Categories
Electronics

Intel i226-v performance and interface issues with Intel NUC 13th generation

I have an Intel NUC 13th generation NUC13ANHi7 with the attached goritre GR-LAN-1785 i226-v m.2 interface to give it 2 2.5gb ethernet ports. It works great, except for some interface drops I would notice randomly on pfsense. Initially I couldn’t even get auto/auto to work on one port. I ended up going into bios and changing PCIe ASPM support to disabled and that solved all of my issues. Like in the picture below, remove the check mark, save settings and reboot.

As an FYI, you can get Intel NUC BIOS updates and latest drives from Asus’s website. Intel may have dropped the line, but Asus is picking up all support functionalities. They’ve released 3 different BIOS updates already for the 13th generations. https://www.asus.com/us/support/download-center/

Categories
Electronics General Computing

Dell Monitor fades when displaying dark content

This was eating me up! This kept happening on my Dell P2419H. Every time I would display a video or website with dark content, the monitor would start to dim, noticeably. The fix was rather simple, looks like there is an option for dynamic contrast, turn that off, and you are good. Check out this image, hopefully your Dell monitor has this option.

Categories
Android Electronics

Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus TB-8704X 64GB review in the US

Hi! So it took some digging, but I was able to acquire one of these tablets. So far I’m digging it, LTE on T-Mobile works great. Speeds are fast!

If anyone is interested in some specific tests/benchmarking, let me know. I’m more then willing to help someone decide if this is the tablet to get.

Categories
camera Electronics pfsense

FDT 1080P HD FD8901 Review vs Motorola baby monitor

I purchased two of these guys for my two lil kiddos, as the second came, I did not want to pay $100+ for another camera in my Motorola baby cam setup.

What I like:
Picture quality is great
local recording on movement works great
360 degree angles are awesome
Night version works great
movement + audio alarms work great using Tinycam pro

I have a few issues:
The web app for moving the camera does not work well at all.
I cannot get two way working, even in the tinycam pro app.
I wish it had 5ghz, 2.4ghz is pretty saturated, and N just isn’t that fast.

I still prefer it over my Motorola baby monitor, much more versatile, and quality picture. I bought a Amazon Fire to use as a 24/7 baby cam, and it works great. It will vibrate on movement/noise.

I also have all traffic blocked going out to the internet, and coming in. I do have DNS and NTP protocols open to keep the time in sync on my firewall. Because of this though, I am also logging ANY traffic the FDT tries to reach out with, and so far they have not tried reaching out, it has been about 4 months too. I was slightly worried with all of the Chinese cameras that have been known to reach out and call home.

Categories
Electronics Kindle

How to get mobi books on Amazon Kindle Touch?

I used to use calibre for syncing up books that I downloaded (epub, mobi, and PDF). It was a little clunky, but worked great.

I now see they have the option for personal storage! Which takes almost any format (see footer for formats they take), and allows you to upload to your kindle directly! One feature I love that this opens up is the archive feature, because I wanted a way to get rid of my books, but still be able to download them from the kindle itself, and not have to sync up to calibre.

All you need to do is email your username@kindle.com address, the file and it will upload to your documents!

tidbits for emailing files: you can have multiple attachments/files, you can also leave the subject and body blank or fill with data, doesn't matter.

To find what your @kindle.com address is, click here to log in, and click on manage devices, which will look like this :

[zp src=”email.jpg” album=”blog/amazonkindle” width=”600″]

If you want to see what files you have uploaded and ready to sync you can ‘push’ from this area :

[zp src=”clickhere.jpg” album=”blog/amazonkindle” width=”600″]

Now if you want to sync uploaded files, you just hover over actions :

[zp src=”hover.jpg” album=”blog/amazonkindle” width=”600″]

tidbits for file conversions : some files require conversion to azk, which will happen on Amazon’s end, and can take up to 4 hours I have been told. I generally saw my files come up within about an hour though.

This is an awesome feature, I hope you all enjoy it, I know i’ll be dumping all of my books on here shortly!

Format kindle personal documents takes (as of this post 12-27-2011) :

Supported File Types

Kindle Personal Documents Service supports multiple file types, including:

Microsoft Word (.DOC, .DOCX)
HTML (.HTML, .HTM)
RTF (.RTF)
JPEG (.JPEG, .JPG)
Kindle Format (.MOBI, .AZW)
GIF (.GIF)
PNG (.PNG)
BMP (.BMP)
PDF (.PDF); is supported in our experimental category. See below for details.

The above file types can also be combined in a compressed ZIP (.ZIP) file. ZIP files are automatically opened up by the conversion service, converted to the Kindle format if needed, and sent to your and stored in your Kindle library. Some complex PDF files might not format correctly on your Kindle.

If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format so you can take advantage of Kindle functionality such as variable font size, annotation, Text-to-Speech, etc., type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address.

Categories
Electronics Kindle

Marware Eco-Flip Case for Kindle Touch review

So after receiving my new Kindle Touch in the previous post, I pre-purchased a nifty little cover for it, and here are some pictures!

It is a Marware Eco-Flip for Kindle and Kindle Touch Cover, Black

[zp src=”4.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/cover” width=”600″]

[zp src=”5.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/cover” width=”600″]

[zp src=”6.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/cover” width=”600″]

I really like the case, it feels good in my hands. I like the back hand holder area. It feels like a very secure, and snug fit as well with the kindle touch inside. I also like the small strap that holds the case closed, It’s maneuverable so you can slide it behind the kindle when the case is flipped open.

What I think they could have added is the ability to let it stand up nicely on a flat surface, I read that the old covers had some sort of grippiness that would allow for this.

Either way, I like the look/feel of it!

Categories
Electronics Kindle

Unboxing Kindle Touch and First Impressions

This is my first e-ink device, and I was really pumped when I saw the specs for the Kindle Touch. I just received mine today as well! So here’s some unboxing and first impressions of it so far.

I purchased the Kindle Touch with Kindle Special Offers for $99. If you are here, I am sure you are already very aware of the specs, if not check them out on Amazon’s website : Linky Clicky

My first impression is that it’s very sleek, and the back is a bit gripper then I thought it would be. I thought it would be sleek like my iphone 4 is. It is also very light, I am surprised at that, and I think it will make it very easy to read for long period of time. Turning it on for the first time was pretty cool as well, it’s pretty dummy friendly. I turned the wifi on and got onto my WPA2 encrypted network and off I went.

The touch interface’d keyboard works surprisingly well, I was expecting it to be pretty rough, but it is pretty responsive. The only thing I kept bumping into was how I need to wait on menu’s to pop up/repaint. I am used to the iphone, but I am sure this will come to me quick once I load all of my books up.

Overall, I cannot wait to get it home and put some books on and start reading off of it!

The KSO version already saved me $17.50, because when I turned the Kindle on, and looked at the special offers, I saw one for cases/covers, and it was 50% off a cover I already purchased! So I hoped on live chat with Amazon, and gave them my code, and they refunded me $17.50, pretty awesome.

picture time!

[zp src=”1.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/” width=”600″]

[zp src=”9.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/” width=”600″]

[zp src=”2.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/” width=”600″]

[zp src=”8.JPG” album=”blog/kindle/” width=”600″]

[zp src=”7.JPG” album=”blog/kindle” width=”600″]

I will have a post to follow that will have my review of my new Marware Eco-Flip for Kindle Touch cover. Stay tuned!

EDIT :

added case review : Case Review Link

Categories
Electronics Kindle

Amazon Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire

Lots of new information released about these bad boys.

Kindle
Kindle Touch
Kindle Fire

Pricing :

A lot of websites, even Amazon.com, are advertising the Kindle, and the Kindle touch at $79 and $99 respectively. They fail to mention (obviously), that they are with ads. They are non obtrusive ads, also called KSO (Kindle Special Offers). You can purchase non KSO’d Kindles for $109 and $139 respectively.

Obvious differences :

The Kindle Touch has twice the battery, twice the space/memory, and the touch screen compared to the non-touch version.
They also have 3G models for the Kindle Touch, which offers unlimited, no plan data from your kindle.

Release date is November 21, 2011.