It had to happen: gold plated iPods.
The site won't tell you the price, but rumor has it the smallest one is $19,000. Which is pretty silly. Gold is not that expensive. It's just another way to bleed people who have a lot more money than sense.
If you have money to burn, you need something good to plug it into. How about the $150,000 Steinway Lyngdorf Model-D Music System? I find that more interesting, actually, since the money goes to other things than just status. Though of course one needs to be a real enthusiast or seriously well off to use that kind of money on just a sound system. Oh, and one needs the home to carry it. But damn, they are impressive.
I think I'll use my dot-com stock money to buy the set....
ReplyDeleteEo moans
ReplyDeleteIt's just another way to bleed people who have a lot more money than sense.
The rules of the market still apply: it sells if there's demand. Everybody is the master of his own "hard-earned money".
Eo admits
ReplyDeleteBut damn, they are impressive.
There you go. This statement makes you a potential customer worth a million of glossy advertising.
The trick is, how much will they be worth in 5 years, 10 years and 25 years?
ReplyDeleteThings become collectible, and their price rockets...
Quite right.
ReplyDeleteOnly it seems to me that digital machines, due to Moore's law, almost never rise in value. For example, even though it seems to me that an early Macintosh computer should be a collector's object, you can buy them for twenty dollars.
I almost did, to rip the guts out and stuff a mini-ITX board in there.
ReplyDeleteSteinway Lyngdorf Model-D?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. Now, the neighbors will REALLY hear us partying all night long.
That's the real status statement over here in Lebanon: in the summer, people throw parties, with lots of noisy buddies, and pump the myoozzack to the max. Then, it's all a matter of having stocked up on enough booze and dirty jokes/juicy stories to make sure nobody around gets any sleep until at least 5 A.M. Having a loud laffer is always appreciated in such social displays of classiness.
BTW, before we moved, our closest neighbors were a mere 4 or 5 metres away, and their windows directly facing ours. Add to this that in the summer, if you closed the windows you were sure to suffocate...
So, the best way to show off to the neighbors is to have a real loud sound system (and as a bonus, to be 99% deaf so as to survive the noise). I believe this goes back to the days of the first radio sets. When the richest family in my father's remote village got the first radio set anybody had ever seen there, they would amp the volume so that everybody around would constantly remember that only they owned one!
Today, we live at least 20 kms from our former neighbors. But if I had a Steinway Lyngdorf Model-D... Boy, I bet with this baby they would still stay up all night from our partying!
Payback is a female dog and she loves to bite butts.
Um... BTW, anybody has an extra $150,000 I could borrow? I'm in a bit of a delicate period since the latest subprime bubble bursting. But gotta maintain that social status, right?
[Dang, I need a better internet connection too. Half my edits were deleted by that 404.]
ReplyDeleteSteinway Lyngdorf Model-D, eh?
Thanks for the tip. Now, the neighbors will REALLY hear us partying all night long.
That's the real status statement over here in Lebanon: in the summer, people throw parties, with lots of noisy buddies, and pump the myoozzack to the max (or the "mazzeekah", as we say here). Then, it's all a matter of having stocked up on enough booze and dirty jokes/juicy stories to make sure nobody around gets any sleep until at least 5 A.M. Having a loud laffer is always appreciated in such social displays of classiness.
BTW, before we moved, our closest neighbors were a mere 4 or 5 metres away, and their windows directly facing ours. Add to this that in the summer, if you closed the windows you were sure to suffocate...
So, the best way to show off to the neighbors is to have a real loud sound system (and as a bonus, to be 99% deaf so as to survive the noise). I believe this goes back to the days of the first radio sets. When the richest family in my father's remote village got the first radio set anybody had ever seen there, they would amp the volume so that everybody around would constantly remember that only they owned one!
Today, we live at least 20 kms from our former neighbors. But if I had a Steinway Lyngdorf Model-D... Boy, I bet with this baby they would still stay up all night from our partying! Yalla ya helwa! Let's shake it, baby! Woo-hoo!
Payback is a female dog and she loves to bite butts.
Um... BTW, anybody has an extra $150,000 I could borrow? I'm having a bit of a delicate time since that unfortunate subprime affair, you know how it is. But gotta maintain that social status, right?
P.S.: Yo, Alex, I didn't know you were from Springfield! But I guessed from your photo. ;-)
Can the Simpson family's summer fiestas be heard from your house?
Pascal,
ReplyDeleteyou missed by an ocean. The guy in the picture would be more at home in Billund.
Alex
Billund... ? ... Ah, I get it.
ReplyDeleteGetting sophisto now.
Sophisticated, yeah. The first little people came in during the 70's. Very basic, no articulation, 4 piece people.
ReplyDeleteIn the 80's the minifigures were introduced, all had the same generic smile. Sometime in the 90's they added more detailed faces, adding flesh tones for Star Wars and Harry Potter sets. The jacket and pullover shown are actually from Harry Potter.
You think that sophisticated, the most expensive set is coming out in a few weeks, a scale Millenium Falcon.
Some Lego sets come with Arm processors, and there is a choice of about 4 operating systems. Carnegie Mellon have provided a C compiler for use with Lego sets.
"Now, the neighbors will REALLY hear us partying all night long."
ReplyDeleteBut you're a nerd, Pascal, and nerds don't party.
Alex said...
ReplyDelete"The first little people came in during the 70's. Very basic, no articulation, 4 piece people."
Hey, I still have a few of those. I think the first ones didn't even have a face. And the earliest transparent bricks were just translucent.
Um... does saying this reveal my age?
the real ghostbuster said...
"But you're a nerd, Pascal, and nerds don't party."
Oh, re-he-he-he-heally? And who, do you think, fancies such moronic displays of social status in Lebanon? ;-)
Besides, do nerds have their own action figure? Say... people like Harrison Ford, John Cena, Sylvester Stallone? (Stop calling me a nerd, or my mom will shoot! :-)
Incidentally, I should display my own official action figure photo avatar. Hey, Eolake, is creating a Blogger account enough to upload images?
I must confess, Real Ghostbuster (say, I think you too have your official action figure series, right?), that crushing empty beer/soda cans on my forehead is not exactly my main idea of fun. Guess that makes me a nerd, since I sure can't be a jock. And what else is there in the world? (Yes, cheerleaders, but they're babes, dude, come on! Nerds dig cheerleaders, who dig jocks, who dig themselves, and then everybody's either unhappy or gay, d'uh!)
"I'm pretty sure there's more to life than being really, really ridiculously good-looking, and I plan on finding out what that is." - (Derek Zoolander, definitely not a nerdy dude, yo!)
Zoolander rules.
ReplyDelete"Hey, Eolake, is creating a Blogger account enough to upload images?"
I think you could only upload to your own blog.
Pascal, you can dump pictures at Picasa. Take a look at http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/index.html
ReplyDeleteThey have a bunch of interesting toys and tools, all free.
Picasa even allow you to embed slide-shows of your photo albums in your blogs (not just at Blogger). That's how I put my Legoland photos there.
Sign up for blogger, and you get a chance to put in your avatar, and we can all see who you are.
Roger that. A blogger account is enough to have an avatar and post pics on my page. Not asking for much.
ReplyDeleteNow I just need to make the glasses for my action figure and snap a photo. Should be less costly than a gold-plated iPod.
Hey, I think I'll call it my iPost! :-)
Thanks for the idea. I modelled a 28mm wargaming figure after me (28mm=6' scale). I had a b*tch of a time making the glasses.
ReplyDeleteI should get a photo of him on-line.
Ah, yes, such a tiny size as 28mm can be a bee-hatch to perfect. (Maybe you need to hire a bee helper? ;-) I suggest maybe using the fine copper wire from a dead electric motor.
ReplyDeleteI myself morphed the head of a 30cm action figure, and boy, I really mean morphed! (I should blog some Before/After pics.) For the glasses, I intend to work on a piece of transparent blister plastic. Would probably have done it already if I weren't sick as a canis domesticus these days.
I should also ask my brother's permission to post some of his works when he was a kid. Putty figures, around the 28mm scale, and pretty amazing. More on that one of these days. I hope.
Perhaps on a thread about home-made figures?