Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Colif]

Semi-retirement after tomorrow!

eyes not working right, I read this as semi transparent and had to read it again.

 

[Frag Maniac]

All my cords are behind my PC desk in a corner. At worst I only bash my head every now and then when I'm crawling under the desk to vac around the cords. I even run my surround speakers out by the walls of my living room so there's no wires to trip over/damage, as I did in the prior place I lived at. Sorry to sound like I'm not accident prone at times, because I truly am anymore at 68 after a workout especially. A tip is better than a 1000 trips though I guess.

On the subject of speaker wires. I'd thought my left front HT speaker was on the fritz when my AVR showed all speakers connected, but the LF was not audible in tests. Then I found out just having the wires a bit too loose was causing it. I wish the backs of my front speakers had banana plug jacks like my AVR. I should probably at least coat the tips of the speaker wire with solder and use a socket wrench to tighten the terminals. It's on my to do list along with all the other things I should do but haven't gotten around to.

 

[BeardyHat]

Since Zed doesn't want to TMI anymore, looks like the crown falls to me. And since I know you're all interested in my personal laptop saga, I've got some thoughts about this Surface Book 2 after using it for a few hours:

Dislike:

• Ctrl and Fn are swapped for me. Technically, this is Lenovo's fault, given I've been using their laptops for the past decade or so and they're the ones who buck the trend and swap Fn and Ctrl.
• I'm not too sure about not having my precious red clitmouse to use. Having the Trackpoint on a Thinkpad is a killer feature to me. I use it constantly and it turns out to be excellent for faster paced action games.
• Proprietary charging connector; I do like that it's magnetic, so it'll detach if I'm dumb and trip over it again. Plus my old Thinkpad had a proprietary one too, given it was a higher power machine and couldn't draw 230w from the USB-C
• The tablet is comically large. It's 15" when detached and it just feels a little absurd to be holding in my hands.
• Older and thus lesser power than my old machine. Not the computer's fault though.

Like:

• I actually like the tablet functionality. I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but actually where I had issues with the 12" Surface Pro as a tablet, the 15" is so large that I can rest it on my belly and use it comfortably.
• I appreciate that this machine has the CPU in the tablet portion and the GPU in the base. Keeping them separated actually seems to keep the machine noticeably cooler than my old Thinkpad. I can actually use the machine on my lap without feeling like I'm getting burned.
• Following that, it's nice that it has no intake vents on the bottom of the machine. It means I don't need to prop it up for it to intake properly, which means I can use it on my bed or just flat on my laptop tray without a problem.
• I kind of like that it's a sealed product. I can't repaste it, I can't change the SSD, I can't replace the battery. I could, but there's a high likelihood I'd break it trying to get it apart, which I think will encourage me not to mess with it and just live with it as is.
• It feels premium as hell. Which I guess it should; I think this particular configuration was something like $3000 in 2017. The keyboard is nice, the screen looks good, everything feels solid.

Playing Pillars of Eternity last night, I was feeling like the performance was pretty middling. Even on low settings at 1080 (screen is 4k), it was hitching a lot and running in the mid-40's with frequent drops to the 20's as far as FPS goes. Which is significantly worse than the old MSI laptop with much worse specs running Linux. Then I remembered I need to go into the Windows Performance Settings and make sure it's set to "Best Performance". After doing that, I'm getting a solid 60FPS at 4k. It drops periodically due to a little bit of throttling here and there, but overall not bad.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with this for $120. Need to figure out what my plan is for the old machine though.

 

[Zed Clampet]

CivitAI accidentally un-blacklisted me when they did their site conversion. See, I was a top 50 creator (I posted that here when I broke the top 50). Suddenly, none of my trainings were indexed. They didn't show up in the site search engine or Google. There was no way to find them. They also blocked the pictures I post. You look at a page of pictures and every one of them has 100's of views--except for 1, mine, which had 1 or 2 views which I'm sure was me. They won't bother to blacklist me again because I stopped publishing anything. I don't need their money anyway. I mostly just thought it would be cool to get paid for making loras.

 

[Colif]

Smelly new UPS forced me to do something I haven't done in about 3 years... opened my window

According to web, new UPS can have a smell that should go away within a week. So its got a few more days. Its not a burning smell, nor rotten eggs. I can't really describe it.

I read after setting it up that advice was to let it run in an open ventilated area for 48 hours... I would if I could. Wish I had known before I started using it. I read the sticker on unit that said to charge for 8 hours before turning on, and did look through the book but I didn't see mention of run in.

It seems like most of the smell is just lingering as if I smell the unit itself, I can't smell anything. But I can in other areas of the room. I know its from the UPS as I have never smelled this before. I didn't think of it at first and cleaned up other things thinking they were cause.

I think whatever is burning off in the unit, stays at ground level as I can only smell it if its stirred up. It doesn't help my room is a shoe box. It probably doesn't help my UPS is between me and UPS but I can't fix that. And I have too much furniture that traps air. I already noticed that in summer.

Really need to move one cupboard away from me. Not sure I feel like doing that today. It would allow air to escape my room

 

[Colif]

Chest of drawers now moved, door doesn't open fully but I prefer that. Hardest part was squeezing one of the bottom drawers back in, not a big gap between it and bed. I don't really use the drawers very often, 3 of them full of PC stuff.

Hopefully PC can get fresh air still. It has room on the box I sit it on. I may not notice any ill effects until Summer... so 7 months time. Should have new windows by then.

I have my doubts that chest of drawers would support my PC. Probably easier to lift off its current box. Main reason I didn't swap their locations is the monitor cable I have may not reach. Until I get the Asus monitor, I won't know how it will go together. It reaches now, but not sure how well it would go with the chest of drawers behind it.


It doesn't seem to have reduced the smell. But It was something I wanted to do. Need to work out where to put my amp now, my headphone cables are just a little too short to reach me from there... its pretty sad my new DAP can run all the headphones it can. So maybe I leave it unplugged for a while.

Room in a state of flux, might change more. Next move a bit easier... maybe tomorrow. It will give UPS more space to vent into... but that should end this week.

if I wasn't used to having my monitor on the left hand side of me, I could put PC on the right hand wall and put screens over that side instead. I may just rotate the bed and face another wall. I have to be careful not to have a window behind me (fairly easy with only one window in room) as new monitor doesn't like windows in front of it.

UPS is okay, I just live with smell

 

[BeardyHat]

That's interesting, I've never smelled any of my UPS' in the past. Just recently got a new one, which is sitting directly on my PC case, but yeah, no smell there either. Maybe it's the brand I buy though, which is APC; not terribly impressed with the brand, but they're about all I can find around here. The software to monitor the unit is deprecated, so I can't use that and I've had multiple of the batteries crap the bed on me.

Is the smell like that "Ozone" smell you often get from those ionizing air purifiers? That's kind of what I'm imagining it as.

 

[Colif]

Is the smell like that "Ozone" smell you often get from those ionizing air purifiers? That's kind of what I'm imagining it as.

it isn't ozone or electrical, smelt chemical... I guess. I hadn't smelled anything like it before. Its not rotten egg.

I hadn't needed a UPS before so this is my first. Up until now I have mostly used surge protectors. Just unplug from wall and sit out thunderstorms. It doesn't normally waste that much time in summer. We were meant to have storms last night, I left UPS on but I did unplug the network switch as I didn't connect its cable onto back of UPS yet, need to buy another cable first.

The number of times we normally have power outages can be counted on one finger per year... if that. The last time I recall us not having power for more than 24 hours was 23 years ago when it was shut down due to bush fires damaging lines. Its not normal. Most times its only a few hours at most, and normally we are told about it before it occurs. Unplanned outages are rare.

We don't get brown outs.

I did find results on Google saying the smell can be normal. But the smells mentioned were mostly electrical or burning plastic... maybe 2nd is what it is.

Its not so bad today but I left my window and door open all night so it didn't get a chance to build up. I was about to say I can't smell it at all now but it comes and goes. That and having the chest of drawers on far wall now opened room up and less places for smell to linger. The tall brown one would also trap hot air in summer so I don't mind it gone.

leaving next reorganisation of room until I get a new monitor, and I also need two extension cords with piggyback ability, as I need a flat plug to put into wall behind my bed, and most Australian power plugs look like this

and stick out from wall too far for me to be able to have bed close enough to wall behind, for pillows to not fall down the gap constantly. That has stopped me using two layouts for ages. Both outlets in my room suffer from the same problem. Placement.


Same thing happens in the spare bedroom. That factor also means I have to move the UPS as I can't run it off the cable as its wrong gauge wire. Also could mean PC needs to move as well. Really, only thing that doesn't move in that reorg is the brown chest of drawers. Its staying over there now.

 

[BeardyHat]

Boy I'm sick of Google and Microsoft.

Google is now putting it's hand out again to me, because it saves every single picture and video I take of my kids. They end up locking you into their ecosystem, especially considering I have albums of my kids I share with my family. But of course, storage fills up quickly and now they want money.

Ditto Microsoft. They're not backing up my pictures, but they have heaps of my email and are threatening to turn the hose off unless I clear up some space in my meager 15Gb. Or I could pay them, of course.

At any rate, goals for today are to download all my Google Photos and see if I can get self hosting working via Immich.

Immich

Self-hosted photo and video management solution. Easily back up, organize, and manage your photos on your own server. Immich helps you browse, search and organize your photos and videos with ease, without sacrificing your privacy.

immich.app

Then delete my data with Google and call it a day.

For Microsoft, I'm hoping I can grab all my emails via PST file and then store that on my server and delete the rest in the cloud. Eventually figuring out self hosting my own email, so I can also get away from them.

 

[Colif]

Microsoft: I have Office so I have 1tb of space on one drive I could use, no where near that limit. Most of my documents and my old music folder is on there.

Google: I paid for 100gb at one stage and then worked out how to delete most of it. Still use them since it goes along with my phone. Wonder what is on Drive... remembers its where all the videos for my course ended up.

 

[BeardyHat]

Microsoft: I have Office so I have 1tb of space on one drive I could use, no where near that limit. Most of my documents and my old music folder is on there.

Google: I paid for 100gb at one stage and then worked out how to delete most of it. Still use them since it goes along with my phone. Wonder what is on Drive... remembers its where all the videos for my course ended up.

I also have the 100Gb plan from Google, which basically 40Gb are my photos and another 40Gb are my Wife's. We just take a lot of pictures and videos of our kids.

I started the Export of my photos, once I've got them out, I'll probably clean-up a little bit of space to hold me over and then work on getting Immich setup.

Currently, I'm using Thunderbird to go through my Emails on Outlook and deleting a lot of stuff. I have so much garbage in there, because I basically don't look at my email and tend to just ignore anything that's not important, rather than delete it. I had 39000-emails in one address alone and I'm now down to 28000.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Picture a friend of mine took on his property. Scared the hell out of him because he (friend) was wandering through the field looking for yellow jacket nests and nowhere near any shelter. He said he was so scared he couldn't remember what you were supposed to do during a black bear encounter, but the bear just walked right past him like he wasn't even there.

By the way, that's not the worst yard you've ever seen. He owns a decent sized farm, but only works some of the fields. When we were in high school and his father owned the farm I used to help them hang tobacco. We did a lot of crazy, life-threatening things when climbing the rafters in what would have been a 3 story barn if it had actually had floors: picture leaping from beam to beam in an old Far Cry game.

 

[BeardyHat]

Picture a friend of mine took on his property. Scared the hell out of him because he (friend) was wandering through the field looking for yellow jacket nests and nowhere near any shelter. He said he was so scared he couldn't remember what you were supposed to do during a black bear encounter, but the bear just walked right past him like he wasn't even there.

By the way, that's not the worst yard you've ever seen. He owns a decent sized farm, but only works some of the fields. When we were in high school and his father owned the farm I used to help them hang tobacco. We did a lot of crazy, life-threatening things when climbing the rafters in what would have been a 3 story barn if it had actually had floors: picture leaping from beam to beam in an old Far Cry game.

Funny the stuff we do as kids we don't think about now. Was actually just having a conversation about that with someone over the weekend. And the yard actually looks better than mine.

We've got Black Bears out here too. They're thankfully so timid, you don't gotta worry too much about them.

Managed to sort-out my combined 50000 emails. Ended-up deleting the vast majority of them, given they were spam. I was kind of surprised to see that 100% of the emails in my old email address were just spam; I could have sworn I had some old emails from friends and stuff in there (given it's been my email address since like 1999), but it was just all junk. Dunno what happened to the other stuff, but oh well, guess I never looked at it anyway.

Still otherwise waiting on Google to release my Data, which takes forever.

 

[BeardyHat]

Oh and one thought I had this morning: Given my laptop is shot and I'm probably not likely going to repair it, I had taken the 2Tb WD Black SSD out of there and put it away, thinking I'd find some use for it another time.

Well, I think maybe I'll swap it out for the current 2Tb in my Desktop and give Linux a go on it. Seems like the perfect opportunity to do so, given I can preserve all my data on my Windows install and it should (theoretically) work perfectly, given my desktop is an all AMD setup and Desktops in general are supposed to be less jank when it comes to Linux.

The one thing stopping me is it means there's a lot of configuration I'm going to need to do, between setting up my network share, back-ups, AI stuff (probably not too bad? But I had to do some workarounds to get AI image generation to work on my AMD GPU) and then also do some futzing around with files, because I'd probably need to convert my server share over to ext4 from NTFS, because Linux doesn't play nice with that. Plus setting up the self hosting of images I want to do now, which is already a project unto itself.

So It may be something I'll sit on for awhile. But I think I could manage it.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Still otherwise waiting on Google to release my Data, which takes forever.

I'm guessing that your phone listens to you all the time in order for you to be able to use voice activated features like iphone does with "hey, siri." Whether they actually collect and use the data is anyone's guess, although I've seen articles suggesting it is proven that they do use it for marketing.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The one thing stopping me is it means there's a lot of configuration I'm going to need to do, between setting up my network share, back-ups, AI stuff (probably not too bad? But I had to do some workarounds to get AI image generation to work on my AMD GPU)

Since we started talking about Linux, I've noticed that a lot of AI programs were written for Linux and then ported to Windows, so I'm guessing some of them, at least, might work better in Linux.

 

[neogunhero]

In just under two weeks I'll be in my canvas tent at Yosemite. Maybe I'll see a bear too. We got three whole days worth of hiking planned and my calves are already feeling the pain.

It's been a very long time since I've flown on a plane, maybe 7 years at this point so that's pretty exciting. I may be the only person in the world who actually likes airports; I have a 3-hour layover at Denver International and I'm looking forward to it. They have a Peet's coffee shop, my favorite brand of coffee. Maybe I'll have time to see those creepy old tunnels that people say supposedly houses the Illuminati or something like that.

After a few days in Yosemite, I go back home for a day before embarking on a 12-hour road trip to Florida. I'll be on opposite coasts within a week!

My wife and I have been together for 5 years now and this is the first major trip we're going on together. All the other trips have just been road trips. The furthest we've gone together was a 7-hour drive to Nashville last year. Now we're throwing in a flight then an even longer road trip, and later this year we'll be flying to Chicago for the weekend. Those two round-trip tickets to Chicago only cost us $450 total, a perk of living directly south of there.

We got a busy year going on, but I think it's well deserved. We work our butts off every single week and deserve to enjoy our lives while we can. It feels like for the past 7 or 8 years of my life I've done pretty much nothing but work. My wife's job requires her to take 5 days off mandatory as part of some security protocol, so we're taking advantage of that this year. Last year we thought we were in the process of renovating her mom's old house, but that didn't work out as we had planned.

 

[BeardyHat]

Since we started talking about Linux, I've noticed that a lot of AI programs were written for Linux and then ported to Windows, so I'm guessing some of them, at least, might work better in Linux.

I was mostly worried that ZLUDA the open-source CUDA replacement for AMD cards wasn't going to be easy to get installed and working, but looks like it'll be largely the same process. That said, I still haven't decided if I'll migrate or not. I've been having deep thoughts on managing my data and what I'm going to do.

Briefly considered turning my Karaoke computer into a NAS, but it only has two drive spaces in it and it honestly doesn't make sense. Since my gaming desktop is already running as a server for Steam, as well as a Streaming PC, it just makes sense to keep it doing what it's doing. But I may try and add some more storage to it...

In just under two weeks I'll be in my canvas tent at Yosemite. Maybe I'll see a bear too. We got three whole days worth of hiking planned and my calves are already feeling the pain.

It's been a very long time since I've flown on a plane, maybe 7 years at this point so that's pretty exciting. I may be the only person in the world who actually likes airports; I have a 3-hour layover at Denver International and I'm looking forward to it. They have a Peet's coffee shop, my favorite brand of coffee. Maybe I'll have time to see those creepy old tunnels that people say supposedly houses the Illuminati or something like that.

After a few days in Yosemite, I go back home for a day before embarking on a 12-hour road trip to Florida. I'll be on opposite coasts within a week!

My wife and I have been together for 5 years now and this is the first major trip we're going on together. All the other trips have just been road trips. The furthest we've gone together was a 7-hour drive to Nashville last year. Now we're throwing in a flight then an even longer road trip, and later this year we'll be flying to Chicago for the weekend. Those two round-trip tickets to Chicago only cost us $450 total, a perk of living directly south of there.

We got a busy year going on, but I think it's well deserved. We work our butts off every single week and deserve to enjoy our lives while we can. It feels like for the past 7 or 8 years of my life I've done pretty much nothing but work. My wife's job requires her to take 5 days off mandatory as part of some security protocol, so we're taking advantage of that this year. Last year we thought we were in the process of renovating her mom's old house, but that didn't work out as we had planned.

That's a whole damn lot. I'd give you a suggestion on what to do at DIA, but honestly, there's not much on offer. You could visit one of our Colorado stores for a ton of Colorado tchotchke's, I guess? But you won't see much Illuminati stuff anyway, unless you intend to leave the terminal and go back into the rest of the airport, but it'll mean you'll have to go back through security.

We have a lot of travel coming up and...I'm not really looking forward to it. But that's because I'm A) a Homebody B) Scared of flying (though I'm working on it) C) Worried about my van making it on the road trip to New Mexico again. It's been acting funny and I haven't even begun to research the problem, but we're leaving in June...

But speaking of traveling with a partner; my sister sent me a picture of my wife (then girlfriend) and I from 18 years ago, which was kind of mind blowing. I thought I was fat then, yeesh. But seeing my skinny 23 year old self made me resolve to go on more walks, so I'm trying to get into the habit of adding a third walk to my days. So far, so good, but we're supposed to get dumped on with snow here starting tonight.

Also, speaking of maybe data migration, I finally did something I've been meaning to do: Pruned 63Gb worth of music from my storage. I had multiple music folders, largely with the same stuff in them, the result of years worth of mergings and migrations. Happy to free up some of that space.

 

[Zed Clampet]

In just under two weeks I'll be in my canvas tent at Yosemite. Maybe I'll see a bear too. We got three whole days worth of hiking planned and my calves are already feeling the pain.

It's been a very long time since I've flown on a plane, maybe 7 years at this point so that's pretty exciting. I may be the only person in the world who actually likes airports; I have a 3-hour layover at Denver International and I'm looking forward to it. They have a Peet's coffee shop, my favorite brand of coffee. Maybe I'll have time to see those creepy old tunnels that people say supposedly houses the Illuminati or something like that.

I also like airports, but only when there is plenty of time between flights if you don't have a direct option. When I was flying every week, I almost never had a direct option because my employer only used Delta, which basically just goes to Atlanta from our airport. Our airport here is a lot smaller than the ones I was used to when we moved here. I think they have 40 direct flights.

Also, Peet's is the best.

 

[Zed Clampet]

...but it'll mean you'll have to go back through security.

TSA PreCheck is good to have for people who fly a lot, but CLEAR Plus is even better and includes PreCheck. You practically just walk right through, and they have a lot of other services. I know you don't like flying, but if you ever end up in a job that requires it, this makes it a lot better. For one thing, you don't get stressed out before even getting on the plane.

 

[BeardyHat]

TSA PreCheck is good to have for people who fly a lot, but CLEAR Plus is even better and includes PreCheck. You practically just walk right through, and they have a lot of other services. I know you don't like flying, but if you ever end up in a job that requires it, this makes it a lot better. For one thing, you don't get stressed out before even getting on the plane.

I honestly don't mind security or anything that much, especially now that they have the good scanners at DIA where I don't need to take my electronics out of the bag. I only fly once a year at most, so it's not typically an issue either way.

I just struggle with the flight itself, I'm an anxious flyer, but I'm quite tired of that. I've been reading some books to help me out with that obnoxious aspect of my personality, because I noticed I was very anxious about my flight in July and I decided I'm going to try and fix that.

Also, per coffee, you guys should try New Mexico Pinon, if you can get your hands on it. It's excellent and has been my mainstay for years now:

Buy New Mexico Piñon Coffee Online & Albuquerque Coffee Shops

Roasting Great Piñon Coffee in the Heart of the Southwest Since ‘94

nmpinoncoffee.com

I usually get the Medium roast. I have a friend who says he doesn't like that it's oily, though it doesn't seem like that to me. I just think it's a damn delicious coffee.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I honestly don't mind security or anything that much, especially now that they have the good scanners at DIA where I don't need to take my electronics out of the bag. I only fly once a year at most, so it's not typically an issue either way.

I just struggle with the flight itself, I'm an anxious flyer, but I'm quite tired of that. I've been reading some books to help me out with that obnoxious aspect of my personality, because I noticed I was very anxious about my flight in July and I decided I'm going to try and fix that.

Also, per coffee, you guys should try New Mexico Pinon, if you can get your hands on it. It's excellent and has been my mainstay for years now:

Buy New Mexico Piñon Coffee Online & Albuquerque Coffee Shops

Roasting Great Piñon Coffee in the Heart of the Southwest Since ‘94

nmpinoncoffee.com

I usually get the Medium roast. I have a friend who says he doesn't like that it's oily, though it doesn't seem like that to me. I just think it's a damn delicious coffee.

You could surround yourself with monitors and play Flight Simulator. But only if you are better at it than I am. If you fly like I do, you'll start thinking every flight ends in fiery death.

 

[BeardyHat]

You could surround yourself with monitors and play Flight Simulator. But only if you are better at it than I am. If you fly like I do, you'll start thinking every flight ends in fiery death.

I already think that as soon as I'm on the plane.

But maybe I'll just use my Steam Deck on the flight like this weirdo.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1ihliem/they_called_a_madman_built_a_simple_but_reliable/