How I spent the final weeks of summer break... Dell style!

 There are times when the solution to a very BIG problem lies just under your nose. That was the case with my old gaming PC that I spent a good week restoring.

Before I switched to the Mac ecosystem, I was an avid PC user. In recent years, Microsoft Windows began to go in directions I really didn't like, such as introducing various intrusive advertisements into the notifications system, the file browser, and even launching full-screen popup messages in a desperate attempt to get me to try their new Edge browser.

 

My old PC is a Dell Inspiron 5675, rescued from a local pawn shop in February 2019. The computer was shipped to it's initial owner in February of 2018 according to the service tag information Dell keeps on their support site. For a computer barely a year old, just what could have spurred the previous owner to give it up in less than a year?

A really horrible Windows 10 experience it seems.

The majority of pre-built PCs on the market come with a heavily customized version of Windows already set up on the internal storage device, loaded with lots of unecessary software such as unneeded system "utilities", antivirus software trials, game trials, and other kinds of digital junk. This is called bloatware, and such junk software tends to slow down the system straight out of the box. This particular Dell had a default Windows setup so horrible it lead to instability and crashes. I lost count of how many times Windows would simply stop responding to mouse clicks or keyboard input, leaving behind a completely frozen desktop and just a moving mouse cursor. I had to force a power off and power on to get it back up and running, until it inevitably happened again. I discussed the issues with another friend of mine who knows about Windows PCs, and he suggested re-installing Windows with a plain, clean installation image.

Microsoft provides tools to download current versions of Windows, provided you have the original product key on hand, or if your pre-built system already has a product key in it's BIOS firmware. I reinstalled Windows and all the associated device drivers, and the Dell suddenly became stable! No more freezes or crashes occurred, and the lack of all the Dell bloat increased performance to boot. I was more or less happy with my Dell, until Windows became more and more of a nuisance with all the ads and stuff. So I began looking for alternatives, and eventually switched over to Mac. The Dell Inspiron 5675 would then go largely unused for around a year or so, occasionally being brought out to try and set it up as a Linux computer.

During the last few weeks of my summer work break, I had an idea. Why not use the Dell as a media center PC connected to my living room TV? It has a DVD and BluRay drive, and with my existing USB gamepads, I could also use it to play my small collection of Steam PC games.

So I got to work. I needed to install a couple hard disks for storage of games and video files such as my converted VHS tapes, and also to make sure everything else inside was connected properly.

I then connect it to my TV, attach a wireless keyboard and mouse, and turn on the Dell. Everything seems to be going good so far. But I wanted Windows 11 installed on the Dell since if you want to play BluRay discs on a PC, you can really only do so legally with either a Windows PC or a Mac. BluRay on Linux is essentially a no-go due to the tough DRM encryption used on commercial BluRay movies. To get Windows 11 installed, I had to turn on two options in the system BIOS, Secure Boot and TPM. That is where the troubles really beagan.

When Secure Boot was turned on, the Dell would no longer send a video signal to my TV, a relatively modern Sony X80J 4K screen. When I connected the HDMI cable to another monitor, such as my old Huion drawing tablet, the Dell would send a video output there. I tried different HDMI cables, even buying a new one that was advertised as being 4K capable, and still, no signal to the Sony with Secure Boot enabled. I then tried to set up a Linux system on it, because at least that system doesn't require Secure Boot/TPM and you can back up BluRay movie discs with MakeMKV (at the expense of disk space). The Linux option was a complete failure because the open-source driver software needed for the Dell's graphics card simply don't work well at all, eventually freezing up the system with graphical corruption. 

After trying again to get the Dell working with my Sony with the Secure Boot option enabled, and failing yet again, I was about ready to give up. Then I noticed something on the Dell power LED. It was blinking an error code whenever it was connected to the Sony. In short, the system wasn't passing the "Power On Self Test", or POST. Doing some research, the blink code indicated a possible fault with the motherboard. But since the Dell continued to work when connected to other displays, I ruled out an actual motherboard problem. I then searched online for why a display would cause a computer to not pass POST.

That is when I realized the problem wasn't the Dell, but my TV!

I re-configured my TV's HDMI settings such as enabling 4K support and turning off "Bravia Sync", and lo-and-behold, my Dell was now working properly with my TV, with Secure Boot enabled! I was ready to install Windows 11!

Getting Windows 11 set up was straightforward, and in a matter of hours (and after all of the necessary Windows security patches and driver updates), I was on my way to turning my old Dell PC into a rather nice Media Center hub, with focus on DVD/BluRay movies, games, and an over-the-air TV viewer and recorder. I still have to deal with the annoyances of Windows from time to time, but for this kind of use situation, it won't really detract from the experience.

In closing, here is what's inside the Dell..

• AMD Ryzen 7 1800X eight-core CPU
• 16GB RAM
• DVD-RW drive and separate BluRay/DVD drive
• AMD Radeon RX 580 Graphics Card
• 256GB Solid State Drive for Windows 11
• Two 500gb hard drives for additional media storage
• One 320gb hard drive for retro game emulation
• OS: Windows 11
• TV Tuner: KWorld UB435-Q USB TV Tuner used with SichboPVR software

Who doesn't like a cute hedgehog on the lock screen? (this actually changes every few hours)

 

 

Watching some local TV stations...

 

 

One of my favorite types of games, pinball simulators! Pictured is Pinball FX3, at max graphic settings!

Oh Instagram...

Instagram has been in the news lately, and it's a bit concerning.

At one time, Instagram was dedicated to just photo sharing. Just snap a picture on your phone and use the Instagram app to add a filter, add a description and tags, and post. That's all it was.

But I never got to experience that myself. When I joined the social site in the latter half of 2019, they were already experimenting with short video uploads, and later testing out a tab called IGTV where you could upload long form videos like YouTube. I never really paid attention to those features as I merely focused on posting interesting photos I took, and later on, uploading my first art posts there in October 2020.

For that first year, everything seemed great with my artwork attracting new followers, which encouraged me to keep working on my art and I have improved a lot since then. But alas, things change, and in the last few months, Instagram has been introducing questionable new features that appear to favor videos over photos or artwork.

First off, the "Reels". It's Instagram's rebranded video feature that is designed to compete with TikTok, and the phone app does it's best to push reels from your followers or via suggested posts. And Instagram is pushing creators to make Reels instead of simple pictures or artwork posts. There is speculation that if you don't post Reels often, your non-video posts will become less and less visible to your followers. I have evidence of that happening. This past Spring, I posted a Reel which was a simple video of a blooming spring bush in a nearby park, lasting about a minute. That minute long video received the most likes of anything I have posted to Instagram so far, 90 likes in total, from users I don't follow. That shows the video spread around a little bit, while my art posts from around that same time only got 5 to 6 likes in total, mostly from my followers. While Reels may be good for a once-in-a-while post, I can't make Reels every single day. I have interests and hobbies outside of artwork, not to mention a day job. Artists simply may not have the extra time to constantly post videos to remain on the algorithm's good side. And because they aren't making reels, engagement is sinking as their non-video posts are being hidden from their followers. There are times I manually go to an artists Instagram page and seeing posts they have made that never made it to my feed, because...

Suggested posts, the second thing that Instagram is pushing. It's simple. Instagram has started placing suggested posts into your main feed, based on what kinds of Instagram content you have liked or the types of people you follow. On my phone, the suggested posts range from other artists promoting their work, the books they helped illustrate, web comics, or indie book stores. If not any of those, Instagram grids with cute raccoon or squirrel videos are suggested instead. Personally, I don't mind suggested posts as they have helped me find other artists on the platform, and also showing off some rather cute animal videos. Scrolling through my phone just now, I do see posts from people I follow, but perhaps there are slightly more sponsored posts or suggestions. Other Instagram artists are saying the suggested posts just add more clutter to the main feed. They aren't seeing posts from people they follow as often. I don't use Instagram on my phone too much as I upload via my computer, but since I joined in 2019, perhaps I'm just adjusting faster to the new feed? I will say that they should at least tone down the suggestions just a little bit and favor actual posts from people you follow, or put the suggestions on a separate tab. They do so with Reels, so why not suggested posts as well?

The final new feature that has many people legitimately concerned is "Remix". Just a few days ago, Instagram added this Remix feature to their app. What this does is it allows any publicly visible Instagram photos or videos to be used by other Instagram users for "remixing" into their own Reels or photo posts. And this feature is turned on by default. This is a bit concerning for a couple reasons. The first is the fact that any new photos you upload there are essentially up for grabs by the larger Instagram community. You have no idea what those users are going to do with your public photos, artwork, or videos. On one hand, someone who truly appreciates my artwork could make a Remix video featuring my art and pointing their followers to my grid. On the other hand, what if an online troll, a racist individual, or a scammer decides to remix my content for their own nefarious purposes? 

The second concern is copyright. I imagine there will be Instagram users who won't care about the Remix feature if their content is licensed under Creative Commons or is public domain. But for professional photographers or artists who sell their works, Remixing can be a very big problem. Even if the Remix feature does attribute the source of the photos/videos, that won't stop the fact that trolls or scammers could reuse their material without permission. The consequences can be more dire if family photos or personal artwork are brought in to the mix. Meta just opened a proverbial Pandora's Box in regards to copyright and privacy. And they could have avoided doing so with one simple thing...

Make the Remix feature opt-in by default.

No one should be forced to dig into the Instagram settings and go deep into the Privacy screens to turn off the three specific switches for Remixing. They should NOT be on by default. It should be up to the user to decide whether or not they want their content reused by others. Promote the feature in your advertising instead and let the user decide. 

For myself, I have left the remix on since I think you can specify on the upload screen whether or not you want a post to be remixed. For simple nature photos or videos, I am fine with remixing those. For my own artwork, I plan on keeping remixing off for those specific posts since I'm still developing my characters and settings.

That's the way it should have been from the start. But the artist community is starting to speak out against this feature being opt-out rather than opt-in. Hopefully soon, Meta will get the message and will turn this off by default. 

For now, I will explain how to turn this off. Open your Instagram app, and tap on your Profile button in the bottom right. On your profile screen, tap the hamburger menu in the top right, and tap Settings. Tap Privacy. Then tap on Reels and Remix. On that screen there will be three switches, one for allowing reels, videos, and photos to be remixed. If you don't want these turned on, tap each switch until they are off, shown when the switch moves to the left and turns gray.

A look into my workspace.

It's Sunday, and the weather is heating up, literally. It's prime time to stay inside and get some work done. Speaking of work, I thought I'd make a post about my current workspace. In reality, my workspace is just the secondary bedroom of my two-bedroom apartment. It's rather small in size, but I try to make the best of what I have.

On one side of the room is my main computer desk, made of two separate desks. My main computer, a 27'' iMac is on the left. On the right is my drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq 22HD. In the middle is a vintage 17'' iMac from 2006, which is the computer I use to connect my relatively vintage digital camera to. (yes, I still use one of those. More on that in a future post) On the opposite side of the room is the fun stuff...

My workspace also doubles as my secondary video game room. The boxy CRT is connected to my old PlayStation 2 system, and I also have various old plug-and-play video game systems ranging from arcade stuff like Pac-Man to more obscure things like video pinball or odd knockoff game systems from China with loads of weird homebrew games. To the right of the TV is my main VHS capture setup. I will go into more detail in the near future, but I use another vintage Mac with a USB video capture device, which is then hooked up to a VCR. I am in the process of going through my years of VHS tapes with recordings of TV cartoons, documentaries, network TV specials and more. It's all in an effort to clear out my old VHS collection and to also find stuff worth saving. I do wish to have a nicer computer desk that spans the length of my current two desks, with more solid construction, drawers for storing tech stuff and something just better looking. But this will do for now. That's all for now. Until next time!

A new fresh start!!

 Hello everyone.

I have finally decided to start a new blog dedicated to my illustration journey. First, a few things about me.

I am a beginning illustrator from South Dakota. After I was laid off from my previous day job back in April of 2020 because of the pandemic, I began to think about what else I could do with my life going forward... besides getting another job of course.

One of my dreams is to become a freelance illustrator, working on things like children's books, coloring books, greeting cards, promotional materials, and more. I also want to learn how to write great stories featuring original characters and settings that I have created.

But, Instagram really isn't the best place to post such detailed things. There are limits to just how much text you can include in your post, and you have to deal with the dreaded algorithm. Instagram is also pushing users to move to video in a crazy bid to compete with TikTok. 

I will still post my art to Instagram. But I also want a place where I can share my complete stories and thoughts without having to deal with algorithms or being pressured to make videos. Will this blog get readers? Who knows? As long as I can share my artwork with the world, I will be happy.

My postings won't be on a schedule, but I will try to post regularly when I have the time. And soon, I will tell my first story about a friendly badger and her homemade kite.

-WB