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View Full Version : How much of what you own do you actually use?



Harrison
22nd May 2007, 00:52
I was just thinking about this and it has to be less than 10% of what I own on a day to day basis. Probably much less than even that.

This has led me to thinking, do I really need all of the other 90%+ of the stuff I own? I would have a hell of a lot more space if I didn't! :hmmm:

Submeg
22nd May 2007, 07:20
I have currently been thinking the same thing. I am considering selling my Wii....

Demon Cleaner
22nd May 2007, 12:36
I am considering selling my Wii....Already? I'll give you 100€ :lol: So it wasn't the big buy?

Harrison
22nd May 2007, 13:13
As I thought the Wii would be. Great excitement and craze over it's original and unique control system, but boredom soon sets in once the gimmick of the controller is extinguished.

LowercaseE
22nd May 2007, 14:57
I'd say probably about 10-15% for me as well. I hate getting rid of things that I don't use because over the years I find myself missing things I did get rid of.

Harrison
22nd May 2007, 15:23
I think you summed it up perfectly LowercaseE. Too sentimental for our own good!

LowercaseE
22nd May 2007, 18:25
I'd be willing to bet most here feel the same way. Why else would we be hanging on to a 20+ year old computer system?

Demon Cleaner
22nd May 2007, 18:33
Yeah, you're right. The thing that is most used is my TV. And of course the PC for seeding 24/7, but anything else is just for fun.

Stephen Coates
22nd May 2007, 22:49
I use all my stuff on a regular basis.

Or most of it, well, the ones which are working.

Not all the time, just whe I want to, but usually more than once per month.

Submeg
23rd May 2007, 01:18
Yea Wii is just done...time to get rid of it.

Harrison
23rd May 2007, 01:53
I use all my stuff on a regular basis.

Or most of it, well, the ones which are working.

Not all the time, just whe I want to, but usually more than once per month.

We are talking about "everything" you own Steve, not just your computers! Although I have this scary feeling that everything you own might well be your computers! :hmmm::eyebrow:

Stephen Coates
23rd May 2007, 08:23
We are talking about "everything" you own Steve, not just your computers! Although I have this scary feeling that everything you own might well be your computers! :hmmm::eyebrow:

It would make sense to talk about computers in such a topic, as some of us here own quite a lot of them and don't use them all.

Things like my Television and radio I use alot. My VCR and DVD player I don;t use that much though.

My GameBoy has seen quite a lot of use over the years but I don't use it that often any more.

Don't think theres anything else which I own which is worth talking about.

Harrison
23rd May 2007, 13:18
But what about none technology? Books, magazines, videos, CDs, DVDs, clothes, furniture, toys and games (not video games), bags, bits of wood, metal, push bikes, cooking utensils, shoes, camping equipment... anything and everything you own.

This was all in my mind when I said less than 10% of everything I own. I could definitely reduce my possessions without it having any effect on my life and I probably wouldn't even notice most of it had gone, other than all the extra space I would then have.

I feel a large number of items will be appearing on ebay very soon.

Teho
23rd May 2007, 15:53
If we include books, then I can safely say I hardly use anything I own. I've bought a lot of books, comics, graphic novels etc over the years, and still do. I hardly ever re-read any of it except the really good ones, as there is always a pile of unread stuff waiting. But I would never consider getting rid of any of it either of course .;)

Apart from that I do use a lot of what I have, except for some of the old computers. But even those I do hook up from time to time and fiddle around with a bit.

Stephen Coates
23rd May 2007, 16:04
Books I hardly ever use.
Cooking Utensils, some I use all the time, others rarley, but I do use them sometimes so would be stuck if I got rid of them.

Furnature, obviously, it is used regually for sitting on and for storing things in.

Bits of wood. Odd one. Sometimes i find uses for bits of wood. Ideal to keep them just in case.

Demon Cleaner
23rd May 2007, 16:17
Bits of wood. Odd one.I use toothpicks very regularly. And just recently I sold a wooden plank at eBay to a guy from the Mas a Tierra islands named Robin Crusow, or something like that. It think I sent it on Friday :hmmm:

Toasty667
23rd May 2007, 16:19
Yeah beating someone with bits of wood is great fun but I dont that often. As for books most of what I read is online really.

AlexJ
23rd May 2007, 16:35
Probably around 10% also, depending on whether we're counting very infrequent use or not used at all.

I have a lot of books I kept but haven't touched since I first read them (but may want to again one day). I haven't played an audio CD now in about 6 months. Usually I'll play the original CD for a few days as soon as I get it, then once I've heard it enough and fancy a change I'll rip it to MP3 put it in it's case and just play it from MP3 in future. I haven't actually bought a CD for many months now, nothing out there that I really like enough to want to buy. I've got plenty of DVD's I've watched once and never since.

I've got quite a lot of stuff I've kept for nostalgia but don't really intend using again. There's the stuff I've got just-in-case (computer parts like broadband & 56k modems, spare gfx card etc.)

Then there's the hardly-ever-used stuff, the clothes that I'll wear once every few years, the turntable which I might need to dig out to record an LP to MP3 if it proves impossible to find by other methods etc. Actually the LP's themselves come under the never used category. Oh and the thousands of cassette tapes which one day, I'm going to go through and clear out most of them/digitise the unique stuff (I wonder do they do recycling for cassette tapes, seems a lot of plastic to throw away).

Harrison
23rd May 2007, 17:25
I have a ton of cassette tapes too that I want to one day digitise and then dispose of. But then I end up normally just finding the same albums online as better quality mp3s and just download those instead as it saves time and you end up with a better result. And you are not really pirating them as you do own the originals, all be in on inferior tapes.

AlexJ
23rd May 2007, 18:33
I have a ton of cassette tapes too that I want to one day digitise and then dispose of. But then I end up normally just finding the same albums online as better quality mp3s and just download those instead as it saves time and you end up with a better result. And you are not really pirating them as you do own the originals, all be in on inferior tapes.

The majority of the time, I tend to download (I've part of the way through my LP's, and when they're done it's on to the tapes.) but there's some less common stuff that it's hard to find online. Either way is actually illegal to the letter of the law in the UK, but no-one's ever been punished for doing it afaik.

Harrison
23rd May 2007, 20:22
Are you sure? I thought it was legally OK to download a copy of something you already own as you are allowed to make a backup of the original, which in effect is the same thing.

AlexJ
23rd May 2007, 20:56
No, they're still working on a law to bring this in. Currently it is illegal (for example) to rip a CD you've bought and put it on your MP3 player. How ridiculous is that.

Here's the government's response: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10776.asp

Demon Cleaner
23rd May 2007, 23:05
Currently it is illegal (for example) to rip a CD you've bought and put it on your MP3 player.And when you do a copy to tape?

AlexJ
23rd May 2007, 23:27
And when you do a copy to tape?

Same - all types of format shifting is illegal if you follow the letter of the law in the UK.

Submeg
24th May 2007, 04:30
Yea they need to wake up on that one :rolleyes:

Ghost
24th May 2007, 07:49
As I thought the Wii would be. Great excitement and craze over it's original and unique control system, but boredom soon sets in once the gimmick of the controller is extinguished.

I kind of suspected this to happen, glad that I did not fell for it.

Harrison
24th May 2007, 10:53
I think the biggest problem with the Wii so far is that apart from Twilight Princess no other title released on the Wii has contained any level of ambition, scale or simple extended excitement that has triggered an addictive nature to continue playing for extended periods of time.

Everything else on the Wii has so far been very light, giving the player simple easy to grasp and play, but quite to end arcade experiences. The system needs more meaty releases such as Zelda if it is going to become as loved by even dedicated Nintendo fans as it's previous systems.

Stephen Coates
24th May 2007, 19:54
What if you own something on tape and copy it onto another tape?

Harrison
24th May 2007, 21:27
Then you are in the eyes of the law pirating it because you are duplicating the copy you own. Same for audio tapes. But that has always been the case, and it has always been illegal to record TV programs to video tape as the programs are copyright, but it is such a grey area that the whole Video Tape era happily taped programs from the TV and kept them on the tapes.

Stephen Coates
24th May 2007, 22:07
Then you are in the eyes of the law pirating it because you are duplicating the copy you own. Same for audio tapes. But that has always been the case, and it has always been illegal to record TV programs to video tape as the programs are copyright, but it is such a grey area that the whole Video Tape era happily taped programs from the TV and kept them on the tapes.

Then what is the point in VideoPlus if it is illegal to record television programmes?

Harrison
24th May 2007, 22:55
Exactly! It's a part of the law that no one ever upholds as it can't really be policed, and it's common sense that the majority of people are going to only use it for personal needs.

You do have to wonder though that if it really is against the law then why did they need to invent macrovision? Surely being against the law is enough? ;)

Submeg
25th May 2007, 03:17
I think the biggest problem with the Wii so far is that apart from Twilight Princess no other title released on the Wii has contained any level of ambition, scale or simple extended excitement that has triggered an addictive nature to continue playing for extended periods of time.

Everything else on the Wii has so far been very light, giving the player simple easy to grasp and play, but quite to end arcade experiences. The system needs more meaty releases such as Zelda if it is going to become as loved by even dedicated Nintendo fans as it's previous systems.

Too late...my Wii is no more.

Harrison
25th May 2007, 04:11
Did you sell it? Or smash it? :nogood:

Submeg
25th May 2007, 04:26
lol, sold it. $300 bucks with my five "games" and extra controller and nunchuck...

Stephen Coates
25th May 2007, 09:40
What if the audio tape contained a computer programme?

Normally with CDROMS and floppies you are allowed to make one backup copy, but this is stored as sound on a tape, so is it illegal to make a backup copy?

I would just think it would be a very good idea to make backup copies because I bought a game for the BBC and unfortunately the tape seems worn out and won't load properly :(

Demon Cleaner
25th May 2007, 10:28
five "games"That is funny :lol:

AlexJ
25th May 2007, 21:00
Then you are in the eyes of the law pirating it because you are duplicating the copy you own. Same for audio tapes. But that has always been the case, and it has always been illegal to record TV programs to video tape as the programs are copyright, but it is such a grey area that the whole Video Tape era happily taped programs from the TV and kept them on the tapes.

Actually it is legal to tape something off a TV. A (sensible) exception to the law was made to allow it. Hence the existence of devices whose sole purpose is for recording & time-shifting TV (Sky+ etc.). I think there's legally a limit to the number of times you can watch it/keep it though which again is impossible to police.