Normal Everyday Blog: Midweek update.

Where to begin? I guess I will start with the Raspberry Pi. I told you I decided to do a build of RetroPie 2.6 just for Nintendo emulators. And I told you that it crashed an burned. The only thing that did work on that iteration was gpSP for GBA emulator. I got the Bios loaded, ROMs loaded and controller configured with no issues. Now the other emulators either couldn't read the config file for the usb Snes controller or I did something wrong with it. I still haven't had time to figure that out. I guess I'm going to wipe the sd card and start over with a clean install. I wish the other emulators would let you configure the controller through Emulation Station, it would be so much easier.

Computer stuff, so I have been wanting to buy a mini computer that would be powerful enough to run some of my GameCube ROMs, PS1, N64 and maybe my Nintendo DS ROMs. I can play GameCube games on my desktop computer now, but not on my laptop, weird I know. I cannot play any DS games on any system I currently have, except for the DS itself. The audio is horrible and the game is so slow, it's unplayable. I have my original consoles, Nook, Ouya, Raspberry Pi, laptop, office computer and the throw away computer that I used to talk about. I haven't tried any games on the throw away, but I'm pretty sure it would work. My whole goal is small, powerful and portable. I want to use multiple controllers and have them just work. I want minimal setup and configuring. I do not want to have to do any command line. I know each system you will and I have had to configure them. It's the Raspberry Pi that I have to do command line which I hate doing. I also want the computer to be used for movies, music, streaming, Netflix, Prime, ~~Xbmc~~ Kodi and Emulators. I really feel like I want Windows because I am very comfortable with it. Windows 8.1 or 8 wouldn't even be bad on a tv environment. The tiles would probably be easier to navigate then Windows 7.

So here's the dilemma, do I just say no to a mini computer and get something else? Do I use what I have? Or can I have multiple devices that I can do a lot with? I have to figure this out. With the mini pc I could do absolutely everything I wanted to plus more. But, if I chose not to get it, I could upgrade the OS on my office computer to Windows 7. I could upgrade the office computer and buy a NAS. I could buy a NAS, Funko Pops and movies. The key thing is I really want a lot for what I do get. First world problems right. I have done a lot of research with Windows 8 and mini computers running it. Asus has a Vivopc with a dual core processor, 4 gigs of ram, a 500 gig hard drive and Windows 8.1. For a little less, HP has a stream mini with a dual core processor, 2 gigs of ram, a 32 gig ssd hard drive and Windows 8.1. There's a $50 buck difference, but that $50 bucks adds a lot of goodies. People have been able to play GameCube, DS, N64, PS1 and other ROMs on the HP. I haven't seen anyone play those on the Asus, but I'm pretty sure it would be able to. Both run Kodi amazingly and both are full blown computers.

A NAS would be cool and I could store all of my movies and files on it and access it whenever I want to (Providing my ethernet switches don't stop working. Story on that later). But here's the question for that. When would I actually play my movies from it? When I play movies from my computer now to wherever, I just turn on my office computer and play whatever I want. And I have that throw away computer that I could use as a NAS, so it is looking like a no go. Upgrading the office computer to Windows 7 would be really cool. I could have it potentially for numerous more years. The other side to that is, I could do a fresh install of Windows Vista and have the same benefits and I recently did that to the throw away computer. I know a clean install would help the computer a lot and there is tons of programs and stuff I wouldn't need anymore. The backing up of the computer would be the rough part, but a majority of it is already done. It kinda looks like I'm talking my self into the mini computer, but I won't make a rush decision. Okay so this post has been a lot longer than I thought, but oh well on to the ethernet switch story.

So I use three ethernet switches on my house setup. There is a centralized location for all the wire runs for cable, phone and ethernet. I call it the connection closet. It is literally in a closet, but oh well I made it work. so a few years into living at the house, the brand new ethernet switch in the closet stops working. I try and readjust it and it just is dead. Oh well it sucks, but I have one of the other ones I don't use as often as I thought I would so I unhook it and put it the connection closet. A little while later, the "new" one stops working. What the hell is going on!? I take the one from my entertainment center and hook it up in the closet and use the one from the closet on the entertainment center. They both work like they are supposed to. Cool now worries and I will leave it be. Cut to Monday, Melissa tells me we had a power spike/outage for seconds or minutes. Okay whatever, that's nothing new. She says to check my stuff when I get home, meaning to check out the tv, entertainment center and my consoles. I notice the only light on my ethernet switch is the power light. Normally, there are a few other lights either steady or blinking depending on whats going on. I run to the connection closet and I find that ethernet switch is blinking all of the lights, including the power light. That's not a good sign. I unplug the switch and plug it back in. Now there is a steady power light, but no ethernet port lights. Fuck! It's dead just like the first one and now I don't know if the entertainment center switch works or not cause there is no signal feeding it. Damn, so I had to order some new switches, I hope these work. I will post about them when they show up.

Video games, I have been playing some The Legend Of Zelda from the beginning since the first emulator I used stopped reading the game save file.