Globally , what

In the News:
India is voting - largest democracy goes to the polls
by line :  " Will they elect a liar or a murderer ? " Good one , eh ?

By the Numbers :
Sudan is mess - starvation , loss of dignity etc

Syrian refugees ( or displaced people ) equal the population of most U.S. cities

China is a booming film economy #2 to the U.S. and way ahead of Japan

Actually ,there was a lot more , statistics etc , words like ' billion and 42 % etc   Probably , you deserve more detail but I couldn't be bothered - blah , blah , blah - thats what I saw

Weather : cold wind , gray day - we are a tad above FP.

On the computer front. My fishing buddy ( note , not ex-student ) , took a shot at the laptop Studio 17 in ( S17in ) , that is our main machine ( MM ).
I wanted ' Skype ' to video conference w/ people , esp . places such as England. The cousins , hers not mine have been asking us to ' get w/ it ' and install Skype.
Skype is working , maybe. It worked yesterday , to-day ????
However ,FB noted a) the slow response of our MM
b) we were not downloading updates as recommended

The MM is as fast as its ever been
The download cannot be done - we are not alone
On the Windows Help forum , there were 4 or 5 ' fixes ' for the problem.
FB seemed to understand , I didn't and neither did MM
Thus , it seems in some instances , that I'm on par w/ an ' i 7 ' processor.
this could be bad , this could be good

On the cell phone front. I'm going w/ the i phone 4s.
" Siri ' phone or SP  ( are you keeping track of the acronyms ?? )

Rationale ( this is always good , how people justify , their craziness )
My first expensive phone - $ 400 ( up to now , that was $ 60 )
The technology in 4s is 3 yrs out of date or 3 cycles behind , soon to be 4 - the i phone 6 is due this fall ) That puts SP 4s right about where I always am.
The baby will not go w/out food - we don't got a baby
Some reviewers have lamented that lack of customization in an SP 4s. 
I figure my phone is personalized if I use it - however 

 some phone -es ,make their phone sing and dance and recite poetry or talk world wide to other phones and machines
You could control your home security etc

Maybe , my customization should be , checking if the garage door got left open again from inside the house or from away somewhere.

There is something romantic about popping out to check on the garage door every night. Sort of , communing w/ the night or neighbourhood. Crap , its cold out there sometimes

So ,we've gone from global politics to garage doors
this is life - private Benjamin