Green spot

The relentless grind of the holiday season has kept me from blogging about the dive trip to Phuket, but here's a little observation from the trip.

2 years ago when I first spotted these green laser pointers for sale online, their prices were in the hundreds.  Two weeks ago, I saw these in Phuket, being used by street hawkers to get the attention of tourists like me - they would fling a green laser spot on the ground, and once they'd got your attention, proceed to try and sell you various trinkets.  They weren't even really selling these, but after bargaining, I got one for 1000 baht - which is less than SGD$50.  I was struck by how fast technology moves from being "cutting-edge" to mainstream - how something can be state of the art one year, and be in the hands of the poorest denizens the next, how rarefied hi-tech becomes a simple tool for daily use so quickly. 

Let's see how fast these new blue laser pointers drop in price then.