Another Spouse not on Board?

[Goldielocks]

Hi All,  It is halloween, and I managed to tell work that I needed to be home in time for the kids this year for Halloween.  Therefore I managed to catch an early flight and arrived home an hour before kids are out of school.  (Yay!)

When to my surprise, I see that my DH has had another package arrive, this time with OCULUS VR (Virtual Reality) GOOGLES, complete with the programmers' DEVELOPMENT KIT.

Ai yi yai!

My lord, how much did this cost?   

Have you ever had a moment like that?

To my relief, later the kids informed me that it was "on loan" from his school, where he has been volunteering to create projects for their PR machine, to get more funding and new student interest, while he gets more nods on his resume for cool stuff that he has accomplished recently.....    whew.

Happy Hallowe'en!

(and OT, but I found a great use for old halloween costumes.  We created a nice display of several "people" using old costumes, brooms, and chairs, ala "scarecrow method".   No money on decorations, lots of fun for us!  And all completed in 2 hours including a pumpkin carving.)

[WildJager]

Caveat... when the retail kit comes out I have every intention of getting an oculus rift. 

With that said, the development kit isn't an additional cost.  It's the only version you can get right now.  It's a prototype basically.  Being sold for $300.  For the price I think the technology is very interesting if you're into that kind of thing. 

But I would have to agree.  That's still pricey enough to warrant a conversation with you before purchase, assuming it actually had been him who paid for it.  Since he scored that for free in the name of learning I'd say that was a pretty frugal and sly move!

[Goldielocks]

More update --
When he arrived home he let me know that he needs to return it to school on Tuesday, but will have on-going access to it for the semester.

But..

He did arrive home with fireworks... Surprise!!   (ACK)

[gimp]

Programmers and engineers need to keep their skills fresh. A dev kit is professional development, not (necessarily) waste. Jus' saying :) New skills are the programmer's version of new clothes for someone in a customer-facing job. Of course, many skills can be gotten for free, and a loan sounds just like that!

[Goldielocks]

Caveat... when the retail kit comes out I have every intention of getting an oculus rift. 

With that said, the development kit isn't an additional cost.  It's the only version you can get right now.  It's a prototype basically.  Being sold for $300.  For the price I think the technology is very interesting if you're into that kind of thing. 

But I would have to agree.  That's still pricey enough to warrant a conversation with you before purchase, assuming it actually had been him who paid for it.  Since he scored that for free in the name of learning I'd say that was a pretty frugal and sly move!

Thanks -- the quality of this thing and the packaging is very good.  I thought it was $600-$1000 when I first saw it, which should be definitely in the discuss with your spouse first category....   I am just glad it is a loaner.

[Spondulix]

My DH has this problem cause he works in quality assurance, so he has to have the latest software/gadgets just to do the job. Luckily, we can itemize (and amortize) on taxes, but I am always arguing, "is this something that they could buy for you instead of you having to pay out of pocket?" They will do it depending on the item.

It's a fine line between fun/hobby and work sometimes, though. It's easy to get roped into expensive purchases purely for the sake of "the business."

[gimp]

It's easy to get roped into expensive purchases purely for the sake of "the business."

Oh god yes. "I'm a professional photographer now, so I definitely need that 1Dx! And a 5D3 as a backup." Maybe, but you damn well better have some work lined up for it. That combination is, like, 1/3 an average photographer's yearly income.

[fantabulous]

My DH has this problem cause he works in quality assurance, so he has to have the latest software/gadgets just to do the job. Luckily, we can itemize (and amortize) on taxes, but I am always arguing, "is this something that they could buy for you instead of you having to pay out of pocket?" They will do it depending on the item.

It's a fine line between fun/hobby and work sometimes, though. It's easy to get roped into expensive purchases purely for the sake of "the business."

This is an issue I have to a lesser degree as a systems administrator. "Why yes, I can in fact use that many computers in order to sharpen my skills." It's not a need like clean water to drink and poop in, of course, but at that fuzzy intersection of hobby and professional development. I won't let it get to the female equivalent of the mancave data center, but it's a line I sometimes cross. Sometimes quite intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.

[Spondulix]

It's easy to get roped into expensive purchases purely for the sake of "the business."

Oh god yes. "I'm a professional photographer now, so I definitely need that 1Dx! And a 5D3 as a backup." Maybe, but you damn well better have some work lined up for it. That combination is, like, 1/3 an average photographer's yearly income.

My accountant (or soon to be former accountant) was always encouraging us to spend more on business, which really hasn't helped matters. I wish he had encouraged us to put more into SEP IRAs first!!

[russianswinga]

This is an issue I have to a lesser degree as a systems administrator. "Why yes, I can in fact use that many computers in order to sharpen my skills."

I'm a sysadmin as well. I just spin up as many VMs as I like. Oh - look - I need a test forest with 2 domains, 4 DC's, and 5 windows 8 workstations to see how group policy will propagate between all of them. Give me 30 minues, I have VHD's ready for server 2012R2 and Win8 and a powershell script that will prep them all on command.... all on my laptop. Ready... and... boot!

Granted the laptop is a Dell I7 256GB SSD 16GB ram, but work paid for it... so hey! Mobile test lab!

[Goldielocks]

Okay,  I am OP and I am resurrecting this long-dead thread.

Guess what just arrived at our house yesterday?  Yep.  DH bought an Oculus Quest.
I don't want to know how much it cost, except that this time, we each have our own personal spending allowance (for several years) and it came out of his own personal money...  (I won't open that box to look to closely, that is its purpose).

Eyeroll.
I watch DS play for a while.  So fun to watch someone play.   Then they all had me try it.  I am not a video gamer.

THIS THING IS AMAZING! 

It is an entire other level of gaming and there is so much future value in the technology for so many new applications.  I wanted to never stop, and I was just trying the "learn to use the system" games.   World changing.

I love it more than xbox, Wii, PS, dance mat and PC games. I did not like the Occulus Rift much at all. Yes, I have teenagers so we have tried all of these.  I hate 3D movies and PC games like DOOM! were the end of my hours of gaming because my brain hates three dimensional movement.