Computers: slave to the machines...

I own 4 PCs: an A4-5000 from 2013, a Raspberry Pi 4b, a Celeron netbook, and a pre-owned ThinkPad X250. I also have 2 low-end iPads. At one point, I thought of starting a home office, but things didn't work out. 

I mainly use the ThinkPad and iPad 10th gen on a daily basis. The Pi will go to our new house to be Dad's news and YouTube station. And I will be taking the old 2015 iPad on the road with no worries.

This month, August 2023, there is a prophecy:

“The light of diode ebbs. Charcoal stone brushes the steel block. The center of the desk is empty of the abacus. Cloth, rice paper, and plank flow in its place” 

I don't really know what it means. Could it be that regular computers become a thing of the past in the near future? Will we all have ChatGPT running our jobs from our smartphones, in the cloud?

Regardless, I prepared a small paper notebook. It has an elastic closure like Moleskines. In it I plan to write Chinese bamboo flute arrangements. My pencil, a Pilot Croquis sharpened on the steel file of my Leatherman Squirt. On the other end of my desk, a small station for stitching Casual Karate belts.

Hard to believe that electronics and IT jobs might no longer bring in the money, nor people ordering goods and services across borders. It applies to my life at the very least.

* * *

Eventually, I fixed my A4 PC with a new CR2032 battery. It now works (sleep / resume / cold boot) well again. Lacking a monitor and speakers, it's temporarily hooked up to the TV downstairs while I use the Pi as my main machine. Somehow the ThinkPad was cramping my workflow, giving me unproductive feelings.

We also shifted table fans. So Mom has my cute Hatari cyclone fan and I have a new Khind box fan. I now run 4 different OSs: FreeBSD, Raspbian, iPadOS, and Windows 10. Diversity is security. Have a few keyboards and mice spare -these always break eventually.

FreeBSD is a great, tight and light OS. Wonder how I did without it for so long. Still have to set up a proper desktop. I'm using Xorg's default TWM at the mo.