Friday, June 12, 2015

Not a great tech year for me

This year isn't a great tech year for me.


First of all, my old trusty desktop broke down on me and I couldn't get it to start at all. I ended up spending about $800 upgrading the entire things. Thankfully my graphic card did work out in the end, and I probably deferred about another $200 to $300.


Then, I dropped my handphone and the screen cracked into pieces. I'm usually very careful, and the height that I dropped from isn't even high, but shit happens and I ended up having to buy another replacement. Actually I was using it all along, but then I got cut on my fingers and my wife insisted that I get a new one. Quite true, why face a broken 'mirror' everyday and be unlucky? LOL




Then this week, my trusty old thumbdrive broke down on me. I couldn't get it to work on my desktop pc, and from experience, I know that it'll get spoilt pretty soon. There's no important data inside (thankfully), and I can get it out using another computer anyway. I also have to get it sorted out and bought another one.


I could imagine in the distant past, I'll get all riled up, especially when my phone breaks down. But I was strangely calm about it this time. Is it because I saw broken red dust? I was surprised that this kind of issues didn't hit me as bad as it did in the past. Maybe that's a sign of maturity in itself.


There's always good things even in the bad, and as I reflect upon them, these are my thoughts:


1. Though my old PC cannot be restarted, I eventually get a new one without any loss in data. That, I would have to be thankful for. I was extremely pleased after spending the money on my upgraded PC because now things are so much smoother and faster. Sometimes, things would have to break down to make room for the new.


2. I've to get a new phone and since my contract is coming to an end soon, I signed up for a new plan. It came in a time where I was trying to reduce the junk and clutter in my life, so I refused to buy a fancy (and expensive) branded phone and instead went for mi 4i. It's great, cost me $49 (with the plan) and am very pleased with it. I also 'downgraded' my data plan to 1.3 Gb/month and hope to stick within that limit. I think it's important not to keep upgrading the data usage. What's in it for me? Less facebook, less surfing and absolutely no watching of video streaming when I'm not in an area with wifi. That would keep me focused on what's important in my life. I guess if it takes a broken handphone to remind me of this, so be it.


3. I'm also very grateful that I had set aside a 'play fund' for such purpose. I already knew my desktop pc is coming to an end about 2 year ago. And I planned for it, stashing some savings into it so that the spending wouldn't come as a surprise to me. It's a good idea to stash aside these kind of money and these are not even part of my emergency cash. As mentioned before, the more you know about your life, the less emergencies you have and you can actually allocate your money more efficiently these way.


PS: Wouldn't be blogging so much in the month of June. The change in schedule due to the holiday makes me extremely lethargic and sleepy. I blog often in the morning and I'm so drained at night that I don't feel like doing anything except to relax. I'm such a night person...

18 comments :

starlight said...

"Like" esp the part on NOT upgrading your dataplan so that you can have more time to do more meaningful things instead of being glued to the smartphone.

Rolf Suey said...

Hi LP,

I empathises! Few months ago, week new iMac dropped. Repair cost close to 1k. My room tv suddenly not working last week. Then my tenant toilet bowl tank leaking... Then 3 weddings + 1 baby shower upcoming...

:-) No choice, these things happened and worst still, they always take place one after another...

la papillion said...

Hi starlight,

Thanks! I never play games using hp, esp facebook games. But now with the restricted data, I'll make sure I will never start!

la papillion said...

Hi Rolf,

Haha, you too?! Trouble never comes alone, that's what the wise will say :) Bath with flower water!

TheFinance.sg said...

Hi LP,

My INO2 phone display went bonkers with no visible crack - my second time in 8 months.

My Samsung S4 Wi-Fi function failed after 2 years and I waited another 5 months before I S6 was launched.

I changed my notebook last year after my notebook of 4 years gave way due to a display problem.

And now my favourite games Fallout 4 and Heroes of Might & Magic is coming out and I don't have a system to play them.

Will you be interested to join my in SLS to DIY a desktop?

la papillion said...

Hi Derek,

You too?! Wah, your problem looks like it's more expensive than mine haha! I went to SLS to upgrade my desktop already, for a cost of $800 thereabouts, so I won't be going there in case I got tempted to upgrade again! :)

You start building from scratch or using existing parts? I upgraded to an ssd for a hard disk boot drive, and I never regretted it since...it's so blazing fast!

TheFinance.sg said...

I'll be building from scratch. I'll want to re-use my still rust free Lian Li aluminium casing. For this casing the PSU is mounted on top. That's how old it is more than 10 yrs lol. I wonder it is wide enough to support the new gen graphics card.

la papillion said...

Hi Derek,

Haha, that's the casing I had before I switched over too.. It's so heavy and small and the airflow is not good. After changing to a larger casing, I've less heat issues and definitely a lot more space for more expansion. I think the newer cards might have a problem fitting in, if not it'll over heated too. Older casing also don't come with USB 3.0. I'll suggest u just change the casing lah Haha!

TheFinance.sg said...

Agree on the USB 2.0 ports. I'll have to use the onboard USB but my casing supports ATX motherboard wor.

http://www.dansdata.com/pc70.htm

la papillion said...

Hi Derek,

Wah, then no need to get a new casing if you don't need the usb 3.0 ports :) Actually see what's your budget lah, and see if you want to increase it a few hundreds :)

GiraffeValue said...

Hi LP, I've always though you are my age.

Now then I realize you were once my age.
Didn't you know you are already married.

la papillion said...

Hi Giraffe!

Haha, sorry to disappoint! I don't even know your age or your gender (though I guess it's female cos the writing sounds feminine, like mine ha!) - Not fair!

LepakInvestor said...

Hi there!

Hmmm since you're on a Mi 4i, you could get a prepaid data SIM in the second SIM card slot for your data needs and save even more - I now spend roughly $25 a month ever since I cancelled my postpaid line moved to prepaid. I did pay full price for my phone, though :(

As for the desktop, I guess it's about time also, as prices of goods might go up with the stronger US dollar.

la papillion said...

Hi Lepakinvestor,

Wah, $25/mth is really good! Can you explain more about the prepaid data sim? Is there such a thing? How much does it cost and how many Gb will be there? I can't change to prepaid because I really need my number to be fixed :(

I'm currently using a data plan that gives me 300 Mb of 4G data, and I intend to add 1Gb at $8++ per month, then plus called ID at $5, the total bill per month will be about $40

LepakInvestor said...

Hi LP,

It's basically a normal prepaid card with the telco. I'll use M1 as an example. I can buy a 300MB 30 day plan for $12, and I can extend the 30 days by buying the same plan again. Furthermore, I can roll over unused data through to the next 30 days! If I suddenly need more data for the day or week, I can just buy $5 for 3 days of 1GB data, which "stacks" with the 30 day plan!

la papillion said...

Hi Lepakinvestor,

Wah, idea leh ;)

I signed up with m1 fibreplan today and got a free 1Gb data plan sim card. I'll try out the trick that you've shown me using mi 4i phone and see if I can drop my 1Gb data add on by adding it as another sim card. Sounds very feasible! Most likely I can save myself about $8++ per month and bring down my mobile phone charges from 45+ to 35+ :)

Thanks bro!

LepakInvestor said...

Ah, that would do nicely as well. A masterstroke of genius!

Brian Hopkins said...

That must have been very frustrating dealing with a broken desktop and phone at the same time. I that both of them can be repaired as soon as possible, especially your phone. It’s going to be hard to stay in touch with people if it stays broken for a long time.

Brian Hopkins @ Microtips USA