I know what you are thinking, but I am not talking about your manhood, I am talking about compulsive buying when it comes to new tech gadgets and how to stop the urge of spending.

We all have some from of compulsive behavior, but to try to buy the latest gadget on the market, can prove to be costly. Do you really need the next generation game console? You probably don’t, and the one you have is still plenty of fun during some needed downtime.

I am a technology enthusiast and trust me, it’s tough for me to go into a TigerDirect without walking out with less money on a purchase I had not intended to make.

Men are just as bad as woman when it comes to shopping, don’t kid yourself. At least woman are more consciences when it comes to deals and or bargains. Men love toys and we will do anything to get the newest cool gadget.

Sit back and enjoy your game console that you still get enjoyment out of. There’s no need to get the next super duper video card when the one you have serves its purpose well.

The money you save today, may serve for a much needed purchase tomorrow. I am not saying you can’t go out and buy your wife something nice to show her how much you appreciate her and love her. Your wife is much more important than some gadget you really don’t need.

I may hear a lot of bashing from my male friends, but hey I like controversy.

On Tuesday, computer manufacturing giant Dell was convicted of false advertising, fraud, abusive debt collection practices, and deceptive business transactions. All this stems from a case brought to the attention of the courts by the attorney general of the state of New York.

Dell was brought up on charges for keeping customers from receiving even adequate customer service and technical support, even for those who had paid extra to receive such benefits. Listed complaints included long wait times on the phone, repeatedly being transferred and “accidentally” disconnecting calls.

The court also found that technicians scheduled for on-site repairs failed to actually repair issues, citing software when hardware was to blame, or vice-versa. Dell was also being accused of bait-and-switch, by refusing to offer support to customers after the end of their service contract, when an issue was clearly reported prior to the contract’s expiration.

Dell has also been charged with failing to honor advertising which offered special no-interest terms on new purchases, but actually gave nearly no customers those special interest rates, without notifying them that they didn’t qualify and completing the purchase anyway.

Dell will no longer be able to engage in these shady business practices, and will be required not only to pay the victims of their activities, but will also be forced to pay the state of New York all the profits from misleading and abusing their customers.

Back in 2006, Dell was already in hot water for using Sony batteries that exploded. Other manufacturers were also involved in this recall issue, but it seems Dell had enough PR problems with their particular exploding machines being in the spotlight.

Do you own a Dell? Would you consider purchasing from them in light of this court decision? If you’re a techie, how is it supporting Dell computers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. (Witty re-writes of “Dude, you’re getting a Dell,” are strongly discouraged.)

-The Raging Tech

Wilmington, North Carolina, a coastal Carolina community and home of University of North Carolina at Wilmington, will be the first town in the nation to experience the shutdown of analog broadcast television signals and initiate DTV (digital television) broadcasts over the air.

The city was chosen because all five local channels have completed construction of their equipment for digital broadcast, and have been operating at full power and functionality the same as they will be after the transition on September 8th of this year.

If you have a newer television with a digital tuner, you should already be set for the transition. If you have not upgraded your television in the last few years, you’ll need to purchase a converter box to receive over-the-air digital broadcasts.

Note: If you already have cable or satellite, and don’t care about local broadcast channels, this changeover will not affect you at all. You’ll continue to receive your local channels through your cable or satellite system. If you use rabbit-ears in conjunction with your system, you’ll probably need to upgrade.

The good news is that at most consumer electronics stores where you can purchase a TV, you can usually ask for a rebate form from the government that will take off as much as $20 from the price of a converter box. I’ve seen them at Wal-mart and Best Buy so far, but your mileage may vary.

The final transition for everyone will be February 17th, 2009, according to an FCC press release. You still have plenty of time, but be sure to get that taken care of or you may find yourself without television programming to watch.

-The Raging Tech

eBay, Inc. is testing the waters, according to the Associated Press, with Australian users being forced to either use PayPal as their payment system, or to exchange payment in person.

This decision has, of course, upset thousands of online merchants that utilize the site for their livelihoods. Over the years, the PayPal online financial institution has had many road blocks to being trusted by the community at large. Years later and after several lawsuits, they were purchased by the eBay corporation, and integrated tightly into the site’s function. However, buyers and sellers were still completely free to use third-party payment systems of their choice. PayPal competed by being the simplest and easiest choice, since it was built right into the web site.

eBay hopes to bring trust and a better reputation to their payment system by forcing users to use it, hoping that enough users will stick around and eventually learn to love them. If this works to some degree in Australia, we could be seeing this change go worldwide.

Those of you who use eBay, would you stick around if you were forced to use PayPal, or would you consider moving to another online auction site, such as Amazon or Yahoo or uBid? Let us know in the comments.

-The Raging Tech

One of the 7 Habits of Highly Tech-Addicted People is the desire to have the latest and greatest the moment something debuts on the market. Trade news, pre-releases, early reviews from tech news sites, demos, and booths at trade shows like CES, E3, PAX, and Mac World Expo have early-adopters watering at the mouth for the latest technology gadgets.

What a lot of people don’t realize is the first consumers of a product are usually the last line of beta testers. Manufacturers and publishing companies often set unreasonable deadlines for developers and QA testers, which leaves them putting out a half-baked product that looks cool, but often has intuitive features missing or quirks and bugs that leave first-round consumers upset.

Are the corporations thinking that the number of returns and bad reviews is insignificant compared to the sales they’ll post for that quarter? It seems like a shame they’d rather put out a shoddy product and fix it than to release a little late.

You can save yourself the frustration, and maybe even a few bucks, by waiting. If you wait until just before or just after the second generation of a product comes out, you can often buy the first generation for cheaper, and it’s likely to have firmware updates that address most issues.

I purchased the LG VX9900 cell phone just last Fall, when it had been out a while. Just after I bought it, I saw they released the new “Voyager” that had the touch screen just like the iPhone. Since my phone was considered “old” – it was on sale with a rebate, and had the latest software for that model.

The same thing happened when I purchased my television. My 55″ Hitachi HDTV was going for around $1500 and on Memorial Day weekend I made the leap and bought it, because the price dropped $500 for that weekend only. I like to sit in front of it while I watch my blu-ray movies and think about how this could have cost me $500 more if I’d waited any longer.

Good things happen for those who wait – on the other hand, you have to sit around and be jealous of your friend’s new cool gadget.

Are you an early adopter, or do you like to wait and let others try things out before you buy? Let us know in the comments.

-The Raging Tech