Change of view

June 15, 2024

February 28, 2025

 

Don't ask...

A day in a hospital, a day visiting the TP cats, and then three days down with some kind of virus.  Still hacking, but appetite is coming back, as is energy.

Sunday morning, I woke up in a dark bedroom.  It was darker than usual because the power had gone out.  The electric company's website said the reason for the outage was unknown, but that it would be back online by 10:00 a.m., or eight hours later.  It was hard to get back to sleep, so my eyes were closed when it came back on at 2:35.  At that time, PG's iPad lit up, making the room bright enough to get through my closed eyelids.

There is this...

The headline read, "Coke’s $7 Billion Bet on Milk Hits Big, But Wall Street Wants More".  Turns out all that expensive Fairlife brand milk in the dairy section belongs to Coca-Cola, Inc.  

QUOTE:  "Fairlife filters its milk to boost protein, reduce sugar by half and eliminate lactose, while also, according to fans, being creamier."  

And this: "Despite being about three times the price of traditional milk, retail sales topped $1 billion in 2022."  I was at Wegmans today and can confirm that.  $2.42 for a half-gallon of whole milk, or $1.21 a quart, and the Fairlife on the shelf just above it was going for $3.30 a quart.  

But here's what got me:  "The US milk industry...has been facing declining demand for decades as kids aged out sooner and cereal’s popularity waned.  US per capita milk consumption has sunk nearly 30% since 2010."  Also during that time: "Since 2000, data analyzed by Beverage Digest, a trade publication, shows that the total amount of soft drinks consumed each year in the US has sunk by 37%."  

Well, my weight and blood sugar levels have forced me to cut way back on soda, so that last part is understandable, but I've been a fan of whole milk ever since grade school, when it came in half-pint cardboard containers and cost 2 cents.  Here it is, 60 years later, and I'm still drinking whole milk, putting it on my cereal and making homemade pudding with it.  For all I know, 2 cents in 1965 dollars is worth 30 cents a half-pint today.  (However, now the president wants to stop minting pennies, and I'm with him on that.)

Life goes on

A week and a half without anything to say.  Winter in these parts.  Late sunrise, early sunset.  Multiple weather systems passing through, one after another.  Snow thrower is in the garage, but isn't much good when the storm brings freezing rain.

The PC updates appear to have been successful, and all 13 DVDs of home videotape have been HandBraked into MP4 files.  Still need to document the activity on them.  After that, maybe offer a copy of certain footage to family members.  

Most of the time, though, it's retirement.  She and I shop, we go to doctors' appointments, we play games on our iPads and sometimes play games together on her iPad.  We appreciate each other's company.

I think I've got it now

What I had:

(C:) SAMSUNG 980 SSD 500GB      PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280   10.21   7.22

(D:) ST1000DM010-2EP102 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD

(E:)  CD/DVD optical drive SATA

(F:) Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD  9.2020

(S:) ADATA Swordfish 1TB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Read  9.2020

(with S:) QNINE NVME PCIe Adapter, M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD M Key to PCI Express 3.0 x2 Expansion Card with Low Profile Bracket for PC Desktop

I proceeded to add a 2TB Crucial SATA Internal SSD, used Macrium to clone the existing F: drive (the main data drive) to it, then Disk Management to expand the volume to make the entire 2TB accessible.  Then I changed the drive letter so the 2TB is now the F: drive.  

The power cable in the 2.5" slot had two inputs, but not two data cables, so I ordered one.  That arrived today, and I installed it without any issues.  

What I have now:

(C:) SAMSUNG 980 SSD 500GB      PCle 3.0x4, NVMe M.2 2280   10.21   7.22

(D:) ST1000DM010-2EP102 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD

(E:)  CD/DVD optical drive SATA

(F:) Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD  9.2020

(G:) Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD  9.2020

Missing:

(S:) ADATA Swordfish 1TB 3D NAND PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe M.2 2280 Read  9.2020

What I learned:  on the motherboard there are four SATA ports.  If there are fewer than four SATA drives, the NVME PCIe adapter will allow a stick SSD to use one of the ports.  When I added the fourth SATA, there was no more room for the adapter.  

Now the D: drive will be an onboard backup for everything on F: except the photos, which will go on G:.  There will continue to be multiple external backups, one of which will remain offsite.

One source of info, from Reddit, and another one, this one from Dell, Quote: "It has 4 sata ports (one blue two black one white).  If you have an optional ODD, then there are three left for HDD/SSD.  If no ODD, then 4 HDD/SSD max.

"note the white sata port is reserved for optional odd, but there is nothing stopping you from giving up odd and using the port for hdd/ssd.  as far as mobo is concerned, it does not matter whether it is odd or ssd.

"its 2.5 bay can accommodate two 2.5 hdd/ssd"

One-man Geek Squad

Parts taken from our PCs.  The two at left came from a 2011 XPS in hopes that they might work with the current XPS.  The CPU cooler would likely have been fine if the X-shaped holder next to it would have fit in the motherboard.  The "hockey puck" CPU "cooler" at top center needed to be upgraded so I could Handbrake a bunch of DVD home video to MP4 format.  Bottom right is a sound card dated 2007 that I tried using, and after it failed, I never took the thing out, until now.  And if I ever need to re-install the empty 3.5" hard drive brace at top right, I'll be surprised.

The CPU cooler/fan arrived today, and with the prior research and due diligence, was installed without a hitch.  CPU temp went from 75C to the 50's at once, and now is comfortably hovering in the low 40's.

The 2TB SATA SSD arrived this morning, and after the CPU cooler/fan got installed, I used Macrium so it would mirror the soon-to-be-replaced 1TB SATA SSD.  Then used Disk Management to change the drive letter and replaced the 1TB drive with the 2TB drive.  Tomorrow a part will arrive so I can re-install the 1TB drive for other storage.  Also scheduled to arrive is a "be quiet!" brand 92MM fan to replace the 80MM fan presently in place.  

Is that enough upgrading?  Is that enough expense for now?

 

A better day

About a month ago, I was learning how to use Handbrake to convert video files on a DVD to something that could be viewed standalone.  Today, I picked up some more family videos that had been transferred from 8MM videotape to DVD, and ran one of them through Handbrake.  Here's what happened:

Some time later today, before seeing the responses, I figured out a way that would work.  The initial screen "Source Selection" presents three choices:  Folder (Batch Scan), File (Open video file(s)) and E:\DVD Video Recording.  I'd been using Folder and File without success, and so looked into DVD, which is where the answer was.  It shows the full time on the DVD under Title at left, but allows you to select a Range of consecutive Chapters which add up to the Duration time at far right.  

Now to hope that the DVD drive holds up through all the discs to be processed.