Maybe I’d have rushed to write a quick post between the sprint race and the main qualifying session, to also be able to post it before dad got back, but I ended up needing to unclog the toilet again, so I then fiddled with some more things on the new computer instead… And that’s because, yes, I’m finally using it, after switching the cases yesterday and just taking the plunge, even though I initially meant to at least get back to the old one last night, after making a sort of pizza, once again using one of those fluffy flatbreads as the base, wanting everything to be normal when I got back on-line, especially since it was 4:50 AM when I started eating that mixed lunch and dinner, which also included a slice of the cake, three more remaining in the freezer. But, as I said, I ended up just taking the plunge and staying on this one, poking around various things and even continuing to install what I’m used to having even if I’m yet to add security software, so it was 6:55 AM when I finally finished eating and 8:10 AM when I got in bed. And before that mixed lunch and dinner I had only eaten a few plums and a few biscuits after getting up, and hadn’t even brushed my teeth that day, so I only did so once, before getting in bed.
One thing that makes me need to open up the new computer again is that I accidentally connected the power LED as well, so there’s a blue light aimed at the bed. Then again, there’s a lot of disk activity, and it seems that this motherboard is making the HDD LED light up brightly as well, and those constant flashes may be more of a problem than a steady light, but I don’t want to disconnect that one as well. And last night the power LED was useful, since I had forgotten to set the computer to never go to sleep and I’d have really panicked if I’d have entered the room to find it apparently off instead of having that blinking LED to let me know what had likely happened right away.
Except that little issue, everything seems fine in terms of hardware, so I shouldn’t have had a reason to open it again until I’ll get that other NVMe SSD, assuming that I’ll stick to that decision. But one problem until then is that I only moved the SSD to this computer, meaning that I just have two drives and the data is split between them, so I don’t know how to set up the daily backup, because there isn’t much point in backing things up on the same drive. And things will get trickier if I will actually try Linux as well, since I’ll have to figure out a way to share the partition with the documents as well as the backup ones, and they’ll be on drives that are also used for some of the data that’s being backed up even when I’ll have three. But yes, that means that I’m now on Windows 10… Which also makes it a whole lot less likely that I will give Linux an honest chance, if I’ll even install it at all. But I really can’t stand how Windows 10 looks and “feels”, and the more important part which remains to be seen is how it’ll behave, so I’ll keep poking around, but it may push me to make that attempt after all, at least at some point.
One thing that I’m yet to even try is the TV tuner, since I tried to install its software yesterday but I couldn’t find the activation code, and while I found it listed after putting the old computer back together and in the other case, and then even found where I had placed the documentation as well, I didn’t try again today. And I’m also yet to connect the data cable of any UPS to this computer, or to try the new one again at all, so everything’s still plugged into the old one and its data cable is plugged into the old computer, so that one kept receiving the data when I turned it back on to check that it worked.
Speaking of the old computer, after initially trying to take everything out with the cables still connected, I had to disconnect the HDDs and even remove the back fan, and then I couldn’t remember which SATA ports the HDDs were plugged into and I ended up plugging them into different ones, so it needed to get its bearings again after I turned it back on, but I hope everything’s fine, because I mean to give it to dad but keep the existing Windows installation as it is, clearing my data and putting a password on my account, making another one for him, and I’d say also install Windows 10 alongside that Windows 7, since we purchased that second key for that purpose. But these keys may need to be activated quickly, quite some time already passed, I’d want to put it on the SSD from his old computer, and he said that he needs that one to work without having to worry about anything until at least December 14, so it remains to be seen what we’ll actually do. I could put it on the other HDD for the time being and see whether that activation key, assuming that it’d still work even now, would allow it to be reinstalled on the SSD later, or whether I could figure out how to clone that drive and move it to the SSD without reinstalling, or if not then just leave it on that noisy HDD, which will obviously also be noticeably slower than the SSD. But for now I’m turning it back on in order to post this from it, and also take what I forgot to copy on this SSD.
Then again, I’m not sure that there’s any difference between what’s there and what I had backed up the last time, and it’s actually a good thing that I kept the installed games on this SSD instead of deleting them in order to make room for the other things, because Siege of Avalon didn’t seem to work on Windows 10 at first, but after copying the saved games and siege.ini over, it now works. It’s in windowed mode and the compatibility mode is set to Windows 7, as anything else seemed to make it hang while in this case the problem seemed to be with the display, the window remaining black. It’s also set to disable fullscreen optimizations, but I’m not sure whether that helps and now that it’s working I’m not about to change anything. As for that file, I’m not entirely certain that I remembered everything correctly, but the differences between what it installs with and what I copied seem to be the “D3DVSync=1” line, which was missing, and the “[Character]” section, which contains “Resource=Player”. But, again, I’m not sure, and it is possible that a couple of the lines that come before that section were also new or changed.
Speaking of games, I also installed Bound By Flame, Lords of Xulima and Phoning Home again, and very quick tests show that they work, but there’s something definitely wrong with some colors in Bound By Flame, at least on the interface, some parts being just bright yellow, so I’ll see what can be done about that, if and when I’ll get back to it. But it’s clear that I won’t be finishing any other game this year, and I also won’t write reviews for those that I did finish, as in Diggles, the first Vampires Dawn and Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, the main goal for December being to try to somehow reach my goal of reading 12 books this year when I’m only at eight so far. I definitely have to read The Dromost Gate and The Emerald Gate, to finish that series, but what the other two will be and whether I will manage to read them in such a short time remains to be seen.
There would be quite a few more things to write, but I don’t care to edit this post later and this is how far I can get and still post it, using the old computer, before midnight, so I’ll leave anything else for another time, when I’ll know more things as well. So no, I won’t turn this into a two-part post either, even though it would be a good way to have a second post of the week as well and I don’t really know what I will write tomorrow… But I did plant trees a week ago, so I’ll probably at least write a placeholder for the post about that and edit that later in order to add the rest.