Techxitement

So much for my sbh70. At least it’s still usable though I damaged it a bit more in the past month.

And there’s a lot to be excited about in tech/acquisitions:

· AMD Zen

· Intel Kaby Lake (7^th Gen Core)

· Sony Xperia “X Compact”

· Sappire RX480

· more 3TB harddrives

And I sure wish I’ll have the time to get my main pc up because of above imminent acquisitions.

Upgrades Start and End

Quickly, I got to start the upgrade process of PC-69 with two 3TB harddrives. The planning and waiting for availability of RX480 4GB variants has started, and the end of procrastination in finally getting my main pc fixed is soon to end. I did replace the spare pc’s cmos battery at last salvaging the one from adette’s old (same generation) motherboard.

With windows 10 upgrades ending last july 29, I rushed crammed some windows upgrades at work and at home. glad that because of this deadline, I got to put life back to the damaged (startup problems) ion2 netbook and mhae’s samsung netbook (broken lcd and keyboard). The former, I got to do with the help of yonni’s usb-mini cable for the external harddrive, and the latter is thanks to finding a nearby laptop repair place in metropoint.

What missed the deadline is ate’s old hp laptop but she has a new one anyway, and chammy’s broken alienware that I have yet to have checked. I’m still hoping that the “cpu error” deserves quotation marks.

On “TV” stuff: apparently macross delta isn’t on a season break; southpark really is awesom; and I can’t wait for October for DC tv shows.

Software Upgrades and Finally a Plan on Hardware Upgrades

To get it out of the way, this month’s tech fail: failing CMOS battery on backup PC. Yes! That’s all I can recall and it’s easily fixable. For previous tech fails, I also finally have the plan and funds and great options. The greatest of those options: AMD’s new Radeon RX 480. I can’t wait to see it in price lists.

More on the planned upgrades, well, the only definite one so far is that I’ve decided on to get two 3TB Seagate drives. I’ve budgeted based on the original cost of parts to be replaced and I’ll decide what to get as I go along the not progressive buying process. Wow, I haven’t done that in a long while now.

I also got to organize/file info on the computers at work, for my team at least. Come to think of it, the team’s pretty big now and I’m glad that the hardware and software are quite right in…a lot of ways.

On the anime/tv series side of geekery, I’ve catched up on Macros Delta (or Macross Triangle I like to call it) and I’m getting a good ride and wonderful tunes while everyone else is into Game of Thrones. I did get a copy of (almos) all episodes from eldrich so mhae and I can catch up and get into the conversations by next year’s season. Oh, and I also got from him a copy South Park. YEAH!

Gundam geekery has been good with the release of The Origin episode 3. Simply put, the story has gone well in establishing how tragic Char and Sayla’s past has been, but it didn’t fail to build Char as the villain he is. Yep, I like how there is no attempt to blur his character’s villainy.

Glory of Losers also apparently got scanlated upto the latest volume and it was a joy to recall the story albeit being altered a bit. The katoki designs are just great. I sure wish the other retelling we’ve been waiting for—rebuild of evangelion—gets completed soon.

I think I’ve written quite a bit on free stuff from the net so I’ll end it here for now.

The i7’s and Superheroes

Fun thing at the office, 10 6th generation Intel Core i7 PC’s were delivered. The 11th arrived a couple of weeks after. Things done: distributed, asked laurence for help in setting them up, and managed old PC’s for disposal or reassignment.

Sad thing in office tech, one of those old PC’s was my first i5 office PC and its radeon vidcard broke down. The 6 year old PC still runs but wih a different vidcard.

And I’ve been getting tech fails for how many months now? This month, it’s the right earphone of my SBH70. I’ve yet to bring it to the service center outside warranty. Still using it, just not as much since I only have the left ear going. Not bad for calls, but certainly lacking for music.

Superhero movies and tv shows are the in thing these days. Well, I’m not so sure about tv shows. Nevertheless, mhae and I and a lot of people got to see 2 superhero movies this month—Marvel’s Capt. America: Civil War and Fox’s X-men: Apocalypse. Both were good, the former better as per mhae’s ratings and also the critics’. The latter was also good but underrated with mixed reviews online. I guess it’s also because it was just weeks after Civil War. With 4 superhero movies this year, ranking so far is: (1) Civil War, (2) Deadpool, (3) Apocalypse, and (4) Dawn of Justice. So the 2 Marvel Comics universes fared better.

On the tv side of things, which is basically DC wins with Flash and Legends of Tomorrow ending on good notes despite me deciding earlier that I’ll need some convincing to see Legends’ 2nd season. Same goes for Marvel’s Agents of Shield as it had enough closure by the last episode. Arrow…well…Laurel’s departure was heartbreaking for me—even more now that I realized I’ll see her character in my calendar by december but not in the 5th season. That is unless of course the Flashpoint thing brings her back for the 5th season. Ooh, I just have to go back to Legends: Justice League of America. Yep, TV universes (let’s not forget Supergirl which will be transfering to the CW) are better than the movies’. Oh, and DC wins because we’re saying goodbye to Agent Carter.

Now, when will I catch up with Game of Thrones?

Justice Upgrades

More failing gadgets. I’m getting pretty sure that my T100’s battery is failing as it suddenly powers down with somewhere between 50-60% remaining. The problem is evident with the keyboard dock attached. Thank goodness, the netbook is still very useable since I don’t really do computing on the go.

On superheroes on “TV” and the big screen, Daredevil Season 2 was amazing. The first was still way better for me but season 2’s still worth watching. Supergirl’s 1st season ended well and the Arrowverse shows are soon to end. Supergirls was OK but Flash and Arrow has got much more depth. Legends of Tomorrow is fun but I’m not looking forward to a second season. But with Hawkgirl and Atom there, I’m looking forward to a Justice League incarnation on “TV”. And speaking of the Justice League, well, Batman v Superman was also OK. I liked it, but apparently a good majority didn’t. still, I’m looking forward to better DC movies and eventually an awesome Justice League movie.

Back to computers, we’re finally getting the new PC’s at work though there’ll be a bit more waiting due to stock availability. Nevertheless, the 3rd floor will have 11 new Skylake i7 systems. I also got to update 2 CAD PC’s to Win10 and the laptop. On the software aspect, Autodesk has released their 2017 updates. So far, I’ve only upgraded my PC’s AutoCAD license. And yey, I’ve finally settled the ProSteel activation issue in my PC. At home, I got to upgrade the downstairs PC to Win10 after maybe an hour of trying to recover disk space only to realize I can select a different drive for the installation to continue. One thing I’ve learned in doing those upgrades: graphics drivers are not a small concern.

In anime, I have yet to watch the last two episodes of Iron Blooded Orphans season 1 as the series, albeit being action-packed and generally good, fell short of my Gundam 00 level expectations. As for other expectations, Attack on Titan season 2 didn’t happen yet. One thing that surpassed expectations are the scanlation releases of Glory of Losers. Two volumes went out this month and even though it’s just a retelling, the new details especially with Wing Zero, and the action, even in still pictures, wow.

Failings and New Stuff

Interestingly, technology has been failing on me more often these past months. This month, the office scanner failed on me when I borrowed it home. it work when I used it back at the office. Failed for a few more times then went back to working well. I did get to scan a good number of official docs and some personal stuff—sheet music for rehearsals.

Papa got a new phone, a MyPhone MY32L. Sadly, and I do mean sadly, we didn’t get to find an UNO, MyPhone’s Android One phone. I like to think of Android One as a very inexpensive Nexus. I don’t think the project is going well. Oh well.

Got to do some Windows 8 to 10 updates at the office, but haven’t been able to do the upgrade on the CAD pc’s. and as far as new computer hardware is concerned, apparently, my boss has had me request for 11 new computers.

Superhero TV shows are going well especially the Supergirl episode with the Flash. Still can’t get over it. We didn’t get to see a superhero movie this month. Mhae and I will have to watch Batman v Superman this weekend.

I’m in need of a new gaming videocard as I’m on my last spare videocard, Miro’s 9800 GT. Yonni’s 9800 GT on this spare PC seems to have failed. And I’m still dumbfounded on where the one leg part of an Intel heatsink came from. I remember hearing something fall inside some time probably last month. I just found It on the videocard when I had to replace it.

I should be checking my expenses and savings this coming summer. Also should check my guts as I have to be brave enough to check my main PC again if it’s still useable and what I have to replace. Primarily, I need that vidcard, a CPU heatsink/fan, and a good amount of case cleaning.

Oh, Apple released a new iPhone, the iPhone SE. it’s basically an iPhone 6s without 3d touch and in the body of an iPhone 5s also offered in Rose Gold. They also introduced the 9.7“ iPad Pro—an iPad Pro in the body of an iPad Air/2. Now Apple has small, medium, and large iPhones and iPads with essentially equivalent specs. Not bad actually, not bad at all. Simple, direct. Still a bit pricey, but still, simple, direct, and not bad at all.

It’s a Mobile World, But TV’s Still a Thing

This month’s tech highlight would be the Mobile World Congress. What caught my interest and attention were the phones introduced by Korean tech companies Samsung and LG, and surprisingly, Sony. So Samsung and LG launched ther respective flagships—the S7 and S7 Edge pair, and the G5. Samsung seemed to go for improvement and bring back the some good things that were lost, while LG went for innovation. Sony was a surprise of sorts as no one expected a flagship-speced phone with a smaller (than usual) screen, a similar looking mid-ranger, and another mid-ranger with a fresh look. Oh, and all three belong to the new Xperia X series, the Xperia X Performance, Xperia X, and Xperia XA, respectively. Later news confirmed the culmination of the Z series in the Z5 launced late last year. I think the X series as a name is fresh but the X Performance name is just too long and rather cheezy. But hey, Sony is a Japanese company.

On my side of mobile tech, my Z1 compact has started to get stray inputs somewhere on the upper part of the screen. I haven’t found the actual cause and the exact problem. I’m still unsure whether it’s software of hardware. Interestingly, it went well sometime in the morning and afternoon. It’s still usable and I’m deferring bringing it to the service center until next week maybe. I have yet to do a software reset.

On the “TV” side of things, DC’s television shows are consitently entertaining and engaging. So there are 3 Arrowverse shows I’m watching and Supergirl on the other network. A Supergirl-Flash is airing this coming month and I’m hoping it would be in the same Arrowverse but the concept of the Multi-verse has been touched upon so there’s the possibility that Supergirl will be in another universe. I sure hope not. Marvel’s Agent Carter is… well, ok. Daredevil and Jessica Jones were more intense, well, probably because of their more mature target audience. And speaking of mature content and audienes, though produced by a different studio, he’s still a Marvel character—Deadpool. I already thought It’d be ok if we missed it. We didn’t. Simply, an awesome movie.