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Hey, remember Sketchy Seagull, the gaming PC I was putting together?
( Well, it’s working pretty great, but also I went shopping which is always an iffy move. )
In which we meet a kid with moxie
Feb. 8th, 2019 08:28 pmSo I had a somewhat sketchy craigslist adventure the other day. Or rather, the lead-up was sketchy in one way, and the punchline was sketchy in an entirely different and much more hilarious way.
I was buying a video card, and the seller said they could only meet at their house (which was out in goddamn Tigard) and at an inconvenient rush-hour-hell time. And actually that part was Especially Strange. Their exact words were: “Although I would love to, I can't meet anywhere besides my place.” ???????
Ruth reminded me that I was being an idiot by ignoring the prime craigslist directive (meet in a public place), which I was, but I was pretty sure it was fine? But she did have a point, so I brought a friend for backup.
Well. We get out there and knock on the door, and a kid answers, I’m figuring 13-years-old-ish. And he’s like, “Nick?” And I’m like “yup. Sam?” looking behind him to see who else is home. And he’s like “here’s the card, should all be working fine, feel free to email me if you need help w/ drivers or anything!” And I’m like... “cool beans, here’s that $60, pleasure doing business. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼”
Anyway I’m about 100% sure listing stuff before you’re 18 is against the TOS, and he definitely scheduled that annoying meeting time so his parents wouldn’t be home, lmao! I kind of admire his moxie, but I‘m also debating texting him to suggest having some backup of his own around if he has to sell something out of his own house again. On the other hand, given what I remember of living in the burbs, probably he’s a mid-level weed baron or something and doesn’t need my input.
I was buying a video card, and the seller said they could only meet at their house (which was out in goddamn Tigard) and at an inconvenient rush-hour-hell time. And actually that part was Especially Strange. Their exact words were: “Although I would love to, I can't meet anywhere besides my place.” ???????
Ruth reminded me that I was being an idiot by ignoring the prime craigslist directive (meet in a public place), which I was, but I was pretty sure it was fine? But she did have a point, so I brought a friend for backup.
Well. We get out there and knock on the door, and a kid answers, I’m figuring 13-years-old-ish. And he’s like, “Nick?” And I’m like “yup. Sam?” looking behind him to see who else is home. And he’s like “here’s the card, should all be working fine, feel free to email me if you need help w/ drivers or anything!” And I’m like... “cool beans, here’s that $60, pleasure doing business. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼”
Anyway I’m about 100% sure listing stuff before you’re 18 is against the TOS, and he definitely scheduled that annoying meeting time so his parents wouldn’t be home, lmao! I kind of admire his moxie, but I‘m also debating texting him to suggest having some backup of his own around if he has to sell something out of his own house again. On the other hand, given what I remember of living in the burbs, probably he’s a mid-level weed baron or something and doesn’t need my input.
Junkyard PC adventures
Dec. 5th, 2018 11:15 pmOK. I’ve been wanting a better way to play the backlog of cool shit in my Steam library.
A lot of it technically plays on Mac, but man, it all just runs like a dog on a 13-inch MacBook Pro. And I’m not in AAA land either, this is all just low-power indie stuff! (I blame the anemic Intel gpu for half of it, and poorly optimized/buggy ports for the rest.)
Anyway, the expense of a gaming PC always seemed way too high for what I'd be using it for, so I've never gotten around to it. But recently I stumbled into a free hand-me-down desktop GPU (midrange, circa 2011), and I started wondering: could I cobble together a half-assed machine for pocket change, chuck that seven-year-old card in, and still easily crush anything my Mac has been choking on?
ACTUALLY LOOKING PRETTY PROMISING!
( something of a journey ensues )
So now I've gotten it booting from a Linux USB stick, with an old keyboard I like and a scrounged mouse, and everything seems to be working fine so far. (Even managed to update it to a post-Meltdown/Specter bios! Pro-tip, Asus's no-OS updater might sound good, but it's way too finicky about partitions and filesystems, so give up early and flash a freeDOS stick.) My housemate gave me the world's tiniest USB wi-fi adapter (only does wi-fi 4 [n], but who cares, it works!), another friend traded me a spare SSD for some catsitting over Christmas (joke's on him, I love hanging out w/ his cats), and since Ruth is now technically a Microsoft employee I think I can convince her to buy me a copy of Windows for hella cheap.
God, I'd forgotten what a fantastic dopamine hit you can get from a really epic feat of garage saleing.
You guys, seriously, you must go check out the Small Beer Press $1 clearance sale, I am not even joking. SERIOUSLY. Kelly Link's Magic For Beginners, source of some of my favorite short stories ever, in hardcover, for a dollar.* LeGuin's translation of Gorodischer's Kalpa Imperial, for a dollar. Hand's Generation Loss in hardcover, for a dollar. AND MORE.
Yes, I just ordered 10 books, sight largely unseen. Some will be gifts, some will join my personal hoard. (Honestly, I'm tempted to order like ten copies of MFB and give them away promiscuously, but that could be considered slightly insane. Especially since you can download it for free now.)
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* Plus shipping, but shipping is only $(2 + n). So I guess you could say this is a great books for $2 sale, plus a flat $2 shipping. Whatever? It's still nearly theft.
Yes, I just ordered 10 books, sight largely unseen. Some will be gifts, some will join my personal hoard. (Honestly, I'm tempted to order like ten copies of MFB and give them away promiscuously, but that could be considered slightly insane. Especially since you can download it for free now.)
_____
* Plus shipping, but shipping is only $(2 + n). So I guess you could say this is a great books for $2 sale, plus a flat $2 shipping. Whatever? It's still nearly theft.
