Idlier's Tech Craze

     2ndLife series is a blog journal of the electronic gadgets that I have dumpster dived and refurnishing process (update apps, reinstall operating system like Linux) to make them usable for my simple needs, mainly watching and downloading Youtube videos, reading mangas and running torrents.      Since I have been dumpster diving and come across  gadgets  such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones, I decided to write on how I actually refurbish these  gadgets  and giving them a second life to be useful, hopefully until hardware breakdown (quite unlikely since most that I have refurbished actually lasted longer than hardware failures, except when I find that I have too many and decided to throw away to make space for newer gadgets.      For laptops, I have currently Asus, Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Apple laptops. Only the Lenovo laptop was given to me and I purchased the Asus as a desktop replacement (15 inch). Most of the ...

    I just managed to dumpster dive an old 2013 Macbook Air laptop. I like its thin and sleek built with the picture below. Specifications Codename: MacBook Air. Processor Speed: 1.3 GHz Boost Speed: 2.6 GHz. Processor Architecture: 64-bit. Processor type: Core i5 (3427U) “Ivy Bridge”. Iterations: Core i7 (4650U) “Haswell”; i5 (4260U) “Haswell”. Processor upgrade: soldered. Cores: 2. Graphics core: Yes. On-Board RAM: 4 GB, DDR3 1600 MHz. Max. RAM: non-upgradeable. Display: 13.3-inch LED-backlit TFT active matrix IPS, 16:10 widescreen, 1440 x 900 pixels max resolution. Webcam: FaceTime 720p resolution. Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000 graphics with 1.5 GB of shared DDR3 memory. Storage: 256 GB SSD. Early-2014 version – upgradable to 512GB from 256GB at the time of purchase. Fusion Drive: No. Input\Output: 2 x USB 3.0, analog audio out, SDXS card slot and Thunderbolt. Power Connector: MagSafe 2. Battery: inbuilt lithium-ion polymer, 54-watt-hour. Internet \ Wireless...

     Recently, I have come across a lightweight Linux distribution that seems interesting coming from the Debian variant. It uses LXDE desktop that is not updated actively so this is a big concern due to lack of new features or bug fixes (recently noticed since I was watching a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLGrNhYp2R4 ). My main purpose is to try out lightweight linux distribution then. Usually I choose Ubuntu based Linux distribution so it is an interesting Linux distro for me to play with. I chose to install onto my Lenovo Thinkpad X200(2007 model), the oldest laptop that I have to see what is the effect on it. It has a dual-core CPU, 8GB RAM and 500GB HDD. Previously I have tried Bodhi Linux and Android-x86 on this laptop but in the end, I chose Linux Lite for this laptop since Linux Lite became my favourite Linux distro.      During the installation stage for WattOS onto my laptop, I encountered failure to install bootloader during the...

  Image from: https://www.makeuseof.com/is-linux-lite-fast-and-lightweight-distro/ Linux Lite becomes my Favourite Linux distribution again!                                                                                       - Dickson Idlier I have been using Linux Mint distribution as it is stable and enables me to transfer data from my mobile phone. This is important to me as I use my mobile phone to download files and then transfer them to my external hard disks or laptops for use. So this feature is important to me compared to usable Linux Desktop. Initially I wanted to try different Linux desktop environments so the customised XFCE on Linux Lite does not meet my needs. It was my favourite Linux distribution before I started desktop environment hopping. But I ...

Recently, I have decided to purchase China brand ( Zheino and Goldenfir ) SSDs to upgrade the mechanical harddisks that I have at home.  I was experiencing slowness on my Lenovo U41 laptop and suspected that it is caused by a failing harddisk. I did replace with another harddisk but the problem still exists. At that time I managed to find a Zheino brand 512GB SSD on offer (SGD$25.48 @Lazada) and quickly purchased it. Initially I was looking at KingSpecs but the price rose from $18+ to $29+ so I decided not to get it. I have reviewed Zheino previously when I was looking for SSD but did not make any purchase as I have quite a few spare harddisk to use. Since the price is less than SGD$30 for 512GB SSD, it was worthy to purchase and test it out myself.  Image from Lazada After it arrived, I installed the Zheino 512GB SSD into my Lenovo U41 laptop and reinstalled Linux Lite(My favorite Linux distribution right now). After the installation, I noticed that copying files from a ext...

     I recently dumpster dived a Macbook Pro (A1502) with a plastic peeling power adapter. I usually do not dumpster dive Macbooks since I have not managed to reuse any until now. Since Apple Macbook hardware is pretty good and better battery life, I decided to try to reinstall the operating system (MacOS) to Linux Lite. Main reasons are not having the login password for previous owner and also the installed MacOS likely is no longer supported so not worth reinstalling a fresh copy of MacOS. Linux Lite has been my favourite lightweight Linux distribution since I like to reuse older laptop hardware. Previously I did this for Acer and Dell laptops.  Macbook Pro (A1502) image from cp24.pl Specs: LED-backlit 13.3" widescreen 2560x1600 (227 ppi) "Retina" display 2.9GHz Intel "Core i5" processor (5287U) 8GB DDR3 RAM 128GB Solid State Drive Intel Iris 6100 graphics processor FaceTime HD Camera Two USB 3.0 ports, two "Thunderbolt 2" ports, an HDMI port, an au...

  Comparison of SD card bus speeds [ 109 ] Bus interface Bus logo Bus speed PCI Express   lanes Duplex Card types Spec version SD SDHC SDXC SDUC Default Speed — 12.5 MB/s — ? Yes Yes Yes Yes 1.01 High Speed 25 MB/s 1.10 UHS-I 50 MB/s Half / Full No 3.01 104 MB/s Half — 180 MB/s [ e ] — UHS-II 156 MB/s Full 4.00 312 MB/s Half UHS-III 312 MB/s Full 6.0 624 MB/s SD Express 985 MB/s 3.1 ×1 7.0 1,969 MB/s 3.1 ×2 8.0 4.0 ×1 3,938 MB/s 4.0 ×2 Comparison of SD card Speed Class ratings [ 114 ] Minimum sequential writing speed Suggested max. bitrate Speed Class Video format [ f ] Speed Class UHS Speed Class Video Speed Class SD HD  /  Full HD 4K 8K 2  MB/s 15 Mbit/s   Class 2 (C2) — — Yes No No No 4 MB/s 30 Mbit/s   Class 4 (C4) Yes 6 MB/s 45 Mbit/s   Class 6 (C6)   Class 6 (V6) Yes 10 MB/s 75 Mbit/s   Class 10 (C10)   Class 1 (U1)   Class 10 (V10) 30 MB/s 220 Mbit/s   Class 3 (U3)   Class 30 (V30) Yes 60 MB/s 460 Mbi...