17 January 2023 | Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Wireless Wonderland |
These days, streaming is all the rage.
Whether you have a smart TV, a streaming stick, Blu-Ray player, soundbar, or even some projectors, many of these gizmos come with Android TV built in.
Too many of them also only have WiFi – no Ethernet jack to be found! This is particularly irritating for those of us who want to go wired and avoid the Wireless Wonderland.
So, how to get Ethernet? Well, you just buy a USB-Ethernet adapter, right?
Yes – sort of…
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10 January 2023 | Do-It-Yourself, Gizmos, How to |
A little while ago, my electronic lockbox / key safe started eating batteries.
When I opened her up, I discovered the problem: condensation!
Join me for a look at how you can save your own battery-powered devices from the scrap heap…
And save some bucks in the process!
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13 December 2022 | Energy, Gizmos, How Does it Work? |
With everything getting more expensive these days, you want to be sure your costly electronics stay protected.
One of the most common ways is to plug them all into a surge protector.
The question is: Do these things really work?
The answer is, as usual: It’s complicated!
Join me for a look at 3 different types/levels of surge suppressors, how these gizmos really work, and how best to protect your techie goodies from unfortunate zaps.
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1 November 2022 | Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Video, Wireless Wonderland |
The Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, of a phone shows how much energy from radio frequency waves is absorbed by body parts – head, torso, whole body, etc.
The idea is that phones can be certified as “safe”, while also allowing some sort of comparison between different phones. In reality, the whole thing is a bit of a bad joke.
Even the FCC admits SAR is a pretty useless rating!
Join me for another fascinating look inside our modern “Wireless Wonderland”!
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18 October 2022 | Computers, Gizmos, How to, Video |
VLC media player is free, popular, and just awesome. It’ll play just about any audio or video file you throw at it.
For video quality, there’s an easy fix for choppy vids in VLC.
But what about audio? How do you fix choppy AUDIO in VLC media player?
Believe it or not, the fix is even easier than with choppy video…
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9 August 2022 | Gizmos, Video, Wireless Wonderland |
Ah, the eternal battle: iOS or Android?
These days, there’s a big war going on where both sides are trying to prove that their mobile OS is the safest and most privacy-friendly.
So, which is it?
Join me for a deep dive into the wonderful world of smartphones…
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19 July 2022 | Computers, Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Video |
We all know about Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and so on.
But there’s one tech company that’s utterly massive in its importance to the entire industry, and no one is talking about it.
Well, to be precise, no one is talking about what MIGHT happen should the current,um, global mayhem go one step too far…
Join me as I take a look at TSMC: the biggest tech company you’ve never heard of!
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10 May 2022 | Computers, Gizmos, How to |
This one’s a lot of fun!
You connect your Android phone or tablet with a USB cable to your PC. You expect to be able to browse the files on your phone, or transfer photos/video.
Nope! Nuttin’. Nada. ZILCH.
It worked before, so what happened? Better yet, how do you fix it?!
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19 April 2022 | Computers, Do-It-Yourself, Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Video |
Despite the prevalence of touch devices these days, chances are you still have an “old fashioned” computer with a keyboard.
Many keyboards are very quiet and comfortable to type on, but they don’t last very long. Enter the Gaming Keyboard!
It’s old school durability and reliability meets modern tech.
Only trouble is, these things are SUPER noisy to type on… Or at least, they were super noisy.
Behold the world’s most silent gaming keyboard!
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15 March 2022 | Computers, Gizmos, How Does it Work?, Video |
Everyone knows about keyboard and mice… But the foot pedal?! What the heck?
Surprisingly enough, it turns out that they’re not so expensive and very easy to set up – if you use the right software.
Speaking of software, it’s exactly because of NCH’s Pedable application that this thing is so incredibly useful.
You can use your foot to do 3 (or even 6) different things – including in games!
Foot pedals aren’t just for translators and transcribers…
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