Time for an Upgrade

It suddenly just came over me. I want a new computer to replace my aged 2013 Macbook Pro. True, it's had a new lease of life ever since I got the battery replaced in Australia last year and it's also true that I have a Raspberry Pi 400 that's connected to the TV. However, both have their limitations obviously and it would feel nice to not feel so limited for a while. Even if I don't make full use of my new device's capabilities, I have the option and, if I choose wisely, it will be future-proof - at least in terms of my limited future.

What caught my eye was the Minisforum UM780 with an AMD Ryzen CPU in a very small form factor. A reasonable option would be 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1 TB SSD. This configuration is more than adequate.

It's not available as yet but will be by the time my birthday comes around. The portability of such a device is very appealing and, while it can be plugged into a TV or monitor, I stumbled upon another option this evening: a portable 4K monitor with USB type-C input (which the Minisforum UM780 accepts).

This struck me as the perfect solution. The monitor can even power the computer if needed. I can still plug my device into a larger monitor if one comes my way but this portable monitor and portable PC seems ideal. No more worrying about laptop battery life, all that's needed is a power supply. Most of my time is spent at home anyway so a laptop is not really needed but I have the portability of a laptop with this monitor-PC combination. I'm excited! The monitor retails for Rp5.175.000 and will be available sometime in January.

My Ailing Laptop

Lately, my late 2013 MacBook Pro is refusing to stay connected to the household WiFi which is a source of irritation. It had been flaky for a while and one might suspect the laptop's WiFI but it connects just fine to the WiFi from my iPhone when I use the latter as a hotspot. I'm currently running a ten metre cable from the household router to it so all is well. I don't move about much with it anyway so it's not really an issue.

It's back to the old pre-WiFi days
for me as my laptop lapses into senility

Ever since I installed Linux Mint on my laptop to replace the Mac OS, the Bluetooth has not worked but that didn't bother me. I replaced the ten year old battery with a new one when I was in Australia earlier this year and that has really given the old laptop a new lease on life. There's no doubt however, that the device, like its owner, is showing its age. Last night, I discovered that closing the lid placed the laptop in permanent suspension from which it would not awake. Once the lid closed, I needed to restart it. However, by changing preferences so that closing the lid had no effect, I was able to remedy that little glitch.

I've lately found my misplaced USB cooling pad and so I now rest the laptop on that to keep it cool as it can often overheat if placed under even minimal stress. Overall, despite its current quirks, the machine is quite sufficient for my needs and I've grown quite attached to it after using it regularly for over nine years now. It may even see me out. Who knows? In the meantime I still have my Raspberry Pi 400 keyboard computer as a back up in case my primary device has a heart attack. 

My backup device
Raspberry Pi 400

There is a Raspberry 5 out now but no sign of a Raspberry Pi 500 as yet. Regardless, such a device would be superfluous to my needs at the moment. As the year draws to a close, I must note that my output this year of 26 posts falls far short of my output for 2022 when I made 47 posts. However, it's consistent with my output in other years since my output for earlier years was:

►  2021 (27)

►  2020 (22)

►  2019 (17)

►  2018 (16)

►  2017 (24)

►  2016 (16)

The average number of posts for the years 2016 to 2023 is a little over 24 posts or almost exactly two per month.