| Three Times Lucky: Checking out new chromebook, Lenovo USI Pen, Update performance testing |
| Earlier in the year a covered my return to ChromeOS hardware with the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 2 in one and the Acer Chromebook 311 (C721). As it has some time since ChromeOS 96 came out and now is the time to re-evaluate how they have managed ChromeOS updates and how performance has improved or gotten worse. Also covered will be the USI pen for the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet as well as a evaluating a new contender the Lenovo Ideapad 3 Chromebook. |
| iPhoney - Exploration of AirPod Clones |
| In 2016 apple removed the headphone jack with the launch of the iPhone 7 and around same timeframe launched the AirPods which simplified yet complicated the standard Bluetooth headphones by removing wire linking them kickstarting the true wireless phase. A trend that most brands followed at many price points with Apple keeping up and revising their own even with a new pro series that provide enhanced isolation and other advanced features. One trend that stuck was that most of the name brand ones were rather costly with early budget models rather lacking on build and audio quality. Along with abundance of name brand models and budget ones there was clones of Apple's own that for most part had the look with build and sound quality being hit and miss. |
| Google Stadia Re-evaluation and Testing |
| It has been a year since I last really looked at Google's entry into the game streaming industry. Back when Google was giving out Premier Bundles, I was able to obtain one of them and try the service out but after a few months I canceled it. Over all the issues that existed then were on most games the quality was rather low even on the bundled Chromecast Ultra that came with the bundle. |
| A Tale of Two Chromebooks: Re-evaluating the platform |
| Back in 2016 I got an Acer Chromebook 11 (CB3-111) to evaluate the platform but at the time it was still very much still a web browser as an OS. That Chromebook became a Linux laptop via custom firmware and a specialized Linux distro specialized for Chromebook hardware. Now I am evaluating a pair of modern Chromebook. The devices are the 2020 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 2 in 1 and the 2019 Acer Chromebook 311 (C721). |
| Dual boot Windows 11 Setup with No Compatibility Checks |
| After running the compatibility checker for Windows 11, I was surprised to find most of our computers did not pass. I decided to investigate this further and came up with a way to get Windows 11 to run on computers that did not pass the test. I am providing this for your information and experimenting. |
| Homebrew testing on Xemu |
| Most game systems to date have emulators but there is one that for longest time which has been without decently usable emulation. The original Microsoft Xbox is now really starting to get to the point where emulation is viable. There is currently two major projects tackling the task with Xemu taking the LLE (Low Level Emulation) route and Cxbx-Reloaded taking the HLE (High Level Emulation) route. Both of these emulators got their hits and misses on compatibility but over all are running a decent amount of retail games. |
| Seagate GoFlex Home: A warning and a look at what remains |
| Launched back in 2010 the Seagate GoFlex Home was a designed to be simple home network share solution. At launch the product worked and had mixed reviews but in 2018 Seagate shutdown the servers effectively bricking every unit if they were factory reset. |
| Replace mate-screensaver with xscreensaver on Debian 10 |
| Mate desktop even with all its improvements over Gnome 2 still uses the defective screensaver settings without option to actually change the settings for installable screensavers (xscreensavers). This guide will allow you to replace it whe while not as graphically modern more usable xscreensaver. |
| Winamp:mac ~ The release that never came to be |
| Back in 2001 Justin Frankel started working on a release of Winamp:mac as of this writing there is only own known release of it. From what I could tell 0.71 alpha was the only released build of it and it is unknown if newer builds existed inside AOL. All that is really known about this release is contained within a readme file included with the build. |
| External storage transfer speed comparison (usb, firewire, esata) |
| After getting my ExpressCard 54 esata card I decided to do a speed comparison between the commonly used external drive connections. The test covers usb, firewire and esata and was done via the great free DiskBench tool using the default “Create Batch File” mode configuration. |
| MFi: Artificially crippling hardware |
| I’m sure any owner of a iPod, iPhone, or iPad will have seen the “This accessory is not supported by i<Device here>” or “Charging is not supported with this accessory”. That there is the result of the MFi program. Hardware drm that decides if you can use your accessory or if you have to go to store and buy new one that is designed for your fancy new device. |
| Adding SATA to XP cd (Bonus of SP3 integration) |
| In the modern world of SATA enabled machines reinstalling xp can be hell... This guide will help you integrate sata drivers onto your xp cd. |
| Firewire vs. USB |
| First let's start with the history of the technology... Firewire came first in 1995 developed by Apple Inc. It was designed for high speed real-time data transfer and replaced firewire and scsi since it was lower cost to implement and had a more flexible cable system. USB was then created in 1996 as a new standard that was meant to replace serial,parallel,ps2, and many other port types. Part of the core tech was the fact that the user is able to connect/disconnect devices without powering down or restarting the machine (with proper eject on the software end). |
| Kerbango 100E: The first stand-alone internet radio |
| In 1998 the company Kerbango was formed by former executives from Apple and Power Computing.... but was acquired by 3Com. The company's only claim to fame was that they had made the first standalone internet connected radio (Kerbango Internet Radio). |
| Rainbow apple logo boot aka How to change your Mac OS X boot logo |
| During the editing of the rainbow apple logo I got the idea about using it as boot logo on my MacBook and did some research and found app exists to allow you to change it and it comes with a prepared rainbow one too. |
| Apple Logos through time |
| Throughout time Apple has changed their logo to different styles... but of course they always had a bite out of the apple. For a project I did for the fun of it to scan old logos from old Packages, Print material, and current print material. Posted below are all the images I scanned and fixed up. Note: The logos probability won't be listed in order. |
| Oragami Project: A look back |
| Back in 2006 Microsoft stated a viral ad campaign for something called "Oragami Project" that was featured at www.origamiproject.com/ (Link updated to web.archive.org mirror). It consisted of a campaign of 3 viral flash videos that were displayed in a three week time period. |
| cost-cutting-palm |
All through time companies cut costs to make bigger profits... but cost cutting can hurt the consumer as well. For the fun of it I decided to convert canyon.mid (old Windows 3.1 file) into a palm alarm sound and I discovered that the Palm Z22 had a piezo buzzer. |
| The ethics of jailbreaking |
| Ever since Apple released the iPhone and then later the iPod Touch users wanted more control. Back in the firmware 1.x days all apple allowed you to to officially do was web apps via safari and thats where the jailbreaks came in.Some smart people found out ways to make apps that ran on the mobile OS X and found ways to solve the needing of more space on the Springboard. Of course this was a two way battle since apple kept trying to kill it via firmware updates and that sill goes on today. |
| Remote Disc on non MacBook Air |
| Ever since the launch of the MacBook Air i've wanted to be able to use Remote Disc on my 3rd gen MacBook. I hate slot loading optical drives with a passion.... I thought apple would have enabled Remote Disc for all machines but they sadly didnt. |
| Logitech Mouse Cost Cutting |
| All through time eventually company's hit a point of cutting costs to make a bigger profit... but that cost cutting can have major side effects if they take it too far. For example the lower cost as it is Logitech OEM Wheel mouse. I have been getting these for years and the source of them has recently started selling them for higher price. |
| Fun with QuickBasic for Mac |
| For the fun of it I ported my dos simulation basic program from applesoft basic to Microsoft Quickbasic for Mac... There are quite a few differences to get over. The result of this was far more clean and tidy code too... feel free to port it back to applesoft for the fun of it. Even tho it looks less impressive/not good enough to fool anyone I'm releasing it anyway :) |
| Fun with applesoft basic |
| Back in the day basic was the common way to enter games and programs into your computer... sure there was floppys, and tapes but they were commonly used to store basic programs. You could buy programs for your chosen computer platform but where was the fun in that :) |
| Tech Flashback: My old setup |
| It is always sad looking back at what you once had... For example when scanning old photos in I found these two shots of my old setup. What makes the picture even more sad is that I don't live there any more. Anyway it is a quite typical setup.... HP Deskjet 600c Printer,Proview 14" crt, Koss speakers,Tons of floppys around,5.25 Floppy Drive, qic80 Tape drive, mitsumi scroll mouse on main machine. Tandy 12" green screen cga monitor,datatrain keyboard, dexa mouse on the old tandy. It's amazing how I remembered so much about that setup... Now that hp deskjet was HELL to refill but I kept it going for a far bit of time after my dad passed on to a new printer. |
| Music Organization |
| I spent all of yesterday cleaning and sorting out my iTunes library and getting my music backup routine in place... In the process i found that if you don't do that often you tend to get duplicates that are not listed. I also started my new non destructive sorting methods using the comment field instead of clobbering album field. When all was done I ended up with 2036 songs that uses 3.98gb (64kbps AAC). |
| The rise and fall of Palm |
| There was a time when the pda market was new... Apple was the original leader of the pda market. In 1989 Apple started work on the newton under the lead of John Sculley. In fact the term PDA or Personal Digital Assistant was coined by apple .You may ask what this has to do with palm but it has a lot to do with it since the Newton even tho it was largely successful it was big and clunky. |
| Mac OS 8.2D8 Beta Themes |
| In the development of Mac OS 8.2 (Later known as version 8.5) they added multiple theme support and the developer builds shipped with 3 extra themes... These are the themes that shipped with Mac OS 8.2d8 Beta. Despite how unstable the theme support in that build the themes are well done with sounds schemes and all. I made the screenshots on Mac OS 9.1 on my Performa 6360 but they should work on any Mac with Mac OS 8.5 or newer. |
| Mac OS X 10.5 Recovery Drive |
This was written for Intel Mac… it may not work on PPC Mac. This guide will help you make a bootable Recovery Drive with recovery tools and the ability to install your Mac OS X from the external drive. |
| Duke Nukem 3D High Resolution Pack |
| Remember "Duke Nukem 3D", the great first-person shooter 3D Realms released back in 1996? Its cool protagonist, in game atmosphere, original weaponry and many other features make it worth playing even today. For all Duke fans who want to play the game again in a modern Windows environment with 3D accelerated graphics, the Duke3D community has created the High Resolution Pack (HRP). Utilizing the amazing skills of various texturing and modeling artists, the project´s goal is to replace all textures and sprites with high-res versions, optimizing it for latest OpenGL ports. |
| Tray Icon Hiding… Where Did It Come From? |
You all have used this feature of Windows XP and Vista at one point or another… and you now would be lost without it. Let’s take a look at tray icon hiding… Where did it come from? Who did Microsoft copy? Who came first? On Windows 2000 i used an app called Effective Desktop and it let me do tray icon hiding and more… well I recently installed it again on a older Win2k machine and noticed some odd similarities between Effective Desktop and XP tray icon hiding. Well Effective Desktop 1.0 was released on June 13, 2001 and XP was released on October 25, 2001… so it looks like they somehow acquired the rights to bundle a updated version of Effective Desktop in XP. |
| Beware! Domain Name Registry Scam Continues |
| If you own a domain name, some time prior to renew, you may received a letter in the mail from a company called the Domain Registry of Canada, Domain Registry of America, Domain Registry of Europe and possibility other such names. I just got one of these letters today, November 25, 2006. The letter looks like an official invoice with your personal contact information and name of your expiring domain(s). |
| How To: Fix Clicky Scroll Wheel |
| I love the scroll wheel on my logitech mice.... but sadly some of the ones i got have a noisy clicky scroll wheel. This guide mainly applys to the Logitech Optical Scroll Mouse (OEM model).. but should work with most logitech mice... Opening instructions will be different but the wheel assembly is the same. |
| Mac Backup - Bootable Custom Install, Backup, Restore, & Rescue Drive (Intel Mac); |
| This guide will help you make a bootable USB / FireWire drive with recovery tools and the ability to install your bundled Mac OS X from the external drive. |
| How To Make A Custom XP CD/DVD |
| This guide will help you make a updated custom XP disc... this requires that you have a full XP CD -- NOT a restore disc. If you have a restore disc you are not able to do this. |
| How To: Speedy Vista |
| One thing about Vista that made me keep going back to xp was the fact it ate lots of cpu/memory... It's amazing what bloat can be called a feature. I did this as a challenge to make Vista Business run good on my older computer. One requirement was that i had to get a decent FPS in source based games. |
| Online Security In The Modern World |
| Many new users of the Internet are unaware of the dangers of this modern World Wide Web. Often, they'll use weak information for password resets, using same password on multiple sites and other non-secure things. |
| Technology Flashback: Tape Backup |
| Back before there were USB/FireWire external storage drives, people used to back up their computer systems to tape drives... I remember days of tape backup back when I used qic-80 and tr-1 tapes on my PC. I found this in the case for an old tape: |
| How To Add Total Commander To XP AutoPlay Menu |
Total Commander ( http://www.ghisler.com/index.htm ) is a windows port of the Norton Commander dos file manager... it has gone through many revisions expanding and enhancing its feature set. The 7.0 release added Secure FTP,Updated user interface, Multi-rename-tool, More options in copy overwrite dialog but one thing it was missing was integration in the XP AutoPlay menu. Heres how to add Total Commander to the XP AutoPlay menu... I am currently looking into how to do it in vista. |