THE PC SHOW 2006



The PC Show 2006 was a disappointment on a whole for me. There are not many incredible bargains to start with and really not many participants this year compare to the past. Most of the spaces are taken up by huge corporate companies who are offering less than 20 products. The ratio of space and items sold is like extremely small.



Anyway, I went there for two days! The second trip was made because I failed to get any hard disks as I wished from the first trip. They were all out of stock! I was looking for the Hitachi 100GB 5,400RPM 2.5" notebook hard disk drive. If I cannot get a Hitachi, at least a Seagate will be the next choice. I needed mobility where power supply is not needed and extreme slimness is most desired. Well, at least the second trip was fruitful! I got them finally.



The shop that sells the hard disk drive is selling a very standard and ugly looking casing. We have no choice so finally, I decided to go find the casing separately. Why Hitachi? They are reputed because they bought over IBM technology in this department and has always been a good hard disk maker for these few years. Seagate is good for improving since their miserable Barracuda series and for being the only hard disk maker offering 5 years warranty.



Now, there is one issue here. I wanted something slim so I have a choice between a wiremesh version and the standard version. I was weighing between heat dissipation against dust and water. I heard people saying the slimness will contribute to alot of heat issues and hence, slow performance. Dust and water will be the issue with the porosity surface of the wiremesh. However, it comes with a pouch too so that is at least not so critical. In the end, I decided on the wiremesh version.



It is slim, which is my priority for mobility and it looks kinda nice too. It is a double bonus for me then. I just need to be careful with dust and water issues. I got myself a USB slot only version with the ability to switch ON and OFF. I don't have Apple products anyway although my laptop has a Firewire slot.



The second trip was made early in the morning with my friend, Roni. This time around, I want to arrive early to prevent any problems of stock limits. It is already the last day anyway. My first trip was made at the late night so I guess that's why the stocks for that particular day had run dry.



One interesting thing happened when Roni and I were lining in front of the booth to get the hard disks when they opened shop. There was this guy who came with a laptop. He wanted to buy some memory RAMs for upgrade I suppose. He asked whether they sell the required RAM version and they replied they did. He wanted them to test the RAM modules out on his laptop so there will not be compatible issues. That's probably the reason why the fellow took all the trouble to bring his laptop to the fair.



Unfortunately, the shop did not provide such service at the fair. They made it clear to the guy that the booth for the fair is only selling products and do not provide services. They recommended him to go to their shop which is situated less than 3-5 KM from the fair. They guy insisted he wanted to do it there and then since he came all the way. They again told him they don't do it on the spot. Another reason is because of the huge amount of crowds there so it is impossible for them to have the space and time to do it.



The dude then asked whether it will be more expensive if buying from their shop. That is why he came all the way to the fair because the pricing is cheaper. They replied he was correct but the price different is less than S$3. He finally gave up after trying many times, making the staffs a bit irritated. I was there standing just beside him and I know I will be angry with such a customer who just cannot be clear of the policy of the company at the fair.



He finally gave up and said, "Thank you very much for your help..." as he packed his laptop into the bag and as he was leaving, added "...which is not!" and left. Wtf! He was basically saying, "Thank you very much for your help which is not!" How rude can this man be? Oh well, I was shocked and so were the staffs! They sworn at him back as he left! Haha! I will too if I were them. Then, they told me how irritated they were with such customers. I agreed.



When I was buying the casing at another shop, another incredible situation happened to me! I had chosen the casings I wanted and was lining up behind a lady. The cashier was dealing with her payment while she asked me for my ATM card to do my payment. Finally, the lady in front of me paid everything with her card and left the scene. It was my turn and I need to key in my pin number to confirm payment.



I keyed in three times and they machine replied "INCORRECT PIN". I began to suspect something was terribly wrong so I asked the cashier for my card to check whether it was mine. I did not see mine buy another card with the photo of a mid-age man! I told her this is not my card but she insisted it was my card! I was like thinking inside me how could she not see this ugly man was like 10 times uglier than me? Hahaha! Just kidding!



Then, I told her maybe it is the lady before me who mistook my card as the cashier returned my card to her! She insisted the lady is a female! I told her it could be her husband's card and I don't look like the guy in the card! Finally, I paid by cash and gave them my contacts as I decided to wait around the area. Hopefully the lady could see that it was my card and return it ASAP! I decided to wait by taking lunch with Roni at Carl's Jr. Hopefully, their delicious burgers will make me forget the whole thing! Sigh!



Finally, for all the bad luck I got, the lady did return my ATM card and the cashier finally called me while I was opening my mouth wide to eat the huge and thick burger! Thank God for that. If she had not called after lunch, I would decide to call my bank and cancel off the ATM card and remake a new one. This would cost me S$10! Oh well, finally the whole thing was over!



I was walking around the Motorola booth and was extremely interested with their SLVR L7 and L6 phones. They are so slim and tough! Man, holding them on my palm gave me so much satisfaction. Haha! I also extremely love those flat buttons Motorola has. Apart from that, their joystick is tough, unlike my Sony which easily skip a few steps or so and you get irritated sometimes to have problem choosing what you really want.

Anyway, planning to change my handphone as my Sony Ericsson K700i is sucking so much battery life I basically need to charge the handphone every single day! I am so frustrated by the lousy battery life and regretted not checking out more regarding this when I bought the handphone. I took for granted that Sony digicams have very superior battery life! I use handphone for calls and SMS only. Therefore, I have no difficult requirements for a handphone. All I need to be assured of this time is super strong battery life. I don't like Nokia as the designs are so boring and the same all the time. I am almost bored to death!



I was abit irritated by the model who was giving away the flyers. She was like standing there with the freuquency of crowd walking past her in the region of 10 person per minute the most and she tried to give me this flyer 3-5 times as I was walking past her to and fro as Roni and I were checking some products in the booth in front of hers. We even stopped by to look at the phone and held them in our palms as she explained the whole thing. Just 3 minutes later, as we past by the path in front of her, she tried to give me the flyer again! Man, how extremely low is her memory bank!