Sense, Nonsense, and Not-Sense

[Thanks for coming along with me on December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Amlogic S922X Processor with Quad-core Cortex-A73 (@ up to 2.4Ghz) and Dual-core Cortex-A53 (@ up to 2Ghz), ARMv8-A architecture with Neon and Crypto extensions


• Memory: 4 GB RAM


• Graphics: Mali-G52 GPU with 6 Execution Engines @ 800Mhz, mostly unused (access to machine through HDMI is mostly debug terminal, but device itself is capable of 4k resolution at 60 Hz refresh rate


• Sound: Stereo (maybe more) possible through HDMI or 3.5mm jack

Inputs/Peripherals: 4x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 2.0 On The Go port, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, 1x Debug serial console (UART), 1x Peripheral Expansion Header (40-pin, 2.54mm pitch)

• Storage: 64 GB eMMC internal storage


• OS: Home Assistant Core running on top of Alpine Linux

( An ODROID N2+ with Home Assistant )

There you are. Thirty-one computing devices, spanning my career of technology. Not the only ones I've worked with or played games on, but ones that I have some stories (or convenient excuses for rants) associated with. I don't know how many, if any of them, sparked memories for you, but if you do have one, feel free to share it. Or if mine of this was interesting at all to you, then perhaps you can attempt to influence 2022's December Days with good suggestions about what kind of topics could be covered.

Congratulations to all of you for making it through this year, and I hope to see you again next December.

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: 2x quad-core Advanced Micro Devices Jaguar family 64-bit processors @ 1.6 GHz


• Memory: 8 GB RAM


• Graphics: Advanced Micro Devices GPGPU-capable Radeon GCN architecture, 18 compute units, HDMI 2.0a, max resolution 3840x2160


• Sound: Advanced Micro Devices TrueAudio or compatible, up to 7.1 surround sound through HDMI, stereo through 3.5mm jack


• Inputs/Peripherals: Game Controller (commonly DualShock 4) with four trigger buttons (L1, L2, R1, R2), seven face buttons (Square, Circle, Triangle, X, Share, Options, PlayStation), two analog sticks, which can be pressed as buttons (L3, R3), a touch pad (which can be pressed as a button), a D-Pad, motion control sensors, and a tiny speaker, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, 2x USB 3.1 ports for accessories


• Storage: 500 GB SATA internal storage, Blu-ray optical media drive that can read DVDs,


• OS: Xross Media Bar

( The PlayStation 4, Kingdom Hearts, and annoyance at the disappearance of services without their eventual resurrection )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93 GHz


• Memory: 4 GB RAM


• Graphics: nVidia GeForce GT 710 chipset, max resolution 1920x1080


• Sound: Stereo output sound through HDMI (GT 710) or 3.5" jack (onboard)


• Inputs/Peripherals: Keyboard/Mouse (USB), CMTECK microphone (USB), Gigabit Ethernet, LG Blu-Ray RW drive


• Storage: 1 TB SATA internal hard drive


• OS: Arch Linux

( Arch Linux and the box I got to contain it. )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Samsung ARM, unknown type, unknown clock speed


• Memory: 64 MB RAM


• Graphics: Unknown chipset, max resolution 320x240


• Sound: Stereo output sound through 3.5" jack


• Inputs/Peripherals: 30-pin USB connector for computer connection and synchronization, "click wheel" with ability to scroll through options, with five possible presses marked Previous, Next, Menu, Play, and the center button


• Storage: 80 GB internal storage


• OS: iPod OS 1.1.2 → Rockbox

( The iPod Classic 6G, the last device that could have its life extended )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Quad-core Krait 400 @ 2.5 GHz, part of the Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 System on a Chip


• Memory: 3 GB RAM


• Graphics: Adreno 330 @ 578 MHz, max resolution 1920x1080


• Sound: Onboard sound with monaural speaker capabilities, connected to headphones through 3.5" jack


• Inputs/Peripherals: Capacitive touch screen and three physical buttons for Home, Menu, and Back, microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.1, integrated 13MP photography and video camera (back), 5MP selfie camera (front), Global Positioning Satellite system, Near Field Communucation system,


• Storage: 64GB internal storage


• OS: Cyanogen OS 11 (Android 4.3 "Jelly Bean" and Android 4.4(.x) "KitKat") → Cyanogen OS 12 (Android 5.0(.x) "Lollipop"), → Cyanogen OS 13 (Android 6.0(.x) "Marshmallow"), → Lineage OS 14.1 (Android 7.1 "Nougat") → Lineage OS 15.1 (Android 8.1 "Oreo") → Lineage OS 16.0 (Android 9 "Pie") → Lineage OS 17.1 (Android 10 - likely would have been "Quiche" if the naming convention had continued)

( The OnePlus One )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Intel Atom N270 @ 1.6 GHz


• Memory: 1 GB RAM


• Graphics: Intel Integrated GMA 950, max resolution 1024x768


• Sound: Onboard sound with stereo speaker capabilities, connected to headphones through 3.5" jack


• Inputs/Peripherals: Keyboard with trackpad and two buttons for left and right mouse click (Integrated), 100MBit Ethernet port, 3.5" microphone input jack, 2 total USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, SD card reader, integrated 1.3MP webcam


• Storage: 160 GB Hard Disk Drive


• OS: Windows XP → Slackware-based Slax Linux (Slax is now Debian-based) → Slackware-based Puppy Linux → #! (Crunchbang) Linux → BunsenLabs Linux (current)

( Nora and Pyrrha, netbooks extraordinaire )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Cell microprocessor, made up of one 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based "Power Processing Element" (PPE) and six accessible Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs)


• Memory: 256 MB of Rambus XDR DRAM + 256 MB GDDR3 RAM clocked at 650 MHz


• Graphics: nVidia RSX "Reality Synthesizer", max resolution 1920x1080 through HDMI output


• Sound: 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, allows bitstreaming of lossless audio codecs to an external receiver through HDMI


• Inputs/Peripherals: Bluetooth-connected motion-sensitive controller (most famously, the DualShock 3) with four shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, R2), six face buttons (Square, Circle, Triangle, X, Select, Start), a D-pad, and two analog sticks that could be pressed as buttons as well, Bluetooth-connected motion-sensitive controller (PlayStation Move) with two side buttons, five face buttons, and one trigger, Bluetooth-connected PlayStation Media Remote, PlayStation Eye camera, PlayStation Memory Card Adapter, IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless Internet connection, Gigabit Ethernet port, 2 USB 2.0 ports.


• Storage: 500 GB Hard Disk Drive BD-ROM Blu-ray Media Drive compatible with DVDs


• OS: XMB ("Cross Media Bar")

( The PlayStation 3 )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: AMD Semperon (Thoroughbred) @ 1.8 GHz


• Memory: 2 GB RAM


• Graphics: nVidia GeForce 2 Pro, 64MB onboard RAM, effective resolution 1024x768


• Sound: Onboard sound system (on motherboard), attached to 2.1 speakers, ports for 3.5" microphone and headphone jacks


• Inputs/Peripherals: Keyboard (Wireless PS/2), Mouse (Wireless PS/2), 100MB Ethernet, HP printer (USB 2.0)


• Storage: 120 GB hard disk drive (Secondary), 250 GB Hard Disk Drive (Primary), DVD±RW Optical Media Drive, DVD-ROM Optical Media Drive


• OS: Windows XP, Kubuntu 5.10 "Breezy Badger"

( Like fine cheese, Linux needed to age a bit before I could be successful with it )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: MIPS III R5900-based "Emotion Engine", clocked at 294.912 MHz


• Memory: 32 MB PC800 32-bit dual-channel (2x 16-bit) RDRAM (Direct Rambus DRAM)


• Graphics: Parallel rendering processor with embedded DRAM "Graphics Synthesizer" (GS) clocked at 147.456 MHz, max resolution 1920x1080


• Sound: SPU1+SPU2 (SPU1 is actually the CPU clocked at 8 MHz and SPU2 is PS1 SPU), Sound Memory: 2 MB, Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (selectable), Supports MIDI Instruments, Output: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, DTS (Full motion video only), later games achieved matrix encoded 5.1 surround during gameplay through Dolby Pro Logic II


• Inputs/Peripherals: Gamepads (most famously the DualShock 2), with four shoulder buttons (L1 L2 R1 R2), four face buttons (Square Circle Triangle X), two analog sticks that can be pressed as buttons, a D-pad, and Select and Start Buttons, DVD Player remote control, GunCon light guns, EyeToy camera


• Storage: 8 MB removable Memory Card, DVD-ROM Optical Media Drive

• CPU: Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC @ 200 MHz


• Memory: 16 MB RAM, 8 MB video RAM, 2 MB audio RAM


• Graphics: NEC PowerVR2 @ 100 MHz


• Sound: Yamaha AICA with 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU core @ 67 MHz, 64 channels


• Inputs/Peripherals: Gamepad with two triggers, L and R, four face buttons, one analog stick, one D-pad, and two dock spaces for accessories including a mouse, rumble connectors, and other accessories including a fishing rod controller, Dreameye Camera, connects to SNK Neo-Geo Pocket with cable


• Storage: 128 KB Visual Memory Unit, a memory card that also doubled as a handheld game unit or additional interface for arcade machines, GD-ROM Optical Media Drive

• CPU: IBM "Gekko" PowerPC @ 485 MHz


• Memory: 24 MB main system RAM, 3MB video RAM, 16 MB I/O buffer RAM


• Graphics: ArtX-designed ATI "Flipper" ASIC @ 162 MHz, 640x480 max resolution


• Sound: custom 81 MHz Macronix 16-bit DSP @ 48 KHz sampling


• Inputs/Peripherals: Gamepad with two trigger buttons (L and R), a Z button above the R trigger, four face buttons (A B X Y), two analog sticks (one normal, one C-Stick nominally for camera control), a D-Pad, select and Start Buttons,


• Storage: 2 MB Memory Cards, 8 cm diameter GameCube Game Disc

( The Fighting Game Consoles: PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, GameCube )

[Welcome to December Days, where I natter on about things organized around a theme (sometimes very loosely), one a day, for 31 days. This year, we're taking a look back at some touchpoints along the way of my journey with computing and computing devices.]

• CPU: Apple-IBM-Motorola PowerPC third generation (G3) or forth generation (G4) processor


• Memory: 1-2 GB RAM (likely)


• Graphics: ATI Rage 128 Pro with 16 MB VRAM or ATI Radeon with 32 MB VRAM (likely)


• Sound: Internal mono speaker, inputs for 3.5" mini jacks for stereo output.


• Inputs/Peripherals: Keyboard (USB 1.1), Mouse (USB 1.1), 100MBit, possibly 1000MBit Ethernet (RJ45, CAT-5e cable), network-attached printers


• Storage: 40 GB ATA Internal Hard Disk Drive, DVD-ROM Optical Media Drive


• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther"

( University Computing Environments )