Huion Inspiroy H640P Portable Drawing Tablet
The Huion Inspiroy H640P is an affordable portable graphics drawing tablet that offers a decent drawing or doodling experience.
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shadowandy – my life stories
Dreams ∙ Passion ∙ Digital World
Tech
#MajulahGCP Season 3 Swags
Google occasionally offers self-learning opportunities on how Google Cloud Platform’s infrastructure and application development tools work together. They held the third season of the #MajulahGCP learning event in my region recently. In my honest opinion, it is a good opportunity to understand how some of the new technologies work amidst your busy schedule. If you have been procrastinating about picking up that new skillset, the #MajulahGCP event is probably a great learning opportunity. At the end of the event, you might qualify for their swag packs! Thanks #MajulahGCP for the learning opportunity, smart LED display thermos flask, apron, polo t-shirt and a hipster backpack!
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Qualifying hard disk drive for long term use
Do you check if the hard disk drive (HDD) is serviceable before using it? Nowadays, the emphasis on storage reliability has silently increased as more people are leveraging network attached storage (NAS) and external storage enclosures to back up their data. But what makes these storage solutions reliable? The building blocks – HDD! How do one ensure the new HDD is reliable? Personally, I qualify them using a Linux utility call badblocks and I recommend you do something similar too.
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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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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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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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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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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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QNAP TS-253D NAS Review
The QNAP TS-253D is a quad-core 2.5GbE two-bay NAS for professionals and prosumers requiring a localised backup as part of their comprehensive data backup strategy. Consumers can also practice good backup hygiene by backing up documents and memories (photos, videos, etc.) on their laptops and mobile phones to a local NAS like the TS-253D and an off-site backup in the Cloud. The TS-253D comes with an HDMI output so you can reminisce these digital memories on the TV. In this review, we will be looking at the QNAP TS-253D two-bay NAS that retails for S$609.99 on Lazada.
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