Strawberryland Forum

It's that time in America once again. People celebrate our country's Independence Day by having cookouts, getting together with family, and (if your state or jurisdiction allows it) light of fireworks. The irony? Nearly all consumer fireworks are imported from China. I will be heading back home to visit family during my long 4th of July weekend. On the way, I will stop at Walmart and see what kinds of interesting technology toys I can find. Doubt I will find much of note since I already got a nice Mediatek tablet. I do want to look at their TVs and see if I can find a deal for a slightly larger set, perhaps a 43'' name brand Sharp or Samsung. I also consider getting a Smart TV of some kind, but more like a Roku TV. I find Roku TV's to be a neat concept and I have experience with Roku devices.

Still getting used to a dual monitor setup. It's rather nice being able to have the web browser in the main window, and having other programs or windows on the second monitor. I haven't come across many issues with programs or websites running with a 1280x1024 resolution, though YouTube can't make up it's mind on whether to display the left hand menu or hide it. I will say that the Dell E193FP has seen more use than the main unit. The backlight is noticeably a bit darker, but it's still perfectly usable. Sometimes, programs don't seem to remember being placed on the second monitor, or don't care. XMedia Recode opens on monitor 2, but other apps like YTP+ don't.

My attention span isn't that great so I don't think I'd survive with a dual monitor setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCgoxQCf5Jg

I would embed this, but it's a very long video around 90 minutes. It's a documentary of sorts from a guy named Frederik Knudsen, part of a series called "Down the Rabbit Hole", which looks at odd and strange Internet topics.

This episode is focused on a relatively unknown OS called "TempleOS" and it's creator. It's amazing, yet sad in many ways. The man could have been a genius computer programmer, but his own mental issues got the better of him. If you have the time, I'd recommend you see this. I should put a Content Warning here... some of the rambles of said TempleOS creator are rather disturbing and could be considered a bit offensive to some audiences, but they are presented in a way that illustrate the programmers mental decline.

I feel sorry for Terry Davis in that regard, being he did TempleOS all on his own compared to those who'd almost always base their desktop or mobile OS off Linux just because it's libre and has all the essential ingredients. His mental health problems only go to show that mental health is no laughing matter and that governments and other organisations should make it a point to better look after the well-being of people.

I'm at home spending time with my family for the 4th of July holiday. I'm going to try and solve a mystery that has been nagging me for a while... a missing 64gb microSD card. Some files I used for a backup routine may still be on it, but I can't remember where I put the card. It doesn't help it's a microSD card, but I didn't notice it among my belongings after I moved away.

I'm also taking a look at my old PowerMac G4 MDD. I never really got to play around with that much. All I know is that it's a dual 867mhz model, and it can likely be upgraded to a faster processor setup among other things. The thing is heavy, so hauling it back to my apartment will take some effort.

Came across an amazing video game deal in my old hometown.

Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX for PS1. $1 for each set at the town thrift store. The cases are in great condition, the manuals are included, and the discs are pristine. No missing discs.

These games go for much higher prices on eBay. VII alone can go for $30+ with mint or new copies costing over $100+.

Being such a small thrift store out in the sticks, it's no wonder these got priced so cheaply. They just went by how much CD games cost, which are only $1 and typically consist of shovelware. Despite the sets having multiple discs, they gave them to me for the $1 price anyway.

I've always wanted to get into the FF series and RPGs in general. And I have three of the PS1 titles. I'll have to look out for the other games in the series.

Here they be... my latest PS1 acquisitions.





And another rummage sale find. My fist ever digital camera, the Olympus FE170. I got one of these for Christmas 2006, and I would have still been using it if I hadn't accidentally broke the LCD in a car door on a family road trip. It was in a bag I placed on the floor of the car between my feet, and I didn't notice it slightly falling out of the car once I opened the door.  This one was only $20, and it's in great condition.




The first image was taken with my LG Rebel 3. The second one, along with the FF game discs were taken from the FE-170. The camera came with a very nice pouch and the box was full of accessories. From left to right: a new-in-box mini tripod, a analog video cable for the camera, a lens cleaning kit that has leaked a bit, an SD-to-USB card reader, and the software CDs which are no longer necessary nowadays. The card reader is odd. The FE-170 takes those proprietary "xD" picture cards, yet the original owner packed in a SD-to-USB reader. xD and SD are incompatible formats. As for getting additional xD cards in the future, I'd have to find new old stock online. It seems easy to find genuine xD cards around. The camera takes up to a 2GB xD card.

I've heard that the Final Fantasy series is an ArtifactTitle, as we're yet to see a "final" Final Fantasy game lol.

(07-07-2019, 08:24 AM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]I've heard that the Final Fantasy series is an ArtifactTitle, as we're yet to see a "final" Final Fantasy game lol.

The story goes that at the time the original Final Fantasy was released for the Famicom/NES, Square was nearly bankrupt and the developers thought this game would be their last. Hence the name Final Fantasy. The game was a smashing success and it ended up saving Square. With the subsequent games, the name has stuck.

Digging around my old room some more, and got out that PowerMac MDD G4 I bought off eBay in 2015. It's a dual processor 867mhz PPC, has 512mb RAM, and a GeForce 4mx AGP graphics card. The G4 has two HDDs, a 160gb and a 60gb. Two more IDE disks can be added in later.

I remember that the seller stated the ethernet port didn't work, but I never had a chance to fully test it. Since Pearl is hardwired, it's possible to connect the G4 to my router and run a network test.

I have two ideas for this G4. Idea one is to use it as a retro PowerMac G4 for basic things like photo editing and very basic web browsing using one of those modern PPC projects like Classilla or TenFourFox (TFF). Upgrades will be necessary, but will be affordable. My particular G4 supports 2GB RAM max, which should be enough for running mobile versions of websites through TFF/Classilla. YouTube is out of the question, but I have more modern means to watch web video. Pearl will still be needed for video capture tasks, but I can just connect her to my HDTV. A little more research needs to be done for the G4's video card. The GeForce 4mx is good enough for DVD playback, but obviously I need to get a compatible upgrade for better performance.

Idea two is just having this as a simple media playback device. For some reason, Timothy has odd stuttering glitches when playing DVDs in certain deinterlacing modes.

Toying around with this G4 MDD will be interesting and fun. I've wanted to see how Classilla/TFF actually perform on a LowEndMac and whether or not it would be usable with the obvious tradeoffs.

Yeah I doubt PPC machines, even those bulky G5 ones, can handle modern YouTube these days. It's funny as the x86 Mac Mini was able to run circles around a G5 Mac Pro from what I've watched on the 8-Bit Guy channel.