Ruslan's Gadget Corner

Leaving the shop

After four years I am leaving the phone shop. I got a job at a repair centre, real repairs with a soldering iron, not only selling covers.

I don't think I will write here a lot more. Everybody reads things on the phone now and the phone does not like long posts. Thanks for all your questions. And no, Nokia is not dead. (Maybe a little.)

I went to see the repair centre

I went on Friday, after work, to the repair centre on the other side of the river. They have a big room with six tables, six lamps and six men with soldering irons. The smell of flux, which is the smell I want to wear in my coat for the rest of my life.

The boss is called Rinat, I think, I forgot to ask the last name. He gave me a broken phone with a swollen battery and a dead board and said: "Fix it." I had never done it before in front of a man who knew how. It took 50 minutes. He looked and said: "The solder is ugly. The phone works."

I start in May. Four years of selling covers. I am a little afraid and quite happy.

Now you can post from the phone!

Kündölük 3.0 is out and it has a button "Post from phone". I wrote this on the bus. It took 20 minutes, because the phone predicts the wrong words. I wrote "gadget" and it wrote "gazelle". I think I'll leave it.

Is it good? Yes. Will I post more? Probably. Will you be able to read it? Yes, the blog looks fine on a small screen. Is it dangerous? A little. On the bus, in the morning, I forgot my stop.

What the winter taught the shop

The electricity is better since last week, four hours on, two off. I counted what we sold in the dark months. Candles were not on the list, but they sold. Battery packs were sold out three times. Chargers for the car, same. Radios with a handle that you turn, two hundred of them, to a customer who said: "I would like to hear the news without asking the socket."

The thing I did not expect: people came to the shop to stand. The shop had a generator. We let them charge a phone for free for ten minutes, and they stood by the counter, talking about the dam, the prices, the cousins. It was the warmest place on the avenue. The boss said: "You see, a shop is not a counter, it is a room." I wrote it on my hand.

The ten questions I hear every day

The counter at five p.m. The man in the blue jacket has been standing there for twenty minutes, deciding.

A short list, with answers, so that you can skip the queue:

1. "Which phone is the best?" The one in your pocket.
2. "Is it original?" Yes.
3. "Can you put music on it?" Yes, bring a card.
4. "Can you unlock it?" Not in the shop. Ask a man at the bazaar. Do not ask me which.
5. "My daughter dropped it in tea." Dry it, no rice, take out the battery, bring it Monday.
6. "Do you take old phones in exchange?" Yes, they pay almost nothing and I will not lie to you about it.
7. "How long does the battery last?" Two days, unless there are children.
8. "What is Bluetooth?" A small radio with big plans.
9. "Why can't I call Almaty?" It's the line, not you.
10. "Can you teach me to send an SMS?" Yes. Every day, to every grandmother, with patience.

Hello Kündölük 2.0!

New Kündölük is here and it has tags, photo albums and this beautiful glossy theme. Jaltyrak means shiny and it is SHINY. It even has the orange RSS button. I don't know what RSS is but I have the button.

The plan: one post a week about phones and gadgets that you can actually buy in Talas.