AFK

Like an introductory paragraph, a post title always gives a hard time to think of.

Anyways, I'm home. Perhaps the last before the chritsmas and new year break, but can't really guarantee that since my bedroom was refurnished with a new bed set with mattress at least a few inches higher than the one at my apartment. MH 1338 on 23/11 was delayed by almost an hour. Probably something to do with technical probs not unfamiliar with the old B734 (9M-MMJ). Flight was full to the brim, factored by the weekend and the haj pilgrims heading home. I forgot how terrible it was waiting for baggage at the carousel. Took me almost 30 mins yesterday.

And I'm parting ways with my laptop. This machine will be inherited to my sister. A year together and has been helpful in too many occasions. Its replacement is still being considered by I'm seriously thinking of a tablet just to have a change of wind (directly translated from a Malay idiom).

So hours from now I'll be away from keyboard for at least a month. January would be a month of shopping I guess with a possible iPad and a camera (i'm no hipster, just an aircraft spotter) at the top of the list, plus a trip to Bandung. God help me to hold my wallet tight close away from unnecessary spending until then.

Signing off.

The departed

A year use of laptop has made me realise a few things.

First, laptops aren't that portable. Decades ago people thought that ATUR was portable, the bulky phone wired to an even bulkier base, yeah that was convenient. People thought the same of the early Olivetti laptops. Portable in the sense that you can carry them anywhere. And as mobile phones got reduced to thin, relatively small bars of metals, the PCs also went from screen, keyboards, mice, and CPUs to simple touchable screens we know as tablets yet more powerful. Anything bigger or thicker than that doesn't get to be called portable, mobile anymore.

Second, laptops almost can't be upgraded to fit the time. If you bought a laptop in 2011 you can't beef it up to be of 2012 specs. You can try but it may be as good as buying a new whole set. I stocked in a 4GB RAM few months back in hope that a 6GB RAM would allow me to run NFS The Run without lags or crashes...but to no avail.

I can't upgrade the graphics or even the processor because it's a laptop. This is the major drawback.

I used to play PlayStation (1 and 2) and consoles are usually designed to be 'new' for at least a few years. We got to play the latest and the best along that period, which was good enough compared to buying a laptop that would outdate a week after your purchase.

Third, better get a desktop. They're upgradeable, more customisable, you can't bring them anywhere but who plays games anywhere? Some snobs or some hardcore geeks perhaps and the latter may be forgivable.

Fourth, might as well get a console. My PS2 has gone kaput since I got into boarding school and despite a MYR150 fix, it went back kaput in matter of weeks. Totally a waste of money, perhaps the biggest before the Nokia 5800 purchase came along in 2010. Anyways, I haven't got the PS3 upgrade because, I don't know, I got so confused since the past 2 years. So PS3 might sound good but then again, people buy consoles because they could last a few years, and PS3 has been around for a few years. Rumour is Sony is already in labour pains and the PlayStation family will grow anytime soon with the birth of PS4.

Fifth, might also get a tablet. Let's see how my habit would change if I replace my lappy with an iPad (screw you Samsung, you copied others I'd never support an arrogant copycat).

Browsing Internet won't change. Reading books won't change. Playing games won't change. 

Watching movies, err. Listening music, hmm.

The last two might be quite hard thanks to iTunes sync, and I need a proper PC to run iTunes, and since I will have ditched my lappy, I'll either ask my pals to let their PCs be surrogates to my iTunes or sync once a month only when I get home. This has been in my mind since my mom called and asked me to bring the laptop along when I come home next weekend because my sis urgently needs one now for her final matriculation semester and I would get a replacement in the new year.