you want fries with that?

Everytime I get a new PC*, I end up buying a few hundred dollars of peripherals to make it work gooder [sic]. This time, those goodies included some wireless-G (802.11G) stuff; a gigabit switch (replaces a 10 Mb hub that was manufactured when Teddy Roosevelt was President); and a Bluetooth mouse (for my PowerBook).

* defined very loosely .. includes everything from a Palm PDA to an Apple PowerBook. I figure that if it done got a CPU, it kin be kalt a PC.

If computer manufacturers were smart (and I now put Apple to the top of that list after my recent positive experience) they'd include incentives to buy more of their peripherals, soon after the PC purchase. Maybe they do, and I simply haven't noticed (which is as good as not doing it). Then again, sometimes a 3rd party peripheral is best (example: the Rhino case I selected for my PDA, after the Palm-branded one proved to be terribly inferior).

Also, I continue to be impressed/amused with Buy.com .. I ordered one of the wireless components through them, then opted for "FREE Budget Shipping" instead of Standard. The stuff arrived the next day (good thing I didn't pay extra for Next Day Delivery). To be fair, it shipped from Carrollton, Texas which is an easy drive from my home, so UPS didn't have to work too hard to pull that off.