📁 02-23

I’ll admit it, my access to the internet should be revoked. I think I may have 75% of the pages edited and ready to be pushed upstream. I feel like if I don’t at least shout into the void, I may go crazy. So if there’s ever a wonder as to why I created a blog for a website of little consequence–well–there it is.

“What good is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?”

I know, creating an issue within my own project and merging my own fix is against the natural order of open source. I’m surprised it’s even allowed by Microsoft.. err.. Github. Right, I’m not sure how many pages I have left to edit. I’ll dedicate a full day to go over as much as I can, add some links and whatnot, but I can’t guarantee that all the niche notes will be current. I have SOME spare time, but not enough to check every command and reinstall every operating system. I mean, by my various gods, attempting to install all the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) systems again would take up an entire 40 hour work week. As would a single Arch Linux, or Slackware system.

I’ll be honest, that gif above reminds me of how I feel about dating. Back when The Office (US) first aired, I was in a long distance online relationship. Which is probably way more popular in 2023. It only lasted a year, because I was way too immature for her. Webcams, microphones, text messaging, eating instant ramen to save for flights to Toronto. I learned that I really like snow. I also saw how my hair is suppose to look for the first time. Hard water sure is a thing here in Florida. A lot of firsts happened like riding in a subway car. Ok, time for more page edits. This markup won’t format itself.

“So uh, are you gonna be using this bumper? Ok then, stay safe out there. Bye now.”

Going over all the pages again to make sure formatting is as unified as possible. I hope all the website clonings are from bots scanning repositories for sensitive data. Because damn, I put a lot of myself in to this website, it would take a lot to take it all out just for copy pasta. Anyway, off I go again–sweepin’ up tea leaves–making sure the website is as presentable as possible.

🔗 University of Colorado Boulder: Shining a light on what comes up when you flush

More neat stuff added to 🔗 FFmpeg. The meme wheel keeps turning. Hopefully I’ve finished all the housekeeping needed to keep this website floating for a little while longer. It’s not the sparkliest of metaphorical boats, but it’ll do just fine for now. And about VSCode–I get it now. A 32in 4K monitor and VSCode with Dracula theme really hits my visual sweet spot.

Sneak attack 101

If I don’t install each pending Flatpak update I see in KDE Discover independently, the updates will stall indefinitely. Apps installed as Snaps seem to update automatically, and in my experience, Snaps don’t integrate well with notifications. Which is fine for others, but for me there are times when a notification equals a limited time opportunity to earn some money. Also, for some reason I have to RMB and Copy Link Location to visit links from emails viewed with Thunderbird. If I don’t copy the link Thunderbird, will open a blank tab in a new Firefox window. It’s just.. what happened? I’m thinking I may try Debian KDE with backports and some manually compiled software. Wait, did I just describe Linux Mint? Sheesh.

The Arch Linux route.. well, there’s a reason why I added the 🔗 Arch Linux restore page to this website. Actually, Arch Linux is the reason I created the page for 🔗 BorgBackup, and this 🔗 backup script Instead of another two year Arch Linux adventure, I’d rather go camping, hiking, or step on a skateboard. Sheesh.

But seriously, at least on the Linux side I’m not pausing updates for weeks at a time just to avoid the Windows 11 update process.

Hexagonal aliems

Flipped a vintage keyboard recently. Such a weird commodity. These days a tricked out keyboard sells faster than a rare DVD or video game. And early 2020 was definitely the time to buy cheap vintage mechanical keyboards. Anyway, I have a few extra Linux operating systems on the SSD of the computer I’m typing this from. I should at least switch one out for Linux Mint.

By the way, the notes I take of Linux Mint or Debian, or whatever operating system that comes next won’t be cluttered with a bunch of words. I’ve saved these Blog. pages to clutter with a bunch of words instead. This should be obvious by now. Why would anyone need to read some long winded obfuscated explanation of 🔗 Ranger File Manager, when a few examples and links will do?

🔗 Planetes (1999)

VSCode spell check enabled. I couldn’t find an extension that rewrites my sentences in to well written sentences, so uh, sorry about that.

I was hoping that a new battery, and refreshing the thermal paste/VRAM pads would eventually fix the overheating issue. Now it looks like I’ll need to get a new CM246 chipset, and a decent hot air gun specifically for soldering.

Well, at least I know there is a power issue, and where the excess heat was coming from. So far I’ve replaced the CPU/GPU thermal paste with 🔗 Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut paste. When I unplugged/plugged the CMOS battery so that the Thinkpad would roar back to life is when the chipset blew. I don’t think it was from cleaning with 🔗 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol. And the thermal paste I used is non-conductive.

I’ll get some testing equipment to check all the 🔗 mosfets. Someone from Lenovo’s refurb division (or from one of the refurb divisions) covered the center drain hole with a refurb sticker, and the inside did show evidence of a minor spill. Fingers crossed that ~$250 and some hot air work will bring this $1,200 laptop back to life. I guess my luxurious YouTube career will have to wait *chuckles*.

Lots of bravado with puffed out chest regarding my soldering prowess. Some engineer decided to play a prank on me and add some components to the bottom of the board underneath the chipset. I’m not a surgeon, or a doctor, or someone that knows how to solder all that well, so ah, that’s not happening.

Can’t even use a soldering hot plate, and the solder balls under the chip cover the entire chip, so I doubt hot air will work the way I imagined. And since the C THING has brought down prices on laptops due to more people working remotely, a used replacement motherboard is the same price as a Thinkpad X1 Extreme Gen 3. I have some decisions to make, and none of which involve attempting to pour more money in to this very dead laptop.

I’m still not sure whether or not I allowed enough time for the alcohol to dry when I was cleaning up the motherboard in preparation for solder paste. What are the chances of a two year old mosfet going bad? I’d imagine a very slim chance. So unless the battery was bad enough to cause the issue, I probably fried the laptop. Thankfully the laptop technically paid for itself before I killed it, so that’s nice *chuckles nervously*.

I don’t have much to say in this entry. Just an excuse to maybe inspire a certain web comic to feature a Swinging Vine Farm. The only comic with the stones to skip the Tarzan motif. We all know a British person could never survive on jungle water. It would be irresponsible to assume otherwise.

I don’t care to receive credit for the idea–just really want to read the comic–of a Swinging Vine Farm. Or the inclusion of a Swinging Vine Farm…

I reapplied thermal paste for the server/workstation CPU and GPU, and nothing blew up.

Also, 🔗 this SMBC comic. Sasquatch pee in the water was way better than a Swinging Vine Farm. I seriously doubt this blog influenced that comic strip, but I LOL’d, and sharing is caring.

Alright, that’ll do it for a while. Thanks for reading along.