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Reading “I was skeptical about Snapdragon laptops. A work trip made me a believer” from my news feeds, I couldn’t help but snicker at the actual story content.

See, the first time I had the joys of three planes to reach a destination, I was rocking an Asus EeePC 1015-series that I principally kept in text mode and low key to be able to write on. It didn’t even last the first flight never mind the entire 12 to 14 hour trip. All it literally had to do was run vi to be sufficient for my purposes.

The next time I ended up on such a trip, I was rocking an Eee Pad Transformer TF101 and found it to be a world of difference. Instead of a dead battery on the first flight, I literally had enough power left to fall asleep to Netflix in my hotel room before I even reached for my charger.

In the years since, Intel has managed to “Not suck” on power efficiency but only in relative terms in my experience. It’s not crazy to get a decent work day out of an Intel powered laptop, provided you are not pushing it too hard. But once you ramp up the workload the battery life tanks accordingly as measured in hours away from an outlet. By contrast, my first ARM powered tablet never blinked unless I was compiling code in a chroot for 8 hours straight, on a system that wasn’t meant to work that hard in the first place.

I kinda look at the notion of Windows on ARM with hopefulness, because frankly I think it’s about damn time. What helped PCs take over the computer world is the insane compatibility that IBM and Microsoft compatible machines afforded. Almost all of the Windows 95/XP targeting games in /dev/closet just work on modern machines, despite Intel PCs having changed drastically in every sense. Hell, I still have machines that will boot MS-DOS digital eons after both it and floppy diskette ceased to be relevant.

Compatibility is the best reason to avoid different CPU architectures, especially for ‘brainless’ perspectives. But we passed the point where native code was the only option: Apple’s Motorola to PowerPC migration and the original Java virtual machine proved that well enough in the wild. That was several decades ago, and performance has improved all over. Today, my M2 MacBook Air can literally run video games in Rosetta 2 well enough that I wouldn’t know they weren’t native \o/.

One of the things people often forget though, is that Microsoft originally did something really clever back in the 1990s. Windows NT was designed with multiple architectures in mind. In practice, the MIPS and DEC Alpha support didn’t mean much since almost everyone would be using a 386 with a load of memory, or soon would be dominated by x86 one way or another. But NT hedged many bets.

Personally, I have no real love left for Intel despite being an Intel brat most of my PC life. ARM in my experience, better delivers what I tend to want in a battery-powered machine but that tends to be different than what I want in a desktop PC. Likewise, having dealt with more than a bit of shouting, “Damn it, Intel!” back when I was an embedded monkey, I have even less love professionally than personally. Even more so the further you go from purely CPU and into their other pieces of the puzzle.

They had a good run, but I say hasta la vista, Intel.

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On a day that’s been filled with tunes I haven’t heard in a while, I was somewhat fortunate, and oddly emotional, hearing this old favorite come on the car radio. While the things I miss aren’t always, or perhaps even often, what I had imagined growing up, I’ve always been fond of this Trace Adkins song.

She was staring out the window of that SUV
Complaining, saying "I can't wait to turn eighteen"
She said "I'll make my own money and I'll make my own rules"
Mama put the car in park out there in front of the school
And she kissed her head and said, "I was just like you"

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it she's a brand new bride
In her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by
He tells her, "It's a nice place"
She says, "It'll do for now"
Starts talkin' about babies and buyin' a house
Daddy shakes his head and says, "Baby, just slow down, 'cause"

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plumber workin' on the water heater
Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'
One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin'
And she keeps apologizin'
He says, "They don't bother me
I've got two babies of my own
One's thirty-six, one's twenty-three
Huh, it's hard to believe, but"

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna' miss this
Yeah
You're gonna' miss this

Random irony

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A couple days ago, the top sheet I’ve used as a light blanket tore, after probably 15 years of being used. I used to keep it apart, so when the dogs stole my blankets I’d still have something and it kind of evolved into being what I wrap myself with at my desk, etc.

In shopping for a possible replacement, I came across a blanket that I decided to order in the hopes of replacing it, since the woobie is a bit too warm for the same use cases.

The part that makes me snortle about the irony of it all? It’s expected to arrive the same day as a winter storm and several inches of snow!

Reading streak

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An eventual side effect of my goal of reading a little bit every day has been the obvious: to make it an entire year with having read something every day. Typically, I use the kindle reading insights for keeping a tab on this, and have for a few years now.

Well, last year, that every day for a year effort was kind of thwarted, more by software issues than absence, despite being a bit hectic. Today however, I kind of smile–my reading streak shows as 719 days in a row, 122 weeks in a row. So at long last, I’ve completed that goal.

And ya know what I plan to do next? Read another book!

WiBArM

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There was a game that I played as a child on our old Tandy 1000 that I’ve wanted to look up for about the last 20 years or so. A relative had sent us a copy, but no one really could read it since the instructions were in Japanese. The 5 1/4″ diskette however, worked just fine.

One of those problems with being a kid, even if I can remember things from way back in more details than I probably should, is that memory is more visual than auditory for me. My best recollection of the name was something like ‘Wib barn,” but hey I was like 5 when I played the game! It’s not like I could spell yet! Literally, I was using MS-DOS before I could read…lol.

Needless to say, trying to find the game on this side of the floppy diskette era has been largely fruitless whenever I’ve tried.

Well, last night I was watching a video on 80s game development, and noticed that the clip of Thexder was Really, Really similar to what I remember but definitely not the same game. Sadly, doing some research into the game also showed that its sequel wasn’t it. Also, I’m pretty sure that I never encountered the Firehawk games personally.

Attempting to find similar games led me to the similar games tab on Giant Bomb, which began as mostly another exercise in futility. I’ve tried to look up the game in the past, always without success. Like seriously, how many late 80s side scrollers were there where you can transform between a robot, and a jet, and a car while exploring pseudo 3D dungeons reminiscent of the Windows 95 Maze? Yeah, you’d think that’s easy, but a lot of old stuff on old video games never made a big impact on the Internet. There were more than a few such ‘robot’ games, but I don’t think any that combined all three modes.

Then in scrolling through the list, I come across one word and it’s like “Holy shit, I remembered the name right,” and lo’ and behold: their page on Wibarm even matches my childhood memory to a tee on the screenshots. It’s without a doubt the same game, and it checks all the boxes: the three modes, the side scroll and 3D like dungeon, and the almost RPG like battles when you encounter the mobs.

So now, after many years, I finally know what that game was, and that my childhood memories are even more accurate than I expected.

Thoughts on Home Audio

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In general, I haven’t cared too much about whole home audio, but have had that available long enough to not really care.

The first setup I had for that, was based around Chromecast almost a decade ago. The 5.1 Vizio surround sound system I had in my apartment had Chromecast support, and the Chromecast Audio was very cheap and very effective when paired with the AUX/Line-In on the analog based Logitech 2.1 that was hooked up to my desktop. No real complaints about the multi-room audio support, although the sound system was enough to fill my apartment.

Sadly, those both audio devices went the way of the trash heap over the years. And I haven’t really used the Chromecast audio since the move to Desktop=Games, Laptop=Desktop. The move from Android to iPad tablet made that less of a concern, since the iPad Pro was only secondary to the surround sound system in terms of speaker quality at home, and could fill my entire apartment with music almost as easily.

The second setup, which is still in use, is an Alexa based one. Over a lustrum, things expanded from a simple puck based Dot, to an orb with a clock. Enough to easily have the audio controls over my shit in the bedroom and kitchen/living room space of my apartment. These days, one of those is still on my headboard and the other is in my kitchen/dining area; and I bought a Pop to gain Alexa control in the study.

Because of how good Nerine’s speakers were, I never really cared too much about the whole home audio was, even after losing the surround-sound setup. Doing multi-room audio with Alexa worked well enough in my experience. But in practice, I only tend to need current room audio and at most, briefly next room audio. The kicker however, is that what audio device I’m playing from can vary. It’s usually going to be my tablet, but it might be my laptop, or my phone, or one of the experiment earlier this year, etc, and sometimes my devices change.

That’s kind of what lead to the Roam 2 solution. I was never really impressed with the Echo Dots for music playback, but they were good enough for anything not an iPad Pro. Since Nerine’s retirement, that’s now basically the case for anything, because the Mini can’t beat the Pro on listening to music, lol.

For me, the dots have always been more about whole-home Alexa control than whole-home audio. But really, both have been a pain in the ass in recent years. Generally, I liked Alexa control. As a voice assistant, it worked better than Siri which has always been rather meh for me and unlike Google’s, doesn’t tend to make me rage-monkey. Let’s just say, Google’s voice assistant wasn’t a concern when I left the Android eco-system.

Since Amazon’s cutting up of their Alexa division, I’ve generally found myself going more “Why do I even bother” at how well my Alexa control works, both in terms of voice recognition and third party things. Enough so, that I mostly consider its days numbered at this point. Since discovering that my watch can handle “Hey Siri, turn on the book lights,” I’m even more considering the end of Alexa control. As meh as my relationship with Siri is, when it works, it does actually work.

E.g., if my typical use case is like, “Alexa, turn on the book lights,” as I’m changing my clothes after work–there’s two ways this exchange can end. Either the lights turn on by the time my belt’s off, or I may as well go out of my way to do it by hand. Let’s just say that I’ve become grateful over the last couple years that the controllers for my Nanoleaf lights are easily accessible, and that they use a capacitive button that doesn’t make me worry about straining the adhesives.

That’s how much my relationship with Alexa control has soured in the last two years compared to how well it worked (let’s Alexa all the rooms) ~five years ago.

In terms of a Bluetooth speaker for the current room though, I’m basically calling the Alexa setup a dead stick. Much more than saying “Pair phone” and hoping the current Dot connects to my tablet, and it’s more bother than it’s worth. Pairing new devices typically ended with grumbles like the Dot connecting to my actual phone not the device I’m using, issues in getting it to connect to the device I’ve named, and the joyous fun that is connecting a new device–even if using the Alexa app.

So, a portable speaker is looking to be a good plan. Off sale, the Roam 2 costs a bit less than my surround sound system did, and on sale closer to what replacement for my JBLs were looking like on a purely Bluetooth front.

I think Sonos is too damn expensive for building my next surround sound system, and may be too expensive for my taste in terms of equipping a speaker per major room, even if I exclude the smart home control as a factor. Really, for downstairs it would make more sense to just migrate from Fire TV to Apple TV for being able to use an AirPlay target–when I eventually go surround-sound. Since the Vizio’s demise, I’ve just made due with the TV’s integrated speakers and been glad that they don’t sound like ass.

For the short to medium term plans though, both audio and smart home control are on the agenda. For right now though, AirPlay -> Roam 2 -> take it with me, is looking to be a good plan. Plus in the study, my laptop is usually docked with the Pebbles on, making it a dandy AirPlay target.

Sonos + AirPlay 2 = :)

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For years, a friend’s told me to just buy a damn Sonos. To which, I’ve generally regarded that as the same kind of problem as why I don’t drive a Porsche–to damn expensive 😜.

Recently though, audio has been a minor thorn in my side. Getting bluetooth audio stuff to work with Alexa is mostly a pain in the ass when you have multiple input devices, and picking music in the vain of ‘Alexa, play ….’ is nice but not preferable. I used to have a pair of JBL Bluetooth speakers, one of which I gave a friend and the other, well, I frankly have no idea where the fuck it ended up.

So, flash forward to today: I may be in the study, in my bedroom, or in the kitchen. My iPad Pro’s quadraphonic speakers were great, like really I didn’t give a hoot about it being four channels-the speakers themselves were great, and while it doesn’t fill my entire home with music the way it used to in the apartment, it’s close enough. Nerine was a great machine for music.

Mayumi, the iPad mini that replaced it, on the other hand has more ordinary speakers: not great, not bad, but nothing really to write home about either. I’d say it’s a little worse than Shion’s speakers and most of my Alexas. But to be fair, music from my tablet speakers has always been an auxiliary function not a primary function–that’s what headphones and speakers are for after all.

In practice it works better to AirPlay from my iPad to my laptop when I’m in the study than to use the younger Echo. If Shion is docked, the pair of Pebbles that replaced my desktop’s old 2.1 Logitech system when it died some years back, actually sound pretty damn great and I love the audio output. I forget how much I paid for those Pebble v3s but damn, it was money well spent! In my bedroom, I’ll usually use the old Echo Dot with a clock on my headboard, after the occasional argument over which device to Bluetooth audio from and that sometimes ends with silence from the lack of wanting to beat it into submission. Downstairs the way it typically goes is wanting to use the really-old Echo Dot and ends with using my iPad speakers because the goal is to cook dinner not win battles against technology.

My remaining Bluetooth speaker hasn’t turned up over the past year, and a replacement surround sound system has been on hiatus for other reasons. So, I decided to shop for a suitable speaker for Christmas. Sonos’s Roam 2 being the winner in the end.

Contenders for this plan included Apple’s HomePod Mini, which would provide both an AirPlay target and an avenue for an idea I’ve had on the mind for a while: possible replacements for Alexa. The problem there is unlike Echo Dot’s, they’re expensive to scale and some new hardware is likely on the horizon, so I’m hesitant to dig into that. The other contender: find an AirPlay capable speaker, preferably one with a Bluetooth function or an analog line-in.

Turns out that there are actually a good number of AirPlay capable speakers now. In the end though, I opted for the Roam 2. Probably cheaper than finding another one of the JBLs I used to use, which apparently were popular enough that as years went on, the price went from okay to crazy, lol. While for me, the Roam 2 is very expensive, unlike creating a whole home audio or a surround sound setup with Sonos, it’s not prohibitively expensive.

Thus far, the little buddy passes the first test cases: P!nk’s Funhouse album and AirPlay. I often use “So What” as one of my reference songs for audio playback, among several others. So far, it’s a win ;). While waiting on my Blu-ray rips to finish, it’s also a good excuse to listen to music.

I was a little concerned about the Roam 2’s audio quality, given reviews that I’ve read. But I have no complaints. Being someone who likes music but isn’t an audiophile, I would say if this puppy sounds bad, you shouldn’t be using a portable speaker or must be moving beyond its range. Generally, I answer both those questions with “If I wouldn’t otherwise have audio, I’m not gonna complain unless it sounds like ass,” and quite frankly it sounds better than my tablet and laptop. Certainly no worse than my various Alexa devices :P.

More importantly, it doesn’t drive me batshit when wanting to connect something….

RTX space heating

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One thing that I’ve learned with being cooped up by this hamstring, is Rimuru makes a superb space heater. A while back, I bought a small sensor wanting to get an idea of the humidity in the study, since sometimes it gets rather warm.

Rimuru’s waste heat when pumping out the 4070 Ti is actually enough to significantly raise the temperature in here. After a long gaming session the study’s temperature can climb as as high as 26 C versus 21 C across the house where my thermostat is located. Or roughly, play video games long enough and the temperature rises about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Enough that opening the window is more effective than mucking with the thermostat, but then that dries things out on the humidity front. It’s quite an effective space heater when outputting 2160p, but fortunately that’s predominantly waste heat rather than internal. It’s got great cooling, the problem is the place it sends that heat is outside the case ;).

By contrast while the study TV likely has a larger amount of waste heat than the monitor at my desk, Steam Deck event when combined with its dock and an external hard drive, doesn’t really seem to affect the temperature in here at all. Considering the machine would probably become a hand grenade or a pot of thermite if it generated as much heat as the RTX card, that’s not too shabby. It’s more of a 720p/low than 4K/high on more modern games since the APU’s more like an Xbox One, but Steam Deck is actually quite capable for what it’s able to actually run. Plus for older games like MGS:V that were developed around the XB1 era, it can basically pump those out at 720p with max graphics.

So, I think in the future I may want to consider a wee bit more about how to ventilate Rimuru’s place in the study, or perhaps just angle its asshole towards the open door instead of the wall.

And then there’s the fact that without hamstring trouble, I’d actually like to get up and walk around more often \o/ \o/ \o/.

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On one hand, starting off Christmas break with a pulled hamstring kind of sucks. On the other hand, there’s a great upside to being home: not having to walk a lot.

Of course that also comes with the downside of hauling my ass up and down the stairs, lol.

An unexpected fusion

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Sometimes when it comes to music, you’ve just got to listen because it makes you go, “Huh, I really wonder what that would sound like. And ya know what? Sometimes I’m not disappointed!

Shamisen is a sound that resonates a little closer to home, being a stringed instrument. It’s just a different spectrum than I’m used to hearing. By contrast the metal aspects, well, that both kicks it up a notch and works well.

Urge to play video games, rising….