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Blank compact discs
What to do with all these? I used to buy blank discs& cases from Singapore & the USA whenever I travelled, as in those decades they were expensive in India. There used to be many variants over the years: Write-once CD, Re-Writeable CD, Write-Once DVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, Double-Layer DVD and so on; many required newer drives and latest OS support to work. These are now sitting on my shelf for more than a decade. I don’t want to throw them – Marie Kondo to forgive – they may come to be needed, as data written on optical discs are supposed to last for a century. Though it is unlikely we…
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Light, Camera and Mic
The below article was written for the Professional Speakers Association of India’s ProSpeak magazine, thanks to Mr Narendra Brahmankar, Editor of PSAI NEWSLETTER for the invitation. The mantra for a successful virtual speaking session will be “Content, Camera and Microphone”. Your audience can hear and see you only as good as what your camera and microphone can capture. Based on my experience, here are a few tips. BASICS: Ensure there is enough lighting on your face. Unless you are facing a window and it is daytime you will require a (tube) light or a ring light facing you. Sit in a quiet space, ensure there is no visual clutter behind…
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After three months, I got my desktop PC back from service
Early last year I had got a new PC (AMD Ryzen 7 3800X) to run as my Plex Media Server on Windows Server 2019. During the pandemic, I had to turn it into my workstation running Windows 10, as my son had taken my other PC (Asus Zenbook laptop). For Plex Media Server, I assembled a new PC, an Intel Core i5 10400 with 16GB RAM & an ASUS Prime H410M motherboard. Unfortunately, as soon as I got my laptop back, the AMD Ryzen 7 PC broke down due to a power problem in my room, which I was not aware of at the time. Most that can go wrong…
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Apple Silicon iMac 24 Unboxing
Recently, I bought from Apple India’s website, an M1 Chip iMac 24 inches blue colour for my father-in-law. I looked for an all-in-one computer that will be easy for him to use, with no cumbersome wires or setup. His usage will be limited to video calls over Zoom & Microsoft Teams, so it was important the device had a bright display, HD camera, loudspeakers and a microphone that captures clear speech. Apple iMac fitted the requirement. The reason I spent a premium over a Windows All-in-One PC was that he regularly uses his iPad, had tried a friend’s MacBook a few times and felt comfortable with it; also, his office…
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Sony Bluetooth Headset WH CH510
I have been using for some months now, the NG Earsafe which are open-air Bluetooth headphones and Soundcore Life Note. Recently my son took the Soundcore from me, so I wanted to buy a new headset for me, this time I wanted an over the ear headset so that it is less damaging to my ears. I went with Sony WH-CH510 for INR 2999 (USD 40) from Flipkart. Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post. It has been a day and I like the headphones;…
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Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite 2020
My mom wanted to watch YouTube on the Sony (non-smart) TV we have in our living room. This meant I had to buy a Google TV (used to be called Android TV) stick that connects to the TV’s HDMI Input. Right now, I have a Google Chromecast 2 connected to this TV, using which I can cast any content from an Android phone or Google apps from my iPhone or iPad. It doesn’t have a remote control, so my mom can’t go to say YouTube without having a smartphone. So I was considering my options. Last year, I had bought for my son, a Nokia Media Streamer device for…
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Simpler Speaker, Microphone & Headphones
It so happened that the last few weeks I was approached for multiple gadget recommendations by friends and family. The speaker, microphone and headphones that I suggested to them worked out well for the recipients that I am sharing the details here for the benefit of you, my readers. Disclosure: I write reviews about products that I have bought for my usage or my friends and paid in full. There were no sponsorship or advertisement, or commission of any sort involved in this post. Last year, I suggested to my friend, who conducts a lot of online classes, Lenovo IdeaPad C340, which turned out to be the perfect computer at…
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The PC I assembled for running Plex Media Server
For years now, I have had a dedicated computer in my house to run the Plex Media server, hosting my media content (Photos, Music, Home Videos & so on) and also as a server with a copy of the data I have in the cloud storages (Dropbox & Onedrive). For a few years it was an old iMac and last year I upgraded to an AMD Ryzen 7 PC. During the pandemic as I had a need for a new PC for my work, I converted the PC for Plex from Windows Server 2019 to Windows 10 and turned it into my main workstation. With Plex gone away, I started…
