TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

Received two of these today.  I haven't used them yet, so take this for what it's worth. The 8226 comes in the "T" and "non-T" version.  The "T" version is true RMS, which I did not get because I don't care about that for these meters. The meters are built to the same quality and style as the Mastech MS8218.  In other words, perfectly well, as far as I can tell.  It doesn't look or feel cheaply built.  The boot/case is integral to the unit.  The unit has a separate on/off button, which personally I find rather welcome. The build commonality extends to the battery cover, which uses simple turn fasteners.  Plus: they're nice to use.  Minus: they're not captive, and I often drop them when changing the batteries. The versions I got were purchased from GoodLuckBuy, and came in as 9V versions.  Apparently some people have laid their hands on an AA version of this meter - nobody quite seems to know why. I'm also not sure how....

Update:  Per their Facebook post, Hidden Trails has shut down as  of April 2018. If there is one thing I hate, it is going somewhere and not knowing where to go.  Or, specifically, where to park . In this case, the destination was "Hidden Trail Adventures", an ATV tour company operating out of the Ghost Waiparous area of Alberta.  A google of the name yields their website, along with a crappy map.  Not much help if you have never been there before. Google Maps has nada on their actual operating location.  Satellite is no help - there is no detail to the imagery in the Ghost area.  You can make out a few parking areas but not which is which. Street View works, but the data was collected either before Hidden Trail set up shop or sometime when they were not on-site - probably the former, as none of the relevant signage is shown in Street View. They do give good directions but that is not much help if you want to use a satnav to assist you. ...

Microsoft has an annoying habit of rebooting my machine.  Yes, I know why they do this.  It is still annoying. I still use a VGA/PS2 KVM.  Old school, sure, but it has two great advantages - it lets me control all my PCs and it works. When MS decides to push out a reboot, and my KVM is set to a PC other than my main workstation, the main workstation display settings get confused.  The KVM-ed monitor will sometimes get stuck as "Generic Plug & Play Monitor" at the wrong resolution. Worse, the 'correct' resolution is not listed in the standard Windows 7 display settings.  There is no option to force that resolution. Resetting the KVM and rebooting the workstation should fix it, but sometimes does not.  Pressing "Detect" in the W7 display settings also does not fix anything, although it really should. In this situation, I have found that simply opening up the ATI Catalyst Control Center will automatically fix the problem.  This means going t...

I have been taking a lot of calls at work lately. I was using Sony's wired headphones. At $13 on eBay, they're hard to beat.  But the wires were a pain.  I keep my phone on my desk, so the headset effectively tied me there. After reading on Lifehacker about a nice wireless stereo headset from LG , I bit.  Buying them on eBay from the aptly-named "LG Mobile Accessory" store, they showed up a little while later. No way to know if the LG Mobile Accessory seller is for real or not.  But if these headphones are counterfeit, they are damn good counterfeits. Which actually counts for a lot, seeing as it takes attention and effort to counterfeit something like this effectively and accurately.  I'd guess they are totally legit. And they work.  And when I say they work, I mean it ALL works.  All the music playback controls - forward, backward, play/pause, and volume - work flawlessly on my Xperia X10i using Poweramp.  The call controls similarly wo...

(OK, so the Cel-Fi maybe isn't technically quite a femtocell.  Shoot me.  Actually, please shoot me, I just came back from a rotten business trip and am jet-lagged to hell.) Every review I've read on the Cel-Fi sounds the same: Bought it Unpacked it Installed it Used it Result:  It Works. Yay.  Great review, guys! It did work for me too.  Not a big surprise. And, to be fair, there is little to review on the thing, as it has no controls or adjustments.  It's totally plug and play, which should be an advantage!  Somehow that gets lost in the quest for information. So.  How WELL it works?  Hm. Well, installing the "Window Unit" was just a matter of puttering about with my phone set to show the actual signal levels.  You can also use a signal strength widget or something, it doesn't matter.  I was most interested in what the handset was 'seeing'. I was getting around -81 dB in my bedroom window.  That was only ...