Monthly Archives: June 2014

Teardown, Test: PGH Bricks & Pavers Promotional USB Key

Posted on June 30, 2014 by lui_gough

I guess the fact that this post exists is a proof that promotional USB keys “work”. They serve a useful purpose, and have a decent “lifetime”, thus helping spread the promotional message. I’m no brick and pavers guy, but I … Continue reading →

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Getting Started: Freescale Xtrinisic Sense Board on RPi & KL-25Z

Posted on June 30, 2014 by lui_gough

Whenever I think of playing with microcontrollers, I think of blending the line between hardware and software. Low cost embedded systems prototyping development platforms have made tinkering very affordable, and with the wide variety of libraries, even easy. If you … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Random: Computer Mayhem, Z97 Build Frustrations, Sydney Trains & Opal Stuff, etc.

Posted on June 29, 2014 by lui_gough

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a random post, so it’s about time I did another. In the “silence” in-between, life has been extremely busy and continues to be and the observations from my daily commutes continue to pile-up. … Continue reading →

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Genuinely Fake Pt 4: Samsung Galaxy SIII Batteries (EB-L1G6LLA/U)

Posted on June 27, 2014 by lui_gough

This week, I received a very interesting e-mail from an anonymous reader in Europe. The reader had been following the series of posts about well-disguised counterfeit Samsung Galaxy SIII batteries and had something to contribute. This anonymous reader had put … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Telecommunications | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Review & Teardown: ViewSonic VA2249S 21.5″ IPS Full HD Widecreen LED Monitor

Posted on June 22, 2014 by lui_gough

One of the key points of increasing productivity with computers is to increase the number of screens you have at your disposal. By having multiple monitors, you can avoid needing to excessively scroll within a resized window that squeezes everything … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

First Look & Teardown: Western Digital MyNet N750 Wireless Router

Posted on June 22, 2014 by lui_gough

It wasn’t long ago when I thought AU$21 for a single band, single stream wireless N router was an absolute bargain, but this is just unbelievable. What if I told you that there’s a dual band wireless N router with … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Quick Review: Microsoft LifeCam Studio Webcam

Posted on June 21, 2014 by lui_gough

It’s been a while since I last purchased a webcam. In fact, the last time I did, high definition webcams were only just becoming the ‘in’ thing and the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 was one of the leading choices. It … Continue reading →

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Review, Teardown: Intel 730 Series 240Gb (SSDSC2BP240G4) Solid-State Drive

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lui_gough

Intel has been part of the SSD revolution early on, with their X25-M being a fairly popular drive around 2009. Embarrassingly, this drive also suffered from several firmware bugs, which may have driven Intel to perform stringent validation of their … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Flash Memory | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Review: Kingston DataTraveler G4 128Gb USB Flash Drive

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lui_gough

When I first tried my “crazy” SSD in a USB External Enclosure experiment, USB memory sticks were paltry in size and performance. While such a solution wasn’t exactly compact or convenient like most USB keys, it did offer the capacity … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Flash Memory | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

4Tb Head-to-Head: Western Digital Green WD40EZRX vs Seagate Desktop ST4000DM000

Posted on June 20, 2014 by lui_gough

A universal truth since the beginning of computing has been that you can never get enough storage because you’ll always find something to fill it with. This is true more than ever, with the proliferation of high definition multimedia files, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

RMA with Digital World International (DWI) – A Fruitless Endeavour

Posted on June 10, 2014 by lui_gough

Some time in late March, my AudioTechnica ANC9 active noise-cancelling headphones decided to fail on me. Well within its 12-month warranty, purchased 15th October 2013 from DWI, I decided to return it to RMA after a while fumbling for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Opinion | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Exposed: Power Bank Ripple – Devices at Risk?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by lui_gough

One of the most popular articles on my site are those related to power banks – specifically, those related to the eBay unbranded 5000mAh and 30,000mAh power banks, as well as the Comsol 11000mAh, PowerMonkey 3500mAh and the Orzly 4050mAh … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Electronics, Power Bank | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Tech Flashback: Intel EtherExpress PRO/100 Mobile Adapter

Posted on June 9, 2014 by lui_gough

This is another one of those interesting salvages, which had been kept nicely for me by a colleague. It wasn’t that long ago when many different peripherals were the domain of expansion cards – there were no on-board floppy interfaces, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Tech Flashback | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Random: Opal Stuff, DTRS, Bus Advertising, Drive by Download, etc.

Posted on June 8, 2014 by lui_gough

Another week of random, and this week it’s much of the same, focusing on topics such as our public transport network, what’s happening with some MVNOs and drive-by-downloading. The main difference this week – I’m enjoying a day off thanks … Continue reading →

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Review, Teardown: Crucial M500 240Gb Solid State Drive

Posted on June 8, 2014 by lui_gough

Crucial/Micron has been a known name in memory for a very long time (think 80286 era). Best known for their DRAM products, their collaboration with Intel to produce NAND flash memory has proved to be a big success with IMFT … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, Flash Memory | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Teardown: IKEA 11w BC & Philips Genie 11w ES CFL

Posted on June 7, 2014 by lui_gough

As I mentioned in some earlier random posts, CFL failure is few and far between, but they seem to temporally cluster sometimes. Maybe that’s a coincidence, but lets take a look at the innards of a few globes. I’ve looked … Continue reading →

Posted in Electronics, Lighting | Tagged | 1 Comment

Teardown: Zalman ZM-RSSC v1 External USB 5.1ch Sound Card

Posted on June 7, 2014 by lui_gough

As a bit of a computing nut, I’ve managed to accumulate hardware for many different reasons. Lately, I’ve decided that I should try out some new headphones, but the three sound cards in my machine are already in use! Oh … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Visited: Vivid Sydney 2014

Posted on June 7, 2014 by lui_gough

As I mentioned in a previous random posting – if you have the chance, you should probably visit Vivid Sydney. Vivid Sydney is an annual event – a “festival of lights”. Different artistic works, involving light mapping projections and other … Continue reading →

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Laptop Diet: Swap the ODD for an SSD or nothing at all!

Posted on June 1, 2014 by lui_gough

Owners of older, more traditional laptops eventually get tired of the 2.2-2.8kg weight and the generally lackluster battery life. As time moves on, and newer, lighter form factors become available, the temptation to upgrade to a new device grows. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Random: Full-Colour Opal Onslaught, Station Upgrades, Drive-By-Download, etc.

Posted on June 1, 2014 by lui_gough

In this week’s edition of “random”, there isn’t as much random as I would have liked, so instead part of the regular program will be replaced with my opinions. For the most part, this week is mostly about the Opal … Continue reading →

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