I had a poor little mousie or something die in my wall next to my closet. It wasn't horrible, and I wasn't about to go ripping out walls for something small that in theory should eventually degrade on it's own.
Hey, it's nature.
I had these items available:
Ozium Air Freshener / Sanitizer
110V Car Cigarette lighter socket
Car ion / ozone (O3) generator
I ran an extension cord into the closet, and plugged in the generator and socket adapter and just let it work.
As of this writing, the smell is COMPLETELY gone.
If you add a fan to circulate air, and perhaps use more than one generator, it will work faster. Don't go crazy though, too much ozone is bad for you.
I sprayed the Ozium from time to time to take care of a large part of it.
This version of Ozium has a lemony scent. The scent doesn't last terribly long. It kills airborne germs too.
All ion generators generate some ozone so if you are sensitive to it, be careful. You can put your nose on it and smell it, so you know it's working.
It's the same smell you get after a hard rain.
The benefit to buying these items vs. a home ion / O3 generator are:
1. You can use the ion generator in your car too.
2. You can use a car cell charger in your house if your home one breaks, or other small 12V car electrics like a small fan.
Of course, I use the Ozium in my cars too.
All these travel well: Musty / Smoky hotel room anyone? Yuck. This fixes it. Squirt a little into the A/C intake in your room.
Here's the stuff. Please use the Amazon widget or search box to buy, your purchases support theroblog. :)
I've owned some other brands, and they have been the best so far.
Moving on:
I bought several of these in varying sizes. A 1300VA for my main large desktop, and a 350VA for my monitor and some smaller devices.
Don't forget: if you have an expensive piece of gear like a TiVo or other DVR, you want a small one for that too. Don't miss your shows, and don't damage your $600 TiVo with Lifetime subscription.
Terms: a 'VA' basically means a watt. Look on your gear and see what wattage it uses. UPS=uninterruptible power supply. A battery kicks in when the power goes off or blinks.
APC has a tool to help you figure it out, and I do computer work in Sienna.
Setup is minimal, you really just plug it in, but if you need help picking a size or brand, let me know.
In short: a 1000VA or higher will run for a few minutes on anything you are likely to use it with.
Optional: the larger ones like my XS1300 will automatically shut down your PC with a cable that talks to it and tells it remaining capacity. So, you can tell it to shut down after the power is out for a few minutes or it drops below a certain charge level. Desirable if you leave your computer on.
Tips:
-to increase the run time, plug things like speakers and printers into the 'Surge' outlets that do not use battery power from the UPS. My secondary monitor isn't on the UPS battery but my main is.
-some of these have a 'cold start' feature which means even if it's off, if it has battery charge available, you can turn it on and plug things in. What you might use this for is to save the juice for something you need intermittently like charging up your laptop. For a cellphone, I'd probably use a USB port on the laptop or your car since you lose power by converting the UPS battery to 110V AC then back down to 5V DCfor the phone.
If you use the Amazon widget above or search box on the side, you help support my time to write these little articles and have more time off my main job to come help you out. :)
If you have a hurricane type power outage, I have a Biolite Stove for cooking and charging a large battery for later use to charge cellphones and such:
It has never run out on me, and the fast charge port is just that. I can use my phone with a lot of surfing and it has plenty of power to run the phone and increase the charge at the same time.
This should charge most phones 4-6 times and an iPad 4 about once, which as you know, is a LOT of battery.
In short, it should allow you to use your devices 1-3 days even under heavy use, if they are full to start.
There are higher capacities, see page two of the widget.
For most people, you will never see this pack run out of power.
The only caveat I noticed is some chargers (like a make the onboard guage on this show full, and others will show a dot charging.
Higher capacity chargers seem to work better than low, like a USB port charge. Plus, a USB port would take over 20 hours to fill it from empty.
That's how big this battery is!
I take mine all over: flights, camping, you name it.
Bonus: it has a dual white LED flashlight onboard.
Please use our widget or search bar on the right to shop Amazon. We get a teensy commission. :)
We use the money to buy all these gadgets to review for you. :)
Update: It sort of works when the Leaf is powered off. It's not consistent. But in most cases you probably just care about using it when it's on. If you want to see stats when the Leaf is off and charging for example, you have to kill the app and restart. Hopefully that gets fixed because IIRC it used to work better.
When the Leaf is on, like when you're driving, it still works great though.
I got this one from Amazon and it works great with the Leaf Spy app.
I also bought the Pro version of the app.
I have had zero problems with it. I leave it plugged in all the time.
The only thing to watch out for is don't leave the app running when you are in Bluetooth range of your Nissan Leaf.
It will cause a relay to click over and over, adding wear and tear, and using your 12 volt battery. You will hear it when near the car: it's a very audible erratic clicking sound.
If you're not familiar with the app, click here to see it on Google Play. I used the free version for a while, but I think the Pro version is worth the $15. There's also a 'midrange' version here.
I have one from 3 years ago from the same company as ones shown below. The new model is the black one, mine's the beige.
These are oh so useful for:
Scanning long numbers off SIM cards, phones (ESN/MEID), if you're activating a SIM, checking a blacklist, etc. etc. For that alone, this is a huge time saver.
Price checking on Amazon: just put the cursor in the search button Amazon and hit the button on the scanner and scan the UPC code.
Googling that same UPC code
In short, your computer sees it as a keyboard so it will type in all sorts of barcodes for you, and there are no drivers for it. You can also configure it to type 'Enter' after the scan or not, if you like.
I'm using it on a Mac but it should work on any operating system.
The first one on the box at the top is the #1 seller at Amazon.
Of course, the super OCD among you can use it to organize your CD and music collection.
You knew it was coming, and it's no surprise it's #1 in Toys and Games at Amazon.
And for the woman in your life, get the Groot mask. Who am I kidding...
I've got the dancing baby groot in my cart as we speak. :)
On a serious note, get the Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 1 soundtrack on page 2 of the widget.
Women DO love that. Actually, I had one tell me recently that the 'Pina Colada' song is one of her favorites. Actually, everyone loves that mix tape. Plus, IIRC, you get the CD, the MP3 Auto-rip and a $1 promo credit.
I bought the album and it's been in heavy rotation around the house.
I was trying to plug in my Skullcandy FMJ's into my Miix 2 8" and it felt like I was going to break the jack on the Miix 2, so I measured the depth with a plastic section of a Q-tip. It matched up with my Galaxy S4 which the FMJs fit.
Hmm.
I put the Q-Tip in and out several times to make sure.
I went and got a different pair of headphones. The Skullcandys are a combo jack: mic and stereo headphones in one jack.
The headphones are just that: stereo only.
The headphone jack was to my eye the same size and depth, but it fit.
Strange.
So I just inserted the headphone jack a few times maybe thinking the socket was just stiff.
Apparently, that's the answer because then my Skullcandys fit, albeit firmly, but it didn't feel like I was going to literally break something.
Also the Skullcandys work great as always. Tested with Skype.
Caveat: the Skullcandy call/disconnect button on the inline control did nothing in Skype on Windows 8.1
Hope it helps someone! Now, buy something you're going to buy anyway from Amazon using the search box on the right. :)
1. Borrow someone's Windows Key to download the ISO from Microsoft. You aren't going to use it. Get the Belarc Advisor, and after you have Windows 8.1 installed you can use your OEM key that Belarc Advisor shows in the report.
I would save or print the Belarc report for future use.
The screen will 'blank' if you have the power settings set to turn it
off until you get some drivers installed so set it to turn off 'never'
when plugged in and 'never' if you have to run on battery power
rather than a having to do a hard restart while you're in the middle of
something.
So charge the battery to 100% before you do all this.
Windows 8.1 retail will install fine, and later you can change the key to
your OEM key. I did not check whether it was using the UEFI key
automatically, but I assume it was, IIRC Windows retail was activated
but I went ahead and 'changed' the key anyway since I had borrowed the
key to download from my firned.
To change the key, right click 'This PC' on the Windows desktop, then 'Change Product Key' in the lower right corner.
Notes on Install:
The touchscreen will start working at some point, but I used a powered hub and a USB keyboard and Mouse initially.
The latest drivers can all be downloaded from Lenovo. I let Windows install and update as much as it could, since I'd prefer Microsoft drivers, since they designed the OS, it makes sense.
The 'Platform Driver' install looks pretty stock, but I had the Intel HD 4000 graphics driver FROM INTEL running on my Dell Venue 8 because the Dell drivers are a continual problem.
If you want to use the Intel version: I had to go into the device manager, and get the .ZIP here, then tell Windows to install it manually via the device manager.
After you 'force' install the Intel graphics driver (it's still signed, don't worry, you don't get any warnings) then the normal Intel installers will work.
The Lenovo 'Platform Driver' Installs graphics driver 10.18.10.3327 but you can get the .EXE from Intel which is which as of this writing has a filename of win32_153322.exe and you can get it here along with the ZIP.
After intalling win32_153322.exe, you will have driver version 10.18.10.3621 and Windows will ask for a restart.
The audio driver from Lenovo appears to install a later version of the driver than Windows / Intel does.
Windows 8.1 or the updates will give you Broadcom WiFi driver version 5.93.98.187 vs Lenovo's .97.181 which again, is why I let Windows install as much as possible. Generally, I'd rather have Microsoft tested stuff.
Windows will install a later version of the Bluetooth Audio driver AFTER you install the Lenovo version. (Which I can never find the driver version so someone please let me know. 'Bluetooth Radio' shows a Microsoft driver.)
If you have questions or comments, leave them and I will update this.
I got this case for it. A small piece of tape on the metal clasp part is recommended to avoid tiny scratches on the screen. Of note, the Miix 2 8 case does not have that issue. The magnet is embedded in the cover.
If your sound on your Mac has stopped working due to a hardware problem, this USB stick works on a Mac, at least under OS X 10.9
I tested it after taking it off my son's PC. Only note is that the volume is very sensitive but this could be fixed in a later OS update perhaps. I used the volume slider to control it vs. the volume keys but you could also be fine if your speakers have a volume knob.
I have the one in the silver bottle (top one in the widget below) and it tastes just like the sugar free Red Bull!
One bottle makes TWELVE LITERS. That's more than you should probably drink in a month or two.
They have some interesting flavors too like one with Cranberry.
If you don't have a Sodastream, just add it to carbonated or even regular tap water.
It's no surprise that this is the NUMBER ONE album on Amazon now. Even if it didn't remind you of the movie, and it will, it's a GREAT mix tape. I saw the movie twice on my recent Disney cruise by the way. :)
I got the CD for $1 more than the MP3 album. When you buy most CDs from Amazon, the MP3 album is usually IMMEDIATELY available for download.
And since I'm prime, shipping was free and I can put the unopened CD in storage.
Updated 25 July 2014. Will update as more details are released. This is an extremely new offering, but the network is T-Mobile's so do not be concerned about coverage or reliability.
First, here's the signup link if you want to be a customer:
$29.99* Unlimited
Talk, Text, Data with 1GB 4G LTE hi-speed, then slowing till next billing
period.
$39.99* Unlimited
Talk, Text, Data with 3GB 4G LTE hi-speed, then slowing till next
billing period.
$49.99* Unlimited
Talk, Text, Data with 5GB 4G LTE hi-speed, then slowing till next
billing period.
$59.99* Unlimited
Talk, Text, Data with Unlimited 4G LTE, never slowing.
*Plus state and federal taxes and fees. (Hey, we can't control the government alone. Contact your representatives.)
2. What are the features?
All plans include hotspot (use your phone to connect any WiFi device to the internet) and unlimited international texting from the
US
Free music service streaming that DOES NOT count towards your high speed LTE data limit. Those include Pandora, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Rhapsody, Spotify, Slacker, and Milk Music as well as anything T-Mobile adds in the future.
4. I have a store, website, etc. How much is it to be a dealer? $10 enrollment, $10 monthly. It's very easy to make that amount back.
5. What's in it for me if I want become a dealer to refer people?
Free phone line every month if you have 10 active lines you refer. ($30 credit per month)
$10 bonus for every distributor you refer
$10 bonus for every line you refer
Residuals payments based on how many lines you refer (more info to come). They pay their bill, you get paid. Referring dealers gets you even more.
Tips:
Anyone can sign up to be a dealer. Idea: If you have
lot of business lines, or a large family, or have some way to share the
custom site you'll get, you could make more than the $10 monthly cost
easily by getting paid cash for each line.
If you hit the LTE high speed limit, turn off LTE in your phone settings. 4G will be fast enough if you get slowed down and your battery will last longer. But you can try both and choose.
Sign up as distributor if you have more than one line in your family to sign up. This gets you the $10 fee back to you that every line has to pay once for enrolling. So, the distributor fee pays for itself if you have two lines total (you and spouse) and beyond that saves you money. Plus you get your own referral link to refer others and make some money.
I didn't think it was THAT bad. Supposedly just a warmup track. I'm not a huge fan or hater, I'm mainly indifferent. But we like to keep it fair 'round here. So, here it is.
I've seen a couple versions floating around, but here's a longer better resolution video.
Metal Construction!
.(….\…………../….)
. \….\……….. /…./
…\….\………./…./
….\…./´¯.I.¯`\./
…./… I….I..(¯¯¯`\
…I…..I….I…¯¯.\…\
…I…..I´¯.I´¯.I..\…)
…\…..` ¯..¯ ´…….’
….\_________.?´
…..lo o o o o ol
…..lo o o o o ol
…..lo o o o o o|
The problem arises when you use Disk Utility to hopefully get those little green magic words "The volume 2TB Internal appears to be OK." or whatever you call your boot volume after you verify the disk.
This is while you are booted off the disk, not when booted off the DVD which should work every time.
A check on the whole disk works, but a check on the volume of your boot disk appears to fail.
(You do run disk utility to check your disk every now and then, right? And have a SMART Monitor running, right?)
Well the workaround fix is in.
Here's what worked for me:
"The volume 2TB Internal appears to be OK." will show up on my Mac Pro (10.9.3) if I do this:
1. Open a Finder window
2. Click the Disk Utility Verify button
3. Click on the open Finder window
4. Wait for the Disk Utility to finish verifying
5. Switch back to Disk Utility and the green (The volume Data appears to be OK.) is displayed.
UPDATE: 13 Oct 2015 They now require proof of purchase, BUT I called them at (888) 697 – 5855 and they are allowing me an exception. I got an email from Cherise. If there are any hiccups or notable items in this process I will post it. Original post: Long story short, since it seems like I've reviewed these before.... I bought some of the FMJ model once and had trouble. Skullcandy sent me a prepaid label to send them back and then sent me a gift card for their online store that was enough to buy TWO PAIRS of what had broken. I have not had trouble in years, and although I've been careful, they get pulled on, rolled up, and have been knocking around my laptop bag and house for years at this point. Totally happy. Recommend. They are comfy, have interchangeable ear seals, and sound good. Metal construction. I don't think you'll be sorry: Click here to browse Skullcandy Headphones at Amazon. Your purchases support theroblog.com. We appreciate it. Thumbs up from Rob if you buy something cool for yourself!
I got an email today after a request for a feature that would help me sort through the many Excel sheets I get in my inbox from a certain company.
I just wanted a highlight of changes on a separate sheet or tab, that you could program Excel to do fairly easily.
You take yesterday's Excel sheet, compare it to today's, and then spit out a third sheet or tab that highlights differences. Or Excel can color code cells it finds different than yesterday.
Here's what I got back from the sales rep:
"Our sales are fine thanks.
We have had zero complaints."
That's a top notch employee right there! I guess the economy is so awesome, your company doesn't need a revenue increase.
I don't often wade through the NINE excel sheets they send every day to see if any prices have changed, stuff has come into stock, etc. because it's tedious.
Thought of the day: "Make it easier for a customer to buy something."
The Windows version Plantronics' site leads you to is for an Edge, so it does not work on a Voyager Legend Pro and they don't make it easy to get the right version if the website pick you make is linked wrong.
BUT the *MAC* version works. I'm using OS X 10.9.3
It complains about a .kext error during operation but it WORKS.
On Page 88 of the June 2014 issue of 'Vanity Fair' Arianna Huffington had this to say:
"Fact: (John F. Kennedy) was just saying 'Don't ask what your country can do for you...' (when he was assassinated)." Parentheses mine because the point is:
JFK gave that speech during his 1961 inauguration. He wasn't shot during his inauguration. Perhaps the reader will remember it was in Dallas, about 2.5 years later. In a motorcade. When he wasn't giving a speech.
Also this gem:
"Fact: Minutes Later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ...saying "I've just had this incredible dream."
Wow, now there's just a little bit of misquoting huh?
Oh yeah, that speech was in 1963. He wasn't killed until 1968.
Also, guess what, they weren't assassinated within minutes of each other. More like 5 years.
I feel stupider. Yeah, I'm going to use that word to describe my feelings.
I'm actually throwing this issue of Vanity Fair in the recycle bin right now.
I hope someone was making an oblique insult of Arianna for letting this go to press this way. Or, was she parodying herself?
Vanity Fair and Arianna Huffington: A match made in Remedial History 099. (History 101 is usually a Basic History, but that would be extremely generous.)
Let's get it out of the way: one of the attractions about this service (and it is more of a service thing vs. a hardware thing which I'll explain later) is that you get free data when someone shares your hotspot or buys a hotspot.
So here's my referral link. I get 500 megs and you get 500 megs as a bonus: Click Here.
The other way you get free data is when someone uses your hotspot to create an account, you both get 100 megs free. They can even log in with their Facebook account so it's super quick for them to jump on, check email, and you both get free data to start.
What's good for Karma is it allows them to sell data without having to build infrastructure.
Here's the other huge thing: You pay $14 for a gigabyte of data (which is probably hours of browsing if you aren't streaming some music or video) AND YOUR DATA NEVER EXPIRES.
The free data also never expires.
** So your only cost might be the hotspot itself. **
So you might spend $14 today, and still have the rest of your data to use a year later the next time you're at the airport.
You might even sell the hotspot, but you keep your data. Always, because end users don't need to own a hotspot, they can use anyone's Karma hotspot to access their account.
Of course, if you own your own, you control when it's available.
But at busy public places there might be more than one Karma, so you just log in to another one if someone leaves. One click and you're back on.
'Karma' is always part of the SSID on the hotspot, so you can easily identify them.
A business could make the other part of the SSID to advertise their business. Like: 'Google.com's Karma' or such.
It would also be a one-time expense for a business, since the customer would pay for the data.
Coverage will be vastly improving in the next few months when the new LTE device is out. I will be getting one!
But you should get one today so you can be first and start racking up the free data.
Data speeds are fine, again as long as you aren't doing a lot of file transfers or streaming or like usage.
The biggest surprise: this thing is SMALL and thin. Like a pack of gum small. Dentyne maybe. Battery life appears excellent, much better than my other hotspots. It's micro USB so you can charge from anything.
Please click that banner and join and help support theroblog. It's free. We get a potential bonus. I've been finding deals there for YEARS in the Hot Deals forum. Price mistakes, coupons, clearances, you name it.
I bought mine during the one day offer on April 15, 2014. I picked the active shades as the freebie.
First pics:
I'll be using this a LOT in the coming weeks, so keep coming back.
Any questions? These were expeeeeensiiiiive so please support theroblog's continuing tech efforts by using our Amazon search box and Paypal donation box if we helped you save time and money.
We don't have sponsors and we rarely get tech items donated. Most of the time we spend our hard earned cash on them just like you do.
Psst: the donate and Amazon search boxes are over on the right!
It's called the OTG L2 Plan. The website (http://www.nrgevgo.com/texas/) says it does NOT include DC fast charging but I signed up and here is the verbiage I got from Mario (George) Osio, Senior Sales Consultant:
"One time $59 for L2 access for the whole year. This plan will allow you to use your Fob on the DC charger at $9.95 per session."
His contact info is: Cell(713)249-6724 Fax(832)584-2454 Customer Service: (855) 509-5583 Email: george.osio '@att!' nrgenergy.com
I don't plan on using the DC except in an emergency, really. Too expensive. At 10 cents per Kwhr, I can only pull about $1.70 in electricity at most in a session.
But for under $5 a month for unlimited L2 and emergency access, I figure it's worth it.
If this helps, throw a buck in my pot via the Paypal Donate button on the right in the sidebar.
I noticed no one that I saw mentioned taking the TOP tab off first.
Then you can just use your fingernail on the bottom because there's little to no tension after that.
A SMALL bit of pressure with a screwdriver as show in the picture will EASILY press down on the top tab, which is probably as it was designed.
As you can see, it's a completely different mechanism than the bottom.
The bottom is too easy to break, and it has slots cut in it that probably make it even more likely.
Please link to this post if you use this picture in the wiki.
When you remove the cover, there should be a pull tab. Just pull on it and the filter side will bend. Note where the tab is, the new one should have the tab in the same place.
When you replace it, bend the side you insert into an arc, bending as little as possible so it will spring back. Don't crease it so it will spring back.
Please click the Amazon logo below to buy it and support theroblog.com!
Amazon purchases help pay for my time.
This is the filter I bought: $17 at the time of this writing and it has activated carbon and is also much thicker than factory. The factory one is pretty cheap and thin.
From Amazon, it will arrive in a big box, but it's the right filter. :)
These are the options you probably want to consider: Motorola G or the Nexus 5. I had some bad experiences with the Nexus 4, but good experience with the original Nexus and Galaxy Nexus. So YMMV but LG made the 5 and 4 whereas the Galaxy Nexus was Samsung so...no thanks on the 5.
The wife has a Motorola G and it's been rock solid with fast updates to the OS.
Please support theroblog.com and use this widget to shop unlocked phones:
If you are using my service at http://circlephone.com then make sure it has support for the 1700Mhz legacy T-Mobile frequencies. The U.S. GSM version of the Motorola G and Nexus 5 do.
Airmail's site tells you to change it in the Mail program, and within the Airmail program itself but there's one place they forgot:
Firefox handles it's own default application for mailto: links, so you have to go to Firefox's Preferences menu, then the Applications button, then to 'mailto' under the Content Type heading like so:
