I don't think I mentioned, I finally fixed the gaming laptop
turns out there was a bunch of dust lodged in the heat sink on the side inside the fans
Cleared that out and it's much better
(Spoilered for mild computer gore/ dusty)

theoretically I could switch back to it, and that'd have some advantages but also some drawbacks
I'd at least want a new SSD since it for some bizarre reason only works with sata m.2, not nvme, and the one in there is like 256gb
I think the slot is keyed incorrectly since it'll physically accept one but it just doesn't work
the options for m.2 sata drives aren't great I feel
..or maybe not, I could live in the 2.5" sata bay, I've got some SSDs of that form factor lying around

I'd be able to play video games again
it's bigger, which I do like
because it has more keyboard and a bigger screen

but that means it's harder to transport, I don't think I've got a laptop bag big enough for it, and I definitely can't just drag it around one handed like I can with my current one
also gotta drag around a charger, since my current one supports usb-pd it just has that set up at my desk but this one I'll have to unplug everything to move
tangential to that, can't do display output over the usb-c it has either, so like I'll have to reconsider my whole cable situation
it's so convenient to just plug in with one cable
almost definitely has way worse battery life, not that that matters much to me
it's got the whole nvidia and intel switchable graphics thing which can be annoying to deal with
well. the newer, better switchable graphics where individual programs can use one or the other
not the other older(?) kind where it completely swapped and took like a few seconds

much to think about

Trying it on the hard drive that's in there, and gah
I always forget how painful they are, after having lived on decent SSDs for ages

I may be stupid

My head hurts so I went to have some painkillers
But I actually ended up autopiloting into taking tomorrow's meds

I've been second guessing this since I posted it
like, I checked it before, right? it didn't work?
well. I decided to try again, just to be sure, so I know I'm not crazy
and as it turns out, it does actually work
put my spare in, taped it down since it's too short to reach the screw post, installed linux, and it booted off of it just fine
I've reverted that for obvious reasons, but damn
why did I think it didn't work? did I not actually try? was I just convinced it wasn't real because there was no mention anywhere in the (admittedly quite sparse) bios?
who knows
if I wanna actually use it I probably wanna get a new ssd anyway, since I don't wanna pull the one out of my other laptop (I mean I could, but. bleh) amd I am definitely not taping the spare one in there
it's like the same storage space as what's in there anyway so I wouldn't bother anyway I think
on the upside, nvme drives seem cheaper than equivalent sata m.2 ones, and definitely much more generally available

tldr I do be stupid

well, I swapped drives and tried it for a bit
since it was easy enough to do
ehh.. I think I'll pass
certainly not using it as a primary machine for dumb nerd reasons
while I had the laptop I'm actually using, I cleaned out its heat sink fan bits too
was a bit of dust and gunk in there

Foxes wearing clothes for fun

The 12th annual international Gender Census 2025 is now open until at least 30th August 2025!

https://survey.gendercensus.com

It's for anyone whose gender (or lack thereof) isn't described by the M/F binary. It's short and easy, and results are useful in academia, business and self-advocacy.

Gnome has decided I get a bonus cursor (sometimes)

it was funny a couple of years ago when we were still "officially" in the covid pandemic (it never left us) and at the medical centre they had dental ads that said "don't hide your smile" right up against covid warnings saying "wear a mask"