EH-Net

Just curious what some of you would do in my position. :-\

With E-bay you could have a nice little Lab with 2K.


Brian

why dont you volunteer in your local commo shop or help desk.  they usually take free help.

Education Center also could use help on most posts. MWR also may have something to help you depending on where your stationed. I know when I was in I was able to help with the computer labs at the education center. If your willing to work for free to gain experience you will find alot of non-profit group will take your offer quick.

Brian

Hey Chuck,

I went for gear simply because there is so much learning materials you can get for free. Put $2000 into a killer BYO system with at least 4GB of RAM, throw VMware on it and start playing.

Don

PS - I'm assuming that since you stated in the title that it's money to burn, that you didn't need it for immediate bills and are OK on that front.

I always feel like training is the place to start.  You need to know some stuff before you even have an idea of what you want to do and what gear you're going to need.  Also, with a bit of training you can probably get yourself a job where you can get hands on experience with someone else's gear.

That said, put the money into an indexed mutual fund, and take out student loans for your classes.  You'll make anywhere from 10 to 15 percent on the money in your fund, and you'll pay about 5 percent on your students loans.  As a general rule, I try to hang on to as much of my money as I can, and get other people to pay for the things I need to know.

You are correct it is excess money. I put the BILLS option in because some people like to get ahead on their bills.

You gotta get some gear.  There are not very many jobs that will get you all the experience that you will need.  You are going to want to do some stuff on your own.  Plus, that job will (should) be paying for your training. 

Don't have a job.  The experience with your gear will help you get that job.

Everything you make from the "gear" you should put away 10% to savings, 10% to splurging, and either add to these percentages with the rest, get ahead on those bills, or get more gear (w00t!).

Go forth and do good things,
Cutaway

Yeah, I think I would go with the general consensus here and say to grab some gear :)

Where is everyone? This was read 358 times but only a few responses. I have noticed that is the general issue for all posts. It seems to be the same like 20 people, if that, I was trying to get convo going of something even a newb could have input on. I realize a lot of the topics posted require a bit of technical knowledge. But this poll is simple enough anyone can say what they would want to do.
At least that was the idea behind it. As much as I respect the opinions of Don and the other people who have been around a while. I was hoping to get some ideas from someone just a few levels above me as opposed to way over my head.

Firstly I voted for "Gear", for exactly the same reasons as Don. I didn't reply initially as I didn't feel that repeating Don's post would add anything to the thread.

Secondly, there are a lot of lurkers here, not all of them are newbs and beginners. That's the way it is with forums, you get a small core of regulars, some not so regulars, a few incidental visitors and a lot of lurkers. There's nothing you can do about that. personally I have an opinion about everything that is posted here, but I don't always feel like answering or feel that my input would add to the conversation. If you know how to search, you will be able to find a wealth of study material on the web.


Don't underestimate yourself. No one can know everything and everyone has their own expertise. You may just be a few levels above a lot of people here in some fields.

Well although there was not an astounding amount of votes. I do notice a pattern. So the winner is obviously gear. So I have a follow up for this poll.

What gear would you buy? You have roughly 2 g's give or take. Consider that you only have one common house computer a few years old with some upgrades. No laptop. Do you BYO a second desktop get a laptop? Most important what are the specs. What processor, RAM, HDD, Etc.? Thanks again for any ideas.

wow the desktop/laptop debate.

that really depends on whether you need a laptop or not.  if not, i would go desktop, because its usually easier to upgrade and add additional hard drives to. 

as far as specs, as much as you can afford, but again it comes down to what you need it for.  to replace the old one i would go as much as you can afford.  if you just need an additional server for a hack lab, you can probably get by with a machines with less horsepower

This will be used for school and as a hack lab as you call it. I am leaning more towards a laptop for this reason. Plus my desktop works just fine for what I use it for.

I am looking for what components to put over others. It seems that I have seen RAM be a big issue for some of the posts I have read.