Wednesday, 18th October, 2023

I talked myself out of getting the Mac mini. It’s nice but it’s expensive if you don’t need macOS. I then looked at some used mini pc Lenovo/HP things on eBay and felt better by seeing some £100 ones which are 8th gen intel and more ram/storage than the mini.

Plus I have way too many things to do to be bothering about a new computer. I’ll use it but not as my main computer, so why spend a lot. I also like the idea of having a Linux desktop that I use. My laptops are Linux but I tend not to use them, mostly the kids use them for homework or games and I’d rather sit on the nice monitor, keyboard etc.

Whereas this will be another desk computer in the radio shack. I can now spend more money on a monitor and not feel so bad. Debating over 4K or not. Probably need to be 32” or something to be able to use it at native resolution, otherwise a 27” 2560x1440 is probably a good setup.

I’d semi-planned to take a radio with me to France but the one I have requires a lot of paraphernalia and I don’t have time/space for that. Still makes me think of the KX2 that would be ideal…

Spoke to a nice chap in the middle of South Africa on 10m yesterday. Think it’s about 6,500 miles or so between us. Still amazes me. Yes I could speak to him over the internet (although not sure if i could as he is VERY rural!) but that requires a trillion dollars of infrastructure to enable that. Whereas it’s just my radio and 20m of wire in the garden.

Inflation in the U.K. was over 6% this month, again. Recent times are to account for it but ever since the gold standard was dropped and banks could literally create money out of the air for loans has set us on the road to financial distruction.

Unless you do something yourself, it’s always the cheapest possible solution.

Grump moan complain.

Our plane was delayed at there was a secure alert. We were loaded before they told us. So that they could take off if a slot opened sooner. Which it did, so we only waited 1.5 hrs vs 2.5…but now I’m very tired! 😴