The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

So my dad and I went to the mall yesterday, and he bought a 240GB Kingston SSD as a birthday gift, along with a shirt and some jeans:


After imaging contents off the platter it only took thirty or so minutes to transfer the old drive's contents to the new one, and I didn't have to do a clean reinstall either, apart from updating Windows to 1903 that is. So far the drive's running great, and Samantha now boots up a tad faster; I may have to delete a few apps or transfer them to the repurposed Western Digital platter which I assigned as the storage drive. Needless to say, my dad was convinced and he too wanted to have a similar drive installed on his Acer laptop (well, technically it isn't his but rather a government-issued one, though we basically have free rein on what goes in it as long as it isn't in breach of things), as while it does have a decent Core i5 mobile processor and 12GB of RAM, the Seagate hard drive is its Achilles' heel due to it running at 5400RPM.

[cpd2009]

So my dad and I went to the mall yesterday, and he bought a 240GB Kingston SSD as a birthday gift, along with a shirt and some jeans:


After imaging contents off the platter it only took thirty or so minutes to transfer the old drive's contents to the new one, and I didn't have to do a clean reinstall either, apart from updating Windows to 1903 that is. So far the drive's running great, and Samantha now boots up a tad faster; I may have to delete a few apps or transfer them to the repurposed Western Digital platter which I assigned as the storage drive. Needless to say, my dad was convinced and he too wanted to have a similar drive installed on his Acer laptop (well, technically it isn't his but rather a government-issued one, though we basically have free rein on what goes in it as long as it isn't in breach of things), as while it does have a decent Core i5 mobile processor and 12GB of RAM, the Seagate hard drive is its Achilles' heel due to it running at 5400RPM.

I was able to use Greta full time over my holiday weekend, and her WD Blue SSD has made Windows 10 usable. Like your dad's laptop, the original 5400rpm was completely inadequate for Windows 10. Startup was super slow and the system struggled to get things done. I sometimes think about getting an SSD boot drive for Pearl, but as it stands, her 1TB WD Black platter drive works good.

Turns out my PowerMac G4 will need a compatible NIC as the built in ethernet doesn't work, as the eBay seller described. It's connected to my DSL router like Pearl, but I can't even get a ping or automatic DHCP renewal. The ethernet interface is recognized by the system, which is strange. I don't know if the actual ethernet hardware failed or if the port itself is bad. The G4 also needs a new PRAM battery soon. The current one is dead, and it hasn't leaked yet.

It's been hinted that a new PRAM battery can do more than just let the Mac keep the system time. Perhaps the PRAM battery will fix the ethernet issues?

---

Here is what I was able to get done with the G4.

Installed OSX 10.2 Panther and the Classic environment. Upgraded to 10.3 Tiger and applied the latest patch, bringing OSX to 10.3.9. Also installed VLC 0.8.6i and Classilla. Tomorrow, I will test DVD playback. Internet stuff will have to come after I get the PRAM battery replaced or a new NIC installed.

[cpd2009]

Last night, watched a DVD movie with my current Windows XP multimedia box. The Fox and the Hound, an underrated Disney animated classic.

The movie actually played very well. The video stuttering I mentioned earlier only appeared right at the start of the disc during the unskippable opening logos. It later went away and the movie played well.

As for the G4, it doesn't play DVDs as well as the XP box. There doesn't seem to be a deinterlacing option in the Apple DVD Player app, and VLC 0.8.6i needs libdvdcss to play encrypted discs. I couldn't get an encrypted disc to play at all.

[huckleberrypie]

On top of disc encryption, it's the region locking thing that brought me into using VLC. Though given that the use of optical media is in decline in favour of digital downloads and the so-called cloud, even my rigs lack internal optical drives and for scenarios where I need to burn or rip a disc, I use an external DVD burner instead.

And I'm kinda' disappointed that Disney/Pixar didn't do a premium or signature edition Gabby Gabby doll in time for Toy Story 4 as what they did to Lotso Bear in the previous film. Sure it would cost a lot, but when you think about how much an Our Generation doll of similar size to Gabby costs versus a more high-end American Girl doll...

[huckleberrypie]

So I've been playing around with Sekiro lately, mostly out of adding and making crappy humour mods no thanks to the game being the staple of memes as of late partly due to its insane difficulty. It comes as no surprise considering the Souls heritage it has by way of FromSoftware, and from my experience, you'd die a LOT even at the first level unless you ghost your way through.

[cpd2009]

So I've been playing around with Sekiro lately, mostly out of adding and making crappy humour mods no thanks to the game being the staple of memes as of late partly due to its insane difficulty. It comes as no surprise considering the Souls heritage it has by way of FromSoftware, and from my experience, you'd die a LOT even at the first level unless you ghost your way through.

I remember seeing YouTube pre-roll ads for Sekiro, and it looked very interesting. Too bad it's not on Nintendo Switch, but then again, it's on PC, but I wonder if my 750Ti would be able to run it?

As for Nintendo, a lot of news coming from them in recent weeks. The Switch Mini is real, officially known as the Switch Lite. It will release in September in the US, and will come in Teal, Yellow, and Gray colors. Think of the 3DS, but with the Switch hardware and no second screen. The Switch Lite won't support TV output, and will be a full handheld experience. There will also be a new model of standard Switch hardware, mainly giving it longer battery life and of course, hardware mods to keep the hacking community at bay for a few weeks.  Since the Switch Lite is a true handheld, the 3DS is on it's way out, despite what Nintendo keeps saying about it. No 3DS games have been announced or released in the last couple months.

There is also a lawsuit against Nintendo about something called "Joy-Con Drifting". People are reporting that their Joy-Con analog sticks are beginning to move or drift on their own after a few months of use. This can make games unplayable if your character keeps moving on it's own. I haven't experienced such drift with my own Joy-Cons, but the thought of this issue does sit in the back of my head while I play Switch. Here is a video from SpawnWave explaining the possible reasons as to why this drifting happens.

[huckleberrypie]

Joycon drifting? I bet it would get even worse if eurobeat kicks in.

As for Sekiro, I think it should run just fine on your 750Ti if you set things to medium. Funny how the so-called texture quality setting is actually tied to texture filtering rather than resolution. Then again FromSoftware isn't exactly the first thing that comes in mind when it comes to optimised PC ports anyway.

EDIT: Yup, Sekiro should run just fine at 1080p medium on a 750Ti:


I was able to get 50-60fps on a 1050 2GB in my case, though the GPU temps can get really hot for some reason. Maybe I need to re-paste it some time, maybe it's the ambient temps or maybe it's the game being somewhat punishing on resources.

[cpd2009]

Well, I got a really good deal on a Samsung SmartHub TV. There was an auction today in my town. When it comes to most personal property auctions in the USA, the items usually belonged to elderly people who either passed away or are moving into smaller quarters (sometimes to an assisted living facility). Thus, the items are very well cared for and clean.

The particular Samsung set I got above is a UN40H5203AF from June 2014, running the SmartHub UI. The set was in great shape cosmetically and it came with the original remote. No manual, but that isn't a big deal because SmartHub has a built in "e-Manual". It appears that the previous owner never bothered to use the SmartHub features since there was no previous record of a Wifi network, or even any apps installed. To be on the safe side, I did do a full factory reset of the TV so I could set it up with my own apps and information.

The picture quality is amazing, far better than my off-brand Sansui. The Sansui is alright, but the picture wasn't always the greatest when it comes to animated TV shows. The Samsung appears to have a more balanced picture when it comes to contrast, brightness, and sharpness of HD sources.

I ended up getting this neat TV for only $55 USD before taxes. Considering that this TV cost anywhere between $400 - $500 new (rough estimate), that is a very good deal for a set that works well.

The Samsung only has two HDMI ports, so I have had to rearrange my home entertainment setup to adapt. The Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS2 use the Samsung's component input, while the two HDMI are used for my cable box and the Switch. The Sansui set is now my bedroom TV, where it's connected to my retro clone consoles and any HDMI plug-and-play systems.

One last note, the Samsung can display 240p component video from the PS2. The Sansui set, along with an older 32'' Sony set would go to a "No Signal" screen whenever you played 240p PS1 games via PS2+Component. There doesn't seem to be horrible input lag. I'll have to do some general gameplay tomorrow to make sure.

[huckleberrypie]

Not a bad deal with that one. In our case the Samsung telly's a pain in the rear to use as far as my folks are concerned, not necessarily because they aren't able to use YouTube or Netflix, but because of how the ISDB channels are numbered compared to what we were used to with analogue.

[cpd2009]

Gaming on the Samsung TV won't be a problem. There doesn't seem to be any horrible input lag on the set, even with Game Mode turned off. I was able to play some games, namely some arcade titles from the PS2 "Taito Legends" disc just fine. With the Wii U, there wasn't any noticeable lag between the gamepad and TV when Virtual Console games were being played.

I tested the Netflix app, and it works good. A little bit more sluggish than something like a Wii U, but the streams play fine and the app appears to be in line with other platforms. I still have to test YouTube out.