it's obvious.

if i buy a laptop,

1) i'm going to be stuck with all kinds of parts i don't want, at the expense of parts i do want.
2) when it breaks, i'll have to replace the whole thing again.

it's just an access point.

i can probably get a quadcore pc with freedos and 16 gb of ram for like $400.

i don't want an expensive laptop. it will just break in a few years. they're designed to. that would be foolish of me.

i need to make sure i'm actually right. but, as of right now, i'm planning on building a desktop, not buying a laptop...

yeah. this is...

i don't want a touchscreen, i don't want windows 10, i don't want wireless, i don't want any of this shit...

i'm probably going to build a desktop, instead.

i may have introduced a short in the wireless compartment that took the video out. i actually think that this may have been what happened with the other machine, but this one came back with a reseat. although, i'm also interested in pointing out that i'm perhaps getting a suspicious level of activity in these wireless compartments, aren't i? once i get my phone setup, i may take the wireless out of that machine. and, i'm considering building the new one without wireless at all. certainly, i'll need to make sure to check it actually has an rj-45 in it, at least - that's something i hadn't thought of. i know that some of the higher end models no longer ship with physical ethernet connections.

it seems like ibm is allowing users to design their own laptops. that's what i actually want. you can take out the webcam, too - and your locked down bios, and your recovery partition, and your windows 10...

it might even cost less when i'm done.

but, i've got the f2 page up. what i wanted was the product information so i could see what the maximum ram configuration is. i have one samsung chip in it, pc2-6400. should i just double that, or can i upgrade both of them?

well, then.

i went to check the model number on the vista machine by booting into the bios and the screen is blank. it's not outputting to the monitor i'm using, either. what i should get is an error that the hard drive is broken; that's what i got last week.

this is the laptop i was using for the last six weeks, with no discernible problems. i would like to turn it into an effects processor. but, if it won't turn on...

the immediate diagnosis is video. but, that doesn't make any sense.

i'm not going to buy parts for a machine that won't turn on. but, i don't want to throw it out, either.

let me think about this.

gah.

the 1 tb seagate is going to cost me $80 + border fees from amazon. the 500 gb was $74 + border fees, or $79 in the store. i figured that was interchangeable.

i missed this before because i was looking at the wd; best buy will ship it directly to me in canada for $88. but, then, best buy is claiming a 5 year warranty on the drive, and amazon is claiming a 2 year-warranty. is that worth the $8? why is it even different?

they're actually different products.

amazon is selling a "barracuda", which is a regular hdd. best buy is selling the "firecuda", which is the sshd.

so, do i want an hdd or an sshd?

an 8 gb cache is certainly big enough for ether application...

for $20? i'm trying to be fiscally resonsible. but, i have cash to waste. i'm going to try this.

and, i found the comparable product on amazon, which will cost $94 + border fees. that $6 difference is the usps holding fee.

yeah.

ok.

best buy it is.

so, my current total is:

phone (amazon): $98
ide hds (found, not confirmed) (kijiji): $2x10
laptop sshds: $2x89
==================
$296

next up is actually the ram. finally.

ok, i see what's going on. and, i hope this repeats itself, actually, as i'll get a lot of good deals, that way.

did you catch that my phone was $65? it's waterproof, too. ip67. 2 gb ram. quadcore is near the bottom end, but it'll be fine for me, i'm sure. but, it had some bad reviews, so it's not selling. and, people seem to have picked up the idea that it's a kids phone because it's shock resistant. i hope they feel really grown up when they replace their galaxy because they've dropped it in the pool - or perhaps because their kid has dropped it in the pool. but, the point is that it's a status thing. this is a highly functional, low status device. score. i mean, who said all the contradictions in capitalism were at the benefit of capital? is this even some crude approximation of superproduction?

seagate got some bad press recently due to higher failure rates in a kind of a crock study (they were using refurbished drives that they bought because they were cheap and were consequently expecting a higher failure rate...), so the price has fallen. again: score.

these are actually sshds. i was looking at the ssds, and the price just isn't there, yet, for what i'm doing with these particular machines. i may get one for the new machine. but, i don't see any use in putting an ssd drive in either of these machines; one is for editing, and the other is going to eventually be a guitar effects processor, but is also going to work as a backup.

the sshds happen to be the cheapest thing in front of me. so, i'll let you know how they work. i don't game. but, i want to figure out the exact specs before i comment further.

on second thought, i can get a 1 tb drive over amazon for basically the same price as a 500 gb drive, but the difference in the store is still $30. the best deal is the 1 tb over amazon; it's the same price as the 500 gb in the store.

i'm making a choice not to buy from anybody besides amazon. this is from amazon. it should be a new drive in a box. i will immediately return it if it isn't.

so, after customs and conversion, buying laptop drives from amazon is about the same as buying it from a best buy, here. the difference is that i get to return it to the store if it's busted.

and, that's with free shipping.

500 gb drives are running around $45 on amazon. i'm iffy about buying from these resellers, who should be operating through ebay and not amazon. i don't think of amazon the way i think of ebay. or, at least i didn't before today. so, i could take it down a dollar or two, but there's horror stories in the reviews about people getting refurbished hard drives when the listing says the thing is new. why fuck with that for $1.50?

45*1.33(exchange)*1.13(tax) =
67.63 + 5*1.33 (holding charge for ups) =
74.28

if i have to take a dedicated trip, you can add another $10 for border fees. let's split the difference. so, that's $79.28. it's still cheap, but that $45 list price is pretty misleading.

the price at best buy for a 500 gb wd laptop drive is $70. adding taxes, 70*1.13 = $79.10.

but, i get a lot more by being able to hold the store accountable. so, i'll do that here, too.

i don't know where to buy new ram in windsor. that's part two for the vista laptop...

yeah.

i liked the idea of buying something out of the packaging, but, even so, it's a crapshoot. i'll do that over kijiji...

if i can get a couple for $5-10 and they last a few years, i'll figure out what to do when i get there.

otherwise, that old machine is nearly maxed. it has the 1 gb max. it's running a pIII-500, which is not maxed, but i don't see much value in going through the hassle of taking a working chip out of a 20 year-old board. that would be kind of daft.

so, that's decided. and, on to fixing up the vista laptop....

when you're a nerd, there's always something to learn...

i'm going to have to ship a lot of this stuff to the ups store in detroit, which is steps from the bus home. they'll charge me $5/package to hold it, but it's still a dramatic difference.

consider the phone. i have to wait until the check gets here to order it. but, it's $65 if i ship it to detroit and $195 if i ship it to windsor. if i can pick it up on the way home, some morning, the only extra fees in front of me are that $5 holding charge and customs on the way in. that's still less than $80, meaning i'm saving over $100 usd, even if i have to make a specific trip.

but, that means i want to ship everything in at the same time and make one bug run, if i can. so, i'm sorting through as many things as i can on amazon, looking for deals...

$13 for a 250 gb pata hard drive is pretty cheap, right? well, i decided to be a little more discerning about brands and sellers and instead opted for a $19.99 option that is selling unsold inventory, that is drives that are still shrink-wrapped, and even has a three-year seller warranty, probably because they're just trying to get rid of them, anyways. sorting through the comments, people are angry that they're buying drives that were manufactured in 2006. i'm kind of laughing about it. but, something jumps up in the comments of a 120 gb drive that i was scoping out as a backup:

these are 160 gb drives, not 120 gb drives. so, they're not good for use for old computers with a 137 gb limit.

what?

having jumped from a 20 gb hard drive i bought in the 90s to a 4x250 sata setup in the mid-00s, this isn't something that ever entered my radar. is my board even going to read a 250 gb drive?

well, i did some reading. i need ata-6. do i have ata-6?

well, here's my old board, which is still working flawlessly, all these years later:
http://archive.arstechnica.com/reviews/3q99/asus_p3b-f/p3b-f-1.html

(note that it's y2k certified)

it's ata-33. what does that mean? it means ata-4. do i upgrade this in the bios, or is it physical? it's physical. what does that mean?

In order to properly access the full capacity of an ATA interface hard drive larger than 137GB, your system must meet the system requirements described below. There are three general methods of support:

1) Operating System Solutions for Windows XP and Windows 2000

2) Ultra ATA/133 PCI Controller Card for Windows XP, 2000, Me, 98SE and NT 4.x

3) Intel Chipset Solutions for Windows Me, 98SE and NT 4.x (partial) 

(http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf)

i'm running xp sp3. that's ok. but, if i want a 250 gb drive, i'll need to get a controller card, which is more expensive than the drive. but, wait - i also need chipset support, and this old thing does not have it. it's a 440BX (seattle). i would need an 8xx series chipset.

so, scratch that. i'll need to find something under 137 gb instead....

keep in mind, here, that i'm replacing a 20 gb drive, and i never saw a need to increase space on it. the 250 gb approach was because it was cheap and it was unused. it's no real loss. but i don't want to spend too much on this, either.

i may be better off sorting through kijiji. i'll take another run through to see....

“Unlike coral, these species are mobile and can move away from noises and other disturbances,” the regulations say. “Results from environmental effects monitoring programs from Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil and gas production have shown no significant adverse effects.”

right.

so, if i set up a drilling operation in your backyard, it's your responsibility to get up and move?

i think this government needs to take a course in introductory law.

expect the court to block this. and, blame the state for wasting everybody's time, when it does. they should know better than this.

that is a sophomoric, immature and ridiculous argument.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/canada-to-allow-oil-and-gas-exploration-in-protected-area/83482/

i'll stick with coffee.

why don't i snort coke? it seems to confuse people. i've certainly been offered it enough times. people seem to intuitively grasp that i should like coke. and, yet, i don't touch it. ever.

i guess there was a time when i was an aspiring math student, and it just didn't strike me as a smart life choice. that's not really applicable any more. there's the addiction factor, and it's enough to give me pause, but it's not really at the crux of it.

don't get me wrong: i've seen people destroy their finances on coke. i've sat with people over night to try and keep them off it, only to find out they went back five minutes after i left. and, it makes people clique-y, too. cokeheads seem to think there are two types of people in the world: cokeheads and non-cokeheads. and, they don't want to be friends with non-cokeheads. that self-isolation is a part of the spiral of destruction that sets in. they push all the people that can help them away.

but, i realize that it doesn't hit everybody the same way.

how it were to hit me would likely be dictated by finances. i mean, i get this way with mere alcohol: if i budget myself for $20, and i go through it before the end of the night, i'm always always at the bank machine. but, i cannot think of a time in my life where i've woken up and gone to the liquor store after a night of drinking, either. so, my tendency is to binge as hard as i can over night, and then wake up and walk away from it in the morning. i've never had trouble doing that with any other substance, and don't think i would with coke. the concern is more about how much i'm spending in a given night.

ignoring the reality that i can't know what i'm snorting, and that it would be very dangerous to snort clorox or something, it might seem safe enough for me to try a hit here and there given that i'm usually poor and won't have access to that potential $200 blow night. but, then what?

i mean, it's a five minute buzz. if you're only going to take a hit or two, why not just run around in a circle until you get tired and fall over?

if i spend $20 on beer for the night, i'm drunk. all night. if i spend $20 on coke, i'm stoned for 20 minutes and just want more coke.

that's the actual reason i don't do coke: it's a rip-off. for what it does to you, in comparison to beer or pot or even coffee, a line of blow should cost something like $0.25.

...and, i've said this before: if i ever end up in a situation where i can drop $200 on blow for the night, maybe i'll try it. for now, i'll stick to the lower cost and higher yield options.

that said, i like the idea of very strong coffee. i've said this before: i would take shots of espresso late nights at the bar, if they'd only sell them to me. people snort because it's more intense for a shorter period; i'd rather sacrifice the intensity for a longer experience.

https://thetab.com/uk/2016/06/20/i-spent-saturday-night-getting-high-sniffing-cocoa-3438