Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Ok when u use computers enough the usual problems get fixed. Such as bad drivers or lack of uodates or hard disk corruptions. Here’s my current list of mysterious problems and what I think is going on Spontaneous reboots of an iMac 2008. This has been bugging me for a while. I will get visual…

Ok the monthly notes about cool widgets I’ve found: My favorite status monitor is now broken on Sierra, so swapping to a new one called called Menu Meters with hat tip to Lifehacker, so that is still open. One confusing things is that there is a dead site that has menu meter but to use for…

OK, I’ve been trying to use the Satechi ($59) USB C hub. I actually brought the wrong one, there is another version with a 1Gbps Ethernet connection as well ($79), but I’ve been having trouble getting it to work reliably on a Benq 32″ monitor. Here’s the main lesson, I think it is the active…

http://4k.com/news/lgs-2017-oled-4k-hdr-tvs-now-available-for-pre-order-prices-revealed-18396/ if you can wait then let the 2017 LG oled drop in price. If I can’t wait the 2016 b6 is a great value. The main features at 25% greater brightness for a tv that was already the brightest. And a little more color space. Net the 2016 b6 is good enough for many…

http://m.thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wireless-carrier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=RSS%20Feed the best review of cellular I’ve seen. Try whisperout to figure out cheapest plan and root metrics to look at coverage.

OK some more strange things about this 4K display. Besides really being washed out and inaccurate color-wise, it has another problem. It does not seem to advertise itself properly with DisplayPort. On an older MacBook Pro 2010 that can display 2.5K properly on other monitors, like the ASUS 2.5K or the Benq 32″ 2.5K, this…

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/9to5macToys/~3/3V3uxUh-VFQ/

Well someone just asked me what laptop would you buy. The good news is that with Intel performance stalking you have lots of choice. Even three year old laptops are the same speed as even the newest Kalby Lake versions. PC Magazine remains a decent source of reviews for this so here’s a summary but…

Batteries are rated in one of two ways. Watt Hours which means for how many hours can they supply 1 watt of power. The new MacBook Pro 2016 has a 76 Watt-hour battery.  Put another way if you load Battery Doctor and see you are drawing 18 watts then you will have roughly 76/18=4 hours…

Ok so this weekend, I’m staring at a phone on a Verizon MVNO (the AARP sponsored one) which worked fine and suddenly it can’t access the Internet. I also see an exclamation point next to the LTE signal symbol.  And when you click on the internet you get to a site called datareplenishment.com and it…

Well folks were asking on Facebook (it does seem like most of my “clicks” are landing there and on Yelp these days) about battery life with the new MacBook Pro 2016, I put a battery meter on this for the last few days and here’s what I’ve found even after applying the 10.12.3 update which…

Well with so many headlines, it’s nice to find some really engrossing (non big budget) action/thriller series. We’ve watched two you should check out: Shooter. Yes the original movie was kind of hokie (although I loved it), but the series is really terrific. 10 hours of really, how does he get out of this anyway.…

Well, we are in a new era in 2017, so nice once again to look at how to stay safe and private in this new age, here are some recommendations. For the truly tin foiled hat paranoids Remember just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean you don’t have people snoopy into your digital life, so…

One Mile At A Time reminded me of a good way to save significant dollars by quadruple stacking ITunes gift card are currently 15% off there Signup for the free staples rewards program. Over time this is another 1% off Signup for a Chase Ink business card. This gives you 5x points for every $1 spent…

Well, if you are lucky (woohoo!), you have gotten yourself a Chase Sapphire Reserve and also got an American Express Platinum Business card. Now in the rewards game, things are pretty exciting if complicated, here’s a short list and you can see how when you start with one program, you often get a cascade. That…

OK, there have been about a million opinions about the new MacBook Pro, here are the tips, tricks and traps: Unexpectedly cool Touch Id. I didn’t realize how much time I spent typing my password in and it is super cool that it is integrated into the phone. The Sound. Ok, this is the biggest…

Now that I’m taking so many more pictures with iPhones, I’ve been thinking about how to best move files off. With digital cameras, here is the flow: offload the SD or CF card use DxO to process them as I find it’s automatic features blow things out less than Adobe Photoshop. Add location information with…

There is a dizzying array of ways to make your tax payments. And I have to say they are not super discoverable, but here is what I have found from cheapest to most expensive: directpay.irs.gov. This requires that you valid by knowing some facts from previous returns and then it will let you put your…

Ok in consumer electronics, here are the next recommendations: TL;dr TVs as Computer monitors. Do not get one, instead, get a low-end TV. At 43 inches, this will let you really develop software well assuming you have the room on your desk and believe me you will want to. The Samsung 6300 line for instance…

I got two adapters that convert USB C to a SATA interface, you can bus power a SSD, so this is not a bad test. I then ran Black Magic Speed Test and found to my surprise that one of the cables is 20-30% faster than the other. I used two SSDs, a Toshiba OCZ…

I’ve been using Google Slides quite a bit lately and I’ll be on to Office365 next, but here are some power user tips: The themes are really powerful, but you can many themes with the same name. There is an invisible GUID for themes, so when you are confused about formatting turn on the themes…

Well they now allow unlimited photos with an Amazon Prime account and you can share your high resolution photos with up to five family members. It does sound like the ideal backup strategy. But here are the problems: Live Photos. They still have a 5GB limit for videos and other storage, unless you pay $59…

I’ve been meaning to put a real router into the house for a while. You really want something that can handle 2M packets/second (why, I don’t know) but more importantly something that is reliable. Previously I had used the Linksys WRT-54G (which dates me!) and I found that under heavy load it would crash and…

Ok there are real problems with after market cables particular with USB C. TL;dr USB C, unlike other USB cables, are not created equal. Some only have six wires in them, some have 24, some have the right passive electronics (pull up resistors) and some have the right active electronics (e-mark), so you need to…

Well, the family the blogs together has the most fun together. Here’s a list of everyone who is blogging. I don’t know how up to date, but we definitely have the domain names covered: gracetong.com. Out of date, but it is there! calvintong.com. Just up now add some content Calvin tongfamily.com. Ok this is the…

Well it seems like it is that time of year again. Got two questions on backups. Here’s the short story If you are using a USB flash drive to backup your precious photos please stop! That’s not super reliable. Instead get a $120 hard disk backup at least. Wirecutter has a good recommendation. Why a…

I’ve been trying to use Harry’s Lap Timer and need the detailed specifications for a 2008 Mazdaspeed3. Here are the detailed specifications and some of the more obscure ones that these performance telemetry applications want: Volumetric Efficiency: This a measure of how what percentage fuel goes in, it varies by RPM and many parameters. 12%…

OK, here some  of the common problems I’ve had with MacOS: MacOS Sierra seems to have developed this, when copying (but not moving) files on  a Synology NAS, I get the dreaded Can’t move files, the required files cannot be found. Error code -43 When you try to delete in the Trash, you get the…

I always have trouble the first time I try to pair my Mac bluetooth keyboards. Here’s a quick guide to what you have to do: Most of the time the device isn’t visible. You should check the single LED light. If it is fast blinking, then the keyboard or mouse is not paired and you…

Ok we did find a loose m.2 SSD in our system. The reason is that some motherboards do not come with the proper screw to tighten down. After much googling, it looks like this tiny screw is an M2 3mm screw. These are about $10 for 300 on Amazon 🙂