Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech

Jambox vs. HMDX Jam

This comparison is still in progress… this is just the initial draft 🙂 [more photos will be added] First we will start with a comparison of performance on six different songs covering a variety of eras and genres: Listening (at moderate/normal volume levels) Jambox ratings for the following sampling of songs: Thrift Shop – this is a fun song and the Jambox does a superb job here. Everything sounds as it should. Excellent Roll Over Beethoven, Chuck Berry -overall nice

WN1000RP default username and password [SOLVED]

While setting up the WN1000RP to extend a wifi network, I was surprised to encounter a password prompt:   The included manual makes no mention of a username or password. So after a bit of trial and error I determined that the username is: admin and the password is: password (both user name and password are lower case) Now I am happily testing out the WN1000RP 🙂

Any laptops powered by USB? [yes, sort of]

Q. Hello,I am something of a minimalist when it comes to traveling. Therefore  I would like to standardize on one charger for my gadgets: USB charging works for everything except my laptop. Do you now of any any laptops that can be powered by USB? –R.S. A. Hi R.S., Yes there are a few laptops that use USB for charging… however, almost all of them are of the convertible tablet/laptop type. Here is a prime example: Lenovo IdeaPad K3 Lynx

Dell’s E6430 supports triple display output when docked! (including LCD)

Dell’s E6430 supports triple monitors! This came as quite a shock to me when I was setting up my new laptop. 🙂 My current setup is as follows. The laptop is docked and uses: One displaylink to dual-link DVI adapter (driving a 30″ display at 2560×1600) One DVI cable (driving a 20″ Dell display at 1600×1200) Internal LCD (14″ 1600×900) I can definitely verify that it is possible to use two external displays simultaneously with the internal LCD. This beats

ACPI\SMO8810 Dell driver [SOLVED!]

Q. Hi, I just bought a Dell laptop and resinstalled Windows 7 on it. Now I have an unknown device ‘ACPI/SMO8810’. What driver can I download to fix it? A.Here is the download link to solve your ACPI/SMO8810 Unknown Device issue: [download id=”10495″ format=”1″], Dell dl link NOTE: That is the accelerometer that is built into your laptop. More details about free fall sensors: That free-fall sensor is an accelerometer which can detect movement (i.e. downward acceleration or falling) and using that sensor

Two takes on Intel’s NUC (pros/cons)

I am a big fan of Intel’s little NUCs. They are very easy to work on and their performance is entirely satisfactory for many purposes: I built one for my dad to use as an always on storage/downloading computer, and I built another as a green mini-web-server for a client. 🙂 Along those lines, here is a rather positive review detailing a NUC as HTPC setup: How we built a tiny home theater PC with Intel’s NUC | PCWorldhttp://www.pcworld.com/article/2020577/how-we-built-a-tiny-home-theater-pc-with-intels-nuc.htmlFull-featured PCs are getting

Asus VivoBook S200E Review

I recently purchased an Asus VivoBook S200E from Staples. The actual purchase was a bit spur of the moment as it occured during a business trip to SC.  However, I had been eyeing that particular laptop since Christmas so when I happened to find a coupon to get the laptop for $399, the low price tag was too good to pass. Especially for a relatively powerful laptop, complete with touch capability, in a very nice travel-size. 🙂 Pros: Nice size