I got my Real Studio key last night. The price for a personal copy of RS is (just) under $100, so I decided the simplest thing to do was get a license, before my free trial runs out.
In the process of ordering parts for Lori's laptop (who's Lori? My wife of 29 years, of course!), I ordered the guts of SPARCL12. It's an AMD dual-core mainboard, but not an APU, like SPARCL11's Gigabyte GA-E350N. I found that the APU lacks horsepower for very, very, graphic-intensive applications - like Real Studio. Even though L11 has 4 GB of memory, and decent graphics, Real Studio is still a dog. Now, a compiled RS application runs just fine on a single-core machine, like SPARCL10. After all, the graphics are just GTK+ API calls. But in the development environment, the demands go 'way up. So, I am looking at another solution.
Poor Lori's laptop back light is dying. It used to be that you could pull a laptop screen apart, and replace the fluorescent bulb without too much trouble. Not any more. Most screens, both laptop, and desktop, are a real pain to get into. I discovered this myself a while back. Fortunately, you can get a whole laptop screen, with back light, for about $100, shipped.
As mentioned last time, my new job is with a company that specializes in non-destructive testing. This means, simply, finding faults in (largely) metal parts. So far, it's a great job, and a great company. I look forward to many good years here.
In the meantime, I am working on the graphic console for SPOCS as best as I can.
LEFT: The home of SPOCS: DellroyGMs' lab.
CENTER: The Penguin Farm. machines SPARCL12, L10, L11, & SPARCL14.
RIGHT: finally off the roof.
