Before the holidays, I had the problem that Rimuru would power on in a brain dead state — fans would spin up, most buses would power their components, and so on. But it wouldn’t POST or reach BIOS. Just brain dead. The only way to turn it on or off was the cord and kill switch on the PSU, and trying to hold the power switch on the case would just act like a reset and then total brain death with running fans.
Captain’s Log
So far, my evil desk replacement plan has gone relatively well.
The riser that came with my new desk places the monitor too high for my tastes, and was kind of edge to edge. To compensate, I’ve replaced it with a decent monitor arm. In general: I tend to prefer my monitors lower when they’re larger / further away and high up there when they’re smaller / closer. My goal was to open room under neath for a laptop to be docked not change the monitor positioning.
On the flip side, my LG was pretty darn painless to replace its integrated stand with the arm. Using the arm also gives me better cable management and unlike the un-adjustable one my monitor came with; I could always add binder clips to it. Hehe.
Speaking of binder clips: since I had to rewire all the things, I added a pair to the back of my desk. One to the left to keep the monitor’s power brick from moving around and one to the right to retain the incoming Ethernet cable. I also fed my mouse and probably speaker data cables through it before routing accordingly.
To facilitate fast swapping between Rimuru and a laptop, I got myself a fancy USB-C hub. The USB-A hub affixed to monitor via velcro is now connected to one of its USB-A ports and my speaker is in its USB-C data port. Mouse, web camera, and Xbox adapter are in the USB-A hub on the monitor. Pretty much fetch an HDMI cable and network cable out of the closet and it’s a one cable swap to my work MBP, and a second cable for its charger.
Because the hub’s cable can’t reach Rimuru’s 10 Gbit/s USB-C card and the 5 Gbit/s hub on the monitor was barely reaching one of Rimuru’s motherboard USB-A ports, the solution was a 10 Gbit/s USB-C extension cable running from his expansion card to the hub. That extension cable is retained by the same binder clip as the monitor’s power supply, so it won’t fall off between the narrow gap between desk and wall when swapping cables. ‘Cuz I know how that goes ;).
To facilitate this “All the things follow one cable” plan creates a bottle neck but considering that this bottle neck is a 10 Gbit/s, I don’t really mind. Most of my USB-A peripherals have limited power and data requirements. We’re talking about whether the 1080p web cam or the simple speakers draw more juice. Not trying to power a spinning hard drive and a desk lamp.
An added benefit of this novel approach is I’ve worked around an annoying problem.
Back when my first USB floppy drive went bork-bork, I had a spell where some of Rimuru’s USB-A ports seemed dead, then went back to working. In the months (~year) since then most of his ports behave in a way that makes me believe that most of the fuses are blown. As a consequence, peripherals have generally been moved to the USB-A hub on the monitor and it connected to one of the still good ports on the motherboard’s I/O panel.
Given that whatever the warranty status and pain in the assery of that might be, it’s probably a good thing my Real Focus on connectivity has been USB-C stuff, it’s probably a good thing that I bought that 10 Gbit/s expansion card for two more C ports. Considering the fuses are probably under the big ass heat sinkage and tiny as !@#$ to desoldier and replace, I’m going with definitely was a good plan to buy that expansion card.
Moving things to my one cable swap all the equipment plan kind of removes this problem. But to cope with it, I’m thinking of two more changes. Another hub on the back of the monitor that keeps the mouse/camera from sticking out the side, and a 5 Gbit/s expansion card to put some A ports where my motherboard’s PCI-E x1 slot is available. Since 10 Gbit/s requires an x4 slot, that’s already consumed by my USB-C expansion card.
Ahh, the joy of computers. Fuck them all.
Desk Plans
For the first time in quite a few years, I’m planning on a different desk setup at home. Actually, for the first time in about 16 years, I’m buying a new desk as part of the plan.
The small desk that I use has been slighted modified to suit my preference for keyboard on slab over its slide out keyboard tray. But otherwise, it’s about the same desk my mom bought about 20 years ago when we got a Pentium 4. Making the migration away from keyboard trays, and frankly having held up much better, is why it replaced my desk that I bought about 16 years ago when I got my own personal computer.
Here’s what I’m envisioning:
- A slab style desk about 40″ wide.
- Monitor riser to hold the big ass monitor.
- Laptop docked under the riser.
- Speakers to either side.
- Some means of swapping between tower and laptop.
So, I’ve finally decided to give it a shot. For a while I’ve had some interest in the various sensors Apple Watches have, and due to recent affairs, I pretty much find myself with greater need to be aware of what time it happens to be and whether or not there is a meeting on the agenda. Frankly, I’m tired of walking to the head or the snack bar and checking my phone for the time.
Combining these factors, along with the Xbox Series X continuing to be more Unicorn than not as far as budgeted upgrade paths go, I did something I rarely do: I bought myself an expensive birthday present! With my birthday coming up soon, I decided to pull the trigger and just do it. Something that’s not a unicorn always taps that earmarked piece of my savings anyway. Actually, thinking about it, if you discount that time I ended up needing a car near Christmas time, buying a Apple Watch Series 7 is probably the second or the most expensive ‘gift’ I’ve ever picked for myself 😃😄😂. In retrospect, it’s also the first time I’ve ever been to an Apple Store, and probably the first time I’ve gone to a certain nearby mall in a about a decade.
My choice between the SE and S7 is mainly about the sensors; for all other factors I’d rather save on price. Of course, in September there will probably be nice sales if Series 8 lands at the usual time frame but I’m not a Virgo or a Libra. In terms of style being the bland sort, a nice black case and a dark green leather band in 45 mm. Something that fits both my taste and will blend in whether at work or out and about. Might investigate some of the NATO nylon straps and stainless-steel bands on Amazon for variety, but so far, so happy. The leather link uses a magnet clasp that’s as easy as Velcro, and more comfortable than the regular sports and leather bands with the usual through hole buckle that I’ve worn over the years.
This makes the third watch I’ve owned since about 1999, and the second that I’ve bought for myself. Remarkably, it’s also the most expensive. Back around ’99 is when I bought the watch that I used most in my life, for a whole remarkable ten bucks at Walmart. The only other watch I’ve used since then was a really, really slick hand me down. Until about 2010, I had intermixed between watch and watch less and set it aside sometime after adapting to phones in 2010. I can say that my desire for phones likely peaked somewhere in the middle and has long since waned in favor of tablets.
On the flipside, maybe the three rings will convince me to move my lazy fat ass more often ^_^.
Ahh, it’s been a busy few weeks.
As such I mainly have two core objectives right now.
First is what I refer to as “Drool on the couch”. Rest and relaxation in the manner of Home Simpson. Except for me that tends to look more like Netflix or video games than a beer.
Second is to catch up on my backlog. Things that need to get sorted but don’t always make it into the week. Not to mention trying to get a headstart.
Actually, I find it kind of bemusing that grocery shopping is usually scheduled in terms of when the dogs food and snacks are getting due for refill, or when my own snack pool thins out 😋
Reflections upon my career
For the most part, I’ve never been a big believer in bucket lists. At least not the kind you wait until you’re dying to start checking off. In thinking recently, I’ve come to realize that the work I’ve done over the years probably checks those kinds of boxes on my career in software engineering.
One of the reasons that I love choice-based adventure games is that it offers opportunities for both introspection and escape. Will you put yourself into context, or will you role-play a part? Games like Detroit: Become Human and House of Ashes offer much opportunity for both.
There as a thing my mother used to mention every now and then, I loosely remember it as
They’re coming to take me away,
Haha, they’re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
To the Happy Home with Trees and Flowers
And Chirping Birds, …
I always figured this was a poem or a limerick from her youth. Except I could swear there was a mention of cows and chickens somewhere. In looking it up, I’m just going to guess she had a LP of Napoleon XIV somewhere.
Actually, that would make some sense if its circa ’66. Perhaps in more ways than one.
PowerBook Duo 230
So, I kind of lost my marbles and decided to work on a nearly 30 year old computer as a project. Growing up in a PC family: my knowledge of the classic Mac operating system is quite limited compared to modern anything, or even ye ol’ MS-DOS. I’ve also never been as fond of emulators as actual hardware.
Bits & Pieces |
- PowerBook Duo 230 /w charger and dead battery
- MiniDock with the modem, HDI and mDIN connectors
- External HDI-20 floppy
- 20 MB RAM module (not pictured)
Partial disassembly |
- Power
- Storage
- Software
There’s a concept that I tend to think of as “Haha, only so serious” for lacking a better way to describe it.
I tend to view seriousness and humor as a balanced dualism that goes hand in hand rather than as diametrically opposed sides of the coin. The best humor tends to filter through by taking ourselves seriously, but not oh so seriously that we forget to laugh in the moment.
Perhaps I feel this way because life tends to be more like The Joker’s laugh after Batman wins and pawns him off on commissioner Gordan. Far more than our laughter in the real world tends to be as brazen as a chorus doing the can-can. Thus as someone who enjoys a good laugh, I tend to appreciate humor that stems from not taking oneself too seriously.