It's Gandalf enjoying the view.
I think he's there because of some sort of Dell tie-in promotion with The Hobbit, although I don't see the connection between computers and Middle Earth.
But the most amazing thing I saw at Sitex yesterday was actually this turntable.
I felt like I was transported back to 1980.
You just have to plug in some computer speakers to play it. Of course you also need some vinyl records, which I believe I still have somewhere.
The price tag is $216. I actually thought of buying it, but having to replace the stylus would be a pain. And then I remembered what an ungainly invention the turntable was.
I was grateful when CD players finally became affordable in the late 80s, although it made my record collection obsolete.
And now my CD collection is obsolete. And they're rubbing it in my face by selling turntables again. It's the circle of life, man.
This is why I enjoy making a pilgrimage to every IT show four times a year despite the crowds, even when I'm not planning to buy anything. There's always something to see.
Actually, I bought an iPhone 5 cable ($17!) yesterday along with another set of earphones just because of the unusual braided cabling.
Unfortunately, one of the earpieces has already fallen apart out of the box. I thought of exchanging them, but I did not want to travel all the way from Yew Tee to Expo again. So I just glued them back together.
Fortunately, the sound quality is good enough for $48. Bassy!
(A salesman at Sitex yesterday asked me what kind of headphones I was looking for. I guess he expected me to say good bass or something like that. I said I was looking for headphones with unusual cabling and he just turned away.)
The embarrassing thing about testing headphones on my iPhone with the sales people watching is that some really old uncool songs would show up in the shuffle mode, like Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle Of The Road or anything by Abba.
So I quickly skipped through the songs to find something unembarrassing and yesterday, I discovered that Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin is ideal for testing headphones. It has a heavy bass and it's not Abba.
Incidentally, Led Zep referenced Lord Of The Rings in a few of their songs.
Gandalf lives!
