A quick update to let everyone know that since my changeover to SSL, which seemed initially promising, various cracks have suddenly appeared which have now rendered the site administration rather problematic (e.g. random 404s, request loops on a number of...

It hasn’t even been a year since I built my new workstation and already, something seems to be amiss. Lately, it seems I haven’t been sleeping so well, because there seems to be an angry beast in my room. “Grrrrrrrrrr...

Every two years, the ElectroneX Expo comes to Sydney. This expo is like a trade show for those involved in electronics design and assembly with a number of stalls from relevant vendors, free talks and is held in conjunction with...

When it comes to computer memory, the tiers of storage always end in mass storage as being the system bottleneck. Hard drives, colloquially referred to as spinning rust, were the dominant technology for the vast majority of computers from the...

The final part of a series of postings about the BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW drive looks at some of its other special features and explains why I’m so fond of this particular drive. Quality Testing When users burn recordable discs, they...

One thing that made owning a late-model BenQ DVD recorder worthwhile was the decent writing quality it had out of the box, along with the amount of tweakability the unit had. Knowing what I know now, an earlier Plextor drive...

In an era where IDE and DVDs have been left behind in preference for SATA and Bluray, it might seem strange that I’m choosing to repair my retail BenQ DW1640 DVD±RW Drive. Like many optical drives of any vintage, the...

In the present day where landlines are a dying breed and mobile telecommunications has become ubiquitous, the beige-cream coloured Telecom Australia 600-series socket remains a common sight in Australian households. While I have no idea when the 600-series socket came...

Earlier this year, I attended the SMPTE exhibition and was lucky enough to receive a power bank as part of the bag of goodies that I snagged, thanks to LaCie and Silicon Memory Technologies. As a result, I thought I’d...

The Motorola Moto G was quite a popular “value” Android smartphone. It had a good value-for-money factor, and as a result, it became the phone of choice for my Dad who was an “intermediate” user that didn’t demand the power...

The internet is a magnificently complex, diverse and distributed network which has been the product of decades of research. This has, in a short space of half a century, become one of the dominant means of communication today. Owing to...

Imagine my surprise when stopping to catch the bus one day, I see a hand-held radio in the grass not far from the bus stop. I was in a hurry and had to leave, so I hopped on the bus...

It’s been just over two full weeks since Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) introduced a new timetable. The changes are claimed to increase capacity, adding extra services across the network across all modes. These changes were signalled by bright...

Around three or four years ago, coincident with my purchase of a 3D TV, I decided to buy a Blu-ray player. I decided to opt for a 3D capable unit, so as to have something to watch on the new...

I’m not the person to have a lot of desires around Christmas time, as most of the time, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are only exercises in leading the less-scrupulous to part with their money through “false markdowns”. However,...

During my recent trip to Hong Kong, there was ample reason to get myself a few more microSD cards. They’re just so ubiquitous nowadays, and prices are coming down. As a result, I scoured all of Golden Computer Centre looking...

Maybe you’re aware of Netflix, maybe you even have a subscription for their services. You might have also heard of or watched a series called Stranger Things, produced by Netflix. But did you know that Netflix have been selling a...

Owing to the growing market-share of Qualcomm devices sporting Quick Charge 2.0 and 3.0 capabilities, the market for such devices has grown substantially. As part of reviewing some power banks with QC-capabilities, it would not be possible to assess their...

While I was away on holiday, blissfully enjoying my time outdoors, I wasn’t aware that a disaster was brewing at home. I got a message from my brother that his machine had started making a clicking noise, and it was...

It was back in 2014 when I first published about USB cable resistance as one reason why your phone or tablet might be charging slowly. At the time, quality cables with good gauge wires were hard to find, and many...

Usually, I tend to make an effort to make a few postings throughout the weekends, but this weekend has been a little bit of an exception. That’s because on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th November, I attended the Bureau of...

Returning home from holidays is not easy. In some sense, I’d like to call it a holiday hangover. You start walking on the wrong side of the road, sleeping at odd hours, and in perpetual need of energy to unpack...

At the beginning of the year, I took at trip which included visiting Hong Kong where I managed to pick up a Mi Power Bank Pro and review it. At the end of the review, I expressed the futility of...

My tech shopping in Hong Kong continues with more goodies. One of the things I was on the lookout for was the last of the dial-up modem. Rather unsurprisingly, for such an advanced country, it’s almost impossible to find any...

When many people go overseas, one of the things they most look forward to is to do some shopping. I’m generally not like that – I absolutely abhor shopping. But there is one exception – tech shopping. This year, I’ve...