Nintendo Switch for $200? For me, that would be a must have. If true, it might mean that Nintendo is planning a new system.
https://youtu.be/lA1CchWCb3o
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Thursday, October 17, 2019
The $89 Gamestop Premium Refurbished Nintendo Wii U is a steal | Plus Gamestop Black Friday Deals.
This offer might be interesting for some gamers. I'm don't particularly trust GameStop on their refurbished items. They have a reputation for doing a bad job on some refurbished (repaired) items. However, they do have a return policy.
However, in the last couple of years, Gamestop has had some killer deals on Black Friday or Gray Thursday, like a $60 XBOX 360 with a $60 rebate. I got one of these. (I had to wait in line for like an hour.) However, I found out that the XBox 360 has a high failure rate, especially the ones from Gamestop, so I sold the system. I was also not thrilled about how bulky the system was and the fan in it was a bit noisy.
I make this point because in another month we will be looking at Black Friday Gamestop deals. I would enjoy some of the Mario games on the Wii U, so this might be a worthwhile purchase, especially if the system is heavily discounted for Black Friday. In terms of power, The Wii U is about 50% more than the Xbox 360 and has the advantage of being able to run many Nintendo titles, which according to the video are cheap for the Wii U. (However, the Wii U is only about 40% of the power of the Nintendo Switch, which itself is much less powerful than the current consoles from Microsoft and Sony.)
Last year Gamestop had a killer Black Friday deal on the Nintendo Switch, which is a system that I want. Instead of charging $300 just for the console, you could get the system with a game for that price, plus a $50 or $60 credit that you could use to buy a 2nd game. I would have taken advantage of this deal, except that I had heard rumors that Nintendo was going to come out with a new Switch this year. Nintendo did come out with a new Switch this year, but the only difference was a doubling of battery life. These new Switches sell in a red box.
I don't know what is going to happen for sure, but there could be some interesting Black Friday deals.
For anyone wondering, both Sony and Microsoft are coming out with killer game systems 3rd quarter next year using AMD chips that aren't even released yet. These have been described as extremely powerful game systems rivaling the best gamer PC's.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Unboxing a SEALED iMac G3 with MKBHD!
I think that some people will assume that older machines have more value than they have. They might have some value as a collector's item, but as a computer, my out of date Raspberry PI 3 exceeds it in every way.
With a speed of 350 MHZ, 64 megabytes of RAM and 6 gigs of storage, the iMac G3 would be capable of only the most basic web browsing. Many, if not most, websites would not work. If it comes with some useful software, like word processing, then it would have some value.
Twenty years ago I remember trying to get some value out of an old 400 MHZ PC. It was useful for playing old games, but I seriously needed an upgrade, which I did. I went through about a five-year upgrade cycle, first getting a 2.4 GHz computer, which at the time seemed very impressive, and then a dual-core 2.4 GHz computer, and then a quad-core 2.8 GHz iMac. I still have the iMac, and I got a whopping 9 years of use out of it, but this year I have upgraded to a better iMac.
I have learned through experience that older computers have a high failure rate. Stuff just breaks, and the old machines aren't just worth fixing.
John Coffey
Friday, October 11, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive - YouTube
I remember around 2001-2002 my company gave me a 1 GB flash drive and I felt privileged. In the stores, these were around $100, which seemed like a lot of money at the time.
Today you would have a hard time buying a 1 GB drive. It is the kind of thing they would give away in promotional offers, assuming you could find any. I would like to see them in cereal boxes, say for videogame promotions.
I was working for a company in 1992 when one of the programmers wanted to purchase a 2 GB HD for $2,000. Our reaction was like, "A dollar per megabyte! That's amazing!."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls
Today you would have a hard time buying a 1 GB drive. It is the kind of thing they would give away in promotional offers, assuming you could find any. I would like to see them in cereal boxes, say for videogame promotions.
I was working for a company in 1992 when one of the programmers wanted to purchase a 2 GB HD for $2,000. Our reaction was like, "A dollar per megabyte! That's amazing!."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecH3OU0R4ls
Friday, September 27, 2019
Monday, September 9, 2019
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
AppleTV+ is going to FAIL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnshU94aVec
Several years ago, analysts were predicting Apple would buy Disney. Steve Jobs served on both boards of directors. Not only could Apple afford to buy Disney, but this would allow Apple to own the entertainment market.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Samsung Galaxy A20 Review - Amazing Budget Android Phone $160-$200
Budget phones have gotten pretty powerful. The CPU benchmark on this phone rivals my old desktop computer. When it comes to bencmarks, Apple is usually on top with their own custom CPU's, but Apple seems to want to soak their customers. I think that I would be quite happy with this budget phone, which is plenty powerful.
Thursday, August 8, 2019
Monday, August 5, 2019
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Math problem.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
GameStop Is Gonna Try Some Big Changes To Save Itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwVpywoDM-c
As a result of this, I just tried to see if I could get Contana (on Windows 10) and Siri (on the iPhone) to talk to each other. The result was surprising and amusing. The conversation went like this: Me: "Hey Cortana!" Cortana: Beep. Me: "Hey Siri." Siri: Beep. Cortana: "Shirley you are not Siri-us." (Exactly like that!)
Siri: "I am always serious."
Friday, July 19, 2019
Monday, July 8, 2019
PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End
The top line on this chart tells you everything you need to know as to why AMD is beating Intel.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
How many computers do we own?
Around 1984 there was an article with a prediction that went like this: "Someday you will throw away computers. Your house will be littered with them. You will get computers in cereal boxes." Thirty-five years ago, that day seemed like it would be pretty far off.
How exactly has this prediction faired? Well, how many computers do I own? Here is the list...
1. One of the more powerful computers in my home is my iPhone 6s+. It is a powerful computer masquerading as a phone.
2. I have an iPhone 6+ that mostly works, except for the wi-fi, which is why I don't use it anymore.
3. I have an iPhone 5 that is becoming obsolete, but it would still be functional. It only uses the AT&T type radio bands, which means that it could also work with some discount companies.
4. If I were to look really hard in my junk pile, I could find my old iPhone 3GS. It might still function as a phone, but nobody would want to use it.
5. I have an iPad 4. The only reason I bought it was because my iPad 2, which I loved, was stolen. However, I don't really have much of a need for it. The iPads were originally touted as book readers to compete with the Amazon Fire tablets, but I don't think that reading books on a full-size iPad is a great experience. You can do all the normal internet stuff with them, but I have plenty of devices that can do that. I think that my iPad is best used to play audiobooks.
6. About eight years ago I bought a Microsoft Tablet on a Black Friday sale for $200 because this seemed like a fantastic deal at the time. At the time, it probably was. However, this has been the most useless piece of crap that I own. One could use it to browse the internet and read email, but it is way out of date, and it was never very useful to begin with. It is less pleasant to hold than an iPad. I doubt that I can get any software for it.
7. I'm typing this on my late-2009 27" iMac. However, this computer has a number of problems, such as the display repeatedly shutting off. The computer has 4 major parts that have been identified by a technician as showing signs that they may fail in the near future, which makes the machine too costly to consider fixing. Even just dealing with the display problem is not really worth it.
8. Which is why, today, I bought a 2017 iMac, which is a significant upgrade from my old iMac. It will take at least a day for me to get all my software installed and working on the new machine.
9. A couple of years ago I was given a Raspberry PI 3, which is a very cheap small computer the size of a deck of cards. It can run Linux and do normal computer stuff, although it is not very powerful at all. However, I configured it to be a game emulation box that can be hooked up to my TV.
A new Raspberry PI 4 has just been released, and it is more powerful.
10. I own both a NES Classic Edition and a SNES Classic Edition. I used to sell these for profit because they are often hard to find. I plan on selling at least one of these. Both are game emulation boxes, and I have hacked one of them to play more games. I plan on hacking the other one as well.
I am also considering also getting a Sony PlayStation Classic. It is a more powerful system that has been discounted down to $30 and can also be hacked.
11. I bought an Arcade1up machine. This is a 3/4 scale arcade game that you assemble yourself. It is essentially an emulation box, and it comes with 12 classic arcade games.
12. Back in the early 2000s, I bought a joystick that can be hooked up to an old style TV and it plays 10 classic games. As a game system it is not particularly great, but I still occasionally use it because it does a great job with one game, which is Pole Position. I don't have anything else that can play this game.
13. I have an old Sega Genesis with some cartridges that I plan on selling. Thirty years ago the 68000 processor in the Genesis was considered a mainstream computer processor. I have seen really old mainframe computers that cost a fortune that used this processor. By the 1990s the 68000 processor was only really used in game systems.
14. I have a really old laptop that someone gave me. It is very slow, but I was able to use it to run chess tournaments. However, it recently stopped booting. It appears that the hard drive is corrupted. I thought that maybe I could fix it, but...
15. I was able to get a refurbished laptop very cheap that is vastly superior. This computer proved very helpful as a backup computer while my iMac was in the shop.
So technically my house is littered with computers, some of which I could easily throw away.
If you own a calculator, which I don't, it has either a 4-bit or an 8-bit processor inside. It is also a computer, although very limited.
As far as getting computers in cereal boxes, I saw a little handheld game that came in a 2007 cereal box. It was pretty primitive, probably using a 4-bit processor.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
Thursday, June 27, 2019
iMac purchase/Forest Fair Village
I'm going to Cincinnati tomorrow to buy a used iMac. I am driving 100 minutes and meeting a guy in a Starbucks north of Cincinnati. I called the Starbucks store to ask if it is okay to do our transaction there.
It is out of my way, but I heavily researched the market and this appears to be one of the best deals I can get. I'm paying $1150 for a 2017 27" iMac. The same thing "refurbished" from Apple with a warranty is about $300 more. I was originally looking at a 2015 model in Louisville that I negotiated $750 on, but I decided that the 2017 model was not only newer but a significant upgrade.
If I wanted a better processor and better graphics card, I'm looking at $1700 and 150-minute drive. If money were no object I would consider this, but what I am getting is a big step up from what I already have. (My current late-2009 iMac is dying rapidly and is too expensive to repair.) So it is a compromise between price and performance. I consider the model I'm getting "good enough".
All the computers I looked at appear to be in good shape. Almost everybody told me that the computer was low use. Almost everybody wanted something else after buying an iMac. The model I'm buying is one that the guy purchased for his "ex" last year and he wants to get rid of it.
I would not buy a Mac at all except for my desire to write iPhone apps. The following videos illustrate how horrible they are to repair.
What I would rather do is build a new computer using the powerful chips that AMD is releasing in July.
I noticed a "classic" videogame arcade on the map in Cincinnati. I was curious about what games they have and if they have Donkey Kong. I play this game up to once a day on my PC using emulation, but I wanted to see if they had the real thing. They don't. I called them.
This arcade is in a mostly abandoned mall, which has an apocalyptic feel to it. I am considering stopping by since it is on my way, but I'll probably skip it.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
3D Monster Maze (ZX81) + Trashman (Spectrum) - Malcolm Evans' Speccy Cla...
This kind of thing interests me. I used to be heavily into Sinclair computers.
https://youtu.be/Djxyw0KivwY
https://youtu.be/Djxyw0KivwY
Saturday, June 22, 2019
iMac
When I purchased a top of the line iMac in March 2010, I paid quite a lot of money for it, but my rationale was that it should last a long time, preferably till the end of the decade.
I tend to be a heavy user. I do tasks that are processor intensive. They used to say that computers were meant to be left on all the time, so I left mine on all the time. This is probably bad advice. The chickens have come home to roost. I recently paid to have the iMac cleaned out because it was full of dust and badly overheating. (This is a problem with all-in-one-computers, plus they tend to overheat anyway. Laptops can also have problems with overheating.) However, I have 4 major components either failing or about to fail, and the high cost of repair makes it look like it is time to get a different computer.
Monday, June 17, 2019
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Monday, June 10, 2019
iMacs and all-in-one-computers
The problem with all-in-one-computers is that if something goes wrong then you have to fix the entire computer.
My current problem is that the display shuts off. If I had a standard desktop tower and the display was quitting on me, I would just buy a new monitor.
My previous problem was that the computer was overheating because it was clogged with 9 years of dust, First of all, you aren't likely to have this problem on a regular tower computer, but if you did, it is far easier to get to the internals to clean them out.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
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