J. Palmer

I think two of the primary reasons why I let the laptop fall out of memory are that: 1.) the thing is slow, and; 2.) connectivity issues.

Speed really isn’t that huge of a deal; the issue there lies mainly in that it’s an old netbook that was built to run Windows XP at an awesome pace in a Windows Vista and Windows 7 world. It’s old. It just can’t handle the weight of modern browsers accessing the modern web–unless I tried to use lighter, handicapped browsers, which I’m really not opposed to.

Connectivity issues are probably my biggest problem with the thing. I really don’t know what is up with the wireless in this laptop. I’m guessing that the radio might just be suffering from it’s design–maybe it’s low-powered when compared to others, and it’s the low power design that causes it to be weak. More likely, however, is that there is an issue with the antenna, and I just can’t catch a strong enough signal thanks to the wire being routed funny or accidentally grounded out somewhere.

I went ahead and did a fresh install of Debian on it the other night, and it seems to be running a bit better, so some of the issues I had been noticing were related to the previous OS and what I’d done to it. Sad, really, as I remember having fun using the distro I had previously installed–Q4OS. I think what my issue there had ended up becoming was my preferences for vanilla versions of random applications over the ones tweaked for Q4OS, and then the random program or two requiring libraries outside of that distro’s base; so my punching holes and adding on top of the OS just kind of ruined it.

But, now, the laptop seems to be running fine–or as fine as is to be expected, given what I’m trying to do with it.

Just a quick random note for the heck of it. I just discovered that I had a whole other laptop that I forgot about. It ain’t anything to write home about, as it–like most of my other hardware–is way out of date; but it’s a laptop that I forgot about!

Long time, no write.

I’m not really sure how long it’s been since I’ve written anything–maybe a week or two.  That’s not because I haven’t had anything to write about–I have–I’ve just not had much time to sit down and write, though I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’ve been too busy; I’ve just been focused on other things. One of the most recent things that I’ve had stealing my focus away is what I’m using to write this entry–a “new” laptop!

My parents came over the other day, as I *finally* found some time available to help my dad out with an issue he had with his van. For the past few months–maybe longer–dad’s been waiting for me to be available to change a plug, because it would be a total pain in the ass for him to attempt to do so–the joys of vans with recessed engine compartments. Anyway, when they came, they brought a gift from my sister–an old ThinkPad she was no longer using. This is now the newest computer I own, lol.

I really haven’t done much to the laptop, other than set up an account, install a few packages, and introduce it to the home network. It came with Mint installed and I decided to keep it, since I’m familiar, and I’m already a fan of Debian derivatives. The only “work” I had to do was drop into a root shell, reset her password and then use that account to create mine; then I killed that account and reset mine to the newly freed user and group id.

Other than laptop things, I toyed around with some cheap junk I got from Ali. I picked up a couple of flash drives, and neither one worked as expected, which I guess is really what should have been expected. One drive is “damaged” according to F3–it won’t allow anything to happen other than attempts at creating partitions; the other has an identity crisis–it’s an 8GB drive that thinks it’s a terabyte. Sadly, I’d hoped that maybe I could use that fake one for the Wii, but where it turned out to be only 8GB it’s not useful for much of anything other than sneaker-net use.

I did, however, manage to recover data from one of the previous drives I was using on the Wii, so I don’t need to re-download anything whenever I do finally get a drive for it. Hopefully, whenever that happens, the kids will keep calm and stop tripping over or yanking controllers around, as I will most likely get yet another spinning disk as a replacement instead of something solid state. Yes, I said yanking and tripping over cords–the kids have preferences for games that take advantage of the GameCube controllers, though there are a few they do like that use the Wii-motes.

*sigh*

Well, I guess it’s time for work. Maybe I’ll come back later today and write some more.