Rich Tong's Tips, Tricks and Traps
Ok, if you are unlucky enough you might have an older 23″ telecom rack. The annoying thing is that most computer components these days are 19″ wide. What’s all this then about 19″ racks? As an aside, it’s hard to believe we are using a 100 years standard set by AT&T in 1922 for racks…
If you have a business or even a large house with an old PBX from the last century, then you know how expensive and complicated it is. We have a Panasonic system and it is really complicated to maintain. There are ports that don’t work. It has proprietary Panasonic handsets and also a wireless set….
There always seem like a host standards. Right now, there is Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth. These are going to obviously be the major standards, but some new ones are emerging. For instance, Zigbee and Z-wave for low power home networking and LORA for low bandwidth networking. But one thing that is not solved are the…
Ok two quick notes, this week has been mainly about broken network issues. Or rather putting as much care in the home network as that has really become mission critical. So three lessons: Wow, the setup for the Dream Machine and the Amplifi are even easier than for the Dream Machine Pro. Really hats off…
Well I’ve had lots of different and inaccurate ones at that, but five years ago, I got a Thermopen which is expensive at $79 but as Cook’s Illustrated has pointed out super reliable and Grill Seeker too The main issue is that it does seem to chew up batteries pretty quickly particularly if you forget…
Well assuming you have a nice flat screen, how do you make sure the colors are correct. Most folks run their systems really bright and blue and a correctly calibrated system is going to a first look flat and then you will see the details. In the old days, you did color calibration with a…
If you are lucky enough to get a coupon for Outdoor Research, you should know it’s an awesome local firm and they have amazing stuff according to Outdoor Gear Labs (no relation except both are about well, the outdoors :-). But here are some highly rated items: Outdoor Research Helios. They make the most awesome…
Well, I have resurrected an old 5.1 mini speaker system (an Energy Take 5) and it sounds really great. Adding a Denon AVR-X3700H and then four NHT Atmos Mini Add-on was a great choice. by luck, these tiny little speakers fit on top of the Energy Take 5 modules and the room sounds really nice….
Now that it is really fall and there is no summer left, here are some things to think about getting as winter is coming: Smart Thermostats like the Ecobee Thermostat. Right now Best Buy has them for $200 or $50 off and through the end of the year, Puget Sound Energy is offering a $75…
Wow shopping the smart way has definitely gotten more complicated. But if you really want to do this effectively, a few short words on how to make sure you are taking the most advantage of the various discount programs: Use Chrome or Firefox. Sadly until Safari supports extensions properly you can’t install the ones you…