In which we look at our equipment

Byram Hills was the tournament where I tested my Chromebook. I will admit that there was a Mac and a printer and all kinds of accouterments in the trunk of the car, just in case, but I figured an all-electric scenario ought to work fine with something like a Chromebook. It did. Aside from the five minutes or so when tabroom decided to go on vacation, and we started wishing we had printed out results sheets (all of which was done during Bronx’s visit, making them now insist that we keep 30 printers on hand, just in case), which we wouldn’t have done anyhow, and in case you are unaware of it, while there is a way to print with a Chromebook via network you can’t just plug in a USB cord, an aside which has now added so many commas to this sentence that I’m afraid to go on, I never felt bereft. In fact, the fast loading time alone was worth the price of admission. My MacBook takes quite a while to get going, either from sleep or coma, while the Cb pops on in a few seconds. I bought the Cb during the last Amazon Prime sale, and it cost about $150. I had been planning on getting the next gen MacBook Air when it’s finally announced, but I don’t think that will be necessary anymore. The Cb weighs virtually nothing, and it does the job. If I need to do something more complicated, I have enough older computers around the house that I won’t be terrible hamstrung. But at tournaments, there’s tabbing, Spotify, Sporcle and mail. Hell, I could do it all on my phone if the screen were bigger, and for that matter, we have tabbed once or twice from restaurants or buses when emergencies arose. We are definitely slouching toward Bethlehem.

In unrelated news, I’ve been listening to Ready Player One and I have never so much wanted to own a serious game-playing machine…

Sticking with tech, I doubt if I’ll upgrade to an iPhone 7, since the two-year-old 6 works fine, but I’m happy to see that it really is faster and has a better camera. I’ve been getting into iPhone photograpy, and I have a lot to explore with the various apps I already have, but no photographer ever said they wanted a less sharp lens or a non-optical zoom (or at least no photographer ever wanted that as a default). For the week we spent in New Orleans (last week, that is), I decided not to bring my little SLR, and to rely solely on my phone. I was not unhappy with the results. I won’t say I’ll abandon the SLR any time soon, but I won’t be so quick to throw it into the bag… And, oh yeah, in addition to starting to think vaguely about a game console, again, I’m wondering if I might give the new Apple Watch a try. Nothing definite, but I’m thinking about it. I do feel that he who is tired of lusting after new tech is tired of life, to paraphrase Dr. Johnson.

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