The monitor re-purposing (the original computer, part 1 here) It wasn’t the best deal but it was simple and took a week shipping which is fast from aliexpress, after much trial and error I’ve come to realize that aliexpress is not about the price but service. The seller was super responsive and helpful to boot. I asked for a type A or B plug and … Continue reading A PC’s life, upgrades and RE-PURPOSING. Part 2 of 2
My 10 year old NEC ValueStar VN750 died in late 2018. It was a pretty good system for the day. See specs in Japanese. Originally fitted with a mighty Core 2 Duo E7200@2.53ghz (Passmark 1631) and 2GB of ram and windows Vista. As it was chugging along nicely albeit slow. In early 2017, 2GB more ram, a new wireless card, and the CPU was replaced … Continue reading A PC’s life, UPGRADES and re-purposing. Part 1 of 2.
Another mystery package arrived recently. When I have so many things on the way it’s always tough to guess what it could be given the haphazard nature of the packaging. This package is not much different, it’s pretty poorly packaged. Thin and light. And unsurprisingly also arrived in a damaged box. As the titles gives it away. Voila it’s the LED ring. I bought this … Continue reading Swapping out the circular fluorescent lights with “circular” LEDs 2018 (update 2019)
AliExpress… Great asset, good selection, good prices. What’s the downside? Unless you’re into fixing new products sometimes the downside is that your product arrives with damage. More often than not the product itself will be damage free but the packaging will have gone through a heavy beating. Many people would say this is the mail service’s fault and I would agree in part. However which … Continue reading Some (re)assembly required. AliExpress damaged packaging & “broken” contents.
More iPhone issues in the past week. This time an iPhone 6s stopped wanting to charge. Insert charging cable in and nothing. Thus syncing was no longer possible. Cleaned out the lightning port and the please charge icon appeared. It would detect the cable was plugged in but wouldn’t charge. Obviously I tried with multiple chargers and cables on my 7plus. All is well outside … Continue reading iPhone 6s not charging? My temporary fix.
My iPhone 7 plus had a little accident. A standard clarification Protected from immersion in water with a depth of up to 1 meter (or 3.3 feet) for up to 30 mins https://www.trustedreviews.com/opinion/what-is-ip68-ip-ratings-explained-2947135 I had no choice but to run into the shallow river at a moments notice. I didn’t have time to remove my phone from my pocket (nor wallet or watch). I was … Continue reading IP67? Lies? (iPhone 7plus)
Mid 2017 I decided to build a freenas server for my growing digital media. For my main archive I chose Seagate iron wolf NAS drives, however my PC that I had built in 2016 had 4TB drives in raid 1 config. I decided to reuse a drive, just for curiosity I decided to try out a Marshall brand drive as a single disk in my … Continue reading Toshiba HDD in disguise?? Marshall
Part 1 June 2018 I had called softwank last week to get clarification on a double charge of 33000¥ (300USD) on my credit card statement. Originally I had called the residential internet department as I suspected it was a double cancelation fee in error for breaking the contract. Internet department checked and it wasn’t on their side. They advised me to check the statement and … Continue reading Softwank (mobile) part 2
Picture of softwank found Here TLDR; DO NOT ACCEPT “FREEBIES” FROM YOUR MOBILE CARRIER. Buy unlocked phone Use MVNO providers This is not uncommon as is a practice done in many countries. Softwank 30000¥/month IIJ 10000¥/month (20000¥/month with generous phone subsidy) 201Z was offered to me at no charge for 2 years when I upgraded from an iPhone 4s to a 6plus in 2015, I … Continue reading How I cut my mobile phone bill in half & Softwank fine print.
Recently I went to a clinic and tried the available heart beat / blood pressure machines while in the waiting area.With these kinds of machines I always get nervous and my blood pressure and heartbeat spike. It’s not the first time I see this result. But I know that it’s also not reflective of my real body at rest.At the yearly “mandatory” health checks for … Continue reading Smart bracelet
