Other What currently makes your life awesome?

I think I’m going to try out CachyOS on the 12”Macbook I had from @Mojo a little while back.

It’s running macOS Ventura at the moment, but the Core-M chip was never the most performant at the best of times and I’m not a fan of running end-of-life OS versions. I did try more modern macOS versions, but the graphics chip isn’t fully supported by the newer versions of the Metal API; it works… but it’s a little painful at times!

It’s only a Core-M chip, the RAM & SSD are soldered and can’t be upgraded, the battery is worn, and it’s affected by the infamous “screengate” staining (degradation of the anti-reflective coating layer). But the stains can be removed with isopropyl alcohol, the screen itself is really quite good, the battery can be replaced even if it’s a pig to do it, and the form factor is absolutely perfect. It’s a great little machine that’s well worth salvaging.

I’ve run Linux Mint on it before, so I know that the hardware is at least supported in some distros.

 

They arrived!

Named on the competition site now on the June Sweepstakes

 

Ho

lee

shitballs

Congrats!!

I mean I guess we are both in the club of lucky shits now thanks to Nvidia giveaways!

 

Second only to me winning one it pleases me to see someone on the forum being this lucky.

Congrats bud, enjoy!

 

I bet you're giddy about having bagged two £2k pixel pushers for free. Put those to good use

 

I went to the tip today. I love going to the tip.

One of the items that I was dropping off was my ancient Fractal Design R3 mid-tower case, which is in pretty much mint condition but despite my efforts, I literally couldn't give it away. So off to the tip it went. I dropped it off at the "small electricals" section at the same time as another chap was also dropping off a PC case... which of course just happened to be a Fractal R3. We both nodded at each other, he said "nice case pal" and we went our separate ways

 

These would have been very acceptable as separate posts

 

I too went to the tip today, to discard my daughters childhood friend, sent her a pic saying he was moving out, got his case and instapot thing

 

Spent a couple of hours yesterday going through my retro PC collection to confirm what still works.

Confirmed working:

- XFX 680i SLI MB + all the 775 CPU's / RAM I have to test
- AsRock Dual VSATA (board has both AGP & PCI-e along with DDR & DDR2!)*
- Geforce GTX 6800 Ultra*
- ATI X850XT Platinum Edition
- 2 x Quadro FX4500 (7800GTX 512 proxy)
- Palit Geforce GTX 570
- Asus HD3850X2 Dual
- Reference Geforce GTX480
- Geforce GTX 7950GX2
- Reference HD 3870X2
- Reference HD7990
- Geforce GTX 690
- OG Geforce Titan

- Acer Ferrari Laptop (A64 single core "Red" model)

Confirmed Dead / Non Functioning:

- Foxconn P45 MB (Turns on but bios code A9 - seems to be a USB initialisation issue)
- Gigabyte Geforce GTX480SC (Worked the last time I tested it)
- Geforce GTX 295 (Was Dead before - display piece)
- XFX Geforce GTX 260 (honestly a surprise as this was my "works on anything" GPU)
- Second Geforce GTX 7950GX2 (missing one cap which I knew about).


Not bad overall considering the age of some of these components!

*Really chuffed that these are working as they are a proxy for my original 775 system when growing up (Same MB, but I only had a 6800GT (OC;'d to Ultra of course) back in the day). Tested out some 3DMark05 and Elite Force last night. Ah the memories. (Also the X850XTPE utterly destroys the 6800 Ultra in 3DMark05.... like, it isn't even close, 5,888 vs 7,154.... ).

Still need to test my Rampage 1, Rampage 2 and Foxconn Blackops (skt 775) boards.

 

I wanted this so bad back in the day, tiny bit jealous now even if it is probably junk by todays standards

 

It did me a bit of a worry when it didn't turn on initially. Turned out the power button assembly (small section above the keyboard) wasn't fully pressed down and thus it wasn't making proper contact.

My model has a Athlon 64 3000+ (Skt 754), 2GB DDR 333, 80GB HD* and a Mobility Radeon 9700 128MB (9600 Desktop equivalent). It is surprisingly good in day to day use with the context of what it is. Not quite fast enough to run Oblivion but fine for older titles.

The keyboard is "meh" and trackpad is laughably small (but surprisingly good to use.... heh).

*I really want to get the Drive out to clone it and switch it out for a small SSD but for the life of me I can't work out how to remove it. I need to watch Salem Techsperts video on the disassembly he did as it might give me some clues. I can remove the cover and see the drive but it refuses to budge and there isn't a "latch" or equivalent holding it in (from what I can see).

 

I sold a ring on eBay to a buyer in Mexico. They opened a case on 27th October saying it hadn’t arrived. Tracking showed it had been stuck at the Mexico delivery office since 22nd October and wasn't moving. I opened cases with both Royal Mail and Mexico Post, hoping it might turn up — and to my surprise, Mexico Post actually replied quite promptly to my emails translated to Spanish!

On 1st November, the buyer escalated to eBay on the advice of Paypal (apparently). Since I’d provided proof of my investigations, eBay gave me 10 days to resolve it. However, on 3rd November, they closed the case early and refunded the buyer without any warning. I lost the full £224.99, plus!!! nearly £60 in the original fees (ad, seller, and international), as eBay only refunds fees if the seller cancels or refunds the order. So I was now down £284.99...

Contacted eBay, arguing it was unfair not to let me cancel the order within the 10 days I was promised as I was only given a few days of it. With very little quibble the support agent cheerfully said, “I have good news for you, sir—guess what?” I thought I’d got my fees back — great, £60 to soften the blow.

Nope — they refunded the full £224.99 to me instead. I immediately felt incredibly uneasy, assuming they hadn’t properly reviewed the case and were just trying to get rid of me. I asked if the buyer would be recharged for the order, reiterating that I wasn't arguing with the decision as the item was still lost, but they said no — it was coming directly from eBay to me “as a valued seller.”

Weirdly, and im not sure if this was a mistake or not, they also refunded £5.40 (international fee), £40.22 (final value fee), and £13.50 (promoted listing fee) so essentially have sold the ring with no fees at all...

 

Had my "final" session with this one private voice coach. "Final" meaning having the actual final in may next year

Also came up with an idea. Find a dialect coach who can turn my strange accent into scottish

 

That's an odd idea so it is.

 

Certainly is, be proud of your accent, it’s an essential part of who you are. I have a strong Zummerzet accent, proper job…

 

Unpacked the last box in my new house. Still need to get things hanging on walls but it's coming together after a few weeks!

 

These two are the beginning of the bit-tech dogging thread...

 

Lol.

I have electronics, meet me at the tip dirty boy.

 

Have fun, no judgement here...

 

I'll bring content protection.