For the sake of this column, and for you, gentle reader, I placed myself in harm's way and subjected myself to potential financial ruin…

I went to the Sitex computer show, my first computer show trip in years.

The question I wanted answered was, “Is a visit to a computer show still as harrowing as I remember?” I had to find out.

This year, the show was at Expo, and I decided not to drive there but took the MRT instead.

My goal was to pick up a media player for myself (the kind that hook up to a TV and plays digital video) and a big screen TV for dad. I was quite pleased with the walking space at Expo compared to Suntec City computer shows. Where the latter always had bottlenecks at the escalators, Expo was just one big floor.

I went from one booth to another, looking at what each media player brand had to offer and asking questions that would make a computer show nerd proud.

“Does your player support MKV? DTS audio with pass-through via S/PDIF Coaxial/Optical? Streaming over LAN and WLAN?” I asked each vendor.