The desk jockey's need for ever greater speed eludes me…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:06 PM Permalink

…so when I see an article on the hottest, latest, bestest ever hard drive, in this case the new Western Digital VelociRaptor 300gb Hard Drive, it bothers me that I have lost that, "Gee whiz! Man that's impressive!" jaw-dropping awe at the cleverness of man.

This excerpt tells the story for me:

Unlike many hard drives, which show strengths and weaknesses in our tests, the $300 VelociRaptor actually demonstrated its strength across the PC World Test Center's entire suite of hard drive tests. In one of its most impressive feats, the VelociRaptor required just 89 seconds to write 3.06GB of files and folders, besting the next-best drive in our chart, the Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB, by 32 seconds--a 26 percent improvement.

I used to get excited about this stuff. Imagine! 32 seconds faster, a 26% speed increase! Wow!

Then one day it all lost its glitter and glamour when I realized a few things. Like:

It didn't allow me any more time with my family.
It didn't increase my typing, reading, or comprehension speed.
It didn't give me time for an extra smoke break (back when I smoked).
It didn't allow me extra time for luxurious lunches at the Broiler Room in Sacramento (which I highly recommend).
I still didn't have time to read a self-help book.
Hell, I still wouldn't have gained enough time to walk to the corner store for a Coke and Lottery ticket.
It didn't help me at all with losing weight, fighting cancer, or any other human, personal-type of endeavor to stay alive.
And it would take a very long time indeed, at 32 seconds a shot, to make up even the time I would have to take to read the manual for the damn thing and get it hooked up and working on my computer.

Still, I guess there is someone somewhere jumping up and down clapping their hands and excited about this new hard drive.

I just don't get it.

Labels: economics, snark