My mouse stopped working. Neither does the spare.

[TDarcos on mobile: no computer]

This is Paul. Last night I was using my computer and the mouse quit working. Weirdly enough, right and left click works, as does the scroll wheel. The problem is it's not tracking; there is no cursor movement at all. Nothing happens no matter how I move the mouse except sometimes I'll get a short "burst" of movement, then nothing.

Well, back when I had some extra money, I bought crutual resource reserve supplies: extra keyboards, wifi adapters, USB cables, etc. and mice. A s I have the annoying habit of dropping keyboards I have spares of them on hand, because if I only have one keyboard, and I break it, I can't very well use my computeri to go on Amazon and buy another one.

Well, I have one spare mouse, and I plug it in, and...nothing, also. The exact same problem with two different mice. Well, I was in the middle of an editing session writing a program, so I'm basically fucked because I can't save. Now you might say, "but wait, you can use CTRL-S on the keyboard." Yes, that would be possible, except the editing window was not the one I had focus on, so that is why I'm not just screwed I'm fucked. I've lost hours of work (a lot of it is doing research and figuring out how to do what I want to accomplish).

I'm thinking maybe the operating system went bad in a non-catastrohic way; it didn't BSOD, but it isn't recognizing mouse movement (why else would two different mice have the same problem?) So I'll have my roommate Leslie manually restart the computer by the typical hold power button for 5 seconds until it dies, then release and press it once. And when it comes back to operating status, both mice do not track. No cursor movement.

Well, actually they didn't completely fail, I did temporarily get some use after the first failure, so I used that to so something I really did not want to do: spend money, which I don't really have, to buy replacement parts. But, I rdon't have much of a choice, or I don't like, do fear, and/or seriously despise the alternative:;
;using the computer either keeps me from going insane, or if it's already too far gone to prevent that, then it at least keeps the insanity down to manageable levels.

The replacement parts were supposed to be delivered this morning b tween 7 and 10 am. Obviously I can't go up on Amazon and find out. Not sure if the mail room staff here didn't get around to bringing it up here or it wasn't delivered...

GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING SON.OF A BITCH! I just remembered. There is some probability It won't be delivered. Citibank has a feature to allow me ou to lock your card I might have left it locked (to prevent me from forgetting that I must not spend any money unless absolutely necessary. Problem is, I really can't get into my Citi crefitbcard account. Or maybe ai can, I'll think about it

Forget what I said before; it's probably too late to save me from going off the deep end into La-La Land. After all, as Seal sang, "Well we're never gonna survive, unless, we get a little crazy."

"Make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane."
- Derek and the Dominoes, Layla

- - -
Sent from a mobile phone.

[Tdarcos]

I just remembered my password here, so I was able to log on, and while I can neither confirm or deny whether or not am sane, I can confirm that yes, I wrote the preceding message


- - -
Sent from a mobile phone.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'll send ya some bucks. We'll post your PayPal account so others can too.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I hate Paypal's search so much.

Can you repost the email account tied to your PayPal?

[Tdarcos]

Looks like I lucked out; the mailroom delivered my package of three items: two mice, one wired, and one wireless. Plugged the wired one in, and... flawless performance. i am back posting from my desktop computer. ∴,¹ I conclude that, as improbable as that may sound, both mice - both the same type of mouse, Amazon branded - had the exact same problem. Possibly a weak solder joint or a flaky connection.

Flaky is great for pie crust; for electronics, not so much.

Oh the other thing? A large bag of strawberry candy. If I have to go into debt to cover my expenses, I might as well get some enjoyment out of it. Besides, my blood sugar was depressed from no candy for the last two moths. This morning's reading was 82 when I've routinely seen readings of 200-300. But I'm not going to go crazy with it. Or, at least not much...

- - -
¹ The symbol ∴ is used in logic to mean 'therefore.'

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ok, I found it:

OK, no I did not. It is "Viridian Development Corporation." PayPal won't show the email address tied to it. Unbelievable. They are so awful with everything. There should be twenty-five bucks headed your way.

[Casual Observer]

Damn, I have a box of like ten wired mice I could have sent you. I'm a hoarder of mice, flash drives (from conferences) and USB cables.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Good point - Commander, what kind of TECH can you use?

[AArdvark]

The strawberry flavored kind!

[Tdarcos]

I hate Paypal's search so much.

Can you repost the email account tied to your PayPal?

paul@paul-robinson.us. And while I don't mind if people want to send me money, I wasn't begging or asking for help. Unlike too many entitled 30-year-olds who act like children, I take responsibility for my actions.

[Tdarcos]

Damn, I have a box of like ten wired mice I could have sent you. I'm a hoarder of mice, flash drives (from conferences) and USB cables.

Good point - Commander, what kind of TECH can you use?

To answer that, I need to give some back story.

Back in the days when I had extra money, I bought some additional computers, because my original computer, a Lenovo with 8gb of memory and 1tb hard drive (upgraded from 4tb and 250gb; after I had it for a while I realized the original specs were insufficient as I kept running out of memory.)

Several years later, I have 2 left. My current machine is a cute gold-colored case Dell 3.30ghz Quad Core Windows 10 Professional with 16gb of memory and a 512 gb SSD which I reserve exclusively to store installed applications; my work files go on an external drive. This computer I bought refurbished from Amazon on August 5, 2023 for $139.00 and a USB Wi-Fi adapter for $9. They are no longer selling this, but when I saw it I fell in love with it, wanted it, and could afford it, and it has been providing me excellent service over the past circa 18 months.

The external hard drive is a green Silicon Power ruggedized external 4TB hard drive. It is listed as meeting military-grade drop test of a drop of 3 feet onto concrete and still operate. Having had staff here accidentally drop external drives (twice!) I wasn't going to take chances. Not that I expect it to be dropped, and hope it won't, I realize that "shit happens" I bought it new on Amazon for $109.99 (today it sells for $112.99). Also, sometime after I purchased it, by accident, I discovered that yes, if it falls off the bed onto the floor, it will survive the shock and never notice.

My other computer, I actually bought intending to use as my "daily driver" but never got around to it, is a Dell Optiplex 7020 3.6ghz quad-core Windows 10 Pro desktop with 32gb of memory and 2TB SSD. I also bought this computer refurbished on August 5, 2023, for $229.00 (now $262.50). Something I did not discover until after I got it, was that while it has 4 cores, it actually has not 4, but 8 threads.

I also discovered its operating system went unrecoverable, so I will have to replace it with something.

So having explained my situation, I'll answer the question above. Seeing as how Windows 10 will be end-of-life in October, I either have to install a patched version of Windows 11 to disable the "enshitification" of Windows to mandate a TPM 2.0 chip (which isn't required for normal operation and none of my computers have), or go to an alternative operating system, either Linux or one of the BSDs (BSD, NetBSD, or Open BSD).

So what I can use are spare 8gb or larger jump drives; the more I have, the more different simultaneous distros of Linux (or flavors of BSD) I can test. They do not have to be new, I will use Rufus to format and install a live system to test drive. Some I will probably reject out of hand as not usable as live USB, unattractive UI, can't get Accessibility features like screen magnifier to work, etc.

Assuming there will be interest in what happens, I'll post the results.

Anyone who wants to send me any external bootable media, e.g. jump drives, memory cards, etc., can mail it to:

Paul Robinson
550 S. Carlin Springs Road, Room 326 B
Arlington, VA 22204-1022
USA

Anyone who wants to help is appreciated. Thank you for reading.

[Casual Observer]

Paul, you don't need to upgrade to 11. You could put XP on it you wanted.

[Tdarcos]

Paul, you don't need to upgrade to 11. You could put XP on it [if] you wanted.

If I wanted to run a no longer patched, vulnerable, end-of-lifed operating system, I'd just keep Windows 10. What benefit does downgrading to XP buy me?

[AArdvark]

Less W10 intrusion! You could actually just do stuff

[Tdarcos]

Less W10 intrusion! You could actually just do stuff

I have not discovered anything I could not do with Windows 10 that I could do with XP. I mean, I probably don't do a lot of things, I mean, all I do (during the last 7 days) is:

* Write/compile programs using QB64
* Write/compile programs using Free Pascal
* Edit files using Notepad++
* Edit SVG images using Inkscape.
* Create images, drawings and cartoons using Inkscape.
* Convert text from text/Unicode symbols to drawings in Inkscape.
* Extract files from zip archives using 7Zip and 7Zip Standard (fork of 7Zip).
* Install/use specialized software for various tasks.
* Use MVS on a simulated IBM 370 mainframe using Hercules and WC3270.
* Play OpenTTD, typically 20+ hours a week, sometimes while doing other things.
* Edit 3 books using LibreOffice.
* View/read PDFs using Sumatra PDF and Adobe Acrobat.
* Backup locally 8 million+ files occupying 2.5 terabytes of disk space using the paid (supporter) version of FreeFileSync.
* Visit websites using Firefox.
* Download files using Firefox or Brave.
* Watch You Tube videos / listen to music ad-free using the Brave browser and built-in undetectable (by YouTube) ad blocker.
* Misc other activities I use the computer to perform.

Maybe my workload is not as heavy as other people, but I am using the computer in excess of 16 hours a day.

[Da King]

Paul is prepared when Elon comes asking.

[Tdarcos]

Paul is prepared when Elon comes asking.

Elon, Elon likes his money
He makes a lot, they say
Spends his days counting
In a garage by the motorway

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day
When the New York Times said, "God is dead
And the war's begun"
Oh, Alvin Musk has a son today
And he shall be Elon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Elon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Elon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Elon
- Elton John, Levon

[Casual Observer]

Paul is prepared when Elon comes asking.

Elon, Elon likes his money
He makes a lot, they say
Spends his days counting
In a garage by the motorway

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day
When the New York Times said, "God is dead
And the war's begun"
Oh, Alvin Musk has a son today
And he shall be Elon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Elon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Elon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Elon
- Elton John, Levon

ChatGPT can do this better Paul

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Okay, ya got two USB flash drives coming from me through Temu. They should be 128 GB each. Temu said they should show up between March 6th and March 13th, Commander.