Christmas shopping for Saipan’s techies

When does scarcity mean abundance? Well, fortunately for Saipan’s cash-strapped consumers, it means that the lack of “must-have” tech stuff this year is going to make Christmastime shopping a lot easier on the wallet.

But it’s not all a windfall. It pulls the plug on my (more or less) annual Christmastime suggestion piece for the techies on your list.

Well, bah, humbug, I can’t find one doggone high-tech doodad that’s so great, or so useful, that every technophile has to have it. One wet blanket for my outlook is Microsoft Vista, which I am averse to, and which has made me determined to go retro-techno and keep my old stuff as healthy as possible.

And, given that I’m the tech-stooge for my family and pals (though I’m a rank amateur, and make no representations otherwise) my determination has been spread to those around me. For example, the wife and I are currently enjoying a vacation at Mom’s house; while the smell of freshly baked cookies wafts through the house, as kith and kin enjoy holiday cheer, I’m relegated to fix-it chores for Mom’s desktop computer.

I’d normally tell Mom to chuck the archaic beast into the nearest scrap heap so I don’t to mess with it. But, well, it uses reliable and friendly old Windows XP. So the computer stays. As do the peripherals. And we can’t see much use in buying new peripherals for it (and its pokey old USB 1.1 ports), so there’s no tech-shopping glitter to be had here.

Moving from “must-have” to “sort of cool,” storage technology continues its jaw-dropping acceleration. Flash drives can run 32-gigabytes now. Dinky little SD cards (common in cameras and such) can be also be had in that capacity, too. For anyone who I know, though, losing these things, not running out of capacity, is the big concern. Most of us opt for more units, and lower capacity, than the other way around.

But when it comes to storage for backing up your entire system, well, now we’re in territory that is very interesting. I guess it’s not must-have for everyone, but for me, the 2.5 inch external drives, which are computer-powered via the USB-port, are really nice.

MEGAbyte of Saipan is one vendor that carries such things, and they confirmed to me that they have these in stock. Given that so many people have their entire lives in digital format, ranging from work, to photos, music, and correspondence, backing up all this stuff can be important.

Furthermore, with the large capacity external drives, you can (with the right software, or by hiring a technician) have an “image” made of your entire computer hard drive (including applications and the operating system), enabling you to resurrect your entire digital life in just a few hours when (not if, but when) your computer’s hard drive toasts itself, which is especially common, given Saipan’s sometimes spotty electrical service and its tropical climate.

This is, though, a pretty utilitarian investment, certainly not a fun tech-toy, and most people who take computing seriously will have already stocked themselves with backup devices.

So, while tech has certainly been advancing, I think it’s also maturing, and a lot of folks I know are pretty well saturated with what they need already. For those who aren’t saturated, the old favorites such as scanners, digital cameras, and MP3 players are great gifts, pretty much essential for modern life, and one of the few product realms that get cheaper and better all the time.

Looking back on some of the products I reviewed over the course of this year, high tech or otherwise, my favorite remains the Cabela’s Outback Series Computer Attaché, which I wrote about on Aug. 15. It’s overkill for strictly local duty in Saipan, but if you know anyone who travels a lot, this thing can’t be beat. Mine is sitting with me in as I type these words on vacation. I haul it everywhere.

Anyway, to make up for the paucity of must-have tech toys this year, I’ll post year-in-review thing on SaipanBlog.com, which will link to a few Saipan Tribune columns from 2008 that cover cool stuff.

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[I] Ed is a pilot, economist, and writer. He holds a degree in economics from UCLA and is a former U.S. naval officer. His column runs every Friday. Visit Ed at TropicalEd.com and SaipanBlog.com.[/I]