Author Archives: J.D. H.

Calculating aspect ratio for LCDs/monitors/projectors etc.

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I’m working on a new project to compare computer monitors and especially for setting up ideal multi-monitor displays. The idea is to give you as much information as possible on all the monitors out there (using a database), or if your monitor is not in the DB then accept some basic info (diagonal width and resolution) to calculate all the information you need. So, a basic question for any monitor is: what is the aspect ratio? Here’s how to calculate the

Read more Ask J.D., computer tips, Gadgets and Tech

Home Office Inspiration: Awesome Multi-Monitor Setups

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Two brief BONUS images: Even though this post is about multimonitor setups, I had to post a multi-computer setup from my buddy John. We built these systems in 2007 and amazingly the fastest of  them (the render server) had 19.2GHz of computing power way back then. We actually got the CPUs (engineering samples) from overseas months before they were officially released. Only this year did John finally upgrade to a new machine, his old Hoss was just that fast. 🙂 NOTE: if

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Fixing Warning: date() [function.date] in PHP 5.3 [solved]

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If you recently upgraded to a newer version of PHP, like PHP 5.3, you may be getting some errors similar to this in your PHP scripts: Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘America/Chicago’ for […]  instead

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Nikon flash size comparisons? SB400, SB600, SB700, SB800, SB900

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Looking to purchase a Nikon speedlight (flash)? It may be helpful to checkout the size differences beforehand as there really is a big size difference between the smallest and the largest! Here are some videos and photos showing the different sizes for comparison. I will eventually try to post a high-res photo of ALL the flashes together but that may take me a bit… until then, checkout the first link below for a lower-res version and the subsquent links for

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Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V wifi hotspot tethering [2.2.2]

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When the LG Optimus V was released by Virgin Mobile it was very easy to enable the wifi hotspot feature. However, recent version of the phone featuring  2.2.2 have disabled this feature! 🙁 Thankfully, there are still some options out there (PDAnet probably being the best one). Klink and “wifi tether” are a couple more I am researching. Rooting your phone is always an option too. I want to write a more detailed entry on the topic, but here are

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1080p HD movies onto your Android SD card [fat32] [solutions]

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UPDATE 2013.04.16 Commenter Brain Fox recommends formatting your SD card or USB device as exFat to allow for greater than 4GB files on your Android device. 🙂 Q. Hi. I read your 1080p phone/tablet MKV playback list and tested my SGS2 and you are right it works with 1080p MKVs amazing!  Really enjoy it. However, I only have a few 1080p things that fit under the 4GB limit of FAT32 🙁 How can I get full 1080p HD movies onto

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History of Intel’s QuickSync, soon even faster! (Ivy Bridge)

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Intel’s Quick Sync is a great new feature of their latest CPUs. One reader experienced 3x faster encoding and that is definitely not out of the norm! You are probably already familiar with how Quick Sync speeds up video encoding and that it is generally regarded as better than the competing AMD and NVIDIA solutions. However, here are a couple tidbits you may not have heard yet! #1 Intel’s Ivy Bridge brings even faster acceleration to Quick Sync If this progression keeps

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Create BIGGER genius playlists in iTunes? [solved]

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Q. Good morning. I have iTunes for my music collection (mp3 & AAC) and really like the Genius feature of iTunes. However, I cannot figure out how to make a Genius playlist with more than 25 songs in it! Is this possible? I don’t really know my way around iTunes very well and I have checked preferences etc. but to no avail. Please help if you can. A. Yes, you CAN make a bigger Genius playlist with 50, 75 or 100

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