Last night I noticed not just one but TWO of my desktop's fans had stopped moving. This wasn't the first time Sully (the blue monster pictured (yellow is new)) needed some love, and I knew it wouldn't be the last. After about 3 years of occasional but recurring need for repair, I started growing tired of taking it apart and digging through its components to get to any particular problem zone (generally fans needing to be oiled).
At first, I started wondering if I needed a desktop at all. Perhaps I could hook my ultrabook up to all of my monitors and just use that?
Well, that was easy. A couple USB->HDMI adapters lying around & admittedly one splitter. Too easy. Back to Sully.
I was casually brainstorming more efficient ways to build a computer - both for better heat management and to prevent dust build-up. Perhaps I should just install it into an IKEA storage cube?
Lucky for me, my girlfriend is a redditor, so she enlightened me about the possibility of wall-mounting a PC. Wow. Genius! This would mean the heat & exhaust could be positioned right next to the ventilation intake & near the ceiling, preventing my office from inevitably heating itself like a cauldron.
Proper preparation often diminishes both the fun and difficulty of a puzzle, so I typically MacGyver makeshift, ad-hoc solutions.
I started by scrounging some supplies - most importantly, a mounting surface. Sharing a storage room in the basement with a restaurant and coffeeshop has its benefits- as I can often find very useful jetsam.
When I caught a glimpse of a spare metal storage shelf, I knew immediately the search was over - not only would it be strong enough to support a PC's weight, but it would have space for cable management and ventilation - not to mention a faster and more flexible mounting system. Zip ties!
Another stroke of luck - mounting brackets leftover from deconstructing a wardrobe - meant I had everything needed to mount the shelf.
I dug around for supplies to mount the soon-to-be-external components. Zip ties, twist ties, and sticky felt pads seemed sufficient.
I started with the mainboard and fan/heatsink. So far so good.
Next up: PSU and HDDs. Conveniently, my drives already had elastic attachment braces on them.
Last up- attach the wall mount brackets and drop it on!
With no power button hooked up yet, I turned it on with a light tap of a screwdriver, and voila! -->
I just got my Pebble watch today - which is awesome. I've been wanting an e-ink bluetooth bridge to my phone for a while now and when I found the Kickstarter I immediately jumped on it.
Kira is intrigued by it.
The watch is thin and light enough to accommodate my Eric-Foreman-wrists, and its packaging, interface, and app are all quite well done. I may turn the Pebble it into a dogtag via some 3d printed techneesh parts (due to seemingly impending carpal tunnel syndrome), but for now I'll try it out as intended.
Unfortunately one of the only default apps (music player) doesn't work to control Spotify! After trying about 10 different hacks/apps/mods, I found a working solution!
See video:
It started with a desire to reduce the noise and insulate the heat generated by my Replicator, but as techneesh grew, I found the need to have an additional printer...
Now I'm up to 3, and need to be able to print in lots of colors (depending on the application and customer demand). Here's what I've pieced together using some Ikea furniture, PVC piping, and some 3D-printed spool holders I found on Thingiverse.
~~Update - 1/13/2013~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After using the Yoga for almost two months, I am pleased to report that I am still enjoying it immensely. If you can afford a new laptop, definitely get this one. Also, make sure to do the hotfix listed below, and consider getting a spare mSata drive and SD card, to double (or more) your storage, and a Stand Mode Support Brace to eliminate screen wobbling while in stand mode. Here's a link to an 8GB DDR3 module, if you want to upgrade that, too.
Finally, also disable CPU throttling while in stand/tablet mode by uninstalling Intel Thermal Framework.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I first saw the Lenovo Yoga in person at CES Las Vegas in January, 2012. For a Windows 7 machine, I dismissed it as a viable candidate for best ultrabook due to its relatively larger form factor, slow SATA II interface, and increased weight. I decided 2012's best ultrabook was the 13" Samsung Series 9.
Now that Windows 8 is here (and bug-free), it's time to rethink what attributes are most important on an ultrabook. A good touchscreen is the obvious newcomer, and this alone knocks the list of contenders down to only a handful.
Next up is device orientation flexibility/variability. A touchscreen is somewhat awkward to use when a device resembles a traditional laptop (i.e. keyboard rests in front of the screen, separating you from the touch input)- the reason many hybrid tablets detach from their keyboard counterpart.
Enter the Yoga. While a perfectly respectable ultrabook in its own right, it transcends the typical capability of a laptop (or a tablet, for that matter) with its 360 degree rotating screen and thus usurps the title 'best ultrabook' by rendering its competition feeble, inadequate, and probably ashamed.
For an overly lengthy look at the Yoga compared to Windows Surface RT and the Samsung Series 9, see my video below.
Here are the key takeaways about the Yoga:
-10 finger multitouch, Full HDMI out, USB3.0, good power plug port (it resembles a USB port), 13.3" 1600x900 IPS panel, 4-8GB RAM (1 slot, upgradeable), 6+ hr battery, .69" thick, 3.4 pounds, amazing leather feel that's comfortable for extended use, EXTRA, EMPTY SSD slot (so you can put a second SSD in)! $999 at BestBuy for the i5-3317U version.
So, I bought one from BestBuy to replace my 15" Samsung Series 9 with 16gB RAM due to the reasons mentioned above. (If you don't plan to switch to Windows 8 and want the best Windows 7 // 15" ultrabook on the market, lmk. I'll be posting it on eBay soon.)
So far, it has exceeded my expectations, and I find I use its various modes quite frequently, depending on the task (Tent Mode for watching a video or docked use, Stand Mode for browsing Netflix or reading certain websites/articles, Tablet Mode for games etc.).
A few issues to note:
-Firstly, you'll have to reconfigure the partitioning to make better use of the SSD, as Recovery + Lenovo take up ~40gB. This takes only a few seconds (lenovo has their own hotfix) but seems to have a lot of people in outrage on the interwebs.
-Next up, the battery life is not as good as I'm used to with the Samsung Series 9. Expect closer to 5-6 hours. Not much one can do about this. The CPU is reportedly unlocked so perhaps undervolting might help?
-Only 1 DDR3 RAM slot, meaning the max this guy can take is 8GB. On the bright side, it's not soldered RAM so it is indeed upgradeable.
-Sata II with ~200mB/s read/write speeds.
-And lastly, some Yogas are afflicted with a minor or severe grinding, buzzing, whirring fan noise. (Hear video below). Mine exhibited this problem, and my attempts to mediate it by smacking it only seemed to exacerbate the problem, if anything :)
With no word regarding a fix or cause for the fan noise anywhere online, I decided to attempt a diagnosis and hopefully a fix.
After removing all the bottom T4 (or T5?) torx screws, the next step is to remove the keyboard. This part was tricky. I gently pried up the top left (with metal tweezers, but one should use plastic just to be safe), then worked around the edges before pulling upwards (towards hinge) about 1/8 of an inch. Be sure to remove the ribbon cable before setting aside.
Next is to remove the palm rest after unscrewing the
marked M2 screws.
Now you can access all the Yoga's internals, including RAM, spare PCIe slot (which can take another mSata SSD), SSD, and of course, the fans.
Empty PCIe Slot
mSata SSD
To get to the fans, start by removing the black tape attaching them to the black heatsink. Next, unplug the little adapter to the left and unscrew the screws holding the fans to the chassis. Then, lift the fan module up slightly (from the side furthest from the heatsink) and wiggle free from the second strip of tape you can't see yet.
At this point it was time to narrow down the problem. Flicking each along with a fingertip, I determined the noise was specific to the left-side fan, which sits essentially in the middle of the Yoga (and sadly is the more frequently-used fan). Look at the variance in gaps between the fan's blades and the housing:
Fan is touching housing!
Plenty of space
So, as I suspected, the problem is that the fan is hitting the metal housing! The ideal solutions are 1. replace the fan with a higher quality // better designed one or 2. replace the metal housing with a re-cut version that prevents this, or 3. add a spacer next to the fan that keeps the metal housing far enough away. Without the tools/parts/motivation to achieve 1, 2, or 3, I went for option 4: pry the gap a little wider with a screwdriver until you can spin the fan with your finger and it no longer makes any noise. Be careful not to hurt the fan blades, they are quite soft feeling.
For the record, here's a close-up of the evidence confirming the source of the noise (to open the housing first remove the second strip of black tape then unscrew the tiny screws):
So, if you want to upgrade the SSD//RAM or fix the fan noise, you should have enough info to do it. I spent about 15 minutes, which is probably less time than it would take to make an exchange at BestBuy. I'll report if the fan noise returns; if it does, I suspect Lenovo might have to do a recall // upgrade.
Now that I have a bit of JS/jQuery under my belt, I've noticed I can do some pretty useful tricks on websites when the occasion arises.
Most recently, this entailed selecting all 800 or so of my friends on Facebook to share a Kickstarter I'm helping launch. I never promote anything on Facebook, so I decided I'd let myself do it just this once.
Anyway, here's how I did it in about 5 seconds:
1. Open the share pop-up and scroll to the bottom
2. Open developer tools and go to console
3. Paste jquery in 4. Type: $('li[role="option"]:not(.disabledCheckable)').each(function(e){$(this).click()}) Done! (alternative way: 4. type: $('input[type="checkbox"]').attr('checked', 'true') $('input[type="checkbox"]').remove('[disabled]').each(function(e){$(this).click()}) 5. type: $('li.multiColumnCheckable').addClass('selectedCheckable') )
I was sharing a page I created for the electree+, an electric bonsai tree that charges electronics with solar power :)
If you're like me, you probably leave Gmail open somewhere for easy access. This might not ever be a problem if you aren't working on a complex project or if you have multiple monitors (or use Dexpot properly), but I find that my Gmail tab has an annoying habit of wandering off somewhere, forcing me to chase it down every now and then.
Also, I don't know about you, but I generally don't need to read more than the first 20 words of the subject line of emails sitting in my inbox. The normal Gmail email display stretches across the entire width of the page- with most monitors, it's total overkill - I care more about the vertical content (separate emails) than the horizontal content (subject lines)... (see photo). So yesterday I thought, 'wouldn't it be nice if I could have Gmail share the same page/tab with my to-do/note-taking platform?'
I whipped up some code and have since been absolutely loving my new Gmail page. I simply added a little button on the right that will resize Gmail and display my WorkFlowy on click. You can use Advanced Page Injector Chrome Extension to have it automatically inject the code for you (so just copy and paste below!). Just change the workflowy.com to yourtaskmanagerofchoice.com (e.g. asana) where it says src="http://www.workflowy". Also, if you use a Chrome Extension that doesn't automatically include jQuery (the linked one does not), also copy and paste this into your '^https://mail.google.com' rule.
It's irked me for a while that Windows+Right/Left hotkeys don't work with Spotify. I use them all the time to reposition applications- especially when I'm at home with 4 monitors.
However I never quite hit the tipping point to motivated action for this puzzle, until I decided to make Spotify semi transparent so Winamp's Milkdrop visualizer could shine through during a social get-together at my place last night.
I found a great little app called glass2k that enables custom transparency for any window/application - however, it caused Spotify to freeze!
After searching for a while online, I decided that nobody had solved the whole 'Spotify uses a really weird window that doesn't behave normally' thing.
I'm pleased to report that I've found a way to fix Spotify up so it will work normally with Windows' snap-to functions. And to top it off, I also found a way to make Spotify transparent :)
Credit goes to the niftiest Windows program out there called Autohotkey, and community member System Monitor for his transparency script. Head on over to Autohotkey's homepage and install the program (and maybe later spend some time creating awesome hotkeys to paste text you commonly type out, such as your email address, or control music faster/easier, etc).
Once installed, all you have to do is open a text editor/notepad, paste the following, save the file, change the extension from .txt to .ahk, then double click it and you're good to go!
Consider copying it to C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ so it will automatically start on boot.
!f:: WinGet, active_id, ID, A WinGet, Style, Style, A if (Style & 0x170B0000) { ;MsgBox, Fixing Spotify. WinSet, Style, 0x17CF0000, ahk_id %active_id% WinSet, Transparent, OFF, ahk_id %active_id% } return !w:: WinGet, active_id, ID, A WinGet, currentWindow, ID, A if not (%currentWindow%) { %currentWindow% := 255 } if (%currentWindow% != 255) { %currentWindow% += 5 WinSet, Transparent, % %currentWindow%, ahk_id %active_id% } SplashImage,,w100 x0 y0 b fs12, % %currentWindow% SetTimer, TurnOffSI, 1000, On Return !s:: SplashImage, Off WinGet, active_id, ID, A WinGet, currentWindow, ID, A if not (%currentWindow%) { %currentWindow% := 255 } if (%currentWindow% != 5) { %currentWindow% -= 5 WinSet, Transparent, % %currentWindow%, ahk_id %active_id% } SplashImage,, w100 x0 y0 b fs12, % %currentWindow% SetTimer, TurnOffSI, 1000, On Return TurnOffSI: SplashImage, off SetTimer, TurnOffSI, 1000, Off Return
After you fire it up, Alt+f (f stands for 'fix spotify') will fix Spotify, enabling you to use the Windows snap commands!
Alt+w and Alt+s will control transparency of any running program. I haven't gotten Spotify to be interactive while transparent, so if you want to click on it you'll have to Alt+f it again.
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out my other blog and 3D-printed tech accessories site, techneesh. Follow me @tristech for occasional but interesting tweets.
