South Africa metropolises are more western than a lot of European cities. It was not what I was looking for. Taking advantage of Africa is to sense the wild life. You can read it as kingdom of animals but not only. Wildness of human nature was even more astonishing; I found ghettos for non-white people in Soweto, suburbs of Johannesburg, really disturbing heritage of Apartheid era. Continue reading
PC architecture recycles nearly every 2-3 years, after that time it is really hard to make any upgrades without replacing most of the hardware. Looking at my desktop computer I realized that I can boost it up only one way, speeding up I/O throughput. Solid State Drives (SSDs) become available to every Tom, Dick and Harry, give second life to any type of computer. One SSD is not equal to the other one, however; the more you dig and compare the bigger headache you get: burst rates, random read/write performance rates, hardware encryption, 25nm vs 34nm chips, SLC vs MLC, and finally, most famous, firmware problems.
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HTC Desire is a mid-end smartphone with limited memory being already out of radar of HTC updates. Rooted phone can have installed customized firmware that accommodated recent changes. It is a bumpy road if you are into newest Sense (feature rich interface), yet still concerned with responsiveness, battery consumption and other factors. I found the solution holding most of my tight requirements. Continue reading
Try to picture yourself a little boy keeping his willie and pissing. Now make it either a sculpture, or chocolate figure, or a charm or key ring. Or a corkscrew with boy figure as handle and a spiral in place of his willie… looks nasty but actually it is just a part of what Brussels is proud of. Continue reading
Couple years ago I was watching Extreme Engineering program on Discovery channel about sheikhs spending fortune on their fantasy, building snowy ski resort in the middle of the desert. Last month I could see the roof of Ski Dubai from my hotel window, stare at the slopes through the windows in shopping center, and finally try it on my own (no, you do not skate in shorts and T-shirts, they provide clothes included in entry fee). It was just first extravagance Continue reading
Even though I would not give up on Android powered smartphone, when it comes to details, little irritating things are coming out. Do not get me wrong: overall usability and general consistency is undoubted and makes the user comfortable most of the time. It is even more powerful with custom firmware. However, over long period of time I have noticed some quirks, collected most of them as a list of issues specific to my needs, and attempts to fix or bypass them. Continue reading
What would be the best place to spend short vacation in August if you are traveling a lot in business? Home, naturally. On the other hand having blissful lazy time somewhere apart from home would be also attractive, especially if the sunny weather and blue warm sea is guaranteed. Croatia is still one of not-that-far-away places meeting the criteria. Continue reading
Despite it is a story of a short break, one day trip to mountains in August, you will find here neither a horror like scenario nor a thrilling life episode. In fact it is all about the name of a very popular place in Carpatian mountains. Continue reading
Many times I asked myself this question: how long was my free ride today, how much time it took, was this workout good enough and in effect, if I am absolved from chocolate consumption :] Android OS can leverage from dedicated applications like endomondo.com that tracks your workout profile in time and space, using GPS, building up statistics like quickest lap, burned calories and so on. Continue reading
I was astonished when my beloved toy shouted at me “Close fuel tank cap!” from FIS message screen. Some time later “check engine” (CE) light lit on. My mechanic told me that small leak in tank vent system was detected and I should not bother until it pops up again. Such fancy environment-friendly system of gasoline fumes recycling is something that you can find only in USA models of VW group cars. Unfortunatelly my Audi A3 was imported from there and the CE light notified me again that something is not in order. Continue reading
