Another Two Headed Monster….

The last part of my computer arrived last week. After initially deciding that I wasn’t going to go through it, I decided that indeed I was going to add a second monitor. So I ordered a second ASUS 27 inch monitor. And while it was shipping, I realized that my desk was too small for 2 27” monitors. At least on their normal stands. Fortunately, they both have the screw holes to be wall mountable, and there are dual monitor stands that compatible with that. Of course I pulled the trigger. And then it occurred to me that I might not have the right screws, so in a panic, I ordered them from Spamazon (I actually ordered two since I was setting up two monitors). It turns out that the stand even included the screws and the wrenches to install everything. So I set everything up. Nothing is going to fall over now since the monitors are screwed to the stand and the stand is clamped to the desk.

After all that, just a few settings adjustments, and for the fist time since 2014, I have a two headed monster…

So I had a tablet….

A couple of weeks ago when I screwed up my computer. Enough that I had to practically replace it (enough hardware replacement that I had to buy a new Windows 10 license). I also decided to order a new tablet, so when I needed something I wouldn’t have spend 6 hours patching and upgrading the laptop before I use it. It was delivered right away, but because of work, I couldn’t activate it. So I went to an online chat, and they couldn’t activate it, and told me to call sales. Which really pissed me off. It seemed like I was being bounced around. Now if they were professionally handing me off to somebody else, I would’ve been ok with that. But they were telling me to call someone. To do legwork that they ought to have done themselves. So in frustration I took it to Twitter and pointed out how T-Mobile has piss poor customer service. And that went nowhere. Went back to chat tried it again, and this time after it was unable to activate it, I said I wanted to return it. I had to explicitly explain ‘3 strikes, you’re out’. Another phone call and I finally got the operator to understand that it was coming back (I’m not paying $200 for a Wi-Fi only tablet). So, yesterday I finally got it into UPS to begin it’s journey back.

As a side note, both Sprint and T-Mobile have really piss-poor customer service. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been treated like crap:

• There was my first attempt to upgrade to the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile. They decided to pull a bait-and-switch on my plans. And when I returned the phones, my brother’s line lost all data. So we went to Sprint.
• And really with Sprint, there only two time when I was able to activate my new phone without any issues. There was my first phone (the HTC EVO 3D) and my Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Oh, and my current phone. But the HTC One M7 I had to go to a physical store to activate it. The HTC One M8 I had to reach out on social media. The HTC 10 I had to chew them out on Twitter for 7 hours because they chose to bring down there entire website until my brother came home, and I could call from his phone.
• And speaking of the HTC 10. There was the first I ordered it. I requested in store pick up and activation. And the employee was an ass. I just walked out. Sent Sprint and EECB, and even they couldn’t cancel my order…

And now we can add my attempt at adding a tablet to it. I paid full price for it, and added a line for it. And even after paying for it, they still couldn’t activate it. T-Mobile=Sprint=Piss-Poor customer service…

Hello World! Well, Sorta…

Hello World. As you might be able to tell, my replacement motherboard arrived Monday. And I installed it Monday night. Wasn’t quite as difficult as the first time when I built it. The most difficult part was cleaning the thermal paste off the processor (on a side note, it occurred to me Sunday night that I might not have any, so I placed a pickup order for it from Worst Buy when I was on the bus to work. When I got home, I saw the extra tube I had from the last time I installed my processor, and so I’m not going to pick it up, and it will be automatically refunded to me after a week).

Going by the rule that if I need to replace it, then I’m going to upgrade it I went from a X370 chipset to a X570 chipset. And also I needed to quit Windows 7 cold turkey. Every time I try it, I have to wipe and reinstall everything. And the last time I tried it, I couldn’t even boot the system into BIOS. And the X570 is definitely not compatible with it. So this way, I’ll have to stay on Windows 10.  I also suspected my SSD boot drive was kapoot as well. So I upgraded that. I was going to go with a PCI 4x4 m.2 SSD (use your Google-Fu to figure that out if you have to), but I realized that my processor (still running a Ryzen 7 2700X) didn’t support PCIE 4, so I ordered another PCIE 3x4. But I did upgrade to a 2TB drive. And I still have my 3 8tb HDD’s.

The RAM, video cards and DVD drives remained the same. Yes, if I have to replace it, I’ll upgrade it. But then again, if it works, then don’t try to fix it…

Software-wise I bought an OEM license for Windows. I figure if I’m replacing the motherboard, then Microsoft thinks that I’m getting a brand new computer (remember I replaced the processor last year). Went with the OEM license because I’m building it myself, and I’m my own tech support. The one thing that did surprise me is that I was able to install both Nero and CyberLink without any issues.Probably because they apparently activate when I use them, and I never did…

Well, let’s see how long this lasts…

The Last Day Of My Vacation…

I was going to stay up all night, and force-reset my circadian rhythm to my work schedule. But then I realized I had a UPS delivery coming today (the tablet I ordered yesterday). And then I finally did something that I had thinking about for a while. I ordered a second monitor. This means of course that my coffee maker will be coming out to the kitchen. Or to the closet. My brother has his coffeemaker in the kitchen right now, and I’m not going to argue with him. I’m still waiting for my motherboard to ship (scheduled to arrived on Monday).Today is the last day of my vacation. At 6 tonight, my alarm goes off and I return to work. I only have a three day work week to ease back into the daily grind (I took three vacation days, added them to my normal weekend to get 5 days off).

I really didn’t do much on my vacation. Went up to Federal Way on Wednesday, and while I drank my tea with my former boss, he said that he was going to train me for an emergency back-up at his new store (not to be disclosed yet). I know it’s a good thing not to burn your bridges, but I’ve already worked the equations, and this where location counts. I just can’t make it to his new location. But then again, this could be an opportunity…

Well, I did do something important: sleep. Late at night, with my computer f*cked up, I decided to take a 4 hour nap. And then another 4 hour nap in the afternoon, and I was good to go. And I had day light available to do stuff. And watch TV without having to DVR…

Yet Another Vacation Update….

Looking at the specs for my forthcoming motherboard (based on the AMD X570 chipset), I realized that my current processor (Ryzen 7 2700X) does not yet support PCIE 4x4 SSDs (use your Google-Fu if you can’t understand what I just wrote). I’ve already ordered and already received a PCIE 4x4 drive, thinking that I’d upgrade. Since this was my mistake I’m not going to return it (No need to hold the eBay merchant responsible for me not looking at the details). I’ll just hold until I upgrade my processor.

Having said that, I do have concerns about carrying over my old PICE 3x4 SSD that I was using with the old motherboard. It might have failed, and there is one other concern: a heatsink. The new motherboard has a heatsink specifically for the m.2 drives. And my old SSD already has a heatsink on it, and I don’t want to deal with peeling it off.

So, I just ordered a new one. This time I’m going from a 1 TB to a 2TB. And both m.2 slots are fully compatible with PCIE 3x4 as well. So, when I can afford a new processor, I can still use it. In addition to my 3 8TB old skool hard drives.

Another concern is a lack of wi-fi on the motherboard. Fortunately, the literature prominently mentioned that it had a slot for the same Intel wi-fi card. So it has been ordered and recieved already…

Today on my vacation will be a trip to Wally World. I need insulin. And there will be an attempt to reset my circadian rhythm back to something compatible with work. Basically no more 4 hour naps….

More Poor Judgement on my part

After messing my computer royally Monday morning, thought there has to be an easier to get online without pulling the laptop and spending 4hours to bring it up to date. And then I thought: A tablet! Yes, I’ve gone down that road before. And I’ve also had a USB modem before. But I decided it’s time to get a tablet again. I ordered a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite. I’m going for top of the line. And I’m not going with the installment plan (only $200. I paid for it up front). The data plan was only $20 a month. It’s nice to have something bigger than my phone to get on online and not be dependent on Comcast (there have been past concerns with them flaking out).

Also latest Vacation Update. It’s payday. Nothing much. Paid all my bills….

Vacation: Day 4

I know last night I said it was stream and chill. It was more less streaming and more chilling. I went to bed. Set my alarm for 4 hours and got up early in the morning. Went up to Federal Way. Met my former boss at Mrs. Fields. He offered lunch (it was/is my birthday). I settled for just a cup of tea. Mainly because my brother offered dinner, and I decided a taco bar would be good (hey, it’s Taco Tuesday somewhere). Got home from, and was greeted by 3 deliveries at my door (replacement parts for my computer). Now all I need is my new motherboard, scheduled to arrive soon. Took a brief nap, and then woke up to be told by my brother that he forgot to buy meat for tacos. No big deal. I know I can make some microwave nachos with what we have (I did place a grocery order when I got home Sunday). But he suggested Ubering Mexican. Ok, I can always go for arroz con pollo. It was good. I think tonight it will be another 4 hour nap, and then enjoy some more of that yellow thing in the sky.

And there were also all the birthday wishes on Facebook. I tried to reply to each one with a unique response to each one (note to my youngest brother: What has 9 arms and sucks?).

Vacation: Report

If you’re keeping score, well I fucked up my computer Sunday night/Monday morning. I’ve already replacement parts (mainly the motherboard). Realistically, I’m just replacing the motherboard, but this means getting a new Windows 10 license. So as far as Microsoft is concerned it’s a new computer.

Last night, I pulled the Tower out and pulled out all 3 hard drives. Plugged them into my media center tower (via a usb enclosure) and they’re still operable. So, back into the tower they go. I then decided that there was nothing on TV, so I went to bed and took a 4 hour nap. Got up with a headache. Drank an energy drink (I had a caffeine withdrawal headache) and my headache progressed to nausea. And 20 minutes later, it came back up. 2 cups of tea settled my headache down (and my stomach). Watched some cricket (The Hundred). And then I went to bed for another four hours. Tonight, I got up early and did laundry. The agenda today will be watch TV and stream & chill).

During the past two days, I've also been doing maintenance on the laptop. It’s slower than molasses, but I’ve managed to get it updated and patched (all the way to 21h1). I think in the not so far future there’s going to be a laptop rebuild. But I’ll hold off on it for now….

Almost forgot…

I almost forgot that I still have a laptop. Drawback is that it’s been a couple of months since I even turned it on, and so it’ll be a few hours before I can use it without it being slower than molasses. But It’s another working computer….

Back to the drawing board….

Decided to give Windows 7 a chance this morning on my tower. After about 20 minutes, I realized the error of my ways. So I put my Windows 10 drive in and rebooted. And nothing. Can’t even get it to load the boot loader screen. Nor can I get it to flash the BIOS. My birthday is coming up this week (the main reason why I went on vacation), and so I decided it’s time for a new computer. I plan salvaging as much of the parts of the old one that I can, so I’m just buying a new motherboard, a Windows 10 copy (and this time it’s an OEM copy since I’m building my own from now on). And a new SSD (if I didn’t fry this one, I’ll put it in as well….).

But this royally sucks, that I’m on vacation, and I don’t have my computer anymore. It’s a good thing I still have my previous tower….

Vacation: Commence

So, a few weeks ago, I booked Wednesday and Thursday night off for vacation. As is an actual vacation, and not burning vacation time because I had to call out (which my employer strongly discourages, btw). A couple of days later, I realized that my overnight manager had approved it. So after thanking him, I told him that I was also going to book Sunday night, and give myself a 5 day weekend. Which he approved. And so today rolled around. I got home from work. I’ve already ordered pizza. And placed my grocery orders with Wally World and Target (I’m lazy. I’ll pay the delivery fee just to avoid lugging everything on the bus).

So my vacation has started. I shall try to do as little as possible till Friday night.

I do have to admit that I have the best of timing. Last week there was a transformer blowout (possibly due to a collision), and we were without power for 2 hours. Last night I heard that tonight was going to be a scheduled outage for maintenance from 11pm to 6 am. Work must go on. The overnight manager has already said that headband flashlights will be issued to everyone, and work will continue. But I get to avoid the shit-show….

Hello Stranger…

Yes, it’s been a while. Sorry…

A couple of weeks ago, there was a standoff involving the police and my next door neighbor. Not going to go into details to preserve  privacy/due process of law, but I do have questions about the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Like why where they still setting off a flash-bang right outside my door after the suspect had peacefully given himself up? Just when I think I could finally trust cops again. Oh well. I’ll just stick with the no longer bothering to call 911 anymore. I fear the conduct of the law enforcement officials more than I fear the criminals…

My vacation starts next week. More on that later.

India and England tried playing a Test match. The English weather won.

Bought some new feet Monday from Famous Footwear. Yes, a few years ago I said I was done with them, but I have less issues with my feet if I wear Columbia’s and they have the best deal.

We’ve been out of hot water for the past week and a half. And it’ll be about another week before it’s restored. Take my advice: do not rent or lease from Pacific Rim Property Management. More on that later…