I’m not sure what I will be doing. Maybe meeting the parents-in-law for lunch. Maybe seeing one or more of the nephews and SIL. Probably cleaning the fish tank for our 17 year old goldfish. Cleaning is good, and never ends, not really.
But I can tell a short story about what I was doing.
I had decided to replace my secondary desktop (for $WORK) with something smaller and less power-consuming. I have a few different choices laying around the IT storage area.
My first choice was an old Acer mini-desktop with 8G of RAM, 4th gen Intel i5. Plenty for the secondary desktop, which is really just to act as a jump host and for note-taking. Along with being too old to run Windows 11, it was showing a little instability, in that it would not always recognize a boot drive. But it booted most of the time, so that was probably fine for my needs.
I transplant the SSD from the other system to this one, and no matter what I try, it won’t recognize the drive. I do the usual stuff, resetting the BIOS, disabling secure boot, etc… I had previously installed Debian on another SSD, that that worked most of the time, so I don’t think it was something to do with secure boot. (*) Eventually I give up on it and it goes into the electronics recycling pile. (The pile is probably big enough to make another run.)
My next choice is a Acer mini-desktop (i3-8100) that is just barely new enough to run Windows 11… poorly. Since no one else is going to need it, I put my SSD in there, and have the same kind of problems as the previous one. But after disabling secure boot, it seems to be fine. I scavenge 8GB of PC4 memory for it (slower than what it originally had) but it seems to run OK.
I just have this fascination / desire to make use of slightly broken things, and putting them to good use. Given no constraints on time / space / money, you would probably find me surrounded with all manner of devices that have some quirks, and probably been repaired at least once, but can still be put to good use. I’m not quite sure why I am like that.
Edit:
(*) Though, maybe it does have something to do with secure boot after all. If the CMOS battery was flaky… It may have been reverting to secure boot, even after that was disabled. Meh. It is in the junk pile now, there’s really no need to rescue it. What you have now runs and is stable, don’t mess around further in search of answers you don’t really need! (This is me talking to myself.)
There is something very satisfying about caring for healthy senior animals. My pet lizard is 18, and it sort of weirds me out that he’d be old enough to vote or take a driver’s license - and it simultaneously feels like he’s always been there and that I got him yesterday.
He’s as active and outgoing as he ever was, keeps getting an excellent bill of health at his annual vet checkups, and has no signs of the geriatric diseases that sometimes affects his species (they’re prone to arthritis and cataracts).
Was going to say that keeping a goldfish for 17 years is an impressive feat. I keep tropical fish, and it’s not a walk in the park, so I’ll be cleaning the tanks this weekend, like every other weekend ;)
Aforementioned lizard is a blue-tongue skink. When I was a kid most care guides said they live to 10-20, but now their lifespan is more commonly put at 20-30. We actually don’t know how long they live in the wild; shingleback skinks (a closely related species) surprised everyone when it turned out they can live into their 50s. Some shinglebacks caught and tagged for a 1982 study on their migration patterns still turn up today!
Mine is in very good health. He’s in great shape, almost exactly in the middle of the healthy weight range for his age and length, and has above-average musculature. He doesn’t really “feel” like a senior animal. Also, he’s probably the friendliest and most contact-seeking reptile I’ve ever met (including other skinks I’ve kept).
I’m not sure what I will be doing. Maybe meeting the parents-in-law for lunch. Maybe seeing one or more of the nephews and SIL. Probably cleaning the fish tank for our 17 year old goldfish. Cleaning is good, and never ends, not really.
But I can tell a short story about what I was doing.
I had decided to replace my secondary desktop (for $WORK) with something smaller and less power-consuming. I have a few different choices laying around the IT storage area.
My first choice was an old Acer mini-desktop with 8G of RAM, 4th gen Intel i5. Plenty for the secondary desktop, which is really just to act as a jump host and for note-taking. Along with being too old to run Windows 11, it was showing a little instability, in that it would not always recognize a boot drive. But it booted most of the time, so that was probably fine for my needs.
I transplant the SSD from the other system to this one, and no matter what I try, it won’t recognize the drive. I do the usual stuff, resetting the BIOS, disabling secure boot, etc… I had previously installed Debian on another SSD, that that worked most of the time, so I don’t think it was something to do with secure boot. (*) Eventually I give up on it and it goes into the electronics recycling pile. (The pile is probably big enough to make another run.)
My next choice is a Acer mini-desktop (i3-8100) that is just barely new enough to run Windows 11… poorly. Since no one else is going to need it, I put my SSD in there, and have the same kind of problems as the previous one. But after disabling secure boot, it seems to be fine. I scavenge 8GB of PC4 memory for it (slower than what it originally had) but it seems to run OK.
I just have this fascination / desire to make use of slightly broken things, and putting them to good use. Given no constraints on time / space / money, you would probably find me surrounded with all manner of devices that have some quirks, and probably been repaired at least once, but can still be put to good use. I’m not quite sure why I am like that.
Edit:
(*) Though, maybe it does have something to do with secure boot after all. If the CMOS battery was flaky… It may have been reverting to secure boot, even after that was disabled. Meh. It is in the junk pile now, there’s really no need to rescue it. What you have now runs and is stable, don’t mess around further in search of answers you don’t really need! (This is me talking to myself.)
score 3 · canonical
There is something very satisfying about caring for healthy senior animals. My pet lizard is 18, and it sort of weirds me out that he’d be old enough to vote or take a driver’s license - and it simultaneously feels like he’s always been there and that I got him yesterday.
He’s as active and outgoing as he ever was, keeps getting an excellent bill of health at his annual vet checkups, and has no signs of the geriatric diseases that sometimes affects his species (they’re prone to arthritis and cataracts).
score 2 · canonical
Was going to say that keeping a goldfish for 17 years is an impressive feat. I keep tropical fish, and it’s not a walk in the park, so I’ll be cleaning the tanks this weekend, like every other weekend ;)
score 1 · canonical
Aforementioned lizard is a blue-tongue skink. When I was a kid most care guides said they live to 10-20, but now their lifespan is more commonly put at 20-30. We actually don’t know how long they live in the wild; shingleback skinks (a closely related species) surprised everyone when it turned out they can live into their 50s. Some shinglebacks caught and tagged for a 1982 study on their migration patterns still turn up today!
Mine is in very good health. He’s in great shape, almost exactly in the middle of the healthy weight range for his age and length, and has above-average musculature. He doesn’t really “feel” like a senior animal. Also, he’s probably the friendliest and most contact-seeking reptile I’ve ever met (including other skinks I’ve kept).
score 1 · canonical