Fair, I thought that might be your reasoning 🙂 Either way, I've added a few of your purchases to my own wish list for future projects. Thanks for the inspo!
there's gotta be a way to get 12 V off the board somehow
If you remove the battery (to avoid swelling), you'll have a vacant port. But connecting that in any way that won't fry your drives is another question I haven't solved...
Very cool looking project. I've been stripping motherboards from my busted old laptops recently, and am setting one up as a HiFi-ish HDD player at the moment. Next step would be some sort of NAS/homelab.
Since you're already 3D printing parts, is there any reason you didn't just pull the mobo, connect the drives and made a neat headless case for it all? Not that I don't appreciate that weird lapdozer you made! 😂
Prioritising new questions over answers is a very good point, which I feel is let down by a somewhat bloated piece dedicated to summarising a series of essays. I think there is more to build on from that premise.
Perhaps the very selling points of "AI" are fallacies. If we turn to chatbots for answers, or to have an image or wall of text composed from a one line prompt, we cheat ourselves of the questions that would arise when we start researching a subject and writing our own notes; or studying an object as reference for a drawing.
But those processes without thought are marketed as time savers, as productivity. That may be an immediate gain — "for whom?" would be a productive follow-up question here — however, it reduces people to button clickers rather than problem solvers.
Filling out a blank space with a lot of words or pixels statistically modeled after the most likely pattern based on a prompt and all the training material in the world — that isn't productivity. It's literally just filling out a blank. I'd compare it to the sort of absent-minded drawing you make while you're on the phone, but phone doodles are more productive!
And if we fill out formulas and spreadsheet unproductively, the result isn't saving time anymore, because we'll need to do it over. And over. And over, until preferably a person will sit down and do the work. Ask the right questions, and then ask follow-ups based on the conclusions.
A hint here, the "right questions" aren't how to improve the model or the prompt, but whether we should be using "AI" for this in the first place.
It's in working through problems that we learn, and jog our wetware minds. It's that endless line of questions that truly generate new knowledge, like a three year old that won't stop asking "why?" to every successive answer you give them. Like the little nag in your brain that keeps working at an issue even though it's 4 AM and you'd really like some sleep.
Yeah, the case might cover them up, until I have to make holes for ventilation... But I mainly held out hope that I might lead one cable out for the (still nonexistent) front.
Sounds like a cosmetic cover job will be the easiest fix, though.
Last thing first, I found the sound chip and identified it as a Realtek ALC3236. It's listed on a lot of sales sites that claim to have data sheets. It seems they all link to alldatasheet.com, which only has ALC3246 onward AFAICT. I'll dig on, but at a glance it feels like a dead end.
I don't think I'll have to worry about load on the USB connection; 99% of my music files are still mp3, so it should be nowhere near megabytes/sec? Once I've replaced more of it with lossless audio that may change, but for now I think I'm good.
As for the built-in SATA connections, I think the specs oversold the number a bit. Looking at the mobo I can find only two; one for mounting the system disk, and one for the optical drive. From what I've seen the latter would be noticeably slower than needed for a hard drive. So unless I find a good PCIE to install an NVME disk, I'm probably stuck with USB for now.
I knew of Earth before I heard these, mostly from Sunn O))) gushing about their drone period. But with Hex and Bees I was hooked. The best I've been able to describe those albums is, they sound like clouds floating over the great plains at night.
But they also set a high standard. I haven't been able to get into later albums like Primitive and deadly. As Homer Simpson said, "What's with all the fruity singing?" And the near-traditional song structures? 😄 I guess I like my Earth records abstract and cinematic!
But I think you'll dig Hibernaculum. They redo a couple of their drone tracks in the later, reverb-y Americana style. It's a bit of aural whiplash when you know the originals, but they make it work!
Very good point. The board has 3× USB-A v3, not bad for a portable its age (it's from 2013).
I'd thought about reserving at least one USB for storage, but there will still be ports to spare. Otherwise the specs say there are 4 SATA connectors inside, it should be fine.
The board is a 4th gen i7 coming out of an ASUS X751LN, released in 2014 so PCIE is v2.0. That could be a bottleneck, I suppose.
I thought USB might be a weak point, and I wanted to skip some links in the chain, but you're right about reliability. I was going to reserve a USB slot for storage, but it looks like there are plenty of SATA connectors inside. Fingers crossed they're up to it.
Re your followup post, looks like this model has the lite version of ASus' "audiophile" SonicMaster technology... Can't tell how much of that is speaker improvement, but fingers crossed there's a good little sound chip at the root of it.
A-m-a-z-i-n-g record. Coming from their distorted drone period into this album, the stopgap EP Hibernaculum, and The bees made honey in the lion's skull — it's pure perfection.
Glad to see the superrich don't object to paying large sums to build society. So we can just start wealth taxing them instead, that'll be fine right? That way they don't have to spend their valuable time cherrypicking initiatives and charities.
Ha. Completely coincidental, but I just registered here as @SiliconAvatar. Kbin.earth seems to have federation issues, so it seemed easier to double up.
Thanks for this. A lot of online comments seem to mistake "put out to tender" for being put to pasture. It's a little less dramatic than that at this point, but then the fandom seems to be a drama all of its own sometimes.
Fair, I thought that might be your reasoning 🙂 Either way, I've added a few of your purchases to my own wish list for future projects. Thanks for the inspo!
If you remove the battery (to avoid swelling), you'll have a vacant port. But connecting that in any way that won't fry your drives is another question I haven't solved...
Very cool looking project. I've been stripping motherboards from my busted old laptops recently, and am setting one up as a HiFi-ish HDD player at the moment. Next step would be some sort of NAS/homelab.
Since you're already 3D printing parts, is there any reason you didn't just pull the mobo, connect the drives and made a neat headless case for it all? Not that I don't appreciate that weird lapdozer you made! 😂
❤️🤩❤️
So stoked for this!
Prioritising new questions over answers is a very good point, which I feel is let down by a somewhat bloated piece dedicated to summarising a series of essays. I think there is more to build on from that premise.
Perhaps the very selling points of "AI" are fallacies. If we turn to chatbots for answers, or to have an image or wall of text composed from a one line prompt, we cheat ourselves of the questions that would arise when we start researching a subject and writing our own notes; or studying an object as reference for a drawing.
But those processes without thought are marketed as time savers, as productivity. That may be an immediate gain — "for whom?" would be a productive follow-up question here — however, it reduces people to button clickers rather than problem solvers.
Filling out a blank space with a lot of words or pixels statistically modeled after the most likely pattern based on a prompt and all the training material in the world — that isn't productivity. It's literally just filling out a blank. I'd compare it to the sort of absent-minded drawing you make while you're on the phone, but phone doodles are more productive!
And if we fill out formulas and spreadsheet unproductively, the result isn't saving time anymore, because we'll need to do it over. And over. And over, until preferably a person will sit down and do the work. Ask the right questions, and then ask follow-ups based on the conclusions.
A hint here, the "right questions" aren't how to improve the model or the prompt, but whether we should be using "AI" for this in the first place.
It's in working through problems that we learn, and jog our wetware minds. It's that endless line of questions that truly generate new knowledge, like a three year old that won't stop asking "why?" to every successive answer you give them. Like the little nag in your brain that keeps working at an issue even though it's 4 AM and you'd really like some sleep.
Um, the link gives me a "downloadfile.bin" on Fennec for Android 🤔 Not the main Wedistribute page, or other posts I checked, just that post.
Should you or I check something, Sean?
That is true, of course. I mostly have experience with older through-hole boards, so the risk is significantly higher in my case.
Yeah, the case might cover them up, until I have to make holes for ventilation... But I mainly held out hope that I might lead one cable out for the (still nonexistent) front.
Sounds like a cosmetic cover job will be the easiest fix, though.
Apparently she insisted the band go on their "Last hoorah" tour without her when she was diagnosed. That's show folk spirit!
Thanks for following up.
Last thing first, I found the sound chip and identified it as a Realtek ALC3236. It's listed on a lot of sales sites that claim to have data sheets. It seems they all link to alldatasheet.com, which only has ALC3246 onward AFAICT. I'll dig on, but at a glance it feels like a dead end.
I don't think I'll have to worry about load on the USB connection; 99% of my music files are still mp3, so it should be nowhere near megabytes/sec? Once I've replaced more of it with lossless audio that may change, but for now I think I'm good.
As for the built-in SATA connections, I think the specs oversold the number a bit. Looking at the mobo I can find only two; one for mounting the system disk, and one for the optical drive. From what I've seen the latter would be noticeably slower than needed for a hard drive. So unless I find a good PCIE to install an NVME disk, I'm probably stuck with USB for now.
I knew of Earth before I heard these, mostly from Sunn O))) gushing about their drone period. But with Hex and Bees I was hooked. The best I've been able to describe those albums is, they sound like clouds floating over the great plains at night.
But they also set a high standard. I haven't been able to get into later albums like Primitive and deadly. As Homer Simpson said, "What's with all the fruity singing?" And the near-traditional song structures? 😄 I guess I like my Earth records abstract and cinematic!
But I think you'll dig Hibernaculum. They redo a couple of their drone tracks in the later, reverb-y Americana style. It's a bit of aural whiplash when you know the originals, but they make it work!
Very good point. The board has 3× USB-A v3, not bad for a portable its age (it's from 2013).
I'd thought about reserving at least one USB for storage, but there will still be ports to spare. Otherwise the specs say there are 4 SATA connectors inside, it should be fine.
Good suggestions, thanks a lot!
The board is a 4th gen i7 coming out of an ASUS X751LN, released in 2014 so PCIE is v2.0. That could be a bottleneck, I suppose.
I thought USB might be a weak point, and I wanted to skip some links in the chain, but you're right about reliability. I was going to reserve a USB slot for storage, but it looks like there are plenty of SATA connectors inside. Fingers crossed they're up to it.
Re your followup post, looks like this model has the lite version of ASus' "audiophile" SonicMaster technology... Can't tell how much of that is speaker improvement, but fingers crossed there's a good little sound chip at the root of it.
Thanks for assuming English is my first language. I'll take that correction as a compliment.
A-m-a-z-i-n-g record. Coming from their distorted drone period into this album, the stopgap EP Hibernaculum, and The bees made honey in the lion's skull — it's pure perfection.
"It's the only way to be sure," as Ellen Ripley said.
Glad to see the superrich don't object to paying large sums to build society. So we can just start wealth taxing them instead, that'll be fine right? That way they don't have to spend their valuable time cherrypicking initiatives and charities.
Ha. Completely coincidental, but I just registered here as @SiliconAvatar. Kbin.earth seems to have federation issues, so it seemed easier to double up.
Happy cake day, treksite (and me) 🖖
You mean "The Doctor". Or wait, is it "Gallifrey"?
Thanks for this. A lot of online comments seem to mistake "put out to tender" for being put to pasture. It's a little less dramatic than that at this point, but then the fandom seems to be a drama all of its own sometimes.