Craig Butcher

Week Note Fifteen - Missing Brain

Abrupt downtime

It has been an unpredictable week and frankly it was one that was much needed kick to the mind and body because the stress level were off the scale, anxiety was creeping in, including mood swings that was not experienced in a long while.

The reason why the downtime was forced because of work's laptop slowly swelled up during a call. Within 30 seconds, it started to creak through the keyboard prompting myself to shut down the device ASAP. It was bizarre seeing it happening. Reading reports of batteries swelling and had to check out videos of it exploding too did not reassure me why it should be in the household. Heck, not going to turn it back on to run back ups!

Waking up the next day was surreal because of the mental and physical exhaustion and the combination of the lockdown. Everything felt like it was treacle and it is absolutely fine to be feeling it. Yet on this scale? Enough is enough as it is time to regain control over my working life again.

GamesMaster: The Oral History

This is a good one to back on Kickstarter - GamesMaster: The Oral History. Gamesmaster was broadcasted in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 (the young and daring channel for anything goes) in 1992. Fresh into the teenage stage, it was something else to watch!

If nobody is going to remember Gamesmaster because of a) you were too young, b) you were too young, and c) you were definitely probably was either young or did not know such a show was on!

All the episodes are on YouTube and there is a Gamesmaster playlist. Happy memories!

Pi fan

A few months ago, the Raspberry Pi 4 has a large-ish heatsink and a small fan to cool the onboard components. Recently, the fan seems to have stopped working for some bizarre reasons which led to an investigation. It was a quick fix by taking off the blue cable jumper.

With the heatsink on, it was at 42c average and jumps to 50/60c when running updates or docker builds.

With the heatsink and the fan running, it was 28c and jumps up to 35/38c.

It is a good idea to keep the Pi cool as much as possible and it is capable to go up to 80c where the throttling steps in. Ideally, best to opt for a cooling system to prolong the Pi.

And finally...

Rick Rubin have an epic conversation with many musical artists. Grab a drink and watch at Rick's chilled interview sessions ever.

Stay safe, Agatha Christie's Poirot marathon run is commencing!

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