Time to Pot or Get Off the Excrete [Updated]

Folks–

Might have to go dark, but it’s only temporary.

My old XP mule (2005 Compaq Presario SR1750NX) is having sporadic seizures, messes with the files and programs, and otherwise shows signs of dementia. Bessie has no viruses, rootkits, worms or other detectable infestations according to MalwareBytes Premium and Kaspersky Anti-Rootkit, but she no longer wishes to reboot to an earlier date, even in safe mode. In the words of hospice providers, she’s “in transition.”

Bessie also no longer recobanizes Firefox. Her memory is fading, some of her RAM is gone for good, and I think her hard drive is giving out after so many rotations. Sometimes she grunts incoherently and speaks in tongues on a blue screen. After so many years of loyal service, I’m forced to put her out to pasture, and I’ll miss her.

But I have a backup that I’ve been avoiding using, mainly because of Windows 10. It’s a Dell XPS with a solid state drive, a lot of bytes and a big ‘ol honkin’ wad of RAMMAGE that should last me for a few years. That’s what I’m posting on now.

I haven’t named this new-and-improved, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, wave-of-the-future, now-more-than-ever computer yet, so any suggestions are welcome.

Bunk

[Image found here.]


Update: Successfully made the transition. A full system malware scan used to take hours, but now it takes under a minute. Now all I have to do is spank Windows 10 a bit, realign the monitor, and increase the font size to something legible. 6 pt sucks.

The .Gif Friday Post No.502 – 1st Day of School, Parkour Cat & Mountain Mishap

[Found here, here and here.]

Quarter Past Noon and the hour hand is stuck.

And the hour hand is stuck…

[Found here.]

One Little Space Makes A Difference.

[Found here. Some NSFK, and I suspect a bit o’ fotoshoppery for some, including the top one.]

Homogeneous Diversification Hot Links

Sebastian Junger’s “The Perfect Storm” was one of the best books I ever read twice. The movie version was kinda okay, but it ignored significant details IMO.

Top Ten Finalists for Best Illusions of 2016.

Communists are illegally crossing our southern borders. TRUE.

For only a few hundred dollars you can eat and study Greek philosophy at the same time.

Here’s an interesting Princeton Senior thesis. It explains a lot.

Launched on 17 October 1997, The Cassini Spacecraft has been messing around near Saturn for about thirteen years now, and it’s scheduled to crash and burn on 15 September 2017 after 20 years of service [via].

Making a very stressful salad.

[Top image found here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No. 501 – BoomBoomBoomBoom, Bird/Camera Frame Synch & Dance Hard

[Found here, here and here.]

Holy crap. It’s all coming out of West Africa.

The POTUS & Congress need to fix this Anthropogenic Climate Change ASAP before a CAT 1 hits Ireland.

The backboard is clean because the game hasn’t started.

Please don’t tell me about the ball.

[Found here.]

One Pint Too Many

[Found here.]

Anthropogenic Global Hot Links

From Twitter: “I had a floppy disk on my desk and my student said, “Oh cool, you 3D printed a SAVE button.'”

Twitterer plays the drums.

Looky what we found in 2016! It’s an interactive map of discoveries!

¡Viva La Venezuela! Ami Horowitz discusses income equality with NY millennials.

Spin a shiny new penny 10 or more times in a row and it will come up tails approximately 80% of the time. Here’s why [via]. What about flipping an undoctored coin ten or more times in a row? Are the odds 50-50? Not if I do it. It just takes practice – same flip, same height, same catch. Any bets? More coin-flipping cons here.

Oops. Pardon me.”

“These work as screwdrivers, knives and various other multi-tools at the tip of your finger…  also you can shine them with Brasso.” DIY bullet casing hack is cool.

Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman, pictured in 1968 at top) named his stage persona after this. TRUE.