Old MacBook Air - Still a Credible Machine!

When my new MacBook Air, the one with an M2 chip I bought 3 months ago, went into the shop for repairs recently I fell back to using my old MacBook Air as a replacement for several days. Ugh, I thought, this is going to suck. My old 'Air is now almost 7 years old. In terms of modern tech that's almost two lifetimes ago. How slow and primitive would the old computer be? How much would I be limping along while my new laptop was in the shop?

Much to my surprise my 7 year old MacBook Air remains a fairly credible machine. Now, I wasn't pushing it hard; just running an email client, a web browser with a few tabs open, Excel, and occasionally PhotoShop Elements. But frankly that's already more than many home users do. And the 7 year old Air handled it with aplomb.

So why did I spend so much on upgrading this machine? I wondered a few times. (My new Air cost $1800.) Well, the newer one is faster. The display is sharper. It's actually even lighter. And the storage is way bigger. I wrote about these improvements 10 days after getting my new computer. Plus, the old one is old. The power cord is fraying. How soon until something breaks? It's better to replace a computer before it becomes a crisis.

But it's good to know that if I ever do need a backup machine, that trusty 7-year-old Air remains ready.

Inflation is "ONLY" 7.7%, Wall Street Goes Wild!

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics today published the much anticipated consumer price index (CPI) for October. Economists' consensus was that it'd come in at 7.9%. That'd be a high rate, though less than June's 9.1%, a 40 year peak, or even last month's 8.2% level. Well, the figure came in slightly less bad than expected: only 7.7%. But Wall Street went wild.



Stocks went on a tear today. The S&P 500 index rose 5.5%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ rose more than 7.3%. Within the technology sector heavy hitter Apple was +7.3%, Amazon +12.2%, NVidia +14.3%.

While traders on Wall Street were living it up, I was out grocery shopping on Main Street. The price of the carton of milk I bought today was 13% higher than just one week ago.

It's not just milk that's getting more expensive. Across the past year I've seen prices on many grocery staples rise by 50% or more.

"Why isn't the inflation number higher, like 50%, then?" you might ask.

It's because the official inflation metric used excludes "volatile" things like food. Riiight, one of the core necessities of life, food, is excluded from the statistics.