PHILIPS PHL 221S8L
Those who have been reading this blog for a long time would perhaps know that I had bought a Viewsonic 19″ almost 12 years ago. The Monitor was functioning well till last week. I had thought to change it to a 24″ monitor almost 3-4 years ago when 24″ LCD Monitors were going for around 4k/- or thereabouts. But the monitor kept on functioning and I didn’t have space (nor do) to have a dual-monitor setup. It just didn’t make sense. Apart from higher electricity charges it would have also have made more demands on my old system which somehow is still functioning even after all those years.
Then last week, it started to dim and after couple of days completely conked out. I had wanted to buy a new monitor in front of mum so she could watch movies or whatever but this was not to be. Sp I had to buy an LCD Monitor as Government raised taxes enormously after pandemic. Same/similar monitor that used to cost INR 4k/- today costed me almost INR 7k/- almost double the price. Hooking it to Debian I got the following – $ sudo hwinfo --monitor | grep Model Model: "PHILIPS PHL 221S8L"
FWIW hwinfo is the latest version –
~$ sudo hwinfo --version21.82
I did see couple of movies before starting to write this blog post. Not an exceptional monitor but better than before. I had option from three brands, Dell (most expensive), Philips (middle) and & LG (lowest in prices). Interestingly, Viewsonic disappeared from the market about 5 years back and made a comeback just couple of years ago. Even Philips which had exited the PC Monitor almost a decade back re-entered the market. Apart from the branding, it doesn’t make much of a difference as almost all the products including the above monitors are produced in China. I did remember her a lot while buying the monitor as I’m sure she would have enjoyed it far more than me but that was not to be 😦
1984
During last week when I didn’t have the monitor I re-read 1984. To be completely honest, I had read the above book when I was in the 20’s and I had no context. The protagonist seemed like a whiner and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why he didn’t try to escape. Re-reading after almost 2 decades and a bit more I shat a number of times because now the context is pretty near and pretty real. I can see why the Republicans in the U.S. banned it. I also realized why the protagnist didn’t attempt to run away because wherever he would run away it would be the same thing. It probably is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. To willfully accept what is false after all that torture.
What was also interesting to me is to find that George Orwell was also a soldier just like Tolkien was. Both took part and wrote such different stories. While Mr. Tolkien writes and shares the pendulum between hope and despair, Mr. Orwell is decidedly dark. Not grey but dark. I am not sure if I would like to read Animal Farm anytime soon.
The Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett
It is by sheer coincidence or perhaps I needed something to fill me up when I got The Reaper Man from Terry Pratchett. It was practically like a breath of fresh air. And I love Mr. Pratchett for the inclusivity he brings in. We think about skin color, and what not and here Mr. Pratchett writes about an undead gentleman who’s extremely polite as he was a wizard. I won’t talk more as I don’t really want to spoil the surprise but rest assured everybody is gonna love it. I also read Long Utopia but this is for those who believe and think of multiverses long before it became a buzzword that it is today.
The Firm – John Grisham
Now I don’t know what I should write about this book as there aren’t many John Grisham books where a rookie wins against more than one party opposite him. I wouldn’t go much into depth but simply say it was worth a read. I am currently reading Gray Mountain. It very much shows how the coal Industry is corrupt and what all it does. It also brings to mind the amount of mining that is done in which Iron is the mostly sought after and done. Now if we are mining 94% Iron then wouldn’t it make sense to ask to have a circular economy around Iron but we don’t even hear a word about it. Even with all the imagined projections of lithium mining, it would hardly be 10% .
I could go on but will finish for now, till later.
Experiences in the community 