able to put out a signal at the native resolution of 4,096 x 2,160? For that price, it better have some sort of specialized Blu-Ray player than up-scales...I actually just realized that it's twice as many pixels as 1080i, so I guess you could watch two HD signals at once? Opulence!
I'm surprised the speakers made the list, as $8,000 isn't out of the price range of a real audiophile. I just wonder what their actual acoustic characteristics are. Glass? That can't be the ideal medium for sound.
In the end, when I see a list like this, at prices like that, I instantly wonder "how many top-of-the-line professional cameras could I buy with that?" or "wouldn't I rather have an observatory?" For the price of that TV, I could have a small secret lair, with hidden entrances, all sorts of bubbling items and at least one assistant with a hunchback for atmosphere!
Doubtful. Half-way through the term of any president, you'll likely find someone making the same statement. It'll be especially strong if they side with the opposing political party.
You just have to hope that you agree with the positions of the puppeteer that is controlling the next incompetent hack more than the one controlling the current one.
Its already been at least 10 years since we had one of those.
More extreme things we can't afford:
1) Diamond-tipped pizza cutter with baby elephant ivory handle
2) Stadium seat cushion made from puma hide and filled with narwhal blubber
3) Beer cozy built from the insulation of the original NASA space suits
4) Sofa throw blanket woven from the used toupees of William Shatner
5) A 1:3 scale replica of the "Stay-Puff" Marshmallow Man crafted from albino bat guano
You can acquire whatever material objects you want with a sufficient amount of cash and/or explosives.
I'm not sure what surprises me more... That companies produce crap like this, or that they expect there's enough of a market for people to buy crap like this.
I mean, the number of people to whom money is no object is a countable number. Furthermore, the larger percentage of people who's wealth is publicly tracked (such as Warren Buffet or Bill Gates) do not invest in expensive throw-away baubles.
Therefore have to assume that items such as these are purchased by people who's wealth is NOT tracked, such as Saudi Princes. And those guys have things that can't be talked about on web pages, such as Slave Girls, Private Armies, and Former Soviet Nuclear Weapons. After all, if you're rich enough, international law doesn't apply to you.
So do these companies make this crap because the profit margin is so obscene that they are willing to cater to these pricks, or is it just big scam, for show, so we *aren't* looking for the Slave Girls, Private Armies and Nuclear Weapons? Or just how much wealth they have that we don't know about?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Men
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Because.
Well, its like the gold flakes part.
Luxury foods like caviar are still foods, and actually relate to the intended function of pizza, unlike diamonds on a TV.
A DeLorean car, including a working Flux Capacitor, and MrFusion just to be green. Not only you will be able to get all those gifts, you will own Las Vegas too. If is asking too much, i could be happy with an antigrav hoverboard.
Too bad i can't have them for christmas.
The dome house is actually appealing to me in a few ways.
1. It's a dome, and as we all know, from geometry class, that means it has less surface area in ratio to the volume that it encloses. This means less building materials used to provide the same amount of living space. Also with less surface area there is less loss or gain of heat.
2. Because it's a dome it should be more structurally resistant to natural disaster scenarios. It will be affected less by high winds and if constructed properly to earthquakes as well.
3. The extra expense in materials and energy to make it rotate may or not pay off in energy savings depending on where it's located. But being able to change the view is probably appealing to a lot of people.
4. It's construction using untreated lumber and other renewable and environmentally friendly materials should be applauded.
Personally though I'd rather have a monolithic cement dome home, which wouldn't be practical to rotate.
Anyone who seriously wants those things for Christmas should go and look at the unemployment rate. I'd settle for a job for Christmas.
6) Flying car. With unicorn horn gearshift.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
But most of it didn't matter in the slightest. So there are some thing that rich people can buy that are substantially better, or simply different, than what a normal person can. In fact I'd say that is what makes someone rich: The ability to purchase at least one thing that middle class people can't that is better or makes life better in a non-trivial way.
However that wasn't what this list was. The sub boat is really the only thing that qualifies. A diamond studded TV? No, that's all show. Doesn't matter that a normal person can't afford it, they don't need to. It is no better than their regular LCD TV, it is pure showoff. Same shit with things like ultra expensive platinum Rolex's and so on. They don't matter because an economical sports watch is just as good, if not better, as a time keeping device, it just isn't flashy.
I'm not concerned about bling I can't afford. That never bothers me, I have no interest in it. I'd only be interested in something that would actually improve my life in some way.
I'd rather have a monolithic cement dome home, which wouldn't be practical to rotate.
I'd also rather spend those millions of dollars to help more than 44 million Americans below the poverty line, many of whom don't have domes, homes, apartments or boxes of their own.
But a nice rotating view does sound pretty cool. And anyway, if the impoverished really want "food" and "shelter", maybe they should pitch in and build some rotating homes. That's where the real money is.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
Free Martian Whores!
It just goes to show what great times we live in. It used to be that only the rich could afford the horse carriage, then only the rich could afford a car, than only the rich could afford a tv etc etc. These days everybody (in the developed world at least) can afford pretty much all the conveniences that latest technology provides. Really poor people (as in Africa) would laugh at the people in the US calling themselves poor even though they have a flat screen TV and an SUV in the garage of their 2000 sf. home. Ok if you live in NYC you probably can't afford much more than a cockroach infested apartment, but in most areas that's pretty much true. The most advanced options for home entertainment, transportation, home appliances etc are really not that much better than the affordable ones. The rich have to settle for diamond encrusted versions of stuff just to be different.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
1. Space shuttle.
2. F22.
3. Megan Fox.
4. Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
5. Cray X1E
6. Having Woz as your on-staff technical advisor.
7. A copy of the NIST F1 atomic clock.
8. A gigawatt laser.
9. All the digits of pi
10. Your own website that's as popular as /.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Think of it this way: you're not studding your universal remote in diamonds, you're enabling your diamonds as a universal remote.
Diamonds have no real value, but people pay a fortune for them. DeBeers held a monopoly on them until the Canadian kimberlite miners told them to fuck off and started dumping rocks on the market. Did the prices drop? Nope.
People are dumb. Supply and Demand is a crock of shit. And I bet those speakers sound terrible.
6) Flying car. With unicorn horn gearshift.
Oh, that's not so bad. You have the leftover narwahl horn from extracting its blubber for item 2, so there's your gearshift!
No wasted parts. You're green now!
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
11) Snorting lunar dust of an alien hookers third tit
~X~
...or help build them, get paid for doing so, and not be impoverished any more.
Of course, if you're demonizing and punishing "the rich" for the high crime of having money, the solution will be that money will leave the country, so there will be greater "equality" by lowering the top. After all, better that everyone have one coconut than someone has ten while everyone else has five, right?
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
"Airwolf is the Holy Grail. The Golden Fleece. The thing you want that you cannot have. When you go sprinting through the mall
desperate to fill the emptiness in your life through the purchase of name brand clothing and electronics, you will never achieve satisfaction. Because the one brand name you really want is the one you can never have.
Airwolf? Oh, I'm sorry, we're all sold out. That item was only available for a very limited time and in very limited supply...
One."
http://www.ernestcline.com/spokenword/airwolf.htm
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
I think you'll find that bat guano from albino bats is no more white than that of the usual black variety.
Domes are cool, but they're expensive to decorate. Have you priced conic-sectional couches?
-- The reader anything less than completely failing to not misunderstand this sig is cursed.
Bring me a Pagani Zonda Roadster Cinque in Mandarin red and nobody gets hurt.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Larry Ellison.
ok, here are some more words:
Every person who suddenly finds that have millions of dollars. Lottery winners, rap stars, sport stars are all notoriously bad with financial decisions.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They sold F15's to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Of course neither of those do Christmas...
Make it an F22 Raptor, they aren't going to sell any of those to foreign armed forces no matter what you'd pay...
I don't see Intel's Sandy Bridge on the list... won't be available 'til January.
I think you'll find that bat guano from albino bats is no more white than that of the usual black variety.
But it's more exclusive!
I only accept the finest albino bat guano hand cream.
It's good in coffee, too. It goes perfectly with civet cat scat coffee.
Well I looked at the dome as well, but I think it's a terrible idea.
There already is a commercial solution that has all of the advantages you listed above, for the most part.
It's one of these domes : www.aidomes.com
1. It's not only a dome, but you can order it with ridiculous R-factor insulation. (R-36 from bonded in foam, which is just about the highest you can achieve in housing anywhere) The concrete pieces hermetically seal to each other as well, preventing virtually all air from exchanging, which is a big factor in energy loss in humid climates.(you have to install an energy recovery ventilator for controlled ventilation)
Also, since the insulation is bonded to the concrete panels, it doesn't slide out of place which is what happens with fiberglass insulation in the walls of conventional "stick-built" houses.
2. The company claims that their domes can take a magnitude 8 earthquake and at least 230 mph winds. Given the dome is basically a reinforced concrete bunker to live under, this is quite plausible. They have an account of a tornado picking up several thousand pound horse trailer and slamming it into the dome, with minimal damage.
3. The company claims that construction costs are about the same as conventional housing. The catch-22 is because they are so rare, and they look uglier than conventional housing, it is difficult to get mortgage financing for a dome and/or build in existing neighborhoods. The financing thing is one of the big reasons they aren't more common. If I ever build one, I'm going to save my money for as many years as it takes to buy the structure outright. (I'll have the bank give me a loan on the land)
It doesn't rotate, but that doesn't matter : R-36 insulation is so good that you don't need passive solar heating. It takes minimal fuel to heat the place in a cold climate anyway. If you use solar panels, you can just have those rotate. And the added expense for a rotation mechanism has got to be tens of thousands of dollars, making the rotating dome a poor financial idea..
4. Is lumber more environmentally friendly than concrete? I doubt it : a concrete dome will last for a century or more, while lumber rots and burns. Long term, the impact on the environment will be less with concrete.
You don't have to buy the F-15 directly. You just go buy a congressperson and have them get you one. Sure it might technically "belong" to the local Civil Air Patrol, but you get to take it out on the weekends.
And congresspeople are MUCH cheaper.
I sig, therefore I am.
Luxury foods like caviar are still foods, and actually relate to the intended function of pizza, unlike diamonds on a TV.
Damnit, now I have a hankering for a pizza with Kobe beef, white trouffles, russian beluga caviar and Norwegian Fisherman anchovies from the last can in existance!