After the team meeting one of my cow-orkers shared with me a corrupted video stream, which let me run two tests (they are both the same test, sometimes we have dupes because the test cases span close to 15 years and about 20 major releases. That had to run for a few hours, to make sure the machine didn't crash when bad video was being jammed down its multiple throats (in this case 12 inputs and 128 outputs).
So I went shopping. I was looking for a 256GB SSD for the Toshiba. I wanted to put it in the machine before re-installing everything. I had wiped it back to factory when the ASUS was configured, but the ASUS is going back. Turns out there is no >128GB available for that model of Toshiba, and any other model would be $2k and too bulky.
I'm doing easy transfer back from the ASUS to the Toshiba right now, and it's only 10 GB. 128 should be fine.
I started to open the Toshiba to see what kind of drive it had, but it needed a tiny torx driver, smaller than the smallest I own, for the final screw. I had all the other screws out. Went online and saw this is not an SSD, it's a panel of memory cards tied together on a board, attached with a ribbon cable. M-SATA. Not meant to be user-serviceable. Not that that would stop me if there was replacement available, but there isn't.
The ASUS has 256GB, and it might be plain SATA.
Side by side, the displays look about the same, the ASUS is a tiny bit sharper. They are both fast, ASUS maybe 10% faster. But that's all the pro I'm giving up. The cons are:
CTRL+ALT+Power is too easy to hit
Weird black circle around the number 6 is hella distracting for a hunt'n'peck typist
Home, end, pg up, pg down are FN+ keys - awkward
Wonky Wi-fi+Blutooth driver
Unreliable login-by-face program
Higher price
Back to work, the tests passed. Did some research for the rest of the day.
Home, made a final check with Toshiba about the drives, then went on amazon and clicked the RMA button on the ASUS. After the transfer is done I'll nuke it back to factory settings, box it up and ship it back.
BASFA had a revolving door. It was wonderful to see
gridlore alive and well enough. Too bad he and his entourage had to leave early. The G&J B did their usual early bail after dinner. A few people wandered in late. Several new faces, which is good, they all seemed to have a good time and adjust to the pandemonium. kevin_standlee gave a fine review of The Game Show Show, which he enjoyed immensely. He runs a match game show at sci-fi conventions and does a masterful job, and he enjoyed the heck out of the game show pieces and being a contestant. He assessed it at worth full price twice. My follow-up ended with "worth half of discount price", which surprised everyone. If I had been there just as a game show history buff, I'd have loved it. But I was there as an actor with several leading roles in musicals and operettas under his belt, and it just hurt me to watch the leading man try to sing. He's an opera-trained baritone, but he has to really work hard and concentrate on technique 100% of the time to sound it. And he does. Even when he's singing a Broadway-style musical. If he was any good, he's be in operas instead of writing his own musicals in a converted cinema in San Jose. There are three opera companies in the area, one of them actually pays the cast. They are Nice People™ and they try very hard, so I'll leave it at that.I was disappointed that my Rumor of the Week was not chosen. It never got to a vote. But I did get a few zingers in.
Plans for tomorrow:
Pack up the ASUS
Work
???