Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

As an aside, ITXGamer seems to have some good focused reviews of mini-ITX gaming systems. If I were to do this again I’d probably use the Coolermaster Elite 120 with a traditional ATX (not the smaller SFX) PSU like the fanless Seasonic X460. And if I were going mineral cooled, I’d slam a Kingwin 1000 Watt monster with a…

The sushi of Jiro’s dreams will run you $20/minute Sukiyabashi Jiro is a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo that many say serves the best sushi in the world. The chef/owner, 86-year-old Jiro Ono, was the subject of last year’s excellent Jiro Dreams of Sushi documentary film. Adam Goldberg of A Life Worth Eating ate at…

Well finding something completely fanless would be a great thing in a mineral-oil PC. No fans makes things much simpler. AnandTech – Streacom’s FC10 and Nano150: Building a Fanless Ivy Bridge HTPC HTPC enthusiasts often place a lot of emphasis on silent systems for obvious reasons. We have looked at systems with passive thermal solutions…

Well Windows 7 is here, but it is reliable. You just need an ISO file of it plus the Microsoft utility to create a bootable USB stick (as an aside, the default ASUS P8Z77-I bios doesn’t activate USB devices other than the mouse and keyboard so it won’t see the USB stick. Check full to…

Well since I’m installing windows machines, nothing like trying to figure out the standard software to use. If you don’t want to pay Adobe, give GIMP a try. it is a freeware utility and with UFRaw, it will edit and convert Raw format. The only glitch is that UFRaw is 32-bit only, so you have…

Well we were nearly done and I was resetting the automatic ASUS overclock and on the first reboot, the SSD reports that it lost the operating system. Didn’t have disk repair utilities and the so had to reinstall. Why is it that Windows 7 requires six hours to install. I can’t believe that it needs…

Well, the next step of the road is here, we’ve built a 12-gallon sized computer that uses an ATX board (P8Z77-V Deluxe), an overclocked Intel Core i5 3570K with dual eVGA GTX-670 in SLI. It’s been running fine (except I can’t get the pump to throttle). Here are notes on the first step of building…

From a day of dealing with legal agreement, high stakes discussions and generally stressful stuff. Let’s take something simpler. Upgrade a random T-mobile Android device to the latest release. I’m way too use to the iPhone ecosystem where there is an update system for all of this. Instead with Android, devices come out and then…

Last minute ideas for geeks… Great Binoculars | The Wirecutter If I needed binoculars for zeroing in on birds, fireworks or the people in the building across the street, I’d get the Nikon Monarch 8x42mm. The glasses cost about $250, but you could spend a lot more and have little to show for it, or spend a…

Well, here are the other gizmo’s you need for your Honda Fit: It’s tiny, but you always need more space for skis and things, the Yakima Whispbar S24 with the K446 feet seems like the quietest roof rack. Should be compatible with most Thule and Yakima gear.

It will still work for existing customers, but sounds like Google is moving away from Microsoft. At least they are still supporting Apple customers as the iCloud stuff just doesn’t work that well (at least for me). Will have to experiment with using CardDAV and CalDAV to see if these work better. And of course…

It may seem wierd by if you want make a family name plural (like the Tongs), you don’t need an apostrophe Plural Noun Forms The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter s. more than one snake = snakes more than one ski = skis more than one Barrymore = Barrymores

Well, time now to slow down if you don’t really need a computer right, right now. The major tock in the Intel release strategy is coming. It is called Haswell and uses much lower power.  Leaked document reveals Intel ‘Haswell’ chips potentially bound for 2013 iMacs Details on 14 new desktop processors set to launch…

This has to be the most complex rewards program I’ve ever used. They don’t tell you much and you have to read a lot but if you get this. We have a grandfather account so it isn’t clear what is standard and not, but you have to read this huge PDF to get some gems. …

For a 1080p monitor you need 358hz to run at 120hz but nvidia limits this to When you are running your monitor ultrafast in 1440p at 120hertz u need to unlock the pixel clock and the sli lock as well. See  ToastyX fix. I installed this last week and then Nvidia complained the driver wasn’t properly…

It is just a 1080p 27″ monitor and is an older TN panel but that means it is very fast. We are using it for 3d and standard and there seem to be quite a few tuning parameters: Lightboost.This pulses the LED backlight in 3D mode so it looks brighter. This buried in the color…

If this isn’t the hardest category to figure out, I don’t know what is. The first thing to figure out is what you want: Midi keyboard. This doesn’t have any ability to produce music, you hook a computer up and the computer makes the sound. Very cheap. Keyboard. These are the classic synthesizer device, lots…

A good time to get toasters and things for the home that has everything: Brevet BOV800XL. Cook’s Illustrated likes it, Consumer Reports likes it and the Amazon reviews are great. It’s just amazingly expensive at $250. AMCO Houseworks Model 06-0354. A $11 juice squeezer that works 🙂 Vollrath Cookie Sheets. These are really solid and…

Seems like everyone wants one for this Christmas and the price spread has never been wider. Like sunglasses, these are hugely marked up item, so you can literally pay from $10 to $10,000. Wirecutter has a pretty good handle on it. (personally I’ve always like the Etymotic ER-4i and ER-6, but that’s another story). Headroom.com…

Just what I need. Now that we’ve made a mongo (12 gallon tank) monster PC that is running at an amazing 150fps on Black Ops II and 1GBps disk access on an overclocked 4.5GHz Ivy Bridget 3570K processor and dual GTX670 SLI overclocked by 72Mhz and 200MHz on memory, time now to look at smaller…

You can build an amazing tiny PC. I’d just change his build to put in a bigger power supply and a gtx-690 to really have a rocking system and probably cut back to a 3570k as its $100 cheaper, add a noshua nh-14 cooler, goto a Samsung 840 ssd as the only drive and drop…

If you want to backup all your expensive Blu Ray disks, there are two tools, first MakeMKV which takes the raw video and audio down and then Handbrake to compress the Blu Ray a bit more for convenience without (too much) loss in quality. How to Rip a Blu-ray Disc With MakeMKV | PCWorld If…

Amazing, I pretty much accidentally plugged it all in right. But if you have a late model generation 7 motherboard (we have a P8Z77-V Deluxe from ASUS) and you do things magically right before you submerge the thing in mineral oil, you can get amazing disk performance: 1. Get the fastest SSDs you can. They…

Seems like if you want to admire Canon (and use your EF lenses), then you have to go to their professional like like their 4K Canon C500 (shoots at 4x more pixels than 1080p! in RAW (or 120fps in half-RAW whatever that is) and with 10-bit color wow! FYI 2K is the sames as 1080p…

The Canon EOS 6D – beta test footage – as good as mark III? » cinema5D news The EOS 6D has a full-frame sensor that gives you the typical full-frame look at almost half the price of the 5D mark III. That sounds like a bargain. But for HDSLR the beta model of this camera…

United Airlines – Premier priority travel services Global Entry™ compensation benefit Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. MileagePlus compensates 2012 Global Services, Premier 1K and Premier Platinum members for the $100 Global Entry application fee, for new…

Well Sony has really been rocking it (even as the company moves to junk bond status with a crumbling TV business, etc.). Their NEX line is amazing and this camaera is full frame and has a super fast fixed lense. Pretty incredible as it is the same sensor used in their top of the line…

You need to make sure your two SSDs are on the Intel SATA connectors (the ASUS P8Z77-V has so many SATA connectors it isn’t funny and two controller. One by Marvell and the other by Intel). Also you need to have 6GB capable SATA connectors. These look different from the vanilla 3GB ones, then you…

Windows 8 is off to a slow start | TG Daily “Since October 26, Windows device sales have fallen 21 percent versus the same period last year,” Baker confirmed. “Notebooks, which have been weak throughout most of 2012, saw that trend continue as they fell 24 percent. Desktop sales have fared better this year, dropping…