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I’ve been saying this for years, but there’s two laws out there when considering a new geek purchase. The first is Moore’s law which says:

The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18 months*.

– Gordon E. Moore, 1965

Most people round down to a year from 18 months. Additionally most people say that, “Shit gets twice as good, twice as fast, twice as small every year.” Moral of the story? If you wait longer the money spent on the gizmo will go twice as far than if you bought today (* Mr. Moore updated this be 2 every years, but I’m ignoring this).

Conversely, I’ve always given the buying advice I call Ashley’s law:

If you don’t have it, you can’t use it.

– Ashley Jones, 2011**

So, ya know, you’re limping along on that G4 iBook but don’t want to get a new laptop today because, “in just 8 months Apple’s gonna release the four gazillion hertz quintuple core laptop!!!” My logic says that the crazy slow laptop you’re using day in and day out really does suck. If you don’t have the new laptop, sure enough, you can’t use it (** I’ve been saying this for years, but am just now “publishing”).

Update: There’s a very unfortunate overlap with another much more serious, pre-existing Ashley’s Law. Well, they have disambiguation for a reason!