Friendica.World | Georgiana Brummell @ Friendica.World

Georgiana Brummell

dandylover1@friendica.world

Hello. Georgiana Brummell is not my legal name, but it is what I prefer to be called. I chose it in honour of Beau Brummell. Some of my interests include studying dandyism, nineteenth-century grammar, Received Pronunciation, and the Regency. I like coffees, teas, and nasal snuffs, and enjoy cooking, reading British literature, watching nature and historical documentaries, and playing cards and dice. In classical music, I enjoy Baroque through a bit of early Romantic, while in popular, I usually prefer 1950's through 1970's. I love theatre, especially Regency, operettas, and Edwardian musical comedies. I am a huge Ivor Novello fan. I prefer antique menswear and accessories (no feminine clothing). I love wit, wordplay, and dry humour without vulgarity. I am happily childfree and am not religious. I amm also honest and am not one for drama or political correctness. I have been totally blind since I was two months old, due to Retinopathy of Prematurity. I am also single and searching. If you are or know a genuine dandy, or at least, a childfree, intelligent, well-dressed single man, preferably over sixty, please pass the following link to him. Anyone may read and comment on my journal, whether or not he is a member of Dreamwidth.

dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/226…

Network Posts

New Jersey, USA

http://rel=mehttps://friendica.world/profile/dandylover1

Georgiana Brummell

6 hours ago from TweeseCake •

Georgiana Brummell
6 hours ago from TweeseCake •

I'm trying to figure out which is the best computer for my needs. I'm caught between three options. I want something very portable that's smaller than my Del Latitude 3120, and even than my Acer Aspire One D270! I would use all of these with an external keyboard. The MeLes can run off a power bank and needs speakers, while the Toughbook has its own battery and speakers. The MeLes have more usb ports, where as the Toughpad would require a usb hub (owned). Some of these come with more ram or storage. I tried to choose similar specifications when possible. All cost about $300, once you add in the power bank for the last two, though they may be on sale, due to Black Friday.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3 with 7th generation Intel Core i5-7Y57 vPro processor with two cores and four Intel Hyper-Threads, 8GB of soldered DDR3L RAM, and a 128GB M.2 2280 SSD.

amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK7W87…

MeLE Mini PC Quieter 4C, 12th Gen Alder Lake-N100 - processor. Featuring 4 cores and 4 threads, with speeds of up to 3.4GHz, 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM (4266MHz) and 128GB of storage (128GB eMMC, M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 3940MB/s).
(Note: the m.2. is just a slot, not an installed drive, so it's empty, and I won't be taking things apart to install it)

amazon.com/MeLE-Mini-Quieter-4…

MeLE PC PCG02 Pro, with Quad-Core Alder Lake 12th N100, 8GB 4266MHz LPDDR4 ram, 128GB emmc storage and a Micro SD port that supports expanding up to 2TB.
(Note: I think this is for a micro sd card, which I can insert and use on my own)

amazon.com/MeLE-PCG02-Pro-Comp…

If I chose one of the last two, and wanted to use it with a power bank and not the regular cord, it would have to be this one, as no others are accessible to the blind.

accessibility.energrid.us.com/…

These are the programmes I use.

screen reader: NVDA

Internet Browser: Supermium (modern fork of Chrome, works with XP through 11)

Text Editor: Notepad2 (11), Notepad (XP/7), with spell checker: Jarte (all)

Media Player MPCHC (all)

MP3 Recorder: Virtual Recorder v1.4.0.2 (all)

E-Mail Thunderbird (Legacy 102 (7/11) Icedove or Outlook Express (XP), considering Windows Live Mail (all)

Youtube: Accessible Youtube Downloader (11)

Friendica: site (all) TweeseCake, TWBlue (11)

Timer: Cook Timer (all)

Computer Cleaner: CCleaner 5.49 (XP) KCleaner (all)

Uninstaller: Revo Uninstaller (much older version, newer is not accessible) (all)

OCR/pdf converter: Openbook, Kurzweil 1000 (all)

Virtual machines: VMWare Player 6.0.4, VmWare Workstation 17 (11)

#accessibility #blind #computers #powerbanks #tablets #technology #virtualmachines #Windows7 #Windows11 #WindowsXP

#technology #accessibility #blind #windows7 #windows11 #computers #virtualmachines #WindowsXP #Tablets #powerbanks

reshared this

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

D.Hamlin.Music

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 6 hours ago • •

You'll want 16GB Ram minimum regardless, not sure otherwise, though I would also go with AMD over Intel if possible.

in reply to D.Hamlin.Music

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to D.Hamlin.Music • 5 hours ago from TweeseCake •

@D.Hamlin.Music Thank you for responding. I really couldn't imagine needing so much ram, to be honest. I run everything on 8gb with no problem. I've also used 4gb with 7 as a host for virtual machines, but with 11 as a host, 8gb is my minimum. I wouldn't mind the extra, but it's not important enough to pay more for it.

@D.Hamlin.Music

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 5 hours ago • •

Two ideas, if I may. I'm almost sure you've already thought of both, but wanted to throw them into the pot just in case. First, as to size, what about the small gaming machines? Steamdeck/Aya Neo/GPD series? They're certainly small, and generally quite powerful. They also have batteries which will either save you getting a power bank at all or make the bank an accessory, not a must-have. Secondly, if you want to keep the price down, what about refurbished gaming units? I have seen that Valve is selling refurbished steamdecks, which may be of some use.

Georgiana Brummell likes this.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 4 hours ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer I know next to nothing about gaming machines, other than that they have controllers. I know a lot about umpcs, and that is what I originally wanted, since the keyboard, speaker, and batteries are built-in. The GPD Pocket 3 would be great. But it, and most other modern ones are either well above my budget of $300, or they have lower specifications than my Dell, with a Pentium N6000. I don't mind that, but if it's slower, it should have an older version of Windows to compensate. I do own a real umpc (Fujitsu UH900). I adore the form factor, and even the layout is decent, since I replaced the keyboard with a U.S. model. But it's slow, even for me! I also want something that can handle virtualization if XP or 7 isn't installed natively. I can even do this with my Acer Travelmate 8172, with 4gb of ram and a Intel Core i5-560UM, but that's a big laptop (11.6 inches) not a umpc or tablet.

@Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 2 hours ago • •

I agree with you on the UMPCs, but sadly, they're just not being made to a reasonable level anymore. I know the refurb steamdeck is being sold for a bit under $300, though I'm not sure how much. It does have controllers but, if you're using an external keyboard anyway, you can disable them. I killed them in device manager myself. Two problems with it, though, are that it comes with Linux so you have to install Windows yourself and that it has only one USB port. That is not a typo, it has one USB port which is a USB C port and which is used for charging. The installation of Windows isn't a huge deal but the USB port drove me to tearing my hair out in large handfuls. It does, however, work with VMWare and Virtual Box, so you can install virtual machines if you like. It works with a Win 7 VM, I've used it and had no issue. The processor is, of course, fairly reasonable, it is meant for light to medium gaming, after all.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 2 hours ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer The Toughbook also has only one usb port, so they have that in common. I would definitely need to use a hub in both cases. I wouldn't usually use an external keyboard if one is built into the machine, unless I were sweating a lot (I have hyperhydrosis). I've been known to short out many keyboards that way, so maybe, that wouldn't be a bad idea, after all. I'll check the specifications of these. As for Linux, I would love a machine with Debian Mate installed, but I don't know of any. However, if I have to install Windows, this would mean extra money, but it might or might not be a lot, depending on which version I chose and where I purchased the key.

@Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 2 hours ago • •

I haven't seen your particular toughbook, but I have seen a few and all the units I've seen had at least one charging port in addition to the USB ports. The Steamdeck has one USB C port for everything, charging, peripherals, docking... It has one port! A USB hub with charging pass through does work well, though, in my experience. Sorry about the external keyboard, you mentioned in your first message that you would be using all of them with an external keyboard, which is why I brought that up. I am typing this on an external, I have yet to see a built-in keyboard I liked, prefer not to have my machine in harm's way, and don't want to keep the screen up if it's a laptop. It's a good deal easier to recover from spilling something, just for example, on the $15 Logitech K360. The Steamdeck supports Valve's own Steam OS, I have never tried installing Debian on it directly. Given the availability of Win 10 OEM keys, I don't think you'll have to spend too much to install Windows on the unit. I assume, because you mentioned Windows 7 earlier, that you're not desperate to upgrade to 11.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 2 hours ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer Yes. The Toughpad is a tablet, so it would require a keyboard, since I don't use touchscreens. An actual Toughbook wouldn't, since those are laptops. This is the one I'm considering.

Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3

amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK7W87…

In any case, no harm done. We all get confused every now and then. smile

@Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 1 hour ago • •

Teaches me to either use braille or read better, I misread toughpad as toughbook with some sort of weird pronunciation. Honestly, this looks like a very nice unit. You can use any BT keyboard with it, too, so you're not restricted to some sort of proprietary keyboard/cover/whatever. The only thing I'd be a bit hesitant about is running a virtual machine with that processor and RAM. I'd be happier with 16 GB and a more powerful I5 or an AMD unit. I can't judge, though, I have never used that particular I5, and have never used XP at all on a VM. It's Amazon renewed, you have a chance to return if it's hopeless. Keep in mind that the LTE modem is not available on the Steamdeck. Though the steamdeck is a bit cheaper, I suspect you'll end up with more or less the same cost if you're going to buy a key for Windows 10. You get Windows with the tablet. Keep in mind, also, that the tablet is going to be a good deal thinner than anything else, and that the tablet has a separate charging port. The Steamdeck doesn't.

Georgiana Brummell likes this.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 1 hour ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer I've run virtual machines with 4gb of ram on the host, but that was with 7. With 11 as the host, I want at least 8gb, which works very well. Right now, I'm using a Del Latitude 3120 with an N6000 processor, a 128gb solid state drive, and 8gb of ram. I have Tweesecake, about five browser windows, and two Notepad windows open in 11, plus an XP machine with three more open windows, all running concurrently without a problem.

@Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 44 minutes ago • •

Most interesting, I'm impressed. Is it VMware or Virtual Box that you're using? Also, if I may ask, how much RAM have you assigned to the XP machine? I ask since the day is coming when we can run XP on a VM hosted by a phone, and that will make life a good deal simpler for those of us who want to read comfortably and portably.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 39 minutes ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer XP on a phone! Now that I would love to see! But it must be accessible. From what I know, it is possible to run Windows on phones, but there's no sound. Anyway, my XP machine is currently using 2gb of ram.

@Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell

Tech Singer

in reply to Georgiana Brummell • 34 minutes ago • •

It will come, eventually, probably faster on Android than on iOS. Yes, it has to be a full machine, audio, keyboard, everything. As I said, it may well happen, though I'm not sure how soon.

This entry was edited (33 minutes ago)

Georgiana Brummell likes this.

in reply to Tech Singer

Georgiana Brummell

in reply to Tech Singer • 31 minutes ago from TweeseCake •

@Tech Singer I would absolutely love that! Just thinking of it is making me smile! It would solve all of my computer problems!

@Tech Singer

Tech Singer likes this.

Georgiana Brummell

3 weeks ago from Semaphore •

Georgiana Brummell
3 weeks ago from Semaphore •

Hello, everyone. I am interested in using a mini pc with a power bank. However, my use case is a bit different from most. I am totally blind, so I don't need to worry about a monitor, mouse, or touchpad. My main goal is to get something portable and light-weight to carry in a fanny pack. I already do this with aGalaxy A15 and an iClever BK03 keyboard, but as good as Android 14 is with Talkback, I would like a truly small Windows pc. As much as I love umpcs, from what I understand, the current ones have strange keyboard layouts and many cost several hundreds or even thousands of dollars! I use Windows XP, 7, and 11 on both physical and virtual machines. I am interested in Debian Mate, but I can't seem to get it to work fully in a virtual machine, since it won't recognize shared folders or my thumb drives. Of the machines currently in use, the least powerful is my Aspire One D270 and the most powerful is my Latitude 3120 with a Pentium N6000 processor, 8gb of ram, and 128gb solid state drive. I want something that will at least equal or surpass this.

These are the programs I use. Keep in mind that I won't be using a monitor or mouse, nor do I engage in any graphically-entensive tasks or do any sorts of collaborations with others, use cloud storage, etc.

NVDA (screen reader, all versions of Windows)
Firefox (115 on Windows 7 and latest on Windows 11), Serpent UXP Firefox fork that works with Xp and up/still updated), Supermium (fully modern fork of Chrome for XP and up
Notepad2 or Jarte
MPCHC (light-weight media player)
Virtual Recorder v1.4.0.2 (very simple mp3 recorder)
Thunderbird (Legacy 102, Outlook Express
Cook Timer
KCleaner
Revo Uninstaller (much older version, modern one is not accessible)
Openbook (for ocr/used rarely)
VMWare Player 6.0.4 or Workstation 16

With that in mind, I am considering the MeLE PCG02 Pro with an N100 processor. Since it already has a 3.5mm jack, I wouldn't need to connect a usb adapter to use earbuds (Bluetooth audio doesn't work well with NVDA).

amazon.com/MeLE-PCG02-Pro-Comp…

I would pair this with a Energrid VS820PD 20,000mAh Power Bank.

accessibility.energrid.us.com/…

Would this computer and power bank meet my needs? If not, can you recommend others? Please do not recommend bare bones systems or converters/triggers. While I am comfortable with all sorts of software, I don't feel safe modifying hardware, since I can't see it and don't want to damage anything or get electricuted. At any rate, the thing I like about this power bank is that I could check the battery status, which is important, since the PCG02 Pro doesn't have an internal battery. At any rate, is 10,000mah enough for four to eight hours of use, or should I consider this one with 20,000 mah? The voltage and wattage seem to be compatible with the computer, unlike my current INIU power bank with only 22w output. Plus, it has powered USBc (pd 3.0) which esential for working with a mini pc, from what I've read.

#blind #computers #Energrid #MeLE #minipc #NVDA #powerbank #technology #Windows7 #Windows11 #WindowsXP #virtualmachines

Amazon.com: MeLE PCG02 Pro Fanless Mini PC Stick Alder Lake N100(up to 3.4GHz) Windows 11 Pro Micro PC 8GB 256GB Mini Computers Small Desktop with 2.4G/5G WiFi, Bluetooth, Dual HDMI 4K Display, VESA for Office : Electronics

^{www.amazon.com}

#technology #blind #nvda #windows7 #windows11 #computers #virtualmachines #Energrid #MeLE #minipc #powerbank #WindowsXP

This entry was edited (3 weeks ago)

end0fline reshared this.

⇧