shadowandy – my life stories

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LifeReviews
Andy

Electric Air Duster

A vacuum cleaner is great at picking up dirt and dust. For example, dusty grills of fan, food crumbs on keyboard, dust on the monitor bezel. While the vacuum cleaner is great, it has challenges getting the dust off the tight corners or those deep inside. In the past, I get cans of air sprays to blow dust off hard to reach areas. Of course, the dust will be flying all around but at least I get the dust off the heat sink, fan grill and between the keys of the keyboard. Canned air sprays have limited amount of sprays so I got an electric one instead. I hope the “cost per air spray” will be lower than canned ones.

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LifeReviewsTech
Andy

SwitchBot – Teaching old Switches and Buttons new tricks

The SwitchBot Bots are small, battery-operated, Internet-of-Things (IoT) robotic switch (or button) presser. In short, it is a device with a robotic arm that physically toggle a switch or press a button. It can be triggered via Bluetooth LE or voice assistants (e.g. Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri) when operated with the SwitchBot Hub Mini. The SwitchBot Bot retails for US$29. At this price, you can teach old mechanical switches new tricks – that is, to be IoT like their newer smart switch counterparts.

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LifeReviewsTech
Andy

Google Pixel 5 Review

Okay, let me do a hashtag first – #TeamPixel. This is my first mobile phone from Google – Pixel 5. The Google Pixel 5 is a 5G phone with 90Hz display, 128GB storage, 6GB RAM and IP68 dust/water resistance. Last but not the least, Google Pixel phones’s camera usually delivers astounding picture quality. I got the Google Pixel 5 (Sorta Sage) for £476.43 (~S$857) after offsetting my gift cards (£45) from Amazon (UK).

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Adjustable louvers.
LifeReviews
Andy

Turning the Xiaomi Air Purifier 3H into a Fan

The Xiaomi Air Purifier 3H is an inexpensive air purifier that works great. My only complain about it is that the output (air) is not directional like the air purifiers I have from Samsung and Sharp which I prefer as I can direct the filtered air at location where there are more human activities/ presences. I happened to chance upon a contraption that turns the Xiaomi Air Purifier into a louver fan which channels filtered air to places I want it to be.

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Beneath the lid are eight (8) 260-280nm LEDs.
LifeReviewsTech
Andy

59S UVC LED Steriliser Box S2

I think the COVID-19 has changed our lifestyles rather drastically. People are more conscious about personal hygiene – donning face masks, washing hands frequently and probably sanitising personal belongings like mobile phone and keys. I chose UVC irradiation to sterilise personal belongings as it is shown to be able to inactivate bacterias and viruses. Another plus point is that UVC irradiation seems to be be able to get into every nook and crannies of daily objects like keys, mobile phones and spectacles. I bought the 59S UVC LED Steriliser Box a couple of months back for S$86.30 off Lazada.

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LifeTech
Andy

My Primer on Zero-Trust Architecture

The idea of not having a traditional castle-and-moat security architecture and replacing it with a Zero-Trust method to defend the crown jewels sounds a little absurb? Not really. In a Zero Trust Architecture, it eliminates the inherent trust bestowed on internal networks. Instead all access to resources are inspected and granted on a least-privileged strategy regardless of location. Sounds cool? Read on.

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GuidesLifeReviewsTech
Andy

Ring Video Doorbell 2 Review – Upgrading your old doorbell to a smarter one

Considering that how infrequently I change flat batteries in my doorbell, I did not even once think that I will ever get a smart video doorbell. So why did I get it? Because of a weird encounter that my neighbour had – an agitated guy pestering/ questioning for someone on a late night. I don’t think such encounters are great. Without much hesitation, I picked up the Ring Video Doorbell 2 during the Amazon Prime Day sales.

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