Tuesday, 14th of July, 2026 - 1209
Ah, the best laid schemes of hamsters & humans…
I really jinxed myself with “I suspect
it’ll run great”! Obviously, it did not run great.
I tried the two copies I already had, plus got hold of another few copies
(which all turned out to be pretty much the same but with different names. They
all suffered the same issue: the game would start (one of these copies even
allowed me to watch the intro movie, which I don’t remember ever seeing before,
and certainly not in the last 25 years) but the menu options would all be
blank, making it tricky to navigate. By random clicking around, I managed to
stumble into playing (happened to be the tutorial) which seemed to work ok, but
the resolution was abysmal.
Then came the absolute horror of the branching whirlpool of research into how
to play RA2 in Linux. By the Maker, what a nightmare dive into incomprehensible
Linux terminology that was. There was some talk about Steam etc. and I
nearly went there and bought a brand new ‘copy’ of all of Command &
Conquer, but there was no guarantee even that would work in Linux.
Obviously, I gave up, reasoning that there were better things I could do with my life: I wasted a few hours playing Civilization.
So, no MM or RA2 in Linux, but overall, things are still positive.
In other news: the worn-out Dell
(credit: Fountains of Wayne). Yes, the ailing Dell laptop continues to find new
ways to lead me into believing it is finally dead; this time it was the RAM. I
tried to turn it on, but nothing happened other than it blinking out one of its
error-signalling codes using a couple of LEDs. SOme searching revealed this
(two orange; four white) to mean a memory error.
In mid-2026, believe me when I say a memory problem is not a problem you
want to be having…
As usual for the worn-out Dell (WOD?), it was time to take the (flimsy plastic)
back off and see what was what.
…nothing much to see inside, so I removed the single 8GB ram stick (probably worth more than the rest of the laptop put together) and reseated it. Twice, for good measure. After shunning Nintendo’s advice and blowing on the contacts (‘90s’ habits die hard).
Attempt a power-on: it’s fine again! I’m even writing this entry using it (on my lap, as it slowly burns my left leg).
Good ‘ol WOD.
