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Journaling June - Day 4
Journaling June
Day 4 I'd also done quick test with the Dell dock and it works but demands a 120W power lead is used (I was aware of this "requirement", but I didn't know how strict it was, but the laptop actually demands it when connected to the dock). I have a few compatible leads but sadly my only (I think) Dell branded one is 60W. Also, the battery in the laptop is no longer charging, but at least I have a couple of others*. I'm wondering how to mention to the seller about the defects, or even if I should bother; it was the cheapest one on ebay - I might just mention it in the feedback. I have a vision of a Dell-branded setup since I have one of these nifty Dell screens that can rotate to portrait. I'd hoped I might have some Dell-branded speakers but I checked out my stash and it turns out not; they're available on ebay but I can't justify spending £10 on crappy speakers just for an aesthetic when I already have some others. *Keeping batteries healthy with a retro tech hoard is something of a challenge, and annoying when I neglect to use/try/try something for a while, especially when the battery in it is one I'd bought, whether it be a laptop or camera, for example. Speaking of leaving feedback, I consulted with ChatGPT about the laptop I'd received that was supposedly "fully working" but just needing a hard drive, but arrived with the keyboard and cooling fan unplugged, meaning it would overheat after a few minutes. I'd had to dismantle the laptop to investigate and sort the fan issue, so that took some time. ChatGPT was supportive of what I stated and suggested a reply I might send to the seller, so I tried this to politely request they consider issuing a partial refund. They responded later accusing me of "causing the damage"! They said I could send the laptop back for a refund of the item price, but not the postage; I think they'd be expecting me to fund the return, however I'm pretty sure ebay would find in my favour and provide me with a return label of which they would charge the seller for... but of course I don't want to do this because I've already fixed it. I am tempted to proceed with the return request because I have had some sellers just refund me at this stage when they're informed by ebay they will be footing the bill of the return... but I think I'll just leave them feedback later referring to the accusation of me "causing the damage"; I'd literally popped in an SSD, plugged it in, and tried to install an OS. [UPDATE: I have gone ahead and opened a return request to see what happens; it will be a win if ebay decide to just refund me.] I'd uploaded yesterday's Journaling June this morning just before heading out to do a couple of errands when the formatting appeared all wonky in the Neocities preview. Just as I set about investigating that (some CSS had ended up being copied from a website I was grabbing some text from and Microsoft FrontPage had worked it into the header...I was supposed to leave this until later to figure out but my brain decided otherwise), another ebay sale arrived in my inbox, so I got to post a couple of items instead of the one, which was handy. On my way back (oh, I also got some mushrooms and 3 bell peppers for 61p, bargain) I called into the client who wanted me to review the list of system requirements he'd received regarding a second hand computer he'd asked me to arrange - thankfully everything checks out, but then he informed me his existing screen is wearing out, so I'll have to see if I have a suitable one or if I need to source another. Then I visited a neighbour who had got me to look at her bike the other week; it just needed the tyres pumping up, a pair of new handlebar grips, valve caps, and some work doing to minimise the rust pitting on the chromed handlebars. I set to doing those things for her while she nattered to me about this and that. Now I'm back at home with some fresh coffee, and about to test that motherboard that I didn't get round to trying yesterday... [Update] The motherboard did promising POST beeps and correctly alerted to the lack of graphics card, but then when I powered it on for the second time with a graphics card it failed to POST. This seems indicative of faulty capacitors so I'll set about replacing those soon and hopefully all will be well. And jeez, some shorts I won the bid on arrived... except not the ones in the listing. Yet another ebay issue.
I was about to go and sit outside with a cup of tea and book, but while the morning was quite sunny the rain has now started sprinkling. I elected this evening to be Movie Night. A couple of months ago I threw all the titles of the DVDs I have at ChatGPT* (just in simple brief text so it could figure out the specifics) and got it to fire them back at me in chronological order in a format I could chuck into a spreadsheet. We then discussed which movies I was missing from any sets. From that I started to watch all of the Alien and Predator movies in turn. But with all of those watched I moved on to Dune. I always have the option of which computer or laptop I might watch a DVD on; one of my 17" Samsung laptops, or a desktop plugged into a larger screen at the end of my bed, and to use headphones or fill the room with sound with my old Sony amp and £4 speakers... *People squawk about AI but this was a handy use case since it would have taken me hours to properly type in the titles and find the dates, let alone figure out what I might be missing. Sure, surely a data centre had to be constructed for this convenience (I'm being silly and imagining a whole one being built for me and this purpose), but don't they also have to be built to house the games people play on Steam, that they have no DDR5 for, and to stream from Amazon Prime and Netflix? I elected to us my Dell laptop connected to my screen, but not with the dock, that wasn't necessary. However the Dell couldn't cope with the resolution of the screen and ended up letterboxing it (it took me the opening scene to realise this), and also the sound was lacking top end. So off Dell went and I returned to using my trusty 17" Samsung (one that runs Windows XP and has a snazzy orange lid) connected to the screen instead. [The picture still didn't quite fill the screen because of it being a crappy cheap DVD version of the film.]
I got the radio apart and back together again as the movie ended and I tried to switch it on but nothing worked at all bar a slight hum. Damn, had I buggered something? I twiddled everything some more, opened up the back again, twiddled some more, and eventually it just started working again. I worked my way through all of the settings, listening out for all of the stations I'd jotted down the day before, and through the course of do this it improved a lot. It still has it's crackles on the volume knob and slight dead-spots on the tuning dial that I have to back-and-forth through, and the channel switch it quite aggressive, but I'm pleased with it. I'm now thinking I really should part with the other two radio I have that I don't actually use, because having one that I'll end up not really using is more than enough, and I think this is the best one. Then I went outside and slept in my tent.
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I
"watched" Dune many years ago,
likely broadcast on a black and
white TV, because that's all we had
growing up in the 90s, I probably
couldn't make head nor tails of it
then and even reading about it I
thought I would still struggle. Sure
it made more sense this time around
and I quite enjoyed it; it amused me
seeing Quantum Leap Al (Dean
Stockwell), Jean-Luc Picard, and
Sting swagger in. My attention did
drift though and I elected to pick
apart the Amstrad radio I'd acquired
this week so I could de-oxit the
knobs and switches and hopefully
make it less crackly (the volume
knob was bad enough where it would
cut out entirely if not positioned
right).