My Computers

Stuff about my various computers and computer components.

My Favorite Computer

It feels only right to begin this section of my website with my favorite computer. It's my Dell Latitude E5530. Maybe an odd choice, but I have my reasons.

Firstly, it was what introduced me to Linux, and the idea that there was anything other than Windows and Mac. I was in school and decided I was sick of using the infamously crappy chromebooks provided to us, so at the end of the school year when I noticed that they were throwing out some of the old laptops I asked if I could have one and before long I was walking out the school doors with a new device to disappoint my mom with. Another interesting tid bit with this is that it was my first experience with an SSD, as when I had built my first desktop I'd opted for a hard drive as the price gap was still very noticeable to a poor kid like me. I had, however, stupidly opted for a used one, which bit me in the ass later. More on that in a bit. But once I had gotten the SSD installed, at this point it was $70 for a lower end 500 GB WD Blue SSD, and the thermal paste reapplied, I then needed an OS. I didn't know that the Windows 7 license key included with the laptop would work with Windows 10, and I wasn't about to pony up $100+ for a laptop I'd spent only $70 on so far. I'd heard from someone about this thing called Lynx, an alternative operating system for super-geeks and hackers, and I checked it out, but because of the confusion with the name rather than finding KDE or Gnome when I searched up what the user interface looked like (I was one of those kids that got obsessed with user interface and Windows Vista in my pre-pubecent years) I got the Lynx text based browser, and after seeing that I got scared and ran away. It wasn't until a while later that I found out that Linux was pronounced Linux and actually had a GUI. On recommendation I downloaded Linux Mint and never looked back.

It has superb build quality, excellent upgradeability and easy maintenance, and a million nice little features like real volume buttons rather than ones integrated into the function keys, and real mouse button, rather than capacitive or ones hidden underneath the trackpad. The keyboard is also amazing for a laptop, not only with good travel but also nice and firm and tactile. At least as far as laptop keyboards go. The removeable battery acted as a nice impromptu weapon and even got me out of a fight once.

Most of my love for it is probably just nostalgia, but it did a lot to shape the computer use I am today, and for that I am grateful.

These days it runs Sound Cue Systems on Windows 10 for all the plays I run audio tech at, and as usual does a stellar job.

The Workhorse

This is the computer I run day to day. I built it when I was around 11 years old, and it's held up since. These days it's got an NVidia GeForce RTX 3060, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 32 GB RAM, MSI x470 gaming plus motherboard, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD of some kind, I forget which exactly. Unfortunately it runs Windows 10; I've been getting around to dual booting something for a couple of years now.

Not many stories with this one, it's just reliable and does everything I need it to and that's exactly the point. The workhorse computer that I rely on shouldn't be some cobbled together Unix box, I just need something that is guaranteed to work with all software (mostly, curse you QLab) and unfortunately right now that's Windows. I am very pleased with how far Linux has come in this regard, and I use it regularly, but there are still just enough questions that it's worth using the Windows license key as long as I already have it. Probably the most interesting thing I have to say about this computer is that I originally had a used hard drive in it. This was incredibly stupid in hindsight, but I was 11 and stupid, and about two years later learned my lesson when my computer no longer booted one day. For a few years I simply resorted to using my Dell Latitude e5530 running Linux Mint while I worked up the time money and courage to revive it.

The Oddysey²

This is a weird little console I picked up at Retro Game Expo Portland 2024. Seeing the large keyboard I assumed it was one of those early computers which straddled the line between computer and console, like the VIC-20, Atari 400, etc. The kind where they give you more freedom than a typical console, but don't support the more robust languages of UNIX, CPM, and DOS machines. However, I later found out this was exactly the intended effect, as this was certainly no computer at all. It lacks any I/O or any way to save programs outside of a Polaroid of the screen. Any programs were made with a BASIC trainer cartridge anyway, so it was limited even by BASIC standards. However, not all was lost since as a vintage console it's quite nice. The joysticks are responsive, the games run well, and they're all of pretty decent quality. This is since, aside from two games, all programs for the Odyssey² were first party games from Magnavox, so you don't end up with all the mindless slop you get in between the gems of Atari and its contemporaries. Of course, you don't get the gems either, but there's still plenty of good games on it. I for one have quite enjoyed Pickaxe Pete.

The other nice thing with it is that it's fairly inexpensive, but has a small following so repairs and modifications are not impossible. It's in this low price that it's biggest flaw, or rather non flaw, is. It's almost completely unremarkable, no one remembers the controller of the Odyssey² in the way that the 2600s were great or that the Intellivisions and Collecovisions were awful, and this applies to all aspects of the Odyssey². It doesn't have great games but you'll never be completely bored out of your mind with them. It's sort of the suburban midwest of early consoles, not remarkable in any way. However, this can make it quite a good deal if you find one cheap like I did, and I'm in no way regretting my purchase. If you're in my sort of situation where all this retro stuff is "neat" but inflated to oblivion price wise, then something like the Odyssey² could be a good in so to speak.