It’s Chinese New Year, too. © PJ Croft 2016

Yeah, I’m officially old, 69 today. It’s how you feel, and I sure don’t feel that age. It’s hard to believe. I see they waited for my birthday to announce the proof of gravity waves. I’m known for making a few waves myself.

I’ve been smothered in birthday greetings from former work colleagues and a few others on my Facebook timeline. Gee, it’s nice to have friends. I’m not sure why I don’t get notifications of other people’s birthdays. I’d better get with it so I can offer my greetings to them.

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As I said, I treated myself to a birthday present of a Dell XPS15 laptop with a 15″ Ultra HD screen, capable of 4K display. That makes desktop and laptop both 4K. I won’t be satisfied with anything less now. It’ll have to be a 4K TV soon.

I’ve been out today buying an external USB DVD drive – the laptop doesn’t have one. I also bought a high sensitivity USB wi-fi dongle with an antenna. The hotel I’m going to in Bali says “wi-fi available in public areas”, meaning, not in the rooms. I don’t know how I’d survive without internet 24/7 so I hope this USB stick will pick up the wi-fi signal from the reception area. It was $39. The DVD drive was $45. Amazing how prices have fallen in the past decade.

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People ask me whether I’ve got an Apple iPhone, or a Mac or whatever. Well, this is why I haven’t:

“The [ACCC] competition watchdog says it will ask Apple to urgently explain an error message disabling iPhone users’ handsets and is considering whether it breaches Australian consumer law.  … thousands of iPhone 6 users have received “error 53”, which permanently disables the handset if it detects that a repair has been carried out by a non-Apple technician.” The Guardian, 12 February 2016.

Apple would have to be one of the most arrogant companies on the planet. I refuse to bow to their rules. I only own one Apple product, an iPod, but all its functionality is covered by my Sony phone now, so it sits in the drawer unused. I admire their design, but I’m not going to pay them my money.

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Penang. © PJ Croft 2016