If you want to see a man in a basement ramble on about monitors for over an hour, this is the video for you!
I cover a wide variety of monitor specification-related topics, and how they all come together with the Crossover 404K. But don’t worry, even if the 404K is obsolete by the time you find this, it should still be helpful! (Maybe.)
If you’re not an avid Amazon shopper then you may have missed their latest foray into consumer electronics: The Amazon Dash Button. It’s basically less than you can imagine: You press a futuristic garage-door-opener-type-thing and Amazon orders some crap to your door.
I’m not exaggerating. It’s a small device with a single button, and its only purpose is to order a single product of a single brand. My comparison to a garage door opener is quite apt, except that instead of opening a door you’re spending an arbitrary amount of money. Maybe it’s more like a reverse raffle.
And hey! If you did already hear about the Dash Button, then maybe you want to know what makes it tick, eh? Well, here’s your chance because I cracked one open and showed you the gooey, creamy center.
Here’s Part 1 in a three two part series of videos covering the Crossover 404K and off-brand Korean monitors in general.
It’s nothing fancy, but somehow I spent 20 minutes unboxing this thing. And yes, I did edit it down. So put on your best tray of popcorn, and hold onto nothing at all for this mildly unexciting voyage into a 40 inch “4K” (actually UHD) monitor.
Thanks in advance for watching, and please subscribe to make me feel better about what I’m doing with my life to catch the next videos in the series!
Hopefully you’ve already checked out my other video: Project Fi – From 1996 to Nexus 6. In that video I discuss Project Fi, the Nexus 6, and the cellular industry in general. It started out with an opening shot of twelve Nexus Sixes (or Nexus 72, if you prefer).
In another blog post and video I showed off my motion control slider project. I’ve been looking for excuses to use it in particularly “motion-controley” ways, and so I decided to composite a bunch of passes of the camera over my one Nexus 6 to make make many of them.
As you can see, it’s done in front of a green screen. That let me isolate the Nexus 6 in each pass, which I then layered on top of each other in Adobe After Effects. I just used a mirror effect in Adobe Premiere to create the left side of the “wall”.
I thought that this was a good use of motion control for compositing because it would have been nearly impossible (or at least very difficult) to make each of the 6 passes of the camera happen at exactly the same speed if I did it by hand.
My green screen and the holder for the phone (just a mini light stand covered in green masking tape) weren’t perfectly uniform, either in texture or lighting, so the matte came out a little rough and you can see some artifacts around the phones.
I’ll admit that I’m a lazy man, so rather than re-light and re-shoot the entire thing I used a garbage matte to get rid of the worst of it. With the footage having been sped up 3x and the white-to-normal dissolve thing, it’s not overly noticeable in the final product. (Or at least I’m hoping that you didn’t notice it.)
If you have any questions about how I put it together, or any advice for me on how to get a better result next time, please let me know in the comments!
I’ve been a Verizon customer since back when they were called Bell Atlantic back in The Year 2000. Lately their service has been terrible in my area. When I’m lucky enough to get an LTE connection, it’s slow and high-latency.
Project Fi lets my phone choose the best of two providers for my data service: Sprint or T-Mobile. And so far, it’s just plain better.
I go on at some length about it in the video above.
In a previous blog post and video I showed off my motion control slider project. I’ve been looking for excuses to use it in particularly “motion-controley” ways, and so I decided to composite a bunch of passes of the camera over my one Nexus 6 to make a wall of Nexus Sixes.
Introductory Video This video is and introduction of my motion control slider project, showing the basics of what it can do and how it’s used. Time Lapse Assembly Video I figured that I’d record the entire assembly process of the MC slider from start to finish. This video shows about 24 hours of real time in 15 minutes, and in it I discuss some of the problems I faced and design choices I made. Feedback If you’ve got any comments or random abuse to hurl, please post it here on the ol’ blog. Seriously, I’d appreciate any and all suggestions and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. As promised in the videos, various downloads and a parts … Continue reading
I should point out that I knew next to nothing about the Echo when I pre-ordered it. I knew next to nothing about it when it arrived. I figured I’d take the approach of someone that just got this thing as a gift or something.
I unbox the Echo and spend some time setting it up. It did not go well.
Then I attempted to interact with Alexa. I suppose I’m just accustomed to Google, because I can ask it a variety of free-form questions and most of the time it comes up with the correct answer. Alexa seems to be far more finicky about phrasing and command syntax. Which is just what you want from a user-friendly tube that ominously glows at you from the center of your living room.
I just don’t get the Echo. Fine, it can play music and it can control all of your lights a limited number of brands of lights.
For home automation though, I’d want something more discrete. Something integrated into the house, not an obvious cylinder that I have to explain to everyone.
For listening to music I’m fine with a Bluetooth speaker.
If I have extemporaneous questions for the internet I can always ask the Google that’s in my very pocket (or glued to my hand).
Amazon does publish an API for Alexa. After making the video I signed up for their developer program. It’s been about a week, and I still haven’t heard back.
However, I’m hoping that the community will come up with some killer apps, and that home automation compatibility will increase.
But in the meanwhile of my daily life, Alexa remains a novelty. My living room and my workstation in my basement already have better speakers than the Echo’s. So she doesn’t do me much good for music, and she still can’t answer questions better than my phone.
The HPRC 2550W and Pelican 1510 are both watertight rugged hard cases meant to fit into the overhead compartment on an airplane. They’re pretty much the same size, of similar weight, and have a very similar design.
For the basics, check out the specs for both:
HPRC 2550W: http://www.plaber.com/2550w.htm
Pelican 1510: http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail/Case/1510/
Back in 2008, another blogger pointed out a major difference between the 2550W and 1510:
So it turns out that HPRC have done the seemingly impossible; making a case smaller on the outside and bigger inside, than the equivalent Pelican 1510. They’ve done it simply by designing specifically for purpose. The Pelican 1510 is a minor adaptation of a carry-case with a handle-and-wheel component bolted onto the back of the case. – manbagaholic.blogspot.com
While he goes on to point out that the HPRC does indeed fit more gear than the Pelican, I actually prefer the “kludged” on handle and wheels of the Pelican. As I pointed out in the video, they’re more easily replaced that way — I have a couple of pieces of luggage with broken wheels — and there are fewer intrusions into the case.
Not only that, but the Pelican is arguably better protected on the underside. It has the entire handle module between the bottom of the case and the ground.
I’d also argue that one of the reasons that the Pelican is larger on the outside and smaller on the inside than the HPRC is that it’s made of thicker material. I don’t have a pair of calipers to verify that, but it’s certainly sturdier.
In the video I also didn’t talk about materials: The Pelican is made of Polypropylene, while the HPRC is made of TTX01.
TTX01 is a polypropylene resin. Here’s the marketing hype:
TTX01 material confers the cases characteristics to withstand to impacts, drops and pressures thanks to its high resistance together with elasticity. An HPRC case used in extreme temperature conditions (both warm and cold) never lose its own distinctive characteristics (Granted range of temperature is -40°C +80°C). HPRC cases are watertight, dust – humidity – acids, ashes and sand proof. Cases withstand drops and impacts: a tool of transport not comparable to any other in the market for protection. Do not forget that TTX01 makes HPRC cases lighter in comparison to the average of the market. Maximum protection and light weight. (source: plaber.com)
It’s undeniable that the 1510 is heavier at 11.99 pounds than the 2550W at 10.69 pounds. I also noted the increased elasticity in the video. But is TTX01 actually a better material? All I can say is that I’m having the damnedest time finding specifications and/or independent (or even dependent) test data on TTX01.
Call me a pessimist, but HPRC doesn’t state unequivocally that TTX01 is stronger than the polypropylene of the Pelican. They only say that it’s “lighter”, and the extra 1.3 pounds makes no real difference to me.
The paucity of information on TTX01 is also troubling. I can’t even find the patent at either the US Patent and Trademark Office, or the Italian patent office. Of course, they may have patented the material under a different name, but I also can’t find the trademark in either Italy or the US (though I can find “HPRC” in both).
My point is that I’m betting that TTX01 isn’t as brag-worthy as HPRC would have us believe. In fact, their offered temperature range for performance of -40°C to +80°C is narrower than that of the Pelican 1510 of -40°C to +99°C. (Of course I get that you’re not going to be using the case in the range of 80°C to 99°C. I’m pointing out the only objective metric available.)
It’s what I said in the video: Get the Pelican. I’m sure you know that there’s a feel you get when you hold and manipulate a quality product. Even though the HPRC isn’t a bad case, the Pelican has an inherent feel of quality that the HPRC lacks.
Back in August I reviewed the Netgear 6100D from Sprint and followed up with a post detailing some advanced configuration options.
I also installed a flat panel 4G antenna from 4G Antenna Shop. I made a video detailing the unboxing and installation (which I just got around to editing together):
It’s my first video of this sort, so if you have any feedback please let me know in the YouTube comments or by email!
I didn’t get into it in the video, but overall I’d recommend 4G Antenna Shop. The cable and antenna I got were both of very high quality and definitely worth the price.
Their customer service was great; I had a couple of questions about my order, and one of their guys (Robert) got back to me within 15 minutes and was extremely helpful. They shipped really quickly, too.
I did have two minor issues, both of which I talk about in the video:
During checkout they give you the option of selecting your device so that they can provide the correct adapters to go from the cable (if you order it through them) to the device. At the time I’d ordered, they had an option for “Netgear Sprint Spark LTE”, which I thought was the Netgear 6100D. There was no separate option for the 6100D, but it turned out that they were referencing a different product, and so I received the wrong adapters. (They’ve since added the 6100D as an option.)
I chalked this up to being mostly my fault, as I didn’t know that there was another Netgear LTE device out there for Sprint Spark.
My other issue was with the packing job. Again, it’s a minor complaint because nothing was damaged, but the box arrived pretty beaten up with holes in the top from the antenna mount having poked through. There was no packing material to keep the box rigid, and the antenna and cable were just sorta rattling around inside.
Oh, and sorry if I rambled on a bit in the video. If you couldn’t tell from a lot of my other posts on here, I have an aversion to brevity. :)
I’m hoping to get some more how-to and instructional videos out there in 2015, so please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
(Hey, I’m allowed to shill for myself, right?)
