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Attempting to install a working OS on a One A120 VIA C7-M mini-notebook in 2023

Sometimes I’m fancy and think I know better—or at least, I think that getting the obscure 3rd-party product could be more fun, than getting the No. 1 in the market. Back when the Netbook hype was just building around the ASUS EeePC, I did just that: I did not opt for an Intel powered machine, and bought a little mini-notebook based on the Quanta IL1 design, featuring a VIA C7-M CPU instead.

I am not exactly sure when that was (2008, 2009?) or how I bought it (new? Slightly used?), but the hardware wasn’t exactly great for its time—it’s a what one would call a netbook, if it had an Intel chip, after all. It has 512 MB of RAM (64 MB used for the S3-based VX800 GPU), and 4 GB of flash storage. It has a bad 7″ screen with an 800×480 px resolution, but, typically for these early devices, one could have easily fit a 9″ screen in its case. The battery is removable, and the unit is quite thick.

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My frustrations with Apple’s new Macs

So Apple released their new Macs with Apple Silicon now, and while I was really looking forward to this transition, there are things that just irk me and make me hold off from purchasing.

What was released?

Apple put out three new computers, that all feature on new System-on-a-Chip (SoC), named M1. It’s a 13″ MacBook Air, a 13″ MacBook Pro and a Mac Mini.

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Hope in a Crisis

I felt certain that this virus would spread around the globe when I first heard of its rather long incubation period and the fact that it could feel just like a cold. That must have been in late December or early to mid January. I remember thinking: Why don’t they halt air travel from Asia, especially from China?

Of course, I can’t prove any of the above, but does it matter? The overwhelming majority of western nations are in total crisis mode. People are dying, left and right. German scientists boast that Germany is doing so great with testing, but still you coudn’t really get a test two weeks ago, if you just had symptoms but weren’t a likely case because you weren’t in a dangerous area or have been in close contact with someone infected. There must be quite the Dunkelziffer. ((Number of unreported cases.))

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Resource Exhaustion

It was the end of the year, and my resources were pretty much depleted. After what seems to me like it was the most demanding year in my life, on early December 27th I headed of to Leipzig to attend the 36th Chaos Communication Congress. My father had brought me there, thankfully, especially as his resources are likely more depleted than mine.

Beforehand I hadn’t been sure whether I would attend «Congress» for a fifth consecutive year, as I really felt kind of burned out. But I went, mainly to record an episode of a podcast that ironically then never aired due to a noisy recording environment negatively affective audio quality.

Having learned from all these years, I had carefully checked the official program for interesting talks, focusing on the topic of climate crisis and related environmentalist themes, being fully aware that I would not attend most of them. The use of Congress is to meet people in sessions, that are not being recorded and generally enjoy the atmosphere and survive all the input while sourcing great food is surprisingly difficult (or not so surprisingly if you are familiar with the food at german trade fairs).

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What I’ve done lately and some thoughts on what matters

I have been awfully silent the past months. While I drafted more than one post, none got published. Partly that was due to me finally finishing my long (loooooong) lasting studies of Business Adminstration, which required me to write a thesis while also remaining employed and was quite exhausting. Even though I handed the thesis in in late October, I don’t know whether I managed to finish my studies successfully – the feeling of relief has thus not kicked in yet (and won’t come this year).

In other matters I have been a little bit engaged with “Hackers Against Climate Change”, a group effort that formed on the last (35th) Chaos Communication Congress. I hope that this effort will grow on the 36C3, because there is a lot more to consider than just dealing with „how can we help other groups with digital infrastructure“.

To explain what I mean, let me point to a selection 36C3 talks:

… and there are even more talks related to the subject of climate change and sustainability.

Reviewing this past year of 2019, I did not blog much and mainly about mobile phones. That was not just due to a lack in time, but also because it’s still easy for me to do so, and because it is not controversial. Let’s face it: Writing on the topic of climate change and climate policy just requires a lot more effort (including research) and is more controversial than to write about some stupid linux phones or other minor technology topics that essentially can be called consumerism.

While it matters to have alternatives to the smartphone duopoly in general, compared to the life extinguishing danger of climate change, it’s unimportant chicken shit. In fact, I would argue, everything is. Social issues, as they are, can in theory be changed at any time, because they just require forming a new consensus amongst humans (as hard as that is). But you can’t argue with the laws of physics and climate change. This is an issue that cannot be postponed.

For 2020, I hope to be able to be more engaged in this pressing issue. While I actually doubt that humankind will manage to choose survival instead of greed, I will try hard to proove myself wrong on that count.

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Early Learnings in Podcasting

Sifting through my recent posts here, I think I forgot what this blog is supposed to be, and made it something like a LINMOB thingy again. So here is a post about nothing for a change. It may turn out quite personal, I don’t know yet.

Recording setup in Copenhagen.
SZB001 recording setup in Copenhagen.

When you start doing something new, you always learn a lot. There are two sides to this: There are things you need to learn in order to get whatever it is that you just started doing done. And then, there are things you learn about the world by doing these new things.

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PSA: No more comments.

On May 25th, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to come into effect. With no comments in the last 5 years I decided to close the comment sections on this site for good, since having no comment section makes dealing with the new regulation much easier.

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Fefes Blog

→ Fefes Blog feiert 10. Geburtstag (mit einer Vielzahl an Gastbeiträgen).

Auch ich bedanke mich herzlich für viele Jahre guter Unterhaltung, und auch die Information zu ernsten Themen. Die Mischung ist großartig, das Design der Webseite ist “simplicity at its best” – auf die nächsten 10 Jahre.

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Thoughts on “Spring Forward”

1. The Event.
While it has been noticed that Tim Cook seemed to feel really comfortable on stage, it was too long. For me it started with a real downer. I don’t care about HBO, as I live in Germany. Then, the MacBook. Leaked before, still exiting. Nice engineering. But why rub the gold in peoples faces from the beginning?
Then the watch. First that model, Apple showing that it cares about the world. Confusing, though: Showing that Apple Watch helps rich white people running in Africa feels like a strange message to me. And that excitement. Oh, that must have been true, as she will have a blog on apple.com. At least there was a woman on stage. Then Kevin “Adobe Flash” Lynch showing off a ton of features. Some useful for wealthy people (Apple Pay, Hotel Room unlock), others creepy (send your heartbeat), others whimsical (Draw your dick a cute message). Pricing. The “Edition”. I would rather buy a car for that money, or a great bicycle.

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