Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

^Yes, that speaker placement hurts. Here is my desk and home office: (Note, the lighting messed up the white balance and made the wall much more yellow than it is)

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My trusty old MacBook Air is there to the right, my questionable work laptop is hooked up to my 27" Dell monitor with HDMI, My POS work phone (Samsung Galaxy A3 2016) is on the monitor's stand. I even brought in my office plant and pen holder, to make it feel more like my office. I'm very happy with the Logitech MX Keys and MX master 3 mouse, and can definitely recommend those, they are superb if you need to use them across multiple units.
 
I currently have a 27” monitor driven by a fairly current 13” MacBook Pro, but the laptop screen never gets used for anything and it’s a waste to keep a nice laptop charged to 100% all the time. I have a M1 Mac Mini on order but Apple can’t make enough of them so it’ll be a while. Especially if you’re me and won’t settle for the 8 gig version.
 
It's not the different sized screen/resolution that's bugging me.
No that just bugs us. :ROFLMAO:

I suppose you could replace the displays with one big one or get some monitor stands that lift them up so you can scoot them in closer. Frees up space on the desk too. I'd suggest putting those monitors on a dual arm too, you won't know what to do with all the space doing both of these will free up.
 
For anyone unaware of this issue, this information needs to get out there.


They are going to recall and replace them, but who knows how long that will take.

 
Sure we do! Moar screens!
I would at least recommend a Stream Deck to go under there. Doesn't matter if you stream or not, it's great for media controls, OBS, just keyboard shortcut stuff and is a step towards the OLED keyboard that nobody could afford.

For anyone unaware of this issue, this information needs to get out there.
As much as I like fancy cases, I don't like ribbon cables or risers for PCIe. Hope they are forced into action.
 
As much as I like fancy cases, I don't like ribbon cables or risers for PCIe. Hope they are forced into action.
IMO, of it's a one-and-done thing, where you're not re-building the case and likely won't re-use components for a re-build, a "good" one seems to have no discernable impact on performance, and actually takes some physical stress away from the PCIe slots on the MOBO, since heavy graphics cars are so sag/twist prone due to how they are supported in a case. Just like USB cables, issues can arise with shitty cables.
 
TIL HomeKit sort of works without a hub. Automations break but you can still control lights and scenes manually from the iOS app.

I recently changed my wifi name which knocked my Apple TV off of the network. I don't use the it for anything other than HomeKit so I spent a couple of days wondering why my automations wouldn't work until I realized what the issue was. I thought I had wired it in since it sits on the same shelf as the router, but apparently not.
 
I'm surprised that the texture resolution could be increased enough for that to look decent. It really hides the fact that there aren't anywhere near as many polygons there as you would have now.

He doesn't mention what he used to record it but at 2Gbps it must've been something very expensive. The Atomos Ninja V I bought last year can just about stretch to that now and that wasn't cheap in 2020.
 
After my FIIL wireless earbuds broke, the last in a series of 3 "cheap" wireless earbuds, I thought I'd go up a price notch and picked up the MOFI O5 Gen2 wireless earbuds.

Nicely compact buds, you can get black if you order direct (only silver on Amazon, AFAIK). A headline feature is a charging case that is a little bulky, but it gives you enough charges for 100 hours of listening, and the 2600MaH battery can actually even charge your phone.

Pros:
  • They sound really good to me, appropriate for the price range at $90. Better than the $40-65 buds I've purchased previously.
  • They are quite minimal and don't protrude nearly as much as something like the Raycon or FIIL earbuds. They aren't terrible for side-sleeping, even. Not nearly as nice as something like Bose Sleepbuds, but those aren't really the same thing (only playing pre-loaded, looping sound samples...not able to wirelessly play audio from another device), but so far the best bluetooth earbuds I've tried.
  • With the included silicone earbud tips, they seal fairly well. Lots of sizes (apparently the Gen 1 version came with fewer sizes).
  • The case is obviously an expensive piece, and battery life with the charge case is amazing. It's been about a month, and I haven't charged them yet, after using them almost daily for a couple of hours each day.
  • This Gen2 case has USB-C charging (the 1st gen is Micro USB)
  • They have a "pass through" or "ambient sound" mode that (technically) works
  • You can easily just use one earbud, both, or even split them up and two people can each use one.


Cons:
  • The teeny tiny buttons for the controls on the earbuds are ridiculously tiny, and hard to press. The orientation of the buttons is strange: there are two buttons on each bud, but the ones that have the same function are on opposite sides...so the power button is on the "forward" side in one ear, and the "rear" side of the other. There's no app to reconfigure the controls, but they seem completely counterintuitive to me.
  • They don't sync when you open the case. They sync when you take them out of the case. They sync together only when they are held right next to each other for a couple of seconds after being removed from the case. if you take one out to put in your ear and then grab the other, that's too far away and they won't sync to each other, so you'll only get sound from one. The instructions don't explain this very clearly.
  • No wireless charging for the case, but that's not that huge of a deal with such a huge battery capacity built-in.
  • The case's door/cover is slippery and there's not a very well-defined lip/notch. This means that the door flips closed very easily, and is very loud when it slaps closed (it's a spring-steel-actuated hinge that wants to pull itself closed, and it's metal-on-metal). If I try to put in earbuds while my better half is sleeping, the "bang" of the closing case can be enough to wake her up. I've resorted to closing the case on the edge of my shirt or bedsheet, and then sliding the fabric out, to soften the noise.
  • The instructions are incorrect in regards to activating the "ambient sound pass-through" mode. Or, how to turn it off (mine was already in that mode). It's also not a HUGE difference, because they aren't ANC earphones. But, it's *enough* of a difference that I could see it being useful. That said, I'm not actually 100% sure what the command is to actually turn it on/off, so once I turned it off by luck, I left it there.
  • While they sell a set of foam earbud tips that fit the earbuds, I didn't even bother trying them because even with the smallest tip, they are all too large for the earbuds to charge in the charging case, and losing the inconvenience of having to take them off every time you want to charge them was actually a big blow to my excitement, since I bought them primarily for sleeping.
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TIL HomeKit sort of works without a hub. Automations break but you can still control lights and scenes manually from the iOS app.

I recently changed my wifi name which knocked my Apple TV off of the network. I don't use the it for anything other than HomeKit so I spent a couple of days wondering why my automations wouldn't work until I realized what the issue was. I thought I had wired it in since it sits on the same shelf as the router, but apparently not.

This kind of stuff is exactly why I hardly ever change my wifi name. I have around 20 things connected to wifi at all times, and most of them are interconnected so changing wifi name or password means changing this on every device, which is just a PITA...
 
In my never ending ponderings about what wifi6 gear to get i started thinking about how wired mesh backhaul works.

My flat isn’t big but my cable modem needs to be in one of the corners, because that’s where the cable connection comes in. This means i get an annoying bad spot on the other side of the flat where my bed is, and under which my robot vacuum parks. The robot keeps complaining in the app about bad reception and browsing in bed can be spotty.

I have actual wired ethernet from the “modem corner“ to the closet in the center of my flat, so that’s a good place to put a wired node. I’m just wondering if a wired mesh node can coexist on the LAN with all the other devices and use the same gigabit infrastructure for its backhaul to the router?

I‘m aware that gigabit might be the bottleneck here since i’m going wifi6, but i’m not too worried about that. Gig is more than plenty, especially when it’s wired which means consistent and reliable.
 
The claimed data rates of Wi-Fi are achievable only in lab environments without any other interferences, without any obstacles between access point and client, ideal antenna positioning, multiple streams to different devices at once etc. so the data rates in real life are usually much lower. That said, the 1 Gbit/s uplink will likely be the bottleneck if you really try to use the bandwidth, but as you wrote usually that shouldn't be an issue.

"Mesh" as in "multiple access points know that there are other access points which are providing the same SSID and they instead of the clients are coordinating handover between access points" usually means all access points have to be from the same manufacturer so they can be managed centrally since "mesh" isn't standardized. If you just install a second access point centrally in the flat and let it provide the same SSID and the same key that's not "mesh".

In your case I would rather disable the access point in the Wi-Fi modem (if possible) and use just a single access point centrally in the flat so the clients don't have to choose between different access points if they are able to contact more than one.
 
In my never ending ponderings about what wifi6 gear to get i started thinking about how wired mesh backhaul works.

My flat isn’t big but my cable modem needs to be in one of the corners, because that’s where the cable connection comes in. This means i get an annoying bad spot on the other side of the flat where my bed is, and under which my robot vacuum parks. The robot keeps complaining in the app about bad reception and browsing in bed can be spotty.

I have actual wired ethernet from the “modem corner“ to the closet in the center of my flat, so that’s a good place to put a wired node. I’m just wondering if a wired mesh node can coexist on the LAN with all the other devices and use the same gigabit infrastructure for its backhaul to the router?

I‘m aware that gigabit might be the bottleneck here since i’m going wifi6, but i’m not too worried about that. Gig is more than plenty, especially when it’s wired which means consistent and reliable.

I assume the mesh nodes prefer the wired backbone more, so connect the wifi via ethernet and its fine.

The claimed data rates of Wi-Fi are achievable only in lab environments without any other interferences, without any obstacles between access point and client, ideal antenna positioning, multiple streams to different devices at once etc. so the data rates in real life are usually much lower. That said, the 1 Gbit/s uplink will likely be the bottleneck if you really try to use the bandwidth, but as you wrote usually that shouldn't be an issue.

"Mesh" as in "multiple access points know that there are other access points which are providing the same SSID and they instead of the clients are coordinating handover between access points" usually means all access points have to be from the same manufacturer so they can be managed centrally since "mesh" isn't standardized. If you just install a second access point centrally in the flat and let it provide the same SSID and the same key that's not "mesh".

In your case I would rather disable the access point in the Wi-Fi modem (if possible) and use just a single access point centrally in the flat so the clients don't have to choose between different access points if they are able to contact more than one.

Like @Eye-Q stated, gibit ethernet is the limitting for the node -> router/modem/switch, but so is the wireless devices that connect to it (i read from somewhere that one b/g device will slow the whole wireless network, because ap has to cater for the "granddad" of wireless devices).

But i think his central point is inside a metal case (shared case with all the fuses, ethernet jacks, backbone to housing isp-room, and possibly tv-antenna aplifier. So there "might" be some loss of wired coverage, but not enough to care in the apartment.
But YMMV, try the place and keep us posted! i love to hear these.
 
Just sold my old GPU for pretty much exactly twice what I paid about 2 years ago... stupid Bitcoin :|

Out of curiosity, was it a Radeon VII? :D

But yeah, the GPU prices seem to be really crazy at the moment, not in small part thanks to scalpers. I was lucky enough to grab a used GTX 1080 for €275 a couple of months ago. I can no longer find them for such prices.
 
But i think his central point is inside a metal case (shared case with all the fuses, ethernet jacks, backbone to housing isp-room, and possibly tv-antenna aplifier. So there "might" be some loss of wired coverage, but not enough to care in the apartment.

This building is way too old for any of that. :D The closet is just a cleaning closet that's full of all my stuff, and my NAS. The reason it has ethernet is because I ran a cable into it when I moved here. My modem used to be in there back when I had ADSL. The phone jack is right outside the door.

We had the plumbing re-done only a few years back but the geriatrics that ran things in the building back then decided that we shouldn't run ethernet to the apartments at the same time because nobody needs that. Sadly we did the plumbing only a couple of years before we got a new law stating that you need to run ethernet whenever you're installing new pipes.

Another option is to turn off the wi-fi in the cable modem and buy something like an HPE Aruba for the hallway. That should cover the entire flat just fine. On the other hand, I kind of want the best possible wi-fi in the living room because that's where my desk is and where I actually need bandwidth.
 
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I have a desktop PC I'm going to part out now that I have my M1 Mac, it has a EVGA GTX 1080 Ti, will be interesting to see how much that will fetch. The CPU on the other hand is an Intel Core i7 3930K, so pretty much out of date worthless.
 
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