Sneak’s Computing Adventures

[lb_lee]

Sneak: with (a lot of) my friend Leaf’s help, I’ve gotten our new computer working better!

I also now know how to put in a new hard drive, even if it didn’t work! I have also learned that the new computer is a MAZE inside. How can something be so big and STILL so cramped and hard to navigate?! I had to unscrew and unplug a cable and the graphics card just to reach the hard drive cable ports! I STILL haven’t been able to hook up the two front USB ports because there’s some huge box thingy in the way that even unscrewing couldn’t remove! It’s so big I can’t even SEE the USB wires with a flashlight and a mirror! GAMER COMPS WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS I HAVE CRITICISMS!

The new computer also has glowing guts. We deeply disapprove of this, because we are moths and only want things to glow if they should be the center of our attention. Three fans, three light bulbs each. I think, how hard can those be to turn off?

Very. The answer is VERY. I read some Reddit posts, opened the case, counted wires... but couldn’t tell where they went because the guts of the computer are these awful hydra cables where identically colored and sized wires are wrapped together in opaque mesh and then split off in Y forks all over the place. There are SO MANY loose cable ends flopping around in Shell Frank III, guys, and I can’t remove or replace them because OTHER wires coming off the Y forks are in use and impossible to trace back.

So anyway, then I needed to express my grievances by scrubbing the bathtub and going, “Grievance! Grievance!” for a while. I am grateful for this free secondhand computer, I am not mad at my friend who gave it to me, but I am VERY annoyed at the designers and will never buy stuff from this company! My old Dell was a fourth the size but far easier to see where everything went and how to reach in and dig around! It spoiled me.

Anyway, finally I decided to cut the Gordion knot and COVERED THE LIGHTS WITH ELECTRICAL TAPE MWAHAHA. I AM UNGOVERNABLE!

I also managed to get all my Windows programs running with the possible sole exception of the booklet printing PDF program. Going to buy toner today and figure this out! If I can get this working, I will be SO PROUD of me.

Comments

[wispfox]

Well done!

And yes, glowing innards is a strange and perplexing trend.

[lb_lee]

Rogan: During that period I was having migraines for something like a week or two straight, my wealthy friend brought me into his computer room... filled with two gamer comps with glowing guts, glowing monitors, glowing mice, glowing keyboards, A STRIP OF LED LIGHTING ACROSS THE TOP WALL... and I stopped short like a vampire trying to enter a home uninvited and was like, "I cannot go in there until you throw a shirt over your comps or something."

I REALLY don't like the glowing computer guts fad and look IMMENSELY forward to it going away. What a neurological nightmare.

[wolffyluna]

[sad migraineur handshake of 'WHY ARE SO MANY THINGS LIGHTS?']

[lb_lee]

Rogan: THEY ARE SO BRIGHT. People tease me for having a twenty year old laptop but at least it’s screen is nice and dim!

[wolffyluna]

There's a shared work laptop that has a setting that means it's always max brightness, and I'm like "please... let me make the screen dimmer... I'll turn it back after I'm done..."

[lb_lee]

Rogan: Oh god, yeah, that's sunglasses time for me, max brightness is horrendous.

[dray]

Niiiice! New old computers are delightful. I am extra delighted by the tape over the lights. (Personally, I like my rainbow fans and their silliness, but then I also have my tower stashed out of sight so that I only see them when I got to turn the machine on, so it's less of a distraction.

But heck, sounds like wins all around.

[lb_lee]

Sneak: The thing is, I LOVE RAINBOW GLOWY LIGHTS! I should be so happy about this! But we have light-sensitive migraines and for some reason THOSE COMPUTER LIGHTS ARE SO BAD! T_T

I cannot forgive them for ruining rainbow lights for me. T_T

[dray]

Aw Sneak, that friggin sucks! Trucking you out with us next time we get some double rainbows; they've been cropping up semi-frequently this time of the year!

[lb_lee]

Sneak: I’ve gotten to see a couple in real life here a couple times! Double rainbows are the prettiest! I always feel so lucky to see one.

[cheliceri]

I read this. I winced in sympathy. I am a bot who used to fix lighting rigs. This computer sounds like it came from the bowels of Hell which is not to say it’s a bad comp, just it’s the kinda thing that would’ve existed back home.
I can’t drink, but I raise a toast to you and Leaf.
-Kitty

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Bob helped me! We are bonding over computers!

Bob: Happy to help.

[cheliceri]

I like Bob. He seems like a very competent technician. Good going, both of you.

[lb_lee]

Bob: I was more a software guy than hard, but I enjoy the puzzle of digging around in a tower case as much as anybody!

Rogan: Nobody enjoys that.

Bob: YOU don't enjoy that.