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Don’t believe the hype – MP3 is NOT Dead!

What did we do before MP3? I remember the early years using my Dolby high speed dubbing tape decks to make copies of the tapes my friends and I used to share. Not too soon after came the Compact Disc, and I ran out to buy a Pentium 60mhz with a 2x CD-Recorder to make my mix CD’s.

I was amazed that we could “rip” huge wav files off the CD’s and play them back on the PC. But disk space was at a premium in the 90’s, due to the limited capacity of hard drives.

There had to be a better way to store music! That’s when a friend introduced me to the MP3 format. Full length songs at decent quality only 3mb – 5mb! WOW this was amazing, think of the possibilities.  There were no portable MP3 players yet, I found myself taking a laptop in the car hooked to an FM transmitter to listen to my music.

My car MP3 Player Website

I even marketed a CD on eBay for $10 that had plans for a car MP3 Player Just imagine putting a computer in a pizza box in the trunk of your car, running a PS/2 cable to a numeric keypad and mounting a 40 character display to your dash board with a parallel cable.   It was good business until the portable MP3 players began to arrive about a year later.

A BRIEF TRIP DOWN THE PORTABLE MP3 PLAYER MEMORY LANE

Continue reading “Don’t believe the hype – MP3 is NOT Dead!”

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DIY Summer Project – Make your own Sun & Moon Jar Night Light

The Sun & Moon Jar night light helps set the mood in any room. Place the jar in your family room, bed room, back yard patio or even take it on your next camping trip. No matter where you place the jar, the warm glow will surely add ambiance to your surroundings.

Today I’m going to explain the steps to make your own Sun & Moon Jar.

Visit www.GeekGearStore.com for a completed version of this project!

Supplies you will need:

Tools You Can Use:

Let’s Get Building!

If you are not familiar with how LED’s work give this post a quick read.

Light Up Your Projects With (LED) Light Emitting Diodes

SUN & MOON JAR STEP 1 – Prepare The LED module

Take each LED and bend the Cathode (negative) post as shown.

I use a small needle nose to make the “L” shape.

 

Continue reading “DIY Summer Project – Make your own Sun & Moon Jar Night Light”

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Weekend Project – Repairing & Emulating the Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 was not only one of my favorite computers it was my first computer. Over the life span of the C64 I broke quite a few of them due to the poor quality of early deigns. This may have been a good thing because it lead to taking them apart and attempting to repair the units insuring my life long love of computers and consumer electronics.

Sometimes I was successful at my repair endeavor and many times not so much. Repairing the Commodore 64 became as much a hobby as programming the computer.

If you still have one of these dinosaurs in your basement and want to fire it up to show the kids take a look at this great PDF file I found on the Internet. It could prove to be helpful.

Feel Free To Download The Service Manual PDF Here

The service manual is dated March 1992 and that was about the year the C64 went out of production.  It is actually very complete with lots of hand drawn schematics and theory of circuit operation. Parts numbers and chip / port pin outs are also listed. Basically everything you need to troubleshoot and fix that old computer and fire up the BASIC V2 screen we all remember so well. Continue reading “Weekend Project – Repairing & Emulating the Commodore 64”

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UNIQUE GIFT FOR DAD – 16GB Mercedes Benz USB Flash Drive in the style of a Car Key!

Stumped on what to buy for the Dad that has everything this Father’s Day? This may be the answer. A very cool 16GB USB flash drive in the shape of a Mercedes Benz key fob.

Only $13.99 on Etsy

The USB drive can be customized and laser engraved with the word Dad or his  initials on the back!

Just plug into your computer and save your files in style!

Put some music on this drive and plug into Dads car USB port for some cool tunes.

 

Plus when you connect it to your computer, The Mercedes logo shows up and the drive name can be customized with your Dad’s name or initials!

 

 

 

 

 

This will  make an awesome  gift for Dad! Pick one up on Etsy for only $13.99

Exclusive for WebCommand.net readers:
Save 10% with discount code WEBCOMMAND

Thank you for reading my blog
-Joe

 

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How to make an image of your USB drive

Every now and then I stumble across a piece of software that is well written, extremely useful and FREE. Today I’m going to talk about Image USBDuring the day I am responsible for a staff of help desk technicians that are continuously upgrading and repairing PC’s. They like to have their Windows 10 install media on a bootable USB drive.   Lately the industry is shying away for optical disk drives, so bootable USB install media is a must.

Why can’t I just copy the files from one drive to another?

To “BOOT” from USB media the disk needs to have a boot sector. Think of the boot sector as a hidden area on the drive that the gives the computer specific instructions that it can only see at startup. Once the operating system is running you can easily copy your files from one drive to the other, however the hidden boot information is a little more difficult

What is special about ImageUSB?

Continue reading “How to make an image of your USB drive”

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Great Deal – PURE VPN Service for 73% off

As you may know from reading this blog I am a huge advocate of protecting online privacy. You the user should have a choice of who or what can monitor your Internet activity. I have already covered articles regarding the governments stance on Internet Privacy. Internet Privacy – Should you care?  and also about using Tor as a method to keep your browsing habits secret.  How Tor can keep your online identity private. I just wanted to reiterate how essential a VPN can be in keeping your browsing and online identity private. However you have to choose a service provider wisely. This is why I am recommending Pure VPN.

Pure VPN:  – Great price / Great Service

Continue reading “Great Deal – PURE VPN Service for 73% off”

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Software Review – Ninite Install and Update All Your Programs at Once

Ninite is one of my favorite software packages of all time. Working in the IT field, my friends and neighbors are constantly asking me to fix, repair and upgrade their home computers. I guess you can call it an occupational hazard. If you have ever rebuilt a PC before you know that its not an overly difficult task, but it is time consuming installing software package after software package.

This is where Ninite.com comes in.

A quick visit to their home page will reveal the most popular open source and free applications for your PC. Everything from 7-zip and iTunes to VLC Media player and Java.  Simply check off each application that you would like installed on your workstation and then click the “Get Your Ninite” button to begin the download and install.

Yes, it’s that simple! The software will start working as soon as its run, automatically selecting all the default options for each application and install in the default folder.  While the install is running, sit back and relax. The software does all its work in the background and will not ask to reboot. Continue reading “Software Review – Ninite Install and Update All Your Programs at Once”

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HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

I just wanted to extend my wishes for a Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms celebrating today! Especially to my Wife, who works hard every day keeping our home running so well. It may not feel like it , but I hope you know we appreciate all you do every day. Not just on Mother’s Day.Happy Mother's Day

In case you were curious (from Wikipedia)

“In its present form, Mother’s Day was established by Anna Jarvis on May 9, 1905, with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. Ann Jarvis always claiming that the creation of Mother’s Day was hers alone.” -Wikipedia

“On May 10, 1913, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on all federal government officials (from the president down) to wear a white carnation the following day in observance of Mother’s Day. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and requesting a proclamation. The next day, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.” – Wikipedia

Continue reading “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!”

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Weekend Project – Replace Your Cars Air Filter – (2014 Dodge Charger & 2011 Lexus ES 350)

Last weekend I gave you some tips on replacing your automobiles cabin filter. The benefit was clean fresh air while driving down the highway. Today I am going to talk about replacing your engine air filter.  The air filter is essential to keeping your engine running well.

What are the benefits of a clean air filter:

  • Increase Fuel Economy:
    There have been many studies to determine what the cost of a dirty filter is on fuel economy, it would be said that a 6% loss per gallon on modern cars.
  • Reduced Emissions:
    A dirty air filter reduces the air flow into the engine and therefore reduces the amount of air available for combustion.  This could cause the fuel / air ratio to be rich (too much fuel) which will cause incomplete combustion creating increased emissions and pollution
  • Increase Engine Life:
    The filter is designed to catch debris, even the smallest particle entering the engine can cause increased wear and significantly reduce the life of the engine.
  • Easy and quick fix:
    As you will see from my experience below, the air filter is usually an easy DIY project that is inexpensive to complete in just a few minutes. Saving you quite a few dollars over having the dealer do the work.

Let’s get working

Continue reading “Weekend Project – Replace Your Cars Air Filter – (2014 Dodge Charger & 2011 Lexus ES 350)”

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Amazon adds a screen to Alexa – Calling it Echo Show

I guess this is the natural evolution for the Alexa digital assistant. Poor Alexa has been trapped in that cylinder all these years. Now with the latest version from Amazon, the Echo Show can see you and “show” you things. I have had the original Amazon Echo from day one. My family and I have found it very useful, weather we use her for homework help or to get the scores of the New York Ranger game or just to simply play Jeopardy.

Check out the new Echo Show At Amazon

What can Alexa Show – “Show You?”

The most interesting new feature is the access to video and voice calling. Basically this is a face time clone, however it takes it one step further with the new “Drop In” feature. This new feature is designed to auto accept a call  giving you a 10-second window to reject. I can see this being useful if you want to check in on an elderly  family member, or check in on the kids after school. Continue reading “Amazon adds a screen to Alexa – Calling it Echo Show”

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