Interwebs and the Ills

I have Plague.

It's not bad manfluplague. It's a chesty cough and general ugh feeling. Light bugs not major bugs but whenever I go upstairs or attempt to do anything semi active, that's when I really feel it. I'm not just mixing up words like I usually do, I'm mixing up the letters too.

Hopefully it'll blow itself out over the weekend and I fully intend to not do very much in the active activities type of activity tomorrow. Nope. Tomorrow is cricket watching, chilling out and catching up on more gaming videos. I did start a new Stellaris playthrough last night, I've started an XCom 2 run as well plus there's more Elites too and getting achievements that I shouldn't have got on Motorsport Manager too !

Haven't been in Elite for a week. I've been staying away from stuff that uses too much internet while without a working cable modem. I have a 30GB contract (not as extravagant as it sounds as there was an offer going to give 30GB for the price of 8GB) and was using about 1GB a day apparently. Not quite sure what on, although I did note that the GoG client was doing very strange things moving a lot of data around the hard discs earlier. (I have monitors that keep an eye on activity on my main computer).

I've survived the lack of a modem by attaching both computers to my mobile phone with the hotspot feature. Actually surprisingly quick:

Ping of 35ms is actually pretty good and the download speeds are a bonus. I think it was consistent with that as well, although I think there were a few instances of lag. That might have been my pooter being loaded up. With the weather turning colder, I've turned the science sums back on so the pooter's busy again.

It does drain the battery though so the phone has gone straight on charge after getting home and turning the hotspot on.

The other limitation is that with the laptop connected to the phone for internet, it isn't connected to my main router. The one that my network audio streamer is connected to ... So for the first part of the week, I was listening to music via the laptop speakers (they're rubbish) and from a couple of days ago, via my portable Bluetooth speakers (decent, not as good as hifi).

So I'm back listening to the main hifi, which is great. I do like my music.

And I've been catching up on the youtubes today while feeling under the influence of bugs that will hopefully blow out before Monday.

PS The less said about VirginMedia the better ... When I called on Monday, I think the girl on the phone did everything but order the new modem. So I waited until Wednesday, no modem, called back again. This one was given the instruction "Don't deliver until Friday afternoon" and ... yep. Had to go to the collection place this morning because they delivered early, when I wasn't in.

Popularity, connected, mother

Ahh ... where to start.

I think my router is scared and died in fright. I think it got wind that I planned to talk about a film I watched on Saturday. A quite scary film, it was called Mother! and it's an 18 rated psychological horror. There was very little actual blood and guts (although it is there and it's truly nightmares level shocking - no spoilers) but it really hit its mark in terms of getting you on edge and totally in sympathy with the main character.

That central character is played by Jennifer Lawrence and I don't think we ever heard her name. The film was completely from her point of view, either showing the actress and her reactions (and she is BRILLIANT in this movie) or showing what she's looking at. It is amazing in terms of visuals and especially in sound.

You hear the silence (happily not disrupted by rustling from the audience!) and, when it's quiet, you hear every creak and crack in the house.

Yep. It's set in a house in the middle of nowhere, in which live an author and his wife. The author is suffering from creative block, the wife is steadily putting the house into excellent order while being frustrated that she isn't getting any attention from her love. You can see the depression and anxiety building in Jennifer Lawrence's character and this brings me to :

This is an amazing movie ... but I would not recommend people see it.

It evokes a lot of feelings, it asks you questions about yourself, it will definitely shock you, it may well leave you with very disturbing after thoughts. (I know my friend who saw it with me is definitely still disturbed by it). And it tackles depression and anxiety head on.

However, one aspect that drew my attention was the attitude of the author in the film ... He feeds on adulation. He has an ego that requires stoking, requires feeding and that ego doesn't care where the acclaim comes from. It lives and breathes on the applause of random strangers and totally misses the thoughts of his love, his actual inspiration. And when his love realises that, it is utterly crushing for her.

I like to think I'm the opposite. A certain creative instinct has awoken definitely since I started this blog oh so many years ago. And it's blossomed more in the last few years since I've found a few very special people to write for.

While I have that need to be creative, I'm not very good at doing things for me, I'm far more motivated to do things for other people. People I care about. And sometimes that's driven me into a form of madness, where I need to know what those special think about what I've written for them. I've come to realise that I can't make people look at what I write or create, it has to be good enough to grab their interest and keep it such that they come back to see the next things I write or create.

So in a sense, I think I'm the opposite of the writer in the film. I'll look at the hit counter and get a little sad if the hits over the month go below 1000. But I know that a decent proportion of those hits come from random bots.

I don't care about bots. I care about the real people.

So when a hit comes in and I recognise the pattern of the fingerprint as being from someone familiar, that's when I smile and get the happy feels. Because those familiar fingerprints come from people who like what I write and who care enough to come back for more.

And I think those people are awesome. You are who I write for and I try not to forget that.

So in that sense, I am the opposite of the character in the film, who would be despised by those who see it. I'm quite comfortable in that realisation and I hope it's the best way to be.

So that's Popularity and Mother, how about Connected ?

My cable modem has died ! OH THE HUMANITY !

I've gotten far too used to having constant connectivity to the internet. Watching gaming videos has replaced reading books for me. Sad but true. That said, I might well be opening up Revenger again after finishing this post.

Yep. The main router has died but I've managed to get partial connectivity back via using a mobile hotspot. And the desktop sees internet again due to resurrecting the old USB wifi dongle that I used on my Macbook (before Apple killed it).

It's actually pretty good too, at 18MBits/s download and 15Mbits/s upload. That's 3x quicker than my cable internet upload. But there's a monthly download cap on that, so I'm not watching the videos I'd normally watch. I should be getting a replacement in a few days.

Soon hopefully !

Shiply Creative

I've been seeing ads and suggested posts on the Facebooks lately about a t-shirt made up of spaceships that were the big influencers ...

It's a good t-shirt but I ain't gonna buy it. But it has given me an idea ...

I could do my own design !

Not that one. Although that's pretty cool too with all the various spaceships on it. What would be on mine ?

I have to say first up though that even though I could happily create the design and get someone to turn it into a t-shirt, I don't think I could ever post it anywhere the internet can see it. So many of these ships (probably all of them !) are wrapped up in copyright and outside of that, I'd probably see the design stolen and put up on Redbubble before the end of the year. I'm not making someone else money.

First and most spectacular has to be the Enterprise. You know the one. The original. The best one. The NCC-1701. Although perhaps the one after the refit with the squared off engines. I grew up with Star Trek and the various spin off series but that original Enterprise will always be the one in the heart.

I also grew up playing a lot of Elite, so the original Cobra (below) ship from there and the Coriolis space station (above) would have to be on there.

Frontier do t-shirts with the Cobra and Coriolis already.

Star Wars is a big one too, I'd want to see a Star Destroyer (preferably the iconic old Imperial Star Destroyer) on there. More coming soon there actually because my Lego Star Destroyer is nearly completed .... Oh and there needs to be X Wing, Tie Fighter and the Millennium Falcon too. I see part of this design being dominated by Lego.

Death Star ? Maybe. Definitely a snow speeder and a walker. I happen to have some little Lego versions of those. Wonder if I have the bits to create a mini Lego Death Star.

But it's not just the obvious ones. The big ones. The ships that everyone has heard about. As well as watching every episode of Thunderbirds going, I was very curious about Space 1999. I watched that again recently and .... it's a bit naff. They didn't really have the budget or the ideas to put the effects and storylines in that the setting Space 1999 set up deserved. I did like its classic Eagle spaceship :

The Eagle was essentially a big skeletally framed modular lander, with command cabin at the front and big engines at the stern. In the middle, it used mission specific modules, like the medical module above. A good ship that made sense for the setting.

The Firefly class transport Serenity has to be there too :

Another good design, with detachable shuttles, a pair of atmospheric engines that swivel to allow vertical flight, a big central cargo area and the iconic stardrive at the back. An excellent ship and a better crew. If you haven't watched the Firefly series yet, I'd recommend it.

Of course there would also be a TARDIS spinning around the picture somewhere and ... the one no one would expect :

The Odyssey from Ulysses 31, a cartoon from the 80s. Loved that series, must watch it again soon. (Credit Link for pic)

I'm sure all those pictures and ships could be made into a stunning looking T-shirt. I must see about creating the design ! I'm thinking that the Snowspeeder and the Walkers would be at the bottom, with a battle going overhead involving the other Star Wars ships. Perhaps a Death Star hovering over the horizon of Hoth ? And then the Coriolis station and the Cobra at the top.

There's a bunch more ships out there. But only so much room on a t-shirt ! (I'm not that big. Honest).

What other ships would you add ? Leave a comment !

Pondering Upgrades

I've been pondering the computer upgrades again.

I do this every once in a while, usually when something comes along that pushes the machine I have a little bit too far. Either that, or something has gone bang or got too annoying and I want to throw new hardware at the problem.

This machine has done extremely well for me actually. At about £900 6 years ago, it's been very cost effective as my desktops go. Although that doesn't include the 3 new graphics cards, 1 power supply, 1 sound card, hard disc upgrade and a couple of other things I can't remember.

It's actually still doing pretty well, the only thing that is stressing it at the moment is the video encoding, which is actually just a matter of time. If I was to do the video thing more though, I would need a beefier computer to do it. Let's see what I would get now.

First up - just the gaming. The spec below represents a pretty good gaming PC, albeit without monitor, keyboard and mouse. These items are quite subjective but I am a fan of what I have now. My keyboard is a Steelseries M300 with mechanical switches (very recommended) and mouse is a Logitech (which is ok). I have an AOC 1440p IPS panel monitor, which I would also thoroughly recommend for quality and sharpness of image. I see monitor, keyboard and mouse as things you buy separately though, as you can transfer them between old desktop and new desktop.

Most of the prices below come from Scan, although not the memory. Scan are only offering Corsair memory and I've had problems with Corsair stuff before. Memory price is from Novatech.

Bits that make it go :
I'll switch back to AMD next time with their Ryzen processor. Intel haven't made any significant progress with their processors since mine came out 6 years ago and then AMD come along with something radical again. AMD Ryzen 5 1600 with 6 cores - £188.
That goes in a motherboard and I'm happy with the Asrock I've had for this machine. Asrock B350 Gaming K4 for £102.
And those two need memory - up to 16GB of DDR4 - 2.4GHz. I'm alarmed at how memory has gone up in price. I bought 8GB for £45 six years ago, that should have reduced. Yet ... it has gone up to £70 and 16GB is £139 by Kingston.
Graphics - if I were to get one, it would be an nVidia 1060 3GB for £200. But I have one of those already so I wouldn't have to pay that this time.

That still makes the upgrade a total of £429 without the graphics card.

You need a bunch of ancillaries to make the PC though :
Power supply - Silverstone Strider 700W for £53. But bigger than my usual because it has to support more hard discs.
Hard discs - for the gaming machine only, it's a 525GB SSD by Crucial for £148 and a 2TB drive by Western Digital for £60. Windows goes on the SSD, things that need speed go on the SSD and the rest goes on the 2TB conventional drive. This is a bit over the top (a 256GB is good enough) and you could shave £££s off the total by lowering these.
Cooling - £32 for a Silverstone cooler with a 140mm fan. The bigger the fan the better, you don't really want fan noise coming through to that microphone. And this one looks like it has enough separation to allow many sticks of RAM into the machine.
And it all goes in a case - I'd choose a case by visuals or finish but .... £37 for another Thermaltake case would be good enough.
Add Windows as well for £90.

The ancillaries there come up to £320 for a total of £949 with the graphics card. That's a bit more than the £900 ish I paid last time, although it excludes a cd rom drive. These are pretty much defunct now for PC with most software coming from downloads.

To make a video making machine though, that needs a little more.

Turbocharge the hamster wheel !!!

Bits I'd change :
Graphics - I'd up this a little (but not crazily as the prices really ramp up). nVidia GeForce 1070 cards bring more power .... at double the cost. That'd be an extra £200.
Hard discs - I'd add at least one extra 3TB drive, probably two for recording on. That starts at £75 for a Toshiba and £88 for a Western Digital (ain't touching Seagate again). These would go into a RAID array spanning the two discs. The reason for getting 2 drives by different manufacturers is so that if one drive dies, the other drive should not. It's a reasonable expectation that 2 drives in the same batch made by the same people would die at about the same time if subjected to the same conditions, hence going for difference as a priority.

You see ? Different is good ! In many things :-D.

The software I've used so far is nVidia's capture software, Audacity for audio and Magix Vegas for the editing. I'm happy with all of these so far, although I'd switch it up to something like OBS if I was to do the video editing more. A second screen would be handy for that as well.

So there we have it - £429 for the core upgrade, plus £200 if I were to get another graphics card (don't need one) and £320 for the bits in the case.

I don't need to upgrade yet but .... still thinking about it :-).

Tireds, Trips, Trades

I've had one of those periods where I just really don't feel quite with it.

You know when you're not quite exhausted but you keep making the daft mistakes that you would if you were exhausted. Missing things out, confusing words, forgetting to do the obvious.

Hopefully not so much today but I was definitely doing that over last week, culminating in making more mistakes on Friday. I still have it in mind to do a Friday pm cinema trip to use up a few vouchers I have (and to see some great films) but retreated home this time around mostly due to the knowledge of being prone to those mistakes. I definitely didn't want to be driving back in an overtired state.

Besides, Friday had a couple of good games to finish off the Women's T20 cricket season followed by the men's finale on Saturday. It was tempting to make another trip out in search of Star Wars Lego. The kits for the new movie came out (in typically overhyped fashion to feed the marketing machine) on Friday and I have my eye on the Star Destroyer and BB-8.

And I did kinda want to finish off the epic exploration trip in the internet spaceship.

That's my Diamondback Explorer, stopping off at a colony run by the Party of Yoru, with a lovely nebula in the distance. After finishing off the trip, I had a couple of objectives in mind (all done) to use all the data collected in order to unlock a couple of engineers and to prepare the way for another.

Trip complete ! Green lines meet up again. Since then, I've been helping out with a couple of the week's community goals.

First up, a few trading runs in the Type 7 freighter, Alex Dewey. This one is named after a couple of the Ice Road Truckers. I'm looking forward to that series starting up again, although it's suffering somewhat by a feeling that it has been phoning it in by the numbers lately. That's unfair on the stars of the show, who get well and truly battered by the roads they're attempting to drive on. It's more a criticism of the producers of the show. But I'll still be tuning in for the next season.

That one's looking a bit battered as well now. I only bounced off stars twice ... and one of those was a bit of inattention where I didn't pick up where the "You're too close !" line was. Oh and I was almost blown up by station guns for another little bit of inattention where I completely forgot to ask permission before entering the station. They don't like that.

I did mention that I was suffering from not being quite right in the head lately wasn't I ... Hopefully that'll improve over the next week or so ! Must not overdo it. That's another reason I'm not likely to do many more videos (still got the footage I did last week !), I need that rest and go splat in the evenings after throwing all I got into work, although it has been great to read the comments of a few people who were encouraging me to make more of the videos. They seem to like my voice :-)

The Diamondback well and truly earned its place of honour in the hangar. I think it covered maybe 60,000 light years and earned 100 million credits (this is a lot) for the spacepiggybank. The next time I go out exploring will probably be an expedition in the luxury liner ships to a sizeable collection of beauty spots reasonably close to the populated areas. That might see my character through to its first Elite ranking.

But first - lots of trading to come in a Python, possibly to be called "Shipka 3.141" (Pi-Thon? I know ...) and before then, I enjoyed indulging in a bit of ship to ship combat in the latest glorious little fighter ship :

The Imperial Courier ship, Shaname's Sword. This one did itself proud as well helping out for one of the community goals. I do like the little ships, they are small, nippy and fun to fly around. They don't quite have the combat endurance or hitting power of the big ships though.

On to the next ship soon though which I think will be that Python with other fighty ships coming along as I need them for community goals.

Back to work first tomorrow though. What challenges await !