tech – Page 6 – chmod 644

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max

November 29, 2020 at 7:26pm by windracer

It’d been almost four years since I got a new phone, still rockin’ my trusty Apple iPhone 7 Plus. But recently I’d been having charging issues due to a loose Lightning connector port, and with Apple’s advances in processor and camera technology for the latest generation of iPhones, I decided it was finally time to upgrade.

After researching and comparing the four new iPhone 12 models, I had a few decisions to make. First: size. The 12 and 12 Pro are just slightly smaller than my 7 Plus, so that eliminated the Mini. Next, the camera. I’ve always preferred my point-and-shoot cameras to my phone’s camera, especially when it comes to low light and zoom situations. If I was ready to pay a little more for a better phone camera (going with “the best camera is the one you have with you” mantra) than that meant the 12 Pro. Once I had decided that, though, it was an easy jump to just go all the way and get the top-of-the-line 12 Pro Max.

Fitbit Charge 4

June 22, 2020 at 7:50pm by windracer

For an early Father’s Day gift this year my wife and daughter got me a Fitbit Charge 4 to replace my Fitbit Charge 2 (my third Fitbit device over six years). Other than a cracked screen (which I’ve been living with for a while) there was nothing wrong with my Charge 2, but we’re going to be running our first 5K at Disney (pandemic-permitting) in January and I guess this is a way to encourage me to start training! 😀

Canon PIXMA TS9120

June 10, 2020 at 6:46pm by windracer

I went to print a color document on my Epson XP-410 printer the other day and, despite non-empty ink cartridges, got a print that was missing several colors. I ran the print head cleaning procedure multiple times, replaced ink cartridges, even manually cleaned the inside of the printer and could not get it to print cyan or magenta anymore. Epson support said I could send the seven year-old unit in for repair, and offered me a discount code for a newer model, but I decided it was time for a change. After my requisite online research, I selected the Canon PIXMA TS9120.

iRobot Roomba i7

April 26, 2020 at 10:01pm by windracer

We purchased our first “robotic” vacuum cleaner back in 2005 (the Roomba Red) and since then we’ve owned two more, the last being the 589 Core (which was a warranty replacement for our 530 in February 2014). I had replaced the battery a few times already in the 589, so when it stopped holding a charge again we decided to get a whole new unit and bought the iRobot Roomba i7+ with Clean Base.

Working from home tech

March 21, 2020 at 10:12pm by windracer

Like a lot of other people in the world right now, I just finished my first week of working from home due to COVID-19. I’m a little luckier than most in that I’ve already had a lot of experience working from home, and my job as a systems administrator lends itself to working remotely easily. I also already had a home office area and relatively robust home network. Still, working from home every now and then is a lot different than doing it for (at least) three weeks straight during this time of “social distancing” and “sheltering in place.” I’m not supposed to return to the office until April 6, so what technology am I using to stay connected and keep doing my job?

Amazon Fire TV Stick

February 26, 2020 at 9:32pm by windracer

This month, I cut the cord, cancelled my Spectrum cable TV service, and switched to YouTube TV, which meant I needed a way to watch YTTV on, well, my TVs! There’s a dizzying array of devices for the cord-cutter (Roku, Apple TV, smart TV apps, and more), but since I’m already an Amazon Prime subscriber, I choose the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.

Canon PowerShot SX740 HS

June 23, 2019 at 8:40pm by windracer

During our recent cruise to Hawaii, my three and a half year-old Canon PowerShot SX710 HS started having lens issues. Just what I needed in the middle of a 10-day trip to the most exotic location in the United States: a super-zoom camera that wouldn’t zoom. The lens would make a clicking noise as it extended and retracted, and sometimes just lock up, open, with a “lens error” displayed on screen. Luckily I had my iPhone 7 Plus and Olympus Stylus Tough TG-4 with me, but those aren’t super-zoom cameras.

I survived the rest of the trip (sometimes the camera worked, sometimes it didn’t) but the writing was on the wall: the SX710 needed to be replaced. Being a long-time Canon customer (since my first A70 back in 2003) and having liked the SX710, I selected the newer version Canon PowerShot SX740 HS as my new daily-use super-zoom camera.

Tile Pro

May 13, 2019 at 8:15pm by windracer

For the past few years I’ve been using my Trackr devices, like the Bravo and Pixel, to keep tabs of my keys, my wife’s keys, and my daughter’s keys and purse. Well, I should say I’ve been attempting to use them to track my keys. Lately it seemed like every time I actually tried to actually use the Trackrs, the battery was dead (and hadn’t alerted me) or had lost its pairing for some reason. And when/if they did work, I couldn’t hear the tiny little speaker.

Late last year, Trackr re-branded itself as Adero and is now producing “smart tags” so I decided to try Tile instead.

Building the PiDP-11

March 11, 2019 at 2:44pm by windracer

Three and a half years ago I built my PiDP-8 kit and it’s been happily blinking away on my desk ever since (it also runs my Pi-Hole). Earlier this year, on episode #698 of Steve Gibson’s Security Now! podcast, Steve mentioned that Oscar Vermeulen had come out with a new kit, the PiDP-11! I loved the experience of building the PiDP-8 and the quality of the final product so I immediately signed up on the mailing list to be in Oscar’s next batch of orders.

A week later I received (and submitted) my order form. While I was waiting for the kit to arrive, I picked up a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ kit and 32gb SD card. Following the instructions in Step #1, I prepped the SD card with Raspbian (Jessie Lite) and downloaded and installed the PiDP-11 software. Since the RPi 3 B+ is a lot more powerful than the RPi 1 B+ in my PiDP-8, I decided to consolidate and move my Pi-Hole and Retro-Pie installations onto it as well. With the Pi ready to go, I just needed the kit …

Going all-in with Nest cameras

January 21, 2019 at 10:04pm by windracer

I seem to go through technology re-orgs every four years or so. To start off 2019 I decided to re-do my security camera setup.

My first cameras were installed in 2010 (Foscam outside, TRENDnet inside). In 2014 I switched my indoor cameras to Dropcams but since Dropcam (now Nest) didn’t have an outdoor solution at the time I went with PoE TRENDnet dome cameras outside. While this solution was perfectly functional and served me well for the past five years, it was a bit of a pain having to use two different apps to view the indoor vs. outdoor cameras. Now that there’s the Nest Outdoor (released in 2016 and then the IQ Outdoor in 2017), and I also have a Nest thermostat and smoke detectors, it was not a tough decision to consolidate and go with more Nest cameras.