shadowandy – my life stories

Dreams ∙ Passion ∙ Digital World

Reviews

Inserting the security key to my computer and authenticating with DSM.
ReviewsTech
Andy

Synology DSM 7 – Improved Authentication Features

Every once in a while you will read news about data breaches and password leaks. Although strong passwords are great, majority of people use the same password everywhere. Once it is leaked in a breach, perpetuators would attempt logging in to other popular web services using the same credentials. This is where 2FA creates another barrier for them, rather than them gaining access right away with the credentials, they will be required to provide additional information from something you own (e.g. TOTP from Authenticator app) or something you are (e.g. fingerprint, facial recognition). Synology introduced these features in the latest DSM 7.0 release.

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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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ReviewsTech
Andy

Adding an UPS power backup to the NAS

Your wallet might be feeling pretty light after splurging on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) with a bunch of new hard drives but you are probably better off in terms of data redundancies. Before you celebrate success, do you know that a dodgy power source can cause a myriad of issues? For example, electronics failure, data corruption. The NAS only has to be writing data when a power outage occurs to corrupt the data. To mitigate the risk of data loss, I got a APC BK650 UPS for my Synology DS1817+ NAS. It is an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

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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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ReviewsTech
Andy

Yootech LX6 Wireless Charger

I got the Google Pixel 5 recently and was excited to try wireless charging but I am not willing to fork out S$119 for the Google Pixel Stand. I tried out the Xiaomi 7.5W Wireless Charging Pad that I have and the Google Pixel 5 measured 700 mA charging speed on the Ampere app which is way too slow. I did a search and owners of previous Pixel phones have varying success with Yootech wireless chargers. Hence, I decided to try out the Yootech LX6 Metal Wireless Charger and I pleasantly surprised by that Ampere measured faster wireless charging on the Google Pixel 5 with the Yootech LX6 15W Metal Wireless Charger.

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ReviewsTech
Andy

USB-C to Audio adaptor that works with Google Pixel 5

It is getting common for phones not to have 3.5mm audio jacks nowadays. The Google Pixel 5 does not have one. Neither the Samsung S20 nor Apple iPhone 12. Bluetooth headphones and earpieces are great but wired ones are better in certain situations – audiophiles with their high quality music or somebody like me who just want to have a portable/ pocketable earpiece with microphone rather than a wireless one with a boom mic. To hook up to these wired earphones, you will need a USB-C to Audio adaptor or even a Lightning to Audio adaptor.

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