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Computers I own

I've been a computer nerd for years, and I've managed to gather a lot of computers despite having no regular income. Here's my current collection, not including video game consoles... yet.

breadtop / The Thinkpad

Self-portrait by the Thinkpad

Description: Lenovo Thinkpad E460 with 4GB RAM (since upgraded to 12GB). Currently running Artix Linux.

Acquisition: I wanna say it was 2020. Some ridiculous year like that. My anonymous benefactors took me on a visit to some of their friends, and I spent most of my time pawing at every electronic device I could see until our hosts gave me this thing, said it was old and slow, and allowed me to keep it if I could fix it. I took it home, cradling it in my hands the whole car ride there, put Linux on it, and it's been downright cromulent ever since.

Condition: Everything seems to work quite well except for the battery, which is quite dead. Probably in large part due to trying to play modded Minecraft on it, but I also may not have been taking proper care of it.

Occupation: Despite the dead battery, I still use it quite a lot. Music and video while washing dishes, writing and journaling, editing the site with ssh, image editing, playing games that need more than 4GB of RAM to run... the one thing I don't use it for is drawing, since the tablet I use is huge and I share it with another benefactor. That honor goes to...

breadbox / The Mac Mini

The Mac Mini setup

Description: Apple Mac Mini. I don't know the exact year but it's one of the ones that has the RAM soldered on. Currently running Debian Linux.

Acquisition: Grandbenefactor gave it to me after (or maybe right before) getting a newer Mac, sometime after I got the Macbook Air, but before I got the breadtop. Arguably not my exclusive property.

Condition: Peachy. Actually I think the SD card slot might be out-of-order but I don't use it anymore.

Occupation: Drawing machine, test web server (I'm using Nginx but that's probably overkill), all the usual modern computer stuff. Being shared with an Anonymous Benefactor, who mainly uses it for drawing.

The Macbook Air

The Macbook Air, open casket

Description: Apple 11-inch Macbook Air (2012 model? I think?) with Linux Mint installed.

Acquisition: Maybe 2016? Something like that. I was downright little. Benefactor brought this thing in and I begged to take it because I didn't have a computer of my own. He relented, but later I found out that he got it specifically for me. Oops.

Condition: Some keys are fallen off or unresponsive, (including the "Increase Screen Brightness" one), but the screen is also damaged to the point of unusability (partly thanks to our massive dog laying on it).

Occupation: Dust collector and perhaps fascinating microbiome. Used to be the daily driver I did all my stuff on. Most of the data on it is backed up elsewhere.

Raspberry Pi's

Both of the Raspberry Pi's

Description: Raspberry Pi 2 something on the left, Rasoberry Pi 4 something on the right. Right is running Raspberry Pi OS, honestly not sure what left is running anymore.

Acquisition: I think these were both Christmas gifts, the Pi 4 from sometime in the 2020's (I think) and the Pi 2 from some time before that.

Condition: Pretty sure they both work fine but I haven't used either of them in a while, and I didn't use them much before either.

Occupation: Twin dormant crucibles of potential. Been thinking of using them for a web server, or maybe a local FTP server.

Teller Phone

The teller phone

Description: Nokia N139DL cell phone.

Acquisition: In the summer of 2023, my anonymous benefactors finally decided I needed a telephone. In the maybe-summer of some year before that, however, I decided I didn't want a smartphone because of the price, the tracking, the destruction of attention span (mine is alrady bad enough!). The solution? Twenty-something dollar burner phone. Boom. Everyone's happy.

Condition: A little glitchy, but otherwise appears fine. It gets dropped very often tho, so maybe it's taken a lot of secret damage I haven't noticed.

Occupation: Talk and text, plus some note-taking and low-quality photo- and video-shooting. I used to use the alarms as reminders for regular tasks, but it seems to be very unreliable for that (I have an alarm set for 9:18am every day that never goes off, but the one for 5:00pm every Wednesday is always on time, despite it being set to "disabled." It's literally doing the opposite of what I tell it to. There's no clear pattern.)

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