TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

I purchased this lens recently, but am planning to send it back.  Experience is below for anyone considering this lens, or wondering if their copy is good or bad. Note: this post does not review the "G2" model of this lens. First informal tests showed up a possible issue. Caveats: Handheld,  1/1000s or higher, high ISO. No, the sign is not straight. Who cares, look at the results! 0 - Uncropped example shot f/2.8 f/3.2 f/3.5 f/4.0 f/4.5 f/5.0 f/5.6 f/6.3   f/7/1 Yes, I know DOF plays a part.  But still obviously a possible issue. So, on to more rigorous testing, below. Note: I am aware it is not fair to compare a zoom against primes, a zoom at max zoom vs. a zoom at min zoom.  However, these are the lenses I had available.   All lenses were shot wide open to make the tests as fair as possible. All at ISO 100, tripod, 5s self-timer delay, Nikon SB-24 flash, lens VR off, lens was refocus...

Amazingly complicated tutorial here . tl;dr version:  Copy the following directories from the old device to the new: Android/data/com.and.games505.TerrariaPaid/Players Android/data/com.and.games505.TerrariaPaid/Worlds I suggest you also do directory "OldSaves" as well.  On my old tablet, "Players" and "Worlds" were both empty, probably because it was running an older version of Terraria. The entire rest of the tutorial is a walkthrough on how to copy these up to a cloud drive, and back down again.  Obviously any equivalent method will also do.  It seems Terraria used to have a cloud save function.  I don't see it in the latest version (as of Nov 2019) and have no idea if it still exists or not.

Thanks to original poster here .  I didn't get the process at first, so I rewrote it with more detail below. Note:  If you have already started HuntCook on your NEW device, uninstall and reinstall it.  DON'T start it again (yet). 1.  Start HuntCook on OLD device. 2.  If you haven't already set it up, it may ask you to allow access to your Google account.  You have to permit this, as this is where the backup will be stored. 3.  In the HuntCook app, go to Menu->Settings->Data Backup. 4.  Proceed to back up your data.  -  You will need to assign a password.  Make it a simple one unique to HuntCook - you don't want a data breach goofing up your real passwords. -  You will get a cryptic 16-character "Backup ID".  Be sure to write this code down. -  You will also get the option to take a screenshot.  You can do so but I don't know where it is stored. 5.  On the NEW device, start HuntCoo...

Unfortunately, network problems can have a hundred causes.  This is a consolidation of the solutions found here , here , here , here and here . I did not get them all, so if the list below fails, you may need to root through the threads yourself.  This will at least give you a head start. Note:   These solutions are largely aimed at the situation where one (or more) network machines can browse the share properly, and one (or more) machines can't.  These solutions do not cover Windows Server or Active Directory (AD) issues. Error 0x80004005: Unspecified error For this error, you can (usually) browse to the affected share via IP address (i.e. \\192.168.1.xx\share) but not by name (i.e. \\NAS\share).  It may or may not show up in Network. This is (usually) a local DNS problem.  If you have other machines that work, your router / DNS server is OK, and there is something wrong with the DNS on the affected machine. For this reason, I recommend yo...

Networking using Phone Number Analogy This is a simple guide to understanding basic networking, firewalls, port forwarding, servers and VPNs, using the analogy of telephone numbers at a small business. I hope this will be useful to anyone who is troubleshooting connectivity issues in their network. Single PC You're a small business owner, with a 1-room office ( computer ).  You set up a phone number with you phone company ( internet service provider, ISP ) to get calls.  Your phone number ( internet IP address ) is publicly available and you accept all incoming calls. Single PC Security Things are not ideal since bad actors are tying up your phone line and trying to mislead your employees into sabotage. So, you hire a security guard ( firewall) who screens all incoming and outgoing calls ( packets ) at the office door.  He stops anything that looks wrong, and lets the rest through. Obviously, the guard needs to be told when new employees ( programs ) ar...

As storage gets cheaper, more and more people are using NAS devices. Many of these are relatively small (6-10 Tb).  These can be backed up on a single external USB hard drive. However, many exceed 20 Tb, and there are a lot of people out there running 40 Tb or more. Of course, these people purchased their NAS specifically for the very high capacity, redundancy and fault-tolerance of these devices.  Many run two-fault-tolerant arrays, dual redundant power supplies, dual UPS, and at least one hot spare.  They are as bulletproof as possible. However, they are not perfect .  So it only makes sense to try to have a last-resort backup of everything that's on a NAS. So - how do we do that? Options are limited: 1.  Go cloud storage.  Yeah, great if you want to spend $200+ per month . Oh, and all those "hacks" for "free / unlimited" options - they're either gone, going, or never worked anyway. 2.  Buy a second NAS and mirror it.  Great ...

I mean, why rummage through your box of unused drives when it's too late?  Create a UFEI boot drive now, plug it into an unused (and fairly inaccessible) USB port on your PC, and you're ready to go whenever.  Makes backup and recovery a lot easier. Taping the boot shortcut key for your PC to your monitor won't hurt, either. So far, the boot environment of Macrium Reflect seems to work pretty well. I don't like their file naming system, but I can live with it. I haven't actually tried a bare-metal restore with it yet.

Problem: Synology Rackstation (or Diskstation) reboots endlessly.  Power LED blinks, ALERT LED blinks.  Some drive LEDs green, most are red (or orange).  One drive LED might blink indicating drive activity.  LAN connection LEDs are dark (inactive).  No access.  Solution:  Try powering it off, pulling all drives, peripherals and RAM, and rebooting.  (Don't forget any USB peripherals, like a UPS.) If the Power/ALERT light behavior persists, and it doesn't return to a solid-on Power light in about a minute - your Rackstation is dead. Or, at least, it took Synology support chat < 60 seconds to conclude mine was dead.  Maybe you will be more fortunate. Synology would not confirm in my case, but I can't help but think the dreaded Intel C2000 bug could cause this. BAD NEWS:  Unless your unit is in warranty, or covered under the Atom +1 year extended warranty , you are SOL. GOOD NEWS:  Your data is most likely OK!  You ...

Problem: VLC "Vetinari"stutters / plays choppy video when older versions played just fine. Solution:  Go to Tools \ Preferences \ Input/Codecs  and set "Hardware-accelerated decoding" to "Disable".

Here are some items that are potentially useful to know when setting up a hardware key (i.e. Yubikey) for online security. 1.  Yubikey is grossly overpriced.   HyperFIDO has fully compatible keys at a quarter of the cost , and they even protect the USB plug contacts - something Yubikey does not do. (Why most key makers choose designs that expose the USB contacts, I will never understand.) They also have a mini version .  Reviews say it is not as well built, but at this price, you can afford to buy spares.  Plus it comes with a cap to keep grunge out of the USB plug. Unfortunately, they don't have a Bluetooth / NFC version.  For that you should consider a Feitian at half the cost of a Yubikey . [Update]:  I have noticed that some services work with Yubikeys, but don't work with other FIDO-compatible keys.  This is a problem on their end.  I've had good luck with companies fixing their issues once I point them out. 2.  You can't use...

Further to my previous post , I have found XWidget to have a lot of good options for information displays on old Androids. New development of XWidget has reportedly stopped , but the app still works fine.  Rainmeter is (presumably) intended to replace it, but it doesn't (yet) work on Android. The free version allows you to access a fairly good library of free widgets.  If you want the others (such as something from this massive collection by jimking ) you need to pony up a couple of bucks . Despite the developers insistence that it was possible to transfer downloaded widgets to Android, I could not make it work. XWidget would not connect to my phone (yes, I checked the driver). [Update 2019-04-06]:  The .XWP files for Xwidget are nothing more than zip/rar archives.  You can open them directly with WinRAR and extract the working files without the need to install the PC application, as described below. Original text: "My workaround was to unpack/install th...

No shortage of sites telling us we should be re-purposing old phones rather than junking them. I wanted to make a wall clock / weather station.  Easy, right? Nope. Many issues, including: -  The phone did not support a landscape home screen, meaning widgets were out. -  Most weather apps looked like crap. -  Many weather apps also did not rotate into landscape. So, several things to fix.  Very frustrating for what should have been a trivial thing, took much longer than I expected. As I wanted landscape mode, that meant an app and not a widget.  I tried out 10-12 weather apps and was not happy with any of them in landscape; most of them did a bad job of using all the available real estate. Some solutions: 1.  Install Nova Launcher .  This allows most any phone/tablet to have a landscape home screen; it also hides the status bar. (It can't hide the home/back buttons - that's part of the OS.  But it does everything else.) ...

Lots of sites tell you that you should be "re-purposing" old Android phones into something useful. I admit there are some useful things they could do.  Various kinds of clocks and weather forecasters are obvious; also a remote control for your smart thermostat or lighting. However, none of these sites deal with the main difficulty for many of these.  Which is, of course, old Androids do not rotate the home screen into landscape. This caused me no end of frustration (well - OK, several hours - but it felt endless) when I wanted to make an old phone a wall clock/weather monitor. One way to fix it:  Use Nova Launcher .  It supports landscape home screens, even on older devices. Google Launcher also did so, but is apparently discontinued.  It also populated the home screen with extra crap that Nova does not have. Nova can also get rid of the quick-access apps and the status bar.  It can't get rid of the home/back buttons, as those are part of the OS...

Everyday carry (EDC) has a bad rap.  Those who "practice" are either doomsday 'preppers', have a peculiar fascination with the subject in and of itself, or both.  Both approaches come off as crazy. Still, here are some items that I think are useful for any parent of small(er) children to always have around when you're out and about: 1.  A keychain flashlight, like a Nitecore Tube .  I've spent more time looking around dark schoolyards, classrooms, gyms, etc. for mittens, hats, toys and water bottles than I care to recall. 2.  A tiny pair of folding scissors.  I've lost track of the number of tags, threads, etc. I've cut off with these.  I like the old, crappy bent-metal kind . 3.  An ordinary plastic shopping bag.  Good for unexpected school / daycare crafts, projects, gifts, books, homework, etc. etc.. 4.  Big Band-aids ; better for larger scrapes at the playground or camping.  (Or small ones, at least.) 5.  Spare ...

Situation :  You've had a Galaxy S9 or S9+ for a long time with no issues.  You have not installed any new apps recently.  No app updates have occurred. However, after a Samsung firmware update, the phone will (very frustratingly) no longer make voice calls.  It will attempt to dial and give up after 10-30 seconds without ringing through.  Booting to safe mode does not help, but does remove all your widgets.  (ARGH!) Possible solution :  The firmware update has enabled voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) calling support, but your carrier / access point doesn't support/allow for it. To fix, go to Connections -> Mobile networks -> VoLTE calls and disable VoLTE calling. You should be especially suspicious of this feature if you are using a femtocell or cell phone boost device.  These devices probably don't support the newer VoLTE feature. Oh, and hey to Google - F-you for removing all my widgets in Safe Mode.  My God, you couldn't have s...

Here are some of the questions I found it difficult to answer regarding the (relatively) new Insta360 One X action camera.  That is, they required more research than I would have thought necessary. Many of these relate to indefinite shooting outdoors.  This involves the use of an external power source, as well as waterproofing / weather protection.  The primary application is filming motorcycling in uncertain weather conditions, where it is not practical to stop and dismount the camera every time there is a drop of rain. For reference, on my last trip, we were rained on for 11 hours straight returning home.  We were utterly soaked, and any non-waterproof camera would have been ruined. External Power Q:  Where is the damn USB port? A:  It's on the left side of the camera, near the base.  See here . Q:  What kind of USB port is it? A:  It's a micro USB.  The camera comes with a short USB-A to micro-USB adapter cable. Q:...