It seems I’ve been using the excuse of Christmas Sales to justify my recent increased spending appetite, but let’s just say that the gifts I buy myself aren’t the normal gifts most people think of when it comes to Christmas....

It’s summer in Sydney and we’re definitely feeling it. In the west, there are often strings of 32 degree Celsius or above days coupled with dangerous storm activity, so staying comfortable is not always easy even with the modern conveniences...

Around last Christmas, I built myself a new workstation that bought me from a Phenom II X6 1090T (2010) up to a Ryzen 7 1700 (2017). Amongst the things I did not upgrade, that caused the most consternation was my...

At last! Another random post … code-word for “frustrations of the past few weeks that don’t quite deserve their own posting”. This time, it’s crap cables (again), repairing a problematic USB charger, building my own USB “condom” and being subject...

Around this time, the temptation of flash sales and discounts lead even the thriftiest of people to open their wallets, myself included. If anything, I’ve often deprived myself of something hoping to find a better deal in the future when...

Thanks to the generosity of element14 and Rohde & Schwarz, I was lucky enough to do yet another RoadTest of a pretty expensive piece of gear. Say hello to the Rohde & Schwarz HMP4040.04, a 4-channel 384W Programmable DC Power...

With most new phones beginning to omit the headphone jack, most users have begun a mass migration to Bluetooth wireless audio solutions. Many of these are traditional headphones which are somewhat bulky, but there has been an increase in interest...

It’s been a while since I wrote my last “random” post, so I thought it was about time to put up another. After all, sometimes there are just some observations that don’t quite warrant their own posting but are still...

It’s been another busy weekend getting a few things done – one of which was this review of Molex 2.4Ghz/5Ghz antennas offered through the element14 RoadTest program. While antennas are probably not the most interesting devices to be testing, they’re...

Being increasingly reliant on mobile devices to get some level of work done, I had a sudden need for another Bluetooth-capable mouse. While the Logitech M337 continues to serve me well with its rather unusual colour scheme, I was looking...

I’m definitely no artist – I don’t normally go on “artistic” endeavours, but I try to do practical things as any engineer would. But it’s been a while since I’ve had the time or inclination to build something … and...

I’ve made a few mentions about VLANs in the recent past as it’s something that I find quite useful along with virtual APs with managing an ever-increasingly-complex home network. But as some more “basic” edge equipment may not be able...

In an earlier review of the IKEA Lunnom Filament LED Globe, I noted the increase in popularity of vintage mood lighting and the number of incandescent “carbon-filament lookalike” globes that had flooded the market just as incandescent bulbs were being...

If you like to tinker with single-board computers, then you probably have a bunch of Raspberry Pi (or equivalent) boards all needing a microSD card to boot from. Often, for simple projects, the card doesn’t have to be anything too...

A while ago, I wrote about the wonders of having multiple VLANs at home, operating in a mixed “hybrid” access model. While it was great, I made a comment that simultaneous VLAN operation might not be possible under Windows depending...

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...

Once in a while, out of need or out of desperation to use a discount coupon, I end up buying something, often technology related. This time, it was the latter case, so I went and purchased something I knew would...

If you’ve been wondering why it’s been quiet around here for a while – it’s because I’ve been unusually busy. One of the things I’ve been working on is a review of the B&K Precision BA6010 Battery Analyser I received...

I’ve always been interesting in telephones and networks, but I’ve never really thought of becoming a telephone collector. Rather unexpectedly, through a process of not-throwing-things-out (it’s not hoarding, I swear!), I now have a few phones but not much to...

It’s no big secret that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and it’s closely related cousin, Edge, are not the world’s favourite browsers. They’re not even my favourite and for a number of good reasons. In the battle for market share, Microsoft has...

In the early days of VoIP, most users were still using analog phones through ATAs and early softphones with services like Free World Dialup (later, FWD) which offered users free SIP accounts that could call within the FWD network for...

As a frequent public transport user, I’ve always had an interest in various modes of transport. By far, the one that has proven to be most entertaining to monitor in recent times has been that of the bus radio, as...

Just the other day, an anonymous poster commented on one of my recent posts asking whether I had considered using HTTPS and reminding me that I needed a Privacy Policy due to the use of Google Adsense and Google Analytics....

This weekend, a friend of ours had a small emergency – her soymilk maker stopped working and was completely dead. The particular unit was a Soyoung S-C18 which claimed to be a unit specially made by Joyoung for the Australian...

I was sitting in my room the other day and something seemed off. It was quiet. Too quiet. But why? As it turns out, I used to have a scanner radio active in idle times to listen to what was...