Category Archives: Tech Blog

Blog, Tech Blog

SteelSeries flex Guild wars 2, headset Earpads Leather Ear Cushions

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If your looking for replacement earpads for your Steel Series Flex headset I suggest the below replacement from Amazon. My Steel Series Flex headset is a few years old and they do not make original earpads replacements. The headset has excellent sound quality and everything but the earpads are in great shape. I didn’t want to get a new headset if I could find earpads replacments that fit.

After searching online for a while I finally found an reddit post about someone that used a size 65mm generic replacement that worked well and had been using it for a while.

I found the below on Amazon and gave it a try for $5.99 with prime. When I received them they fit perfectly and good on the ears. It’s tricky to get the pads on, but you start at the notch on the headset and twist clocking wise or counter clock wise depending on how you started. Keep spinning the earpads around till there fully in the groves around the earpiece.

Replacement Earpads Leather Ear Cushions Spare Ear Pads Kit fit for Most Headphone Models: AKG,HifiMan,ATH,Philips,Fostex,Sony,Beats by Dr. Dre and More,Universal Diameter 65MM(1Pair Black) by SDGL
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KKFZ338/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_W8EWEbVZZBZFW

Below is a picture of the cushions on my headset:

Games, Tech Blog

Review of my new MSI Gaming Laptop – GS63VR STEALTH-252

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I’ve been using my MacBook Pro mid-2010 for 7 years. It’s time to move on.

I’ve just picked up my steaming hot MSI Gaming Laptop 3 weeks ago and I can not be happier. I was not going to spend the money needed for the power on an Apple. Plus I’m not going to be sucked in to the dongle game. This laptop has all the port you need plus some more.  I have not had the chance to start heavy gaming, but I have done a few tests and I’m very impressed. With 6GB of video memory and 16 GB of system memory on an i7 you have incredible power. I will say the better video card memory is more important then system memory, you can upgrade the system memory at any time, but not the video memory. I only go with Nvidia video card systems as a preference. When I was in Best Buy making my final decision between ASUS and MSI, I noticed the 2 of the ASUS gaming laptops were locked up.  Total hard-locked needed to be rebooted, but the MSI ones were flying smooth.  That was my final kicker and sign from above.

I was not focused on the 17in screen model, I’m enjoying the 15.6in just fine. I wanted it to still feel portable. The steelseries keyboard is a pleasure to type on, and the lighting memorizing. Only have slight issues with tapping the touch pad, but getting used to it and adjusting the sensitivity.

I have removed the Norton Security that came from MSI, I could not stand the constant popups and reminders to enable other features. Best Buy gave me 6 months free with Webroot antivirus and have switched to it. So far I’m impressed with the reviews of it and the little footprint it leaves on the system.

You can find what software I have added under my Windows Apps page, I only review apps I use. I will be gaming with World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online and a few other games. I have tested them with full graphics on so far with out a hiccup. I’m also using my Apple Magic Mouse without a hickup.

I will post some un-boxing pictures in the future.

GS63VR STEALTH-252 (link to Best Buy) – Features:

Windows 10 operating system
Windows 10 brings back the Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you markup Web pages on your screen. Learn more ›

15.6″ Full HD display
The 1920 x 1080 resolution boasts impressive color and clarity. Energy-efficient LED backlight.

7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ mobile processor
Powerful quad-core processing performance. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it, while increasing energy efficiency when you don’t.

16GB system memory for intense multitasking and gaming
Reams of high-bandwidth DDR4 RAM to smoothly run your graphics-heavy PC games and video-editing applications, as well as numerous programs and browser tabs all at once.

1TB hard drive and 256GB solid state drive (SSD) for a blend of storage space and speed
The hard drive provides ample storage, while the SSD delivers faster start-up times and data access.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics
Backed by 6GB GDDR5 dedicated video memory for an ultrafast, advanced GPU to fuel your games.

Weighs 3.97 lbs. and measures 0.7″ thin
Ultrathin and ultralight for maximum portability, featuring a smaller screen size and omitting the DVD/CD drive to achieve the compact form factor. 3-cell lithium-ion battery.

Bluetooth 4.1 interface syncs with compatible devices
Wirelessly transfer photos, music and other media between the desktop and your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or MP3 player, or connect Bluetooth wireless accessories.

1 USB Type-C port
To maximize performance on the latest high-speed devices.

3 USB 3.0 ports maximize the latest high-speed devices
Also includes 1 USB 2.0 port to connect more accessories and peripherals. USB 3.0 ports are backward-compatible with USB 2.0 devices (at 2.0 speeds).

HDMI 2.0A output expands your viewing options
Connect to an HDTV or high-def monitor to set up two screens side by side or just see more of the big picture.

Thunderbolt port for connecting advanced monitors and external drives
This single interface supports both high-speed data and high-def video — plus power over cable for bus-powered devices — ideal for digital content creators.

Built-in media reader for simple photo transfer
Supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card formats.

Next-Gen Intel® Wireless-AC connectivity
Connect to a Wireless-AC router for nearly 3x the speed, more capacity and wider coverage than Wireless-N. Backward-compatible with all other Wi-Fi networks and hotspots. Gigabit Ethernet LAN port.

Built-in HD webcam with microphone
Makes it easy to video chat with family and friends or teleconference with colleagues over Skype or other popular applications.

Additional ports
Microphone input, headphone/SPDIF combo jack and mini DisplayPort.

Tech Blog

Plugin Errors with WordPress

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I constantly neglect my personal WordPress, then once I get back to it and hit all the magic update buttons I normally break something. I have learned the best way to manually disable a plugin when you can no longer get to your site is by using your hosts phpMyAdmin to manually edit your database entry to disable all plugins. Then you can go to your admin and remove the bad plugin and re-enable the ones that are working.

If you have a plugin error all of your pages will load to just a text error saying there is an error in “/home/myaccount/public_html/wp-content/plugins/XXX/XXX.php on line #123″.

If you get this login to your host an access your phpMyAdmin or other mySQL database editor.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

  1. Open the Database for wordpress
  2. Open the wp_options table
  3. Click on the Browse menu
  4. Search through the pages for the “active_plugins” option (was page 2 for me)
  5. Clear out the text the shows: “a:3:{i:0;s:39:”easy-adsense-lite/easy-adsense-lite.php”;i:1;s:49:”google-xml-sitemaps-v3-for-qtranslate/sitemap.php”;i:2;s:19:”jet”pack/jetpack.php”;}”
  6. All your plugins will now be disabled, try to login and update your plugins as needed.

Tech Blog

How to change your Windows iCloud Drive Folder

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I made the switch back to Windows 10 from my Mac Book Pro.  On my new MSI Laptop I have a 256 SSD & a 1TB hard-drive. I wanted to move my iCloud Drive from by SSD to my larger hard-drive. Apple does not let you customize your Drive location, you can only change the Photo location with their settings.  Below is the steps that I took to move my iCloud Drive. I found most of the steps online, but tweaked some of them.

As a note you have you trick iCloud because it will always look in your C:Users<username>iCloudDrive” folder.  You have to create a link from this folder to where your real folder is. This is different then a shortcut. No rebooting is needed.

NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU LOST YOUR DATA (but you should have it in the cloud anyway so….)

  1. First make sure you disable iCloud Drive.
    • If you have a large amount of data in your current iCloud Drive folder and you do not want to have to re-download it, copy the C:\Users<username>iCloudDrive” folder to “D:\iCloudDrive” first
  2. When you disable your iCloud Drive it will tell you that the data & folder will be removed. It will not effect the folder on Drive D:, but will remove the folder and data in “C:\Users<username>iCloudDrive”
  3. Next you need to make sure that you have a D:\iCloudDrive Folder, if its not already there, create it.
  4. Next go to the command prompt and type in:
    mklink /J “C:\Users\<username>\iCloudDrive” “D:\iCloudDrive”

    • No spaces in iCloudDrive
    • To get to the Command Prompt: Press Windows Key+R, type in CMD in the prompt then click Open
  5. Go back to your iCloud settings and enable iCloud Drive, you may get a message about merging your data, click yes.
Apple & Tech News, Tech Blog

Is your Apple Magic Mouse loosing connection?

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Having issues losing connection with your Apple Magic Mouse? Well I was having that very same issue then started searching for possible solutions. My Magic Mouse was not staying connect to both my MacBook Pro & my wife’s MacBook Air.  My Apple Wireless Keyboard was working just fine so this led me to believe that there was an issue with the mouse hardware.  I searched on the web to find a few articles on the Apple discussion board about the batteries not always fitting correctly. Well with spring loaded connections I found that hard to believe. I did take out the batteries to play around with them.  But the  LED was always blinking showing that it found not find a connection.  Or it would connect, then disconnect 1-5 sec later. The computer had enough time to register that the batteries were at 100% power.

Then I found one other blog about bluetooth interference from other devices.  My iPhone 4s & my wife’s iPhone 5 were in the other room. I did not think there was a chance this this was the cause. But for the process on illumination I turned off the bluetooth from both phones, and ding.  The Apple Wireless Mouse works perfect again.  Thinking back I only turned on the bluetooth because of our new cars having bluetooth. I’ll have to keep turing it off when I want to use my wireless mouse (I’m not using a different mouse).

In conclusion if you have bluetooth enables on your phone it may interfere with your Magic Mouse.  Your Apple Wireless Keyboard & Apple Wireless Toutchpad will not be affected. The devise are running of a similar frequency causing interference.  Apple? Why didn’t you think of this? I guess my mouse is not as magical as I had hoped. But I still love it.

Tech Blog

AirFoil – Stream sound from any app from Mac/Win to Apple TV

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Love my Apple, however a daily feed is too much, scaling it back.

Just got AirFoil setup to stream all my sound from my MacBook to my Bose stereo via Apple TV. Great a app, no hacking needed on the Apple TV.  Besides streaming iTunes you can stream sound from any app or from your whole system with this app.  But playing sound from games I do not suggested so far, it’s delayed a few sec from the action on your screen.  Very nice sound quality, sounds just like it would if streamed from iPhone with Pandora for example.  Currently I’m using AirFoil it to stream Pandora from Google Crome.

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/