A Time of Magic

The one time in the year that you can pretty much guarantee that a blogger will be using the time delayed posting facility on their blog is, of course, right now. You mean that you thought we all sat at our computers through the New Year celebrations?

So what happened last year?

Well, the baby computer market took off somewhat unexpectedly. Whilst the marketing people thought that the only groups who’d buy A5 sized computers would be 1) children wanting cheap Internet browsers and 2) high power executives looking for top of the line models in fact it turns out that just about everyone wants one. The high power versions are still around of course and run to something like five or more times the price of the new “netbooks” that came out in 2008. Likewise, the netbook marketing has fallen on its face with people realising that by paying around 25% more they can get a full-fledged baby computer and a growing number of people are realising that it can be their only computer which is good for them as they’re about 1/3rd the price of normal portables but probably not so good for the manufacturers. We’ve now got three of the things in our family: one for me and one each for the little guys. Interestingly, the cheapest models are little more expensive than the toy computers that you see in the shops these days though obviously the baby computers are a whole lot more capable and useful for the children.

On other fronts, the first experiments that might allow practical time travel have ran into some problems in CERN. It’s seriously complex and large technology involved but perhaps sometime in 2009 those first very early experiments will start to show some trully interesting results.

As for me? Well, I’ve just completed my BA (Hons) Modern Languages degree. That’s a phrase that I never ever expected to be using! As I was doing it part-time, it seemed to just creep up on me as when I started I was only wanting to be able to speak a little French but once I’d achieved that a friend pointed out the possibility of the degree I’ve just completed. To help me out with the little guys I’ll be starting a course on Child Development this February which notionally is the start of a BSc Psychology degree though I’m far from deciding on whether or not I’ll be doing that.

Happy New Year!