A friend at work gifted me an old Nexus 7 (2013) which originally shipped with android 4.3, but had gotten official updates up to 6.0.1. I knew when he offered it that it was very likely I'd be able to get a more recent version on there since the official Google devices are very well supported an...
For a complete parts list with up to date pricing for this build visit:
The last PC I built from purchased components was in 1994 (a 486 DX266 :) so needless to say I was a bit intimidated to even attempt this, but this site was a great help. As an aside I...
One of my kids uses an older Alienware M11x R2 hand-me-down (running Linux) but its hard drive up and died. I had a spare SSD and went to install that and discovered the laptop had developed the same exact hinge problem I recently saw in a much newer high end ASUS (sometimes copying another man...
It had rained so much in May that we didn't have a chance to get all the plants in the ground but finally after a break in the weather on Sunday the 20th there was an opportunity to get outside. The area we have cordoned off with chicken wire to keep out the bunnies and groundhogs is pretty small...
I use my Arch powered bootable USB drive on lots of different hardware, but most often on hand-me-down laptops from work. I recently moved into a newish laptop (a Dell Inspiron 13-7352, P57G) which came with an Intel 7265D wireless card. Its a really nice 2 in 1 laptop where the screen folds b...
I bought this amp from my brother a long time ago for $50, quickly blew the speaker which I replaced, but then left it languishing in the basement after concentrating more on acoustic music. Now that one of the kids has an electric guitar I've found myself playing my Gibson SG more often as well...
Recently one of my monitors at work was refusing to go on in the morning. I've got two: a Samsung SyncMaster 940T and an HP L1950. Its sort of a wierd setup in that the (now quite old) PC I'm using came with a single VGA output, so I ended up buying an add-on DVI card, but I usually end up with wh...
We didn't ever watch that much TV anyway, so I don't see canceling cable TV as much of a loss, but there is definitely a feeling of isolation without any TV access and if an emergency were to occur it would be nice to be able to tune in. Well, TV is still being broadcast over the air though it re...
We recently decided to cancel our cable TV service. At $75/mo for what they consider BASIC service, it just wasn't a good value. We still have internet service through the cable company, and that product has been very good. After waiting for an hour on the phone to complete the cancellation, th...
In 2002 I got what was then the still relatively new m500 Palm Pilot. This is a greyscale version based on the older Palm Vx series form factor, they also had a color one at that time (the m505), but I wasn't impressed with the screen I saw and I knew the battery wouldn't last quite as long a...
The heat here earlier in the week was awful with highs around 94 and humidity as high as 90% which made it difficult to do anything, but finally a cold front moved through which has brought us back down to reasonable temps. When it rocked through, it brought with it a violent thunderstorm knockin...
The previously reviewed Bela/Edgar concert inspired me to fix the fallen soundpost in my 'cello! Using the method Mr. Biava taught me, I was able to get it set correctly in about 40 minutes with a minimum of cursing. Certainly no speed record, but at least I didn't have to bring it someplace.Bas...
