Inexpensive antique lighting for Timber Frame homes

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Lighting a timber frame home can be a challenge. Thankfully, after some experimentation, we found a solution that worked for us. We settled on a simple and inexpensive method: +Paint EMT conduit to match fixtures +Use existing colored fixtures +Use “Edison” style LED bulbs The overall cost is very low and we have been happy with the results. Here are some photos from the initial installation in 2015: (I will take some “finished” photos soon and post them too :-))

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What are .smi files?! [SOLVED]

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There are myriad file formats out there and recently I received the following question about a .smi file: What is a .smi file and how do I use it? It was a file with a movie and I am concerned it may be malicious or a virus. -Mae Bennett Good question Mae! The .smi file you encountered is most likely a Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange file or “SAMI” file. These files allow for captioning for video files and the basic format

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Family and fishing photos with the Google Pixel XL

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The Google Pixel XL is a simply amazing photographic device when it comes to quickly capturing the moment. The following three photos showcase some very difficult lighting scenarios which the Pixel handles with aplomb. The sky, water, and people are all in focus and well exposed with minimal blown highlights and shadow depth is retained as well. The first two family photos have a filter applied for punchier color, the last fishing photo is straight out of the camera and

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Who are Intel’s Super Seven? [SOLVED]

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Have you heard the phrase “Super 7” or “Super 7+1” mentioned in a tech article about Intel? If so, you may be wondering who or what exactly the Super Seven are 🙂 The Super 7 are not superheroes but rather a set of companies that are very important to Intel. Currently, as of 2017, the Super 7 are: Google (USA) Facebook (USA) Amazon (USA) Microsoft (USA) Baidu (China) Alibaba (China) Tencent (China) AT&T (USA) *new to the list in 2016 These companies

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Fix bad sound on Lenovo ThinkPad [SOLVED]

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If you read my blog you probably know that I am a big ThinkPad fan. Lenovo has continued the classic IBM lineup and now there is a ThinkPad for almost any taste. My current favorite is the Lenovo ThinkPad T470. This 14″ beauty is nearly perfect for work and travel. However, from the factory it does suffer from a (fixable) issue that seems to plague many modern ThinkPads… terrible sound!  Specifically, the sound is extremely echo prone… After listening to

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