As I was upgrading to a new router this week, one of the things I immediately wanted to test was the existing ethernet cables and ports. As reliable as they are, cables and ports are also physical objects with lifespans. If cables running behind the walls are damaged, that’s a major headache; and if one…
As much as I would like to recommend simply disabling UPnP and be done with it, there is no complete replacement, from what I can gather, in terms of day-to-day home network environment. It warrants a separate write-up, but long story short, on IPv4 with NAT, there is no theoretical replacement for UPnP yet. With…
Yet another post diving into the unguided madness that is privacy laws. By all means, while I am in favor of the privacy regulations, it’s hard for me to fathom what service —not what technology— could be in violation of the new law. Google Analytics had its own share of spotlight, hence why I became…
Windows needs a lite version. When I’m working with different Linux distros, at least the community comes together to create a lite version, headless version, or a server version, depending on who is the wordsmith in town; we came to terms with the fact such thing is needed. So from where I stand, I find…
Few years ago, correction, a decade ago, I did write a short code to verify copied files. As much as I would like to believe NAS is more tolerant, it would be a moot point if the files were already damaged going in —as the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Once I had the…
‘It never gets easier’ as the saying goes. Google, or Alphabet, acquires many unicorn companies only to abandon less successful, if not, less prospective businesses. Makes one wonder who approves these purchases in the first place. But regardless of the firm’s fiscal decision, it is undeniably true that these services, at one point, had some…
Whenever I need to share a screenshot of one long formatted contents, unless it’s required to keep the originals, I prefer to “stitch” the images together to it one smooth image. Screenshots of fun moments on chat rooms, some good memes on the internet, and etc., are best served as smooth roll. That being said,…
I wrote an op-ed recently on changing the analytics tool on The Mad Tea Party, and this is my app-to piece on what happened. Now, due to the nature of what GDPR and other privacy related regulations, there are a lot of grey areas. One thing I found while researching what to do with the…
There was a time about a decade ago when wireless audio was simply not acceptable. I recall The Verge called wireless headphones to be the next quartz watch; the new technology that will soon replace the existing ones, and the consumer wired audio will live on as niche, maybe for hobbyists to admire the craftsmanship.…
Adobe Photoshop is not for all consumers. This might come as a surprise for some, but there are other less known alternatives that provide more economical (i.e. less tools and options) options for average home users. I, for one, don’t do any illustrative works nor photography works; all my astrophotography hobbies often rely on open…
My old iOS shortcuts usually walked the path of tedious madness for the pure purpose of compatibility. I needed a shortcut that would work equally well on all platforms, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and even on HomePod, and that meant several things: one. I can’t have shortcuts relying on apps that do not exist universally, two.…
Both macOS and iOS have similar font book system, where the fonts a user installs are all stored and managed from one place. The big asterisk for iOS version of font book is that it lacks the feature to import custom fonts from external sources. The only way to do so on mobile devices is…
If you are shopping NAS drives on Amazon, one of the things to look out for is occasional discounts manufacturers or Amazon might have. This is especially handy for anyone who is living abroad with weird customs code. As I happen to be living in South Korea, hard drives that costs (including shipping, local taxes,…
I was thinking of adding a category for ‘app for that’, but after some research I found out Apple had already trademarked the phrase “there’s an app for that”. So no luck there, and this time around this isn’t about the app either. It’s a web utility that is concise and beautifully designed to serve…
This one belongs in the “there is an app for that” department. If you are an avid NAS user, chances are most of your drives are already connected via network. And that means, on every boot up, you will need to manually login to the NAS on Finder to mount the drives. One might call…