Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Ok, I admit it, I’ve really liked the Sony RX-100 and then the RX-100 Mark II. Actually, the additional depth of the Mark II at least to me wasn’t super worth it, but now I seem to have misplaced our RX-100 Mark II (I know, I need to put a…

Until now, I have spent much time on hotel credit cards and optimization. The first thing was a big focus on getting airline status (better seats), then on more credit card points (thank you The Points Guy!), then airline business portals (Easybiz) and then internet portals (evrewards, cashbackmonitor.com) now hotels…

When you are trying to eke out a simple machine, there are a few things to think about: Ubuntu uses Unity which requires 3D acceleration. On a Atom Z550 this is unbearably slow. You can actually convert to LXDE with a simple `apt-get install lubuntu-desktop` Then when you log off…

Well, if you have an old Windows XP machine then its easy to forget all its passwords. What’s the easiest way to get it back. Well you can try to use a password cracker like ophcrack which is complicated and uses brute force techniques to find the password. Or you can…

Getting this stuff to work on Linux is actually amazingly easy: Deskjet 3050 is part of the HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging Program) that is now part of Ubuntu. You can download an update from hplipopenrsource.com To actually run the setup, you need to do `sudo hp-setup`

Strange and strange, but for our old Atom Z550, we weren’t able to get Unetbootin to put down a reliable image, but when we followed the Ubuntu directions for using DD, it did work. Go figure, utilities that don’t actual make bootables. It would instead say the bootable image is…

This is last time in the next twenty years to see this, but we are on the third for four lunar eclipses that happen in two years. It will only be a few minutes long, but worth watching. But how to figure out where it is. First thing is figuring…

You have to opt out, but here’s a way to get rid of Verizon marketing cookies (the other way is to use a VPN).

Well, having suffered through Objective C and liked XCode compiler, it has sure been interesting to see what Apple has come up next with Swift. It’s the brain child of Chris Lattner. He’s had a pretty incredible career, developing LLVM (a compiler backend) and then Clang (a front end) and…

Are you confused as to the best workflow for your iPhone photos. I am!  At least for my traditional photos, I get it, here’s what I do: Download the photos Delete the ones I don’t like. I’ve been using Preview when it isn’t too slow (but it’s gotten unbearable with…